All about Donovan at 4

In a shock to no one who reads this blog, Donovan is still super in to sports. He rotates which one he is obsessed with at time. Usually it is between hockey and baseball, but sometimes soccer gets in there. Overall he is just a very active, gross motor loving kid. He is also a big fan of running and will run a couple laps around the driveway some nights after school "to get my exercise". He took swimming lessons this year for 6 weeks. A couple of the weeks he said he didn't want to go but we made him (we had paid for it already dammit) and he ended up having a great time each time and would even run up to the teacher and be the first in line to get into the water when they would announce it was time for his class. Now that the session is over he tells me he "NEVER, NEVER" wants to take swimming lessons again. We'll see. He really wants to take ice skating lessons now as he just got some hand me down hockey skates his size (see picture below).

School: Dono is going to school 3 full days a week and loves it. He still has his days where he says he just wants to hang with Grammie Q instead but those are getting fewer and farther between since this spring. His best friends at school are Drew and Buddy but he hangs out with whichever boy is willing to play cars with him mostly (I am gathering this from pictures and what he reports and what I see when I pick him up and drop him off).  He is getting better about writing and drawing and can write his first name (he knows how to spell his first and last name now) but it is still big letters and not necessarily in the correct order. He writes them in the correct order but they are usually placed all willy nilly all over the page. He is getting better about telling me what he does during the day when I pick him up. For a while I would ask him what he did that day and he would say, "I don't know" like a true man. Now he is getting better. He had a pretty exciting thursday this past week, he got to hold a huge snake that the reptile man brought! (See the kid below closest to the snakes head).

In other development milestones: He knows his numbers to 20 but usually misses 15 still, and has counted to 80 before (with only a tiny bit of help).  He is practicing writing his letters and numbers and usually really enjoys it but I try not to push practicing.  His speech has gotten much clearer and he is getting better with his r's. We are working on what sounds each letter makes and he is enjoying practicing that too.

Playing ping pong with daddy on Thursday.

Other than sports his main interests are cars and monster trucks. Trains have had a major falling out of favor.   He also is really into watching youtube videos about monster trucks and he loves to watch videos of other kids playing with monster trucks. He also loves watching videos of "Peep and the big wide world", "Pocoyo" and "wow wow wubzy".  He is not really into movies as his attention span does not tolerate anything over 50 mins. I really wanted to take him to a movie this year (it was on my "things I want to do with my 3 yr old" list) but Donovan is so scared of scary or anything remotely scary parts on movies or shows that he told me he will go see a movie with me when he is 6. Seriously. I said,  "Do you want to go see a movie with me sometime this year?" to which he replied, "Ummmmm, will it have a scary part in it?" and I said that yes, it probably would as most movies have some scary part and he said, "hmmmm, maybe when I am six."  He is scared of this commercial in which a scorpion climbs up a girl sunbathers back and cuts off the top of her bikini. He makes us change the channel or fast forward when he knows it is coming on (in an unfortunate turn of events it is on one of the monster truck shows we recorded for him). He also prefers not to play too far away from Tom and I. We try to tell him he can play in the basement by himself but he always says he wants an "adult" to come with him. Too funny.

Donovan dressed himself in this outfit a couple weeks ago. I love this picture because he is so happy.

He is also getting more into board games. He plays candyland a lot and loves it. Playing it with little sister however, not as much fun as with one adult.

"Don't take my picture mom!"

He is starting to get a mind of his own with what he wears. For about a month in the winter he insisted on wearing his Spiderman costume. We even wore it to Kohls one day and ran into another boy wearing his too (this is in Dec or Jan mind you).  He also loves his footie pajamas. He even wore them to the dentist the other day, complete with shoes over the footies.

He is very particular about things and we can see a little bit of Tom's OCD coming through him now. He only tolerates some types of socks when he is wearing shoes as the rest are too puffy and they "bother him". He is also pretty obsessed with being clean. He has to have a wet paper towel after eating most meals so he can clean himself off and every morning in the car after he eats his pop tart he requests a baby wipe and then asks, "mom, do I look clean?" He also loves to line his cars up and gets mad at Reese when she messes up his stuff.

Sleeping: He usually is in bed by 8:30 and asleep by 9. He is up at the crack of 6:30 on days when he doesn't have to be up (weekends and days when Grammie Q comes here) and is a teenager, arguing with you at 7am  to let him sleep more on days when he has to be up early (school days). He still takes a nap (thank you son!) and they are usually about 2 hours long. I love that about him. When he does wake up early during the week or weekends, he just comes out and turns on the tv and sits on the couch and watches the disney channel until we wake up. It is wonderful!

He is really starting to enjoy Reese and it is great. He still scolds her a lot but that is to be expected when you have a pesky younger sister. Like I have mentioned before, he is still VERY protective of her and it makes me so happy. He is constantly making sure she is not going in to the street or doing something dangerous. He is quick to defend her if he thinks we are wronging her (like if we pretend we are leaving her if she is throwing a fit) but can definitely be the aggressor with her too.  Overall though he is enjoying her more and more. Tonight there was lots of giggles between the two of them in the bath. And at dinner he told her not to do something, "Because it is going to make me laugh and then I might choke."

Eating: Kid loves corn dogs. Eats one a day, maybe two if we let him. Loves berries (black, rasp and straw),  apples (skin off please), McDonalds chicken nuggies, choc milk, pop tarts and corn ("I like the kind at school. The kind we have makes me gag.") His major food love above all right now? POPSICLES! This kid eats more popsicles than anyone I have ever met. His usual snack after dinner or lunch is two of those popsicles that have the plastic all over them that you have to push up. He also likes to cut the top of the plastic off himself with our adult scissors so he can "practice" his scissor skills.

He is getting more and more fun everyday. He told me the other day that he is 4 so he is almost an "adult". He loves his grandparents and really enjoys when he gets to hang out with them without his sister. His vocabulary is getting so big and fun. He tells me now, "Oh, that is interesting!" several times a day. He often tells me "I'm using my imagimation" too when he is playing. He is starting to show an interest in helping with chores which is AWESOME so we got that going for us, which is nice. He is such a good helper and is so fun to take on errands or anywhere really. I love that I drop him off and pick him up three times per week as his running commentary makes my commute so much more fun.

I loved this past year with him and am super sad to see 3 yrs go as it was such a good year. I know 4 will be great too but I am nostalgic. The only thing we didn't get done on my 3yr old to do list was fish, go ice skating and go see a movie. I think we will add the first two soon and the third maybe when he is 6 yo. We will see. I love our little 4 yr old so much! I can't believe how much of a big kid he is becoming. We love you Dono!