Carter: 4.5 years old

Stats:

Weight: 35 pounds exactly on our home scale with clothes, no shoes.

Length: 3 feet, 5.75 inches

Clothing: He is now completely out of 3T clothing & has moved onto 4T shirts moving slowly into 5T. He's still wearing 4T pants at this point, but it's only going to be a matter of time before they are too short since they aren't even remotely long on him at this point.

Shoes: Size 9s, currently. And this is still true, although he has mostly been wearing his rain boots or crocs lately instead of real shoes.

Sleep: Around the middle of December, C & H started sharing a room again so sleep has been suffering a little bit for him. H is an early riser & does tend to wake C up even if he's not ready to get up just yet. C is also sleeping in a full size bed now since we moved H into C's old bed. I do think he likes having a big bed all to himself. =) He stopped wearing pull-ups at night for a while, but is since BACK to wearing them nightly (which is annoying because now we are buying diapers for THREE kids). Despite limiting the amount he would drink & making him go to the bathroom before bed he was STILL peeing his bed often. Washing his sheets & blankets/comforter every morning was not high on my list (especially now with a newborn) so the pull-ups will likely stick around again for a while unfortunately. =( On school nights, he is going to bed at about 7:30PM & on the weekends it varies, but they are both usually in bed by 8:30PM at the latest. How late they sleep in the AM varies, but honestly most days they are up before 6:30AM. Carter is still scared of the dark somewhat & sleeps with various nightlights. He still loves having lots of blankets on his bed as well as numerous stuffed animals, but he does not have a favorite lovey.

Eating Habits: He is still your typical picky eater. Not a lot has changed here, unfortunately. =( He still loves most fruit & bread products as well as snack foods & sweets. He also will eat most dairy items other then cheese. Meat & veggies are still hit & miss EVERY day, but he is doing better about at least trying things before he just rejects them. He will also eat more dinner with the incentive of a treat or dessert then often ends up not eating the whole treat because he's too full from dinner. Win-Win in my opinion of that one. His favorites currently are peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, granola bars & pineapple. He sits in a regular chair at the table now & eats with his silverware about 90% of the time, although occasionally we still do need to remind him. He clears his own plate/cup after most meals without prompting now along with going to wash his own face/hands without being asked.

Health: We've actually been pretty lucky thus far into the school year *knock on wood* & both kids have only been mildly ill once. I have been VERY consistent about giving both boys daily Juice Plus+ & hopefully that will help us continue to stave illness as we come into the height of flu season. Injury-wise, he did have an incident where he was messing around while eating lunch & ended up hitting his chin on the table causing him to bite through his lip. It wasn't pretty, but it stopped bleeding fairly quickly & didn't require stitches thank god! He had his second dentist appt in October & did a wonderful job. I had to take ALL of the kids (H & the girls I sat for) with me so I didn't sit in on his visit, but the hygienist said he was just fine on his own. No cavities & his missing tooth doesn't seem to be affecting his other teeth currently. He'll go back for his next check-up in April. He got the flu mist this year at his brother's 2 year WCC in December & both boys did well with that also.

Temperament/Behavior: He's still a pretty good kid for the most part, but he has his bad days/hours just like any other kid. He doesn't really throw tantrums so much anymore as he does argue, talk-back & just plain not listen. =P He still has moments where he tests his limits & pushes our buttons purposely to see what will happen. Fortunately, he often only has to be warned or cautioned regarding consequences & he corrects his actions or attitude. This honestly hasn't changed much even halfway into his fourth year, but I am hoping with age comes a bit more understanding & respect. We've really been working on our manners lately & reinforce both please, thank you & may I religiously. He is getting better about asking for things in a nice way, in the least. He's also my little helper & does get things for me when asked.

Activity/Play/Learning:

He started back to school in September & is doing very well in 4K. Things changed since my last update & he ended up being in the afternoon class which goes from 12-2:30PM. He has the same teachers as last year for the most part, but most of the kids in his class are different. I honestly can't believe that in a few short months we will be registering him for kindergarten! There is no way my baby is old enough to be in REAL school ALL day. =( He can now count past 40 & is writing all his letters & numbers (although some better then others). He can write his own name on his papers & is getting better at both cutting & pasting all the time. He's learning all about the days of the week as well as the calendar & also how to tell time. He loves reading at night with Kyle & will pretend to read books to his sister, but we do need to work on word recognition a lot before kindergarten. We got him a Leap Reader pen & he does like to play with that, but I'm not really sure it's helping him learn to read at this point. =/ In school currently they are learning all about plants & how they grow along with the different parts. He's also very interested in the mechanics of things & how they work. He loves building things without direction including Thomas tracks & Legos. Some of the creations he comes up with amaze me. I have no idea where he gets the imagination to come up with these ideas. He likes to color a lot more now & do crafts as well, but he especially loves stickers & painting. His favorite thing to draw/color right now are treasure maps & locks/keys. He likes to pretend that everything has a password. He did play soccer in the fall on the team I co-coached, but he honestly wasn't really that interested in playing. He just wasn't aggressive enough for the sport, but his skill level was actually a bit better then I expected. I'm going to leave it up to him whether he wants to play next year or not. His favorite indoor activities are making train tracks & building with his Legos. We haven't been outside a lot since it's still pretty cold here, but he has enjoyed swinging on his swing set & riding his bike.

Favorites:

This time I asked him these questions & below are the answers he gave me.... =)

Books: "The Bunny book" (I have no clue)

Song: ABCs

Movie: Day of the Diesels

TV Show: Blaze & the Monster machines (I would have said Lion Guard)

Foods: Peanut butter & jelly sandwich (TRUE)

Toys:Thomas mini trains (I would have said Legos)

Best Friend: Eleanor (might be true)