Wells: A 4-Year Snapshot

Since Wells turned 4 back in June, it's time for one of his half-year snapshots.

The Stats:
At his 4 year check-up, he was 42 pounds and 42 inches tall. A pound for every inch :) He is still pretty big for his age - with his height and weight in the 95th percentile or higher. He is wearing 4T & 5T clothes and a size 10.5/11 shoe.

Talking:
Wells still talks all. the. time. He is SUPER curious and always asking questions. He is at such a fun age too because you can totally have a full, in-depth conversation with him.

Brotherhood:
He and Grayer are best friends and worst enemies. They love each other something fierce, but goodness can they fight and argue! They know exactly which buttons to press with each other! As far as Briggs goes, he's got nothing but love. He was so excited when I was pregnant and has been in love with Briggs ever since he met him. He is always excited when the baby wakes up in the morning/from a nap. He loves holding him and talking to him, and he was actually the first person to feed Briggs a bottle.

Sleeping:
Wells is still our boy that requires lots of sleep (unlike Grayer!). He is our late sleeper and has not been a fan of getting up early in the morning now that school has started. We've bumped up their bedtime a lot since we have to get up so much earlier, but he always asks if he can lay in bed a little longer in the mornings (#hismamaschild). He will typically take a nap on the weekends as long as he didn't sleep too late that morning and sometimes takes a nap at school during "rest time."

Devotions:
Wells still loves doing devotions with Daddy. They have been learning hand motions to songs lately, and he enjoys doing that. He retains so much of the stories they learn and asks questions about Jesus and God periodically during the day.

School:
Wells was so excited to start "big boy school" and has been doing really well since starting PreK-4 two weeks ago. This summer, he kept asking if he was going to be the teacher, and I had to remind him that he would be the student! Haha! He takes his lunch each day in his sea turtle lunchbox he picked out. And he gets to ride the schoolbus to our church in the afternoons, which is literally directly across the street from his school. It's like a 2-minute drive tops. This way on the two days I'm working at the church, he gets dropped off right to me, and the other three days, I can drive to our church to pick him up and totally avoid the carpool line at the school. He has had a rough couple of mornings this week, which I think is just him having to adjust to going to school every day (as opposed to 2 mornings a week which is what he was used to in PK3). He is always in a good mood at the end of the day and tells me he had a great day, but mornings have been a little harder.

Quirks:
He is our very particular child. He likes things done a certain way (namely, HIS way). If he thinks you are doing something wrong, he's quick to tell you. We are working on his bossiness and teaching him that he not in charge of others! And he is super nosy lol. If I am talking to Eric or Grayer and Wells isn't entirely within earshot, he will yell out, "What did you say, Mommy?" He wants to know everything going on with everyone else, and I tell him "nunya" or "none of your biz" all the time. Ha! Wells also went through this really funny phase where he LOVED exit signs, fire alarms, etc. So weird, but I think it stemmed from the time that he pulled the fire alarm at our church lol. Any time we were out at some kind of store or restaurant, he would point out all of the exit signs, fire alarms, and sprinklers. He is over this stage, but it's one of those quirky things I don't ever want to forget. :) Another "quirk" is that he is using both hands to write - I can't figure out if he's going to be a righty or a lefty! He writes about the same with both hands, so maybe he will be ambidextrous!

Smarts:
Wells has always been very smart. He wows us all the time with the things he knows and says. He has been able to write his name for a while, but it looks so much better than it did even a few months ago. Very readable :) He's always asking how things are spelled/what letter a certain word starts with. He can write all of his letters and can also write the numbers 1-10. He has the best memory and remembers EVERYTHING.

Singing:
He really likes to sing and has been learning lots of new songs in the Gospel Kids class at church. He has certain favorite songs that come on the radio, too. And he remembers if you like a song and is always yelling "it's your song!" or "it's Dad's song!" when a favorite comes on.

Eating:
This boy has always had quite the appetite. He has gone through and is really still in a picky stage. Some things he does love are raw veggies (carrots, broccoli, and bell peppers), pretty much any fruit, and pizza - still his all-time favorite food! He just recently started eating macaroni and cheese (neither boys liked it up until recently) and has started to also like hamburgers (I made some sliders for dinner one night, and he could not get enough!).

Sea Turtles:
Sea turtles deserve a whole section :) A few months back, Wells all of a sudden took an interest in a stuffed sea turtle someone had given to Grayer a while ago. Neither boys were into stuffed animals and it kind of just got shoved into the toy box. Also at his preschool, he had watched some cartoon about a sea turtle. And thus the sea turtle craze began! He was in sea turtle heaven on our trip to Sea World back in April, and he had an under the sea themed birthday party. We also took him on his actual birthday to a sea turtle rescue center on Jekyll Island. He has now added 6 more sea turtles to his collection, and he sleeps with ALL of them every night.

Miscellaneous
-Wells is starting U6 soccer in a couple of weeks and is excited about that - but Eric may be the most excited :)
-He is the bad word police. And by bad words, I mean "stupid," "shut up," and "hate." Ha! IF you say any of those around him, just know that he WILL tell me.
-He is still a big time mama's boy and can be so sweet. The other day I put on a pair of sunglasses in the car, and he said, "Mom, those sunglasses look really good on you." I love that kid so much.
-One of our neighbors gave him and Grayer a power wheels truck a few months back, and he's become quite the little driver (and speed demon).
-Wells is very cautious about certain things and can take a while to warm up to doing new stuff. But sometimes when you'd expect him to be cautious, he isn't at all! For example, at a birthday party, he refused to slide down the large water slide for the entire party. He did it once and didn't like it, and that was that. However, at Sea World, he had no problems riding his first (kid) rollercoaster! And he keeps telling us that he wants to go on the big, grown-up rollercoaster when he gets big enough :)
-He is at a fun age where he likes playing games - he got a few board games for his birthday.

Watching Wells grow up is so bittersweet. Even though it's sad that he's not a baby anymore, it's so fun to see each new stage and skill and personality trait develop. We love our big four-year-old!