Kellen is 4 Years Old!

Kellen is 4 Years Old Today!

What a difference a year makes! Kellen has grown and matured so much this year and is turning into such a smart, curious, energetic, and polite little boy.

Kellen loves all things cars, airplanes, and space related. He is obsessed with the "Dusty" movie and "Lightening McQueen" movie. His favorite TV shows are Wild Kratts, Octonauts, Chuggington and he likes watching "cooking" shows with me. He also loves games, puzzles, legos and magnetiles. We are constantly amazed with his ability to solve puzzles or use tangrams. He does a good job counting and recognizing numbers. He is also doing a good job recognizing letters and writing his name. A lot of times, he'll put together tangrams or write his name upside down and backwards. Kellen has never been that into coloring or painting. I'm glad he gets to do crafts at school because he has no interest at home. He does like cutting and gluing though!

Kellen is a big boy, he is towering over 5 and 6 year olds. While he is still solid, he has thinned out quiet a bit. He has started to swim independently, he loves to kick soccer balls, and catch footballs. Kellen is still such a picky eater. It is soooooo frustrating! He will eat mass quantities of mac and cheese, burritos, pizza, and chicken nuggets but complains about eating pretty much everything else. He eats breakfast and lunch pretty good but goes to bed without dinner most nights. He still won't eat any fresh or cooked fruit or veggie. I can sneak pureed things in his food or give him baby food pouches as snacks. He also will eat freeze dried fruit.

Kellen is sleeping about 9 hours a night and taking a 2 hour nap most days. He loves to read before he goes to sleep and is started to read Level 1 readers independently. He has been getting into reading board books to Jae too. Kellen has been potty trained since the end of last summer but is still wetting the bed at night. It doesn't happen regularly but enough that we have him in a pull up at night.

While we were concerned about Kellen's speech after his 3rd birthday, he has gotten much better this past year. He mispronounces many sounds but seems to be getting better.

"l"s are "w"s
"f"s are "n"s or "p"s
some "r"s are "w"s
"g"s are "n"s
He also confuses words for things. For example, "rolly pokey" instead of rolly polly and tornado/torpedo/mosquito are all the same thing (I can only imagine what was going through his head when we were talking to him about a tornado warning). There are more I can't remember, they make us laugh.
Kellen loves to sing, he is always singing some tune. We love the mash ups he comes up with like Bingo and Old McDonald. I get a kick out of him singing the songs on my playlist. He does a great job singing Adele, Dave Matthews, Mumford and Sons, Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars. 

Kellen is such a great big brother. He loves to make Jae laugh, he is pretty gentle and loves to watch out for her. 

We are excited to celebrate Kellen's birthday with a new big boy bike and a big Space Ship Party at the park. Happy Birthday Kellen, we love you so much!!