Dane Turns 4

 Dane turned 4 at the beginning of December.  We didn't have a friend party, but we did meet some of his friends at "the gymnastic place" for open gym (a few couldn't make it).  For his "cake" I gave them all a quarter to get a gumball from the coolest gum ball machine ever.

Dane was all over the place with his birthday cake.  First he wanted a Lion King cake, then a moana cake, then many different kinds of weapons (guns, swords, etc), there were also several others I can't remember right now.  He kept coming back to Maui's hook.  I ended up running with that.  Not the most creative cake I have ever made, but he was happy with it.

He is at the cheesy un natural smile phase.  It is pretty cute.

I guess he thinks winking is smiling.

For his birthday he got a board game from Aunt Ashley (that he loves to play)

Dress ups from his siblings (that were theirs at his age)

Binoculars from grandma Hanna.  (This was the one thing he asked for and he was SO EXCITED about them - that is his REAL smile)

And from us a bike!  December birthdays are hard.  You only get presents one time a year, so its never a good time to get something like a bike.  He LOVED it, but has only rode it a handful of times.

I was surprised that he hoped right on and knew how to ride.

The best part about a young child's birthday is everyone gathering around singing happy birthday.  You can see that they feel so special and loved.  In such a large family I am sure they don't get moments like this as much as other kids, so it is so fun to see their reaction.

Dane at 4

• Dane loves Eve.  He is very defensive of her.  He does not like when i get upset with her or put her in time out or ignore her.  He tells me what she needs and when she needs it.  They share a room and are both in toddler beds, so she is very capable of coming out and telling us things.  But Dane always comes out (even at 2 in the morning), to tell us Eve needs to go potty, or lost her blanket, or needs a drink.  Pretty funny.
• His favorite things is weapons.  He loves to have a sword down the back of his shirt or in the side of his pants.  
• His favorite show is Wild Kratts.  He loves to play with animals.  His favorite animal to play with is the lion.
• Dane is extremely musical.  I am interested to see how this is going to play out in his life.  He loves to sing, play instruments, and listen to music.  When we went to Madison's choir performance the orchestra played at the same time and afterwards he wanted to play every instrument he saw.  His favorite instrument in the Cello. 
• Dane has the highlest level of.... curiosity... than any of my other kids.  He is into everything, on everything, and questioning everything.  He has made Jason and I really stretch our parenting muscles.  (was that all a positive way of saying he is our hardest toddler??)