He's FOUR

My son turned four. FOUR. Do you realize that this time next year he'll be starting kindergarten????? Pass a cold compress and a stiff drink for I am not dealing well with this.

He wanted a Mr. Men party so Caren made cupcakes and hand decorated them with perfect likenesses of his favorites. Here he is looking like he's going to take a humongous bite out of Mr. Bump. Turns out he just licked all the frosting off (the actual Mr. Men part of the treat) and then decided he needed to move on to lick the frosting off all the others. Still....let's pretend for a moment that he ate a cupcake like a "normal" child, shall we?

For the record, he continued his assault on the cupcakes today and I believe his tongue may be permanently tinted as a result. Cupcakes = BIG HUGE HIT!

He had a fantastic time at his party and got oodles of really awesome gifts. We have all been playing with everything all day today and none of us have gotten bored yet. NONE. OF. US.

Now that he is four, Dax has big plans. For example, he says that I must now read four bedtime stories each night rather than three. He also says he is now going to listen and eat but I must already call bullshit on this one.

He's also going to become a pirate.

I honestly am having a bit of trouble with Four. Mostly because I can not believe it has been that long since we first met this adorable, hilarious, insanely smart little guy. It is difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that the little boy with the long grasshopper legs is my baby no more. He's just so very grown up and I am simply not prepared for this boy who can sight recognize words and do simple math and carry on long and thought provoking conversations.

Lucky for me he still thinks farts are funny. Wouldn't want things to get too serious 'round here.

Dax and Daddy Day

For seven weeks, after Michelle went back to work, Devin and I hung out and had fun together. We did all sorts of stuff: we watched Le Tour de France; we went window shopping at Fry's and Best Buy; we jogged about in the stroller; we went to the park; and on and on and on. And I fed him also.

But, on the last Friday before I went back to work, we decided to let Devin go to daycare and let Dax hang out with Dad for the day. Whooooooooooo...what a day it was.

After dropping off Devin, we went to "Old" McDonald Playland so that Dax could have a pancake breakfast and run around the play area. It was early, and there weren't a lot of children there, so I was able to join Dax in climbing and crawling through every square inch of that structure. He even discovered a crawl space he never ventured into before.

After McDonalds, we went to my chiropractor. Dr. Lance has a little kid section in his office (and he also has a flat screen TV in the waiting room that is specifically for showing SF Giants games) so Dax was able to entertain himself while I got my adjustment. I thought he would find it interesting when I was laying on the water massage table afterwards, but he could've cared less.

Then we went to go get our tickets for the IMAX showing of "Fly Me To The Moon", in 3D! (I parked on the 5th floor of the parking garage mainly so that Dax would be able to enjoy the elevator ride to the ground floor even though some of the lower floors weren't filled with cars). Since the 11:10 showing apparently started at 11am, we scooted over to the State Capitol Building to see the sights. Dax witnessed a wedding party taking pictures on the West Lawn and he also saw an "elevator" on the East side of the building carrying construction workers to the roof. When we went inside the building, Dax was intimidated with the rotunda. And looking at it from his view, it can be a bit overwhelming when you first see it.

After the Capitol,we stopped at a little deli to get some milk for Dax to go along with the crackers that we brought along before we headed off to the movie. At the theater, they had an aquarium with three "Nemo's" and other fish to keep the kids occupied before they opened the doors. As we were waiting in line, I noticed that there were six other Dads with their sons. I guess I wasn't the only one with the idea of taking your son to the movies.

Since the movie was in 3D, I had a fun time watching Dax out of the corner of my eye with his huge glasses propped on his face. He also enjoyed a little bag of his favorite candy: "N m N's". I'm sure you can figure out what those are. I also learned that with Dax, you shouldn't completely tell him about evertyhing you'll be doing during the day because halfway through the movie, he kept looking at me and whispering "Daddy, let's go to Funderland". Yup, I made the mistake of mentioning that we would be heading to Funderland right after the movie. Although he kept pestering me to get going to Funderland, Dax did make it to the end of the movie.

Funderland. It was extremely fun. Train rides, teacups, dragons, airplanes.

This was Dax's favorite ride: the Red Dragon Roller Coaster:

That was our fun Dax and Daddy Day!

(Although I did make that mistake again of telling Dax of upcoming events: After we left Funderland, I told him that after we got gas for the car, we would be going through the "Car Wash Ride". You'll understand why Dax was a little upset when the car wash was not in service).

Big Baby Boy

Sometimes Dax likes to pretend that he is his baby brother. This means he will get down on the floor and flail around as infants are wont to do and say things like "ah-goo" or "wah!" or "I am NOT Dax! I am baby brudder!"

Lately he has stepped it up a notch and decided to include props in his act.

Tonight he was trying to hold off bedtime (big surprise there) so he was saying that he needed to be put in the crib because he is A BABY. But when I suggested we put a diaper on the baby and feed him some green beans and carrots he decided to be Dax again.