Brian at 4.5 Years

The boys are growing and changing so fast that it feels necessary to document it right now, before everything changes again.  They are so awesome.  Here's Brian at 4.5 years.  About to start school at the end of the month (eek!):

Reading Christmas stories on New Year's Day.

• Plays schools almost every day using the real names of teachers from his school.  Some days he is a shop keeper.  Since I gave him my old work name badge the other day he hasn't taken it off.  Today he spent his day with his 'students' (soft toys:  Moose, Stripey Bear and Star Boy).  If Simon came near them there were disastrous tears.  I was treated to a Christmas concert by the students followed by a special lunch to which the children were not allowed to attend.  Poor students.  At the lunch Brian took my (wooden) egg to the school kitchen and cracked it on the bench.  (Mumma taught him the bench is better than a bowl).  Then he cut up my (wooden) chocolate (no calories) and told me that there was a lot there.  Lucky me!
• There is a lot of rebellion right now, in a Brian kind of way.  Lots of "no"s.  Lots of "I won't eat that".  Lot's of "owh, do I have to".  Last night there was a boy who had to get himself in his PJ's and tuck himself in all by himself.  He did it, until he had to turn out the light and he couldn't see his way to his bed.  Poor boy, I did help.  I'm learning to pick my battles, stay calm and give my time and encouragement.
• Noise.  And lots of it.  I'm pretty sure he has no volume control.  It's loud almost all of the time.  So loud I can't even hear what I'm saying to Simon.  
• We recently discovered Pinocchio thanks to an awesome deal at David Jones.  I happened to spy it when I was purposefully putting my blinkers on trying to avoid all the AWESOME sales in order to make headway with school shoes.  He wants to watch it everyday.  Some parts he says are scary.  He knows the story now and does love it.  It's cute.  Tonight as I was brushing his teeth he was pretending to be Strombolli.  He 'locked' me in a cage.
• There are also lots of cuddles and gorgeous "I love you Mummy" looks.  His smile to me most times is completely him and I'm pretty sure he doesn't smile like that to anyone else.  Blessed!  I've had a couple of afternoon naps of late (5am mornings and REALLY late nights aren't helping) and I've let Brian take a nap with me on Kevin's side.  The first time he fell asleep as I did.  Apparently my snoring woke him up.  Awesome.  Sorry Son!  The second time I don't think he fell asleep.  At one point I heard running pitter patter footsteps and I think he heard me stir and thought he needed to get back to bed.  Hilarious!  He said to me later "You didn't know I was playing with your hair ties".
• Speaking of which, both my boys are fascinated with girly things.  They don't get to see that stuff very much, if at all.  I had a pedicure before Christmas and they were fascinated with my nail polish.  Brian couldn't wait til the next morning when he was allowed to touch them!  Made him wait 24 hours so they were dry.  Simon was touching a strangers nails at swimming the other day.  (Sheesh!)  It doesn't stop there.  I wore a necklace the other day.  First time in probably years and they couldn't stop touching it and talking about it.  It bothers me enough wearing one let alone having them hang off it.  Must get used to it though as I liked the look and I'm the only girl around here!
• Food is a struggle, which it never has been.  Breakfasts, particularly so.  I've been through phases of not being able to stomach breakfast so I can understand.  I let him wake up a fair bit before giving it to him.  It's a complete mental block for him so I do all kinds of things to distract his thought from what he is actually doing.  In other food areas he's not eating things he used to be really excited about eating.  I'm finding that giving him a lot of little bits on a plate is still working.  I just put those things he doesn't want on a plate in a big variety and he's ok with eating them, but I don't think he's eating as much as he used to.  We are still trying to break away from all the new and bad things we ate over Christmas.  
• He still loves all the things he used to:  cars, crafts, general activities, playing games, singing, stories.
• He makes Kevin and I laugh at how much he is like us!
• Talking.  He is an awesome talker.  For someone that is generally more shy he opens up to everyone.  In the lift at the museum the other day he was telling everyone our entire life story.  Including that we "were trying to find the toilet, but oh, it wasn't there and gosh we have to back into the museum".  Such an awesome character.