A Post for Ryan

I have the cutest 4 year old.  That's right.  I said it.  I dare you to dispute me.  I'll find you and sit on you if you do.  

Ryan is... his very own person.  I know that's an odd sentence  but as I sat here trying to come up with a word to describe him... I couldn't.  Maybe one of you can find one for me.  Ryan is really one of the sweetest little individuals you will meet though- and he is so generous with his hugs.  These hugs will melt you- I promise.  Bad days magically start to turn around when this little guy lays one on you.  

Ryan is still in preschool with Miss Tammy- and he loves it!  Shaun and I have decided to hold him back a year from kindergarten- so he'll have one more year with his favorite teacher and we couldn't be more excited about it.  Miss Tammy has worked SO hard with our shy little bug- he is so much more outgoing than he was.  I know part of that is because he is getting older- but his separation anxiety has gone WAY down since she started working with him.  

Ryan's favorite subject in school is art.  And a more careful painter you will never meet.  I bought some water colors for him to use at home and I sat and watched him this afternoon.  He finished one "portrait" in the time it took his brother to paint five.  It was a very detailed painting of Nephi with a sword.  It made this mama proud.  I got a note from his preschool teacher about how "careful" he was when they were painting and coloring.  He brings home some kind of artwork most days and you can totally tell what they are!  Friday he brought one home that just screamed "Abe Lincoln". 

Ryan is also... Are you ready for this... READING!!  Yeah that's right.  My 4 year old is reading.  He has passed off 3 books in school and is just trucking along trying to get the other ones in the series passed off.  I am SUCH a proud mama when he reads to ME at night instead of me reading to him.  He's such a rockstar!

This picture of him is a little goofy I know- but I had a whole thing planned for some family Valentines that didn't end up working out because I could never nail Ty down long enough to do it.  Grrr.  But I did snap one of Ryan and Kate- I love his eyes in this picture though.  They are such a dark, chocolaty brown.  I'm so jealous.

We really do have a great little kid in Ryan.  He is sweet, tender-hearted and caring... not usually adjectives I would use for a 4 year old little boy- but there you have it.  He loves to tell jokes (just ask him about the chicken that crossed the road and you'll have hours worth of conversation and jokes) and play anything with a ball.  The kid is frothing at the mouth for spring so that he can play baseball again.

He has also been working really hard on getting our money out of his glasses.  I can't decide if buying the wire ones was a good thing or not.  He bends the crap out of them when he wrestles, but they do bend back into place.  But sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't have gone with plastic frames instead.  Hmmm....  We'll see.  Until then though- I have to giggle at all the stories he tells me as to why they are bent the way they are.  A couple weeks ago we were sitting in church and I looked over at him only to realize that HE WAS MISSING A LENS.  I grabbed them and asked them how long he had been missing a lens.  And he just shrugged.  Shaun and I walked the church and retraced our steps until Ryan jumped up and said "Oh yea!  I stepped on them last night!"  Seriously?  You've been walking around for a day with only one lens because you stepped on them last night and couldn't be bothered to pick the other one up?  

I just shake my head and wonder what tomorrow will bring.  Love you Ry!