Mitch's 4th Birthday

My baby boy turned 4. He is my favorite little boy. (I can say that since I only have one boy). I told him he was my favorite boy once and he said, "What about Carter?" (his same age cousin). I love Carter, too, but Mitch is MINE. And he's getting big and older and there's nothing I can do to slow it down.

3 was actually a rough year for us with him- lots of changes for this boy and he wasn't sure how to deal with them. It was his first full year of no naps and that was hard on his little body. He is a great night time sleeper, but he started resisting naps right after he turned 2. That is also the age when he started sharing a room AND bed with his older sister (thanks to twin baby sisters being born) and if he'd nap at all (after a 2 hour fight to get him asleep), he then wouldn't be tired for bed and would pester Chloe and neither of them would fall asleep until 10:00 p.m. It was miserable for all of us. So the only way to get around that was to quit taking naps, which is hard on a boy who still could have used a nap. He also discovered leaps and bounds of energy this past year and became my jumping, throwing, running all over the house boy. Last week at the twins' 2 year well child check, Mitch climbed up on the exam table and at the top of his lungs yelled "To infinity, and Beyond!" and was about to jump off (no fear) before I stopped him (barely). His increased energy level was also coupled with a bit of an attitude and an urge to whine, back talk and throw tantrums. All normal for a 3 year old, I get that (and 3 years old was also hard for Chloe, too), but harder this go around with 4 kids instead of 1 or 2. And if anyone knows our Mitch, we gotta love him, but boy is this kid SLOW. He does not do anything quickly if he doesn't want to. We have tried every strategy we know to get him to move faster, but, in Mitch's words, "That's just what Mitch does."

But for all of his struggles, this boy is sure a sweetheart. He is our little buddy and we seriously cannot imagine our family with out him. He has so many sweet, cute and hilarious "classic Mitchell" things that are so endearing.

Since the babies turned 2 the week before and got 2 days of celebrating, Mitch should get 4 days for turning 4, right? Well, it happened that way, unintentionally.

Nana and Papa Andros came into town the weekend before his birthday and brought belated gifts for the twins, and Mitch's gift. So 4 days early, he celebrated for the first time by opening their gift.

A razor scooter- he loves it! Chloe has one and he likes to be just like her. He test drove it around the house.

The twins opened their gifts- adorable Nana-sewn dresses and little music/talking monkey and panda bear toy.

Mitch and his best pal Papa.

Day 2 of celebrating was on his actual birthday, the 17th. I hung this super cute birthday banner for his special day, made by my amazing friend Holly. I love it! I always put up a birthday banner for my kids, but the one I have been using since Chloe was a baby is old and not cute.

The birthday boy was extra spoiled this day. Nana and Papa were still in town, which is a treat in and of itself. Not living super close to family, we never have family in town on birthday's. It has only happened 2 times before and Mitch has been on the receiving end twice now.

Nana and Papa took him to McDonald's for lunch- he was in heaven!

They let him play on the playland toys for hours (3 to be exact).

They got Happy Meals for lunch. The food came in a Halloween bucket and the handle doubled as a mask.

After McDonald's and a trip to Costco for free samples (we Andros' love a good Costco run), they headed to the park to take advantage of the gorgeous weather.

With 3 sisters, Mitch doesn't get much special alone time with adults. On his birthday, he got Nana and Papa for 5 hours all by himself. Happy Birthday, buddy!

We ate dinner soon after he got home, then time for presents!

I was so excited to have him open presents- he is super obsessed with Toy Story lately and has been saying for months that he wants Buzz and Woody. My parents got him Woody (he was so pleased).

And when he opened the Buzz Lightyear that we got him, he screamed. So excited.

He certainly got spoiled. Love seeing my kids so excited to open gifts. It is one of the most fun things about being a parent, I think.

We also got Mitch a stand/holder for his homerun ball that he got last month at the Yankee/Mariner game. I made him his own baseball card online. It doesn't mean a whole lot to him now (he doesn't quite get it all) but we're hoping someday he thinks it's cool (I do!)

The back of his "trading card."

Leah LOVED the car rug that cousin Carter sent. All the kids have loved playing with it.

Alexis loved Woody and immediately got attached and thought it was hers.

Mitch was seriously in high heaven and could feel the Buzz Lightyear force with him, because with no prompting from anyone, made lots of excited gestures and movements in his pictures with us.

He flew Buzz around the house for the rest of the night.

I had to convince him to put his toys down to come have cake. He requested a Tiger cake for his birthday (his favorite animal) and when he saw what I had created he said, "Mom! I wanted to have tiger teeth on it!" Oops...

He also got Toy Story socks and Toy Story pajamas and he of course wore them to bed that night.

He also slept with Buzz for the first 3 or 4 nights after his birthday. Buzz has a button you push that says 4 or 5 different sayings and Mitch has all of them memorized.

His 3rd day of celebrating came the next day at Preschool. He got to take a birthday treat (pumpkin shaped sugar cookies), but his teacher said he refused to wear his birthday crown.

It was also his show and tell day and I asked his teacher if he could bring in our little pups. Mitch was actually disappointed that he couldn't bring Buzz... he was almost in tears.

Mitch sat at the front of the room with the pups in a basket and explained what he had brought.

I then passed out a pup to each of his 5 classmates. Mitchell refused to even touch them. I don't know why. He is usually very excited about the pups.

He wouldn't touch the one in front of him either. Too much attention, I guess. His classmates loved it though. It was so cute to see how excited they got about it.

And a random picture of Mitch at his 4 year well child check that same day. They did an eye test and had to patch his eyes one at a time. He hated the 5 shots he had to get, but getting 5 stickers helped make up for it a little bit.

Happy Birthday to my favorite little buddy. Coming soon... celebration #4.