Theo is 4!

I have a big 4-year-old and I feel so lucky to have him. The night before our family party, which he had requested chicken nuggets and cherry pie for, he told me all the other things he wanted for the party. He also wanted to bake chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips in them, and with chocolate frosting on top. Months and months ago we bought some Paw Patrol cupcake liners and a decorating kit. He also wanted to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey, have wheel barrow races with his cousins, and pretend that the bed in my parent's play room was a rocket ship.

Theo has ideas and opinions.

The next morning I baked cupcakes with him. We didn't have a chocolate cake mix, but I read that you can just cocoa powder and that will make it chocolate. Theo helped. He asked if we were adding all of the cake mix to the bowl. I said yes, to add it all. Then I told him we were adding 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, then I turned around to get a measuring cup. When I turned back, Theo had the cocoa powder bin upside down over the mixing bowl!
Luckily, the fine powder was caked into the cocoa powder bin, so not much had dumped out and we were able to fix it. He chose both milk and white chocolate chips and then insisted that the frosting be piped. They were very fancy cupcakes. If you look at them, you can see that there are "flowers" piped in the center and then a swirl around it. Theo specified that the flowers had to be there and that the "coin" decorations went behind them so the flowers weren't crushed. We got them cooled and decorated before church started at 10:30. For Pin the Tail on the Donkey I hand drew a donkey and tails on a piece of butcher paper. He needs to give me more notice for these things.

Theo is very loved and got lots of nice presents. He got a Lego Duplo construction set from my parents that he thought was so very great. He got a front door mat with doggies on it from Jay's parents. He got a magnetic builder set from us. He got alphabet blocks and Paw Patrol coloring books from his cousins Sedona, Emerson, and Joey.
I think the thing he has played with the most though was something he bought himself with money from Great Grandma. He bought a toy gumball machine. He loves putting coins in and getting the gumballs out and watching them go around and around. And then he loves opening the bank and getting the coins out to do it again. He shows little interest in actually chewing the gum, which is good since the balls are not really clean anymore. I was really worried about him making a horrible mess with gum, but the few times he has chewed some, he has announced that he's done within 5 minutes and then spat it into the trash. He wishes he could blow bubbles. I have not succeeded in teaching him.

Theo read every birthday card all by himself. He's quite fluent in reading. Recently he has been into the BBC show Numberblocks and is suddenly spouting math. He really likes learning.

The one on the lower left in front shows the "flower" he wanted me to pipe in the center of each cupcake.

At the library celebrating all the birthdays at story time -- It was only Theo and Rachel, which made it extra special. Cousins birthday celebrations are fun.

I also wanted to add something from Halloween I remembered.
I explained to Theo that only kids Trick or Treat for candy, but we would go as a family. He immediately reassured me, "Don't worry, Mommy, I'll share my candy with you!"
It was very sweet of him, especially considering how much he loves candy.

He watched Ponyo recently and was excited that Ponyo has even more little sisters than he has. She has hundreds. I told him that he has more than me too -- I have 1.

Theo asked me, "Why do they call it peanut butter and jelly? They should call it peanut butter and jelly and bread."