Number 1 Turns 4

It's hard to believe that it's been four years since Mark and I welcomed our first little boy into this world. As they say, time flies when you're having fun! Kolbe is a wonderful, intelligent, charming little boy. We marvel at him more and more each day. Sure he and I tend to butt heads from time to time, but you can often hear me telling people that it's simply because we're practically the same person. He's definitely his own mother's son both in appearance and attitude! (er...bull-headedness!) He's still just a tiny little fella at thirty-one pounds, though he did grow a few inches recently and is now thirty-nine inches tall! He's a fantastic big brother. Of course, this entails bossing Rudy around every waking hour of the day, but he's also his fiercest defender and cheerleader. Not to mention the budding relationship he has with Grant. So precious! He loves, loves, LOVES sports of any kind. But most especially, baseball. Just recently he has started hitting the ball really well without a t-stand. He's quite proud! He's a fantastic story-teller, both fiction and non-fiction (ha!), and has a steel trap of a mind. (Really, we pulled out Christmas decorations recently and he reminded me of a Christmas book we had to throw away last year because we spilled milk on it.) He's no longer napping on most days and despite that, still tries his best to be a night owl when he can. He writes his name well, knows all his letters and numbers, and is starting to put sounds and words together with reading and writing. Such a fascinating little boy. We love this guy, oh so much!

He insisted on a baseball cake, and this was my best effort with what little time I had to put it together!

Handsome little boy turning four!

He even helped us sing the birthday song for himself!

And Rudy had to help him blow the candles out...which turned into slobbering all over the cake!

Dada was so excited to give Kolbe a real pair of PF Flyer baseball shoes!

And he had been wanting his own weed-wacker for quite some time...which was Mama's gift for him.

Here's the birthday boy decked out in his Cardinals gear from Pinkie and Pa! He got his own Albert Pujols shirt! (his favorite player)

And shortly thereafter my camera died. You can see in the background of the past picture that Mark is busy assembling his new grill that G-ma sent him. It has definitely been a hit...he cooks me lunch every day during his quiet time! He also got some pots and pans to go with his grill and a new guitar from Papa Jeep (since Mark accidentally smashed his old one while folding up the stroller in the trunk) Such a fantastic birthday for a wonderful little boy!