townsend turns 4!

the first picture we ever saw of townsend. we were in love.
we had chocolate waffles for dinner on townsend's birthday. yum!


grandma and peepaw drove in on the morning of townsend's birthday. their van was loaded with presents for towney. courtesy of aunt susu of course.
townsend had just had a bath-hence the slicked back hair.
we also celebrated a couple of days later with aunt ann, uncle jim, james and julia. townsend wanted a cake with blue icing. blue is his favorite color.

aunt ann setting up the rocket shooter. i think half of the rockets ended up in the neighbors backyard within a few minutes. :)

dear townsend jose,
you are now four years old. our big boy. at your four year checkup you weighed 33.5 pounds (50th%) and are a little over 40 inches tall (30th%).
somewhere during this past year you developed the ability to hold an actual conversation. you have lots of questions about everything. and your memory is amazing. you also have very large ears-not physically. but we have to really watch what we say because you hear EVERYTHING. even when we spell words you have an uncanny knack for figuring out what we are saying.
you don't take a nap anymore but you do have quiet time in your room and you do pretty well at playing by yourself. at times you come out and try to engage mommy in conversation thinking that i won't "notice" that you are out of your room. sometimes i'll think you have fallen asleep and peek in your room and find that you have pulled out all of your puzzles and put them together one after another.
you continue to be very orderly and love to put cars, blocks, etc. in nice neat lines.
you still love thomas the train but have also added the characters from "cars" to your favorites list. in fact, most of your birthday presents this year were "cars" items.
you are a pretty good eater. not too picky. thank you.
you play fairly well with your sisters. when it's just you and one of them it's even better. lately you and the girls have been playing "family." there's a mommy, a daddy and a baby. i've noticed that you are usually the daddy or the baby.
i love that you still like to cuddle with mommy. and you love when daddy tickles you. :)
we are getting ready to go to guatemala and you are so excited. the other morning you came into our room, closed the door and said, "i am so excited about going to guatemala!" i told you to not talk about it too much around the girls. you asked, "will it make them jealous?"
you love to go camping. and for bike rides in the carrier attached to daddy's bike.
we think you are the cutest little boy in the whole world. we are so thankful that God made you to be our son and us to be your parents. although you still haven't asked any questions about being born in guatemala i know that at some point you will. maybe sometime this year. maybe the trip to guatemala will put some wonderings in your mind.
we love you so much townsend jose! happy birthday!