Finley is FOUR!

Against my best efforts, Finley is FOUR.



My new trick for making him smile? Telling him jokes. He doesn't understand jokes at all, but he fake laughs and smiles every time. And then tells me nonsensical jokes in return. Yesterday, he made a legitimate pouty face with the bottom lip sticking out. It cracked me up.

Finley is a pretty avid learner--he loves asking us how to spell things so he can write them and having us make up addition problems for him to do. I'm constantly impressed by what he can do. He really is good at adding and can add numbers up to about 6 in his head. When he's in the mood, of course. He loves to do puzzles and read.  He'll be going to preschool five days a week next year and then the next year... kindergarten. How is that even possible? It can't be.  We're working on some independence things--he's all too content to let me get him dressed and do all sorts of things I'm realizing he's big enough to do on his own. That's trickster.



He's always saying things that crack me up.  He often says, "Excuse me..." which is super polite, but he only uses it appropriately 50% of the time. He also says, "I realized..." and when something isn't working, he says it's disobeying him. He's getting tricky about blaming things on other things--like Pete from Mickey Mouse. Other sweet phrases are "Oh nevermind" said very dramatically, and "wait a minute wait a minute." It just always makes me smile when he uses little adult phrases.

He's pretty good at being kind to his brother and somewhat sharing--I'm lucky I don't have to mediate too many battles yet. He's very content to play on his own and make up games and stories by himself. It's also sweet when he'll ask for someone to play with--"Does anyone want to play with marbles/blocks/read a book?" I just love his sweet personality.

It's so hard to even try to write a post summarizing what Finley is like these days--he's just such a big little personality and we really cherish every minute with him.

We're celebrating today in Little Rock with my parents and grandparents by going to the zoo and the train restaurant--all that's missing is Sol. We're bummed he couldn't make it out this weekend, but are looking forward to a fun time with him next weekend!