Eddie at Four Years Old

Favorite Foods-blueberries, oranges, bagels with cream cheese, crepes, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches . He doesn't eat cereal if there's milk in it, though he often asks for it. For breakfast he wants things that have to be cooked (waffles, pancakes, etc).

Favorite things to do-play firefighter (no matter where we go, if he is playing with other kids, they are almost always playing firefighter; I guess he has some sway with his friends), play package guy (he delivers packages to our door and of course comes in and opens the package for us; he is also the one to pack each package), run, play that he is a worker fixing or building something; he likes to paint, play with playdough, and play with stamps; he's playing with Legos quite a bit right now, but I think that is just because I recently moved them from his closet to a shelf in his bedroom (he's never really been into building that much, unless you are building with him); dance and sing (in the morning when I get up, I often find him sitting on the couch singing his favorite songs; he stops when I come in the room; he mimics the vocal style of the singer of the song, which is really cute and funny); he used to play with trains all the time, but doesn't often do that anymore; he likes rockets, astronauts, and outer space. He likes to play pirates. He and Peter like to pretend that a ghost or a monster or Jesus is in my bedroom, and they have to go see this ghost, monster, Jesus and then run away from him. He and Peter play with cars a lot.

What he wants to be when he grows up-a firefighter. He always wants to know what I am going to be when I grow up. He doesn't believe me when I tell him that I already was a teacher and that I am a Mom and those are the things I wanted and want to be.

Interesting things-
1. Eddie has been an apple juiceaholic for most of his life. He completely gave it up a couple of months ago and won't drink it anymore.
2. We are still waiting for Eddie to sleep through the night. He does sleep through the night about once a month. Usually, though, he gets up and gets in bed with us. If we wake up we take him back to his bed, unless it's 5 a.m. or later.
3. Eddie's favorite person in the world is his "mom that lives far away". He is referring to my mom, but don't tell him that she is my mom because he gets upset (she is his mom!). He also calls her "grandma with the silly car" because she drives a yellow VW Beettle. He talks about her every day. He loves writing her letters and talking to her on the phone. Admittedly I have felt jealous about his feelings for her (occasionally he cries because he misses her so much), but I am so happy, really. My biggest fear about moving far from family was that my kids wouldn't have a good relationship with my mom. While we don't see her a lot, Eddie definitely loves her so much!
4. At the library Eddie firsts runs to the nonfiction kids books. He likes books about anything, but his favorite books are about the human body.
5. He is interested in the sounds each letter makes.
6. He asks us every morning what we dreamed that night and tells us his dreams, very few of which he actually dreamed. Usually he adopts our dreams and repeats them and says they are his.

Favorite TV shows-He's watching a lot less tv than he used to. He's just not that interested. Recently he has enjoyed watching Phineas and Ferb. It's fun that he can explain to me who's who and what's going on. He doesn't seem to like the shows geared at younger kids so much anymore. He still likes Fireman Sam. He LOVES watching Minute to Win It and Wipeout, both gameshows. Afterwards we play and play games like the ones on the shows.

Favorite songs-Look for a post coming soon about his first mixed cd to find out some of his favorites.

Favorite books-Right now he is into "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", "Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey" by Teresa Bateman, "Everything I Know about Pirates" by Tom Lichtenheld, and "Otis" (a tractor book) by Loren Long