A few days ago: 54 months

Isaac turned 54 months old a few days ago.

Family: He finally loves Ben infinity much.  He insists on telling me that "I love you more than you love me."  I've tried to stop it since I don't really like it, but it hasn't worked.  He seems to be enjoying Joshua more...he likes making him laugh and helping him say new words.  Isaac happily still holds my hand; something I love.

Eating: Isaac has been extra hungry this month.  Several times he would eat dinner, his treat, a graham cracker, and then start in on the fruits and veggies.  He is a slow, slow eater, but with all of that food it isn't uncommon for it to take 1.5 hours for him to eat.  He has a few foods that he definitely will not eat (scrambled eggs, for example) but isn't too picky over all.

Silliness: Isaac loves to be silly.  (Above is his silly picture.)  He is always a puppy, although he refers to himself in third person and in a funny voice when a puppy.  This month we learned that puppy is still learning how to eat, and so somethings took a few extra tries.  He's been doing more climbing, standing on one leg, hopping, etc things...it makes me wonder if gymnastics influenced it.

Playing: his favorite things are still marbles and legos.  (I often hear the marbles when he's supposed to be getting dressed.)  He got some new fun things for his birthday and he's been playing with those a lot too.  I put the puzzles away since he hasn't gotten them out for months, and then he asked for some during quiet time.  I brought a few up, and am not sure that he did them.

Attitude: Besides a few minor listening incidents, Isaac has been really good lately.  He's really fun and tries really hard to get people to laugh and smile.  He's trying to scare Ben and me; he's gotten Ben once but hasn't really gotten me yet.  Oh, I'm not sure if this fits in this category, but Isaac is amazing at delayed gratification.  We got donuts on Wednesday and he decided that he didn't want to eat his until Thursday because that was his birthday day.  We've noticed this in several other places too.

Work: Isaac has been somewhat willing to do work around the house, but we just set up a chore chart for him.  He gets some money just for being part of the family.  The chores are to say 5 s-blend words (snow, stop, spit, etc.), feed Flurry, put away the clean silverware, water the plants (4x/week), help with laundry (1x/week), and clean his room (1x/beginning of the week).  So far it's worked pretty well.  Most of the chores take him a total of 15 minutes at the most, so it's easy to have him do even if it's at the end of the day.  (Cleaning his room, on the other hand, takes a while.  Especially since he doesn't want to do it.  Our solution is that he doesn't have to, but no ipad (or other fun things), until he has done it.

Conclusion: Isaac is usually a lot of fun to be around and while he prefers "playing" with us he's really quite happy to do anything with us.  He's becoming quite independent while still enjoying having us around.