When your child is born its a massive build up in each stage…you can’t wait til they’re in a routine, weaning, talking, walking, potty trained… As much as I have tried to enjoy each phase of my kids life I also have being guilty of being overly excited for the next to come along. Before I realised it, here I am with a 4 year old and almost 3 year old, wishing I also had a 7 month old and wondering where the heck has it all gone?
Ethan is now half way through his 4th year of life, and I cannot believe the changes I’ve seen in him in such a short space of time – he has grown-up loads, he is being super helpful at home and is very conscientious of others. He gets very giddy and exited about things and loves being with his friends and fam! We have far less tantrums (but quite a lot of whining) and the most amazing conversations (active and dormant volcanoes?) We can reason with him (most of the time) and he understands so much of what we are saying and what’s going on.. This has to be one of my favourite ages so far; its less emotional, less sleep deprivation and more independence and discipline than the ones we’ve already been through. It brings with it adventure, curiosity and so much desire to learn and understand the world! I love to hear him counting, learning his letters, using “big words” , singing and cracking jokes!
He seems to screech a lot, which is rather annoying but he is so funny, has the cutest cheekiest face and cracks me up with sayings like:
“Mummy now that I am 4 I need to learn to wash up properly”
“You have 2 eye’s dont you? use one to look at me and one to watch the driving cars so you don’t have a crash then”
“Why do my eyes have to blink EVERY day?”
“The Sat-Naff will guide you if its a long way” …”Why is the Sat-Naff taking so long to get us there”
“I have an idea mummy – you could take me to hot-donalds for my dinner”
“Im really big but still a little bit little but then I will be an adult and there will be lots of adults”
Little E takes his role as a big brother very seriously and plays most of the time wonderfully with Megs, he will hug her when shes sad, share things with her, get into mischief with her and calls her “little Chav” whilst he asks her to call him “captain”?!?!?! He loves to be “the boss” and is obsessed with things that have plugs and “alaktricity”, he recently got into lego and angry birds, still loves his vehicles and trains and according to school he also is very much into the world, animals, space and culture, he is always partial to a treat and loves nothing more that cheesy pasta (though eats almost anything that’s not spicy)
He challenges me new areas with his inability to listen/hear me and his assertiveness and questioning…he also remembers EVERYTHING you say so there is always accountability and he has a tonne of energy and mostly always wants to be on the go! Despite these challenges at times life really is pretty mint with a 4 year old. As brilliant as life is together though, being 4 also means you become eligible to start school ahhhhhh and like many parents of 4 year olds this morning we received the news!! I never thought I would be so excited about my kid getting a school place, but this last week I have been rather giddy and a little anxious. I’m excited for him to have new life experiences and to keep on learning, excited for him to make new friends and pursue and explore things that interest him.
As you may remember we have (mostly I have) drifted between the idea of home educating or School. I decided if we got our 1st choice we would send him and see how it went. I think that I would prefer to give school a go with the confidence that if, for whatever reason it didn’t work out, I had researched enough to be able to pull him/other kids out of school and home ed. I preferred this option to starting out home edding and always wondering how he would have taken to a school environment, this doesn’t mean that I still don’t look at lots of home ed families and dream of what it might be like, but for now for many reasons were looking forward to the school stage of life and we are extra please he was offered a place at our 1st choice school! PHEW!
I seriously cannot believe my little man is starting school in September, I will certainly miss the wonderful days out we have, the fun and laughter together and being able to spend so much time just together. I begin to wonder if i’ve done enough, If I made the most of our years at home together? At times he drives me nuts but I will miss seeing that face all day every day, I feel a little gutted that I won’t always have him at his best as school will tire him and stretch him (I hope) but I know he can’t wait for “big school” and I can’t wait either to see how he finds this next stage/chapter.
Life with a 4 year old is such an exciting stage, a chapter of much change, much cheek and a lot of love and growth! Its one stage I am not eagerly wanting to be over so we can move onto the next but I know it will lead to many adventures for him!