Emmett Turns Four!

My little boy turned FOUR on Sunday. He is so big, so sweet, and so wonderful. Here are a few fun facts about my Emmett these days.


1. Goals: Emmett's greatest ambition right now is to grow up and become "Emmett the Science Guy". He loves going to science fairs, reading Eye Wonder science/discovery books, watching documentaries, and doing experiments. Instead of wearing capes and destroying bad guys, Emmett runs around our house in a lab coat making "discoveries".

2. Health: Emmett weighs 30lbs (8th percentile) and is nearly 40in tall (43rd percentile). No wonder I can't find pants that fit him! Emmett's left eye is still affected by Duane's syndrome and it always will be. We will have surgery for his eye in one year from now, unless things change and we need to do it sooner. He sees the doctor every six months, but this week I had to call in and reschedule to see Dr. Peterson sooner. Emmett's pediatrician thinks Emmett's vision in his right eye is deteriorating. That worries me, since he has always had perfect vision and I'm hoping our pediatrician was simply mistaken somehow. Also, Emmett's left eye is beginning to shoot downward when he looks to the left, and this seems new to me. Instead of simply stuck looking straight forward when he tries to look left, Emmett's eye turns down slightly as well now. You can see it in one of the photos from our camping trip.

3. Personality: Emmett loves his mommy, daddy, sister, and kitty. He is always helping around the house and is very proud of his status as Mom's helper. He cooks with me, cleans all the mirrors and windows, empties and fills the dishwasher with me, and recently learned how to vacuum the stairs all by himself. Emmett also takes very good care of Bethany. He's very good at telling her what to do. He loves to make her laugh and works hard to cheer her up when she is cranky-- which can backfire since Bethany tends to be cranky quite often and prefers to be left alone when she's moody. Also, Emmett cheering Bethany up and taking care of her frequently involves accidentally hurting her or dragging her around by the neck, so it's hard to blame her when she screams. Trust me though, Emmett has the best of intentions. Our little boy has a heart of pure gold.

Emmett is, however, figuring out how to tell little fibs to try and escape trouble, such as telling Mom that Dad told him he could have as many cookies as he wants, or denying knocking Bethany over ("She just fell down all by herself, Mom."), etc.

Our sweet boy loves to day dream and is frequently found staring into space. It takes him an hour or more to get dressed each morning unless someone is there walking him through every step of the process.

Emmett does fight with his sister occasionally, and while most of the time it is Bethany chasing, hitting, and pinching Emmett, I have caught him hitting Bethany once or twice. I do put him in time out but, to be honest, I'm not sure it's a bad thing that he's finally learning to hit back. It's nice to see my boy defending himself now and then, and believe me, he'll need to learn to defend himself from Bethany.

Emmett is very picky about movies. He likes to watch Blues Clues, Dinosaur Train, Bob the Builder, Elmo, Letter Factory, Numberland, Pixar "Shorts", WALL-E, Bill Nye, and Planet Earth. He no longer watches Cars (which he used to love) or any other standard cartoon or little kid movie. Generally these movies have too many "sad parts" where friends get mad at each other. We tried to take him to see Planes and ended up walking out of the movie. He also does NOT like superheroes. Emmett tells me all the time, "Mom, I don't have to like Spiderman/Ironman/other superhero." And he's right. I love Emmett just the way he is and he doesn't have to love all the same things as other boys.

Birthday Party!

We were so lucky to have Hara, Papa, and Aunt Nette join us for Emmett's birthday party this year. He got all sorts of wonderful presents including a butterfly kit, Lincoln Logs, books, a puzzle of the US, and a bug catcher. He also got two foam swords so he and Bethany can fight with weapons softer than their fists. :)

This is, quite possibly, the ugliest ice cream cake ever made! It's chocolate budnt cake, chocolate cookie crumble ice cream, crushed cookies, and strawberry syrup. There's a plastic cup in the center of the "volcano".  It looked so disgusting that Reba, Lynnette and I were crying we were laughing so hard! Reba thought it looked more like road kill than a volcano, and I think she was right.

When we added the dry ice, it helped it look a little better, but it was still pretty hideous.

We had to sing a special version of the Happy Birthday song. :)

Here's Emmett holding up his fingers to show his age. Thank goodness that, in the eyes of a four year-old, this was the most amazing cake in the world and he wasn't disappointed.

As disgusting as it looked, the cake was delicious! Casey told me that while it was the ugliest cake he'd ever seen, it was also probably the best tasting. :)

Bethany enjoyed her cake as well.

When she finished her ice cream cake Bethany started screaming, "MORE CAY-NO (volcano)!!" It was devastating when she didn't get anymore.

We love you Emmett!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!