Life Plus Two: Atticus 4 Years

This, my thoughtful, obnoxious, sweet, loving, smart, tender, crazy, fun, snuggly, little boy turned four.

We took some pictures of him with lamby after church one day. Lamby is so tiny now. Especially since Atticus finally made it out of the 10 and below percentile for height. (Though he's still in about the 8th for weight. Poor kid will have flood pants his whole life.) He's all the way in the 45 percentile for height, now! And now some more random Atticus info with a million pictures of his last year.

Jonny is so lucky to have Atticus as a big brother. He is so adoring and patient and helpful. Even sometimes when I'm losing patience, he whips out his sweet little voice he uses with her and talks to her about what she needs or what's going on. He's always excited to see her and give her kisses. He puts up with her craziness, helps her, and shares, he's excited for her when she succeeds or tries new things. He's just such a good brother and Jonny can't help but adore him.

He held very still so she could lay on his shoulder.

Helping her ride a bike.

Atticus is a total ham. He loves to be obnoxious and show off and he's a bit dramatic as well.

This is him showing me (in February) what he will be for next Halloween. He told me his name was Sono and he doesn't have arms or a head, just a mask.

Trying not to smile.

I actually took video of this one, too, but Atticus tried some of Jonny's baby cereal and had a great reaction, which included this face. I said that I wished I had taken video and he immediately said, "Oh, I can do it again" and did. Exactly the same. So I took video of his third try and then this picture. Exact same reaction each time which brought the question: Was his initial reaction even real? Or is he always playing this game?

Always posing.

As soon as Atticus turned three he announced that green was was no longer his favorite color but that he "likes all the colors now" but he definitely still loves green best.

This was at Easter (2015) and he was so over-the-top excited over every egg he found. "I found a egg!" Every time.

Being tough next to Captain America.

He started swim lessons last spring and he was a champ. He cried after every lesson because he was cold. But he loved it and was so brave and adorable.

My little sweetheart boy. He left this on the doorstep then rang the doorbell and hid. Yelled "reprise" (surprise) when I opened the door. He also often leaves cool rocks at the door the same way and then we sit and he tells me about why they're cool.

Huntington Beach last May.

He loves his "amiloles" He always sleeps with all of them.

Kid loves to go visit the cows down the street.

He loves music. I made him a bunch of cds and gave him an old boom box for his room. He dances around and sings along. He learns songs very quickly, too. Singing along to songs I hardly know, on the radio.

Some funny things he says:

He calls Charlie Brown "Charlie the Brown", hide and seek "Hide and Sneak" and the outfits he wears "his dress" (I think because I tell him to get dressed), "Be end" for the end.

So proud he did the game.

He does not actually love to be messy.

Here he is adoring his flowing arm hair. He's got about five long ones and always has.

Random funny thing he said to me recently: "Mom, these cars are download" It meant their wheels were stuck

My most favorite picture of him ever.

His hair is marvelous.

He sleeps with his eyes open. Yep.

He loves to point out the pretty sky and mountains, etc. This was him watching the fall leaves in the canyon.

They love to wrestle.

Waving to the prophet.

My best boy.

Making Grover smile for his (Grover's) birthday picture.

He's very nervous about scary things and trying new things.

I forced him to go in this swing and he loved it 2 seconds in.

Here's the drama I was talking about...

My hipster.

Playing Indiana Jones.

Learning about baseball. This was his "safe" stance.

Halloween.

He wanted to take a picture like Jonny.

He loves to dress up for dance parties. "Dressing up" means wearing anything out of the ordinary. This was costume for the day.

A case of the sillies.

We used the blow dryer on his hair.

He knows his letters and about half of their sounds. And he loves to write his name.

He has this crazy freaky memory. He remembers everything. Like a few weeks ago I gave him some skittles. The only other time he's had skittles was at Jonny's newborn photo shoot more than a year ago. He spilled them on the floor that time. And this time when I gave him some, he told me all about spilling them on the floor last time.

A very loving brother to be willing to share his "Wankie Blankie"

He loves Inside Out. We made these Inside Out characters from pipe cleaners and such last summer and he still has them. He also has an imaginary friend named Joy, and will often tell me which of the emotions is in charge in his brain.

More dance party costumes.

We went on a bowling date. It was excellent.

He's still a skinny little guy. He had no idea that he was wearing Jonny's size 12 month jeans.

Plaided little reader boy.

He loves sunbeams. For the first month or two he would get a little whiny when I dropped him off but then talked abut how much he loved it afterward. I couldn't resist taking this picture of him up front before he gave the opening prayer.