This was Zeeke's last week as a four year old! He finished it off with one of his two favorite meals, a hot dog with mustard and ketchup.
It's been a fun, strange, hard year. There was a lot of development and a lot of regression. Zeeke sleeps through the night in his big kid bed, gets dressed by himself, and is finally accepting that he's responsible for wiping his own bottom. He goes to bed easy some nights, but pulls countless shenanigans others. His fears are strong and unpredictable. One dog will illicit a happy giggle from him while another will send him into an outright panic. He'll happily run down the block and try to hide from us, but at home he's afraid to walk from the living room to the kitchen by himself. He's getting better at talking to people he doesn't know well, often charming strangers by initiating unexpected conversations. He's fast, agile and strong, but also an oblivious klutz who hurts himself and others because he's not paying attention. His favorite things to do are stay in his PJs on weekend mornings and correct people if they say something he believes is wrong. His parents are learning too; trying to shout less and to enjoy each and every time he says "I love you."
Tuesday was Teacher Appreciate Day at Zeeke's school. Parents brought in a breakfast feast and the kids put on a performance of three songs ("You Are My Sunshine," "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," and "Skina-mer-rink-a-dink").
On Saturday, we went to Free Comic Book Day in the morning, then came home and read our stash. After lunch, we went to Penn Treaty Park for the Kite Festival. Zeeke designed a kite, but was not immediately interested in flying it, as the loose stones of the river embankment were singing his name and demanding that he climb on them. Once he'd had enough of that, we started flying his kite and one of the festival people ran out to surprise us with an impressive trophy for "Best Kite Design 2017." Zeeke was very proud of his trophy. When we got back home, his pal Asif swung by for a quick visit.
On Sunday, while Karen was hitting a kids clothing swap, Steve & Zeeke went shopping for his birthday party. They bought the makings of his cake, fun stuff for goody bags, and then grabbed lunch at Wendy's where he got a great building toy with his kids meal.
Conversations with Zeeke:
"I only do what people say."
"Not what animals say?"
"Well.... I'll only do what animals say if they aren't trying to trick me."
"Daddy, can I have candy?"
"I don't know. I hear from a reliable source that you probably got a red or yellow at school today."
"Daddy, I'm your reliable source!"
"That's right."
"But I'm not that reliable, so I should probably get candy."