Nicholas @ 4 years old

The day my baby turned 4!

He wanted a really chocolatey cake, so we picked this one for our family celebration to delight him. This was actually his second birthday cake this year. 

The first was a 2kg Piglet cake for his celebration in school. Though he had the same cake last year, he insisted on it again, claiming it to be his favourite. Just seeing a smiley Piglet on the cake and a mega grin on my son's face as a result of it is enough reason for me to buy this same cake for him year after year, if this is what he desires. 

 

It is funny that he just LOVES to blow out the candles on birthday cakes. Makes me smile every time just watching him do it. I am pretty sure we have photos of him in this same pose for the last 3 years too! Hee.. 

It is a cliche, I know, but I am still going to say it - I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABY IS ALREADY FOUR!!  It seems not that long ago when I blogged about Chipsy @ 26 months old.

I love this photo of my baby Chip. This is the smile I see at least twenty times a day. 

One of the things that I really love about Chip is how he laughs easily and has a really adorable chuckle that is so contagious, it often makes everyone around him laugh. 

He enjoys telling jokes and making up little funny stories and rhymes. In fact, his rhymes are usually extremely hilarious and spontaneous. Like one he made up tonight - pig in a lace, potatoes from space, when he wants to eat them, they fly into his face!

He really shines as a natural performer who finds joy entertaining his audience with funny and witty lines and very cheeky moves. It certainly helps that he is not self-conscious yet, so we can see the innocence in his presentations.

Like Marcus, he has an enormous capacity to keep himself busy for hours. If he is not focusing on the different quiet activities like playing Lego, play doh or other toys, he would be drawing or writing. 

Recently, he is into creating his own little books but the themes so far are mostly related to PIGS and their piggy adventures. :> 

The other passion lies in drawing difficult (sometimes impossible) mazes or games to challenge every adult he meets. Sometimes focusing for 40 min straight just to churn out one maze. His mazes and games are no longer those that require one to simply find a way out. More often than not, there will be all sorts of trap doors, black holes, flesh eating monsters, dragons and predators or thorny carnivorous plants waiting to devour us. 

Laughing at Papa who "died" in the game, after falling into the multiple black holes.

Enjoying one of his favourite quiet activities whenever we visit Vivo City.

Sometimes, he would rearrange all the furniture, pillows and beddings and toys in his room to create an imaginary space such as his 'peace place', 'castle' or 'jungle'. While the whole room looked messy to my untrained eyes, especially with all his stuffed animals strewn all over the room, to my highly imaginative child, every character planted in strategic positions played important roles in his new games. 

Don't mistake him for a minute to be a quiet and introverted boy though. He is definitely not one! In fact, he seems to be the more extroverted child in the family who enjoys to be active, loves the outdoors and is attracted to adventures. He doesn't require much persuasion to give new experiences a try.

At one of his favourite restaurants. 

Once outdoors, he loves to race. He always seems so full of beans. He can never decline an invitation to race, except when he is really tired, though he may not be the best sport you know and will quite easily burst into tears if he loses. Haha! But watching him giving his very best at every race never fails to warm my heart. 

Striking up a conversation with a boy he met at toy shop.

Chipsy is also a sociable boy with loads of self-confidence. He doesn't hesitate speaking to children and adults alike, a trait that I am deeply proud of.  Sometimes he would march up to strangers he is interested in and introduce himself or start a conversation by asking them questions. 

He speaks really well for a child his age, and is able to express his thoughts, opinions and feelings rather clearly and confidently. One thing I have realized he does a lot is listening to conversations in the household, even when he doesn't look like he is. He is always interested in whatever that E and I said to Marcus or vice versa and very often, he would want to join in the chats, contributing his own ideas and surprising us with his depth of understanding and ability to remember details from previous discussions. 

Once in a while, E will tease me for being a little partial to my baby Chip. But I really don't think so. I like to think that I am fair to both and love them just as much. I can't deny though that Chip has a way to tug at my heartstrings by speaking to me in a squeaky little voice when he really wants something from me. The kids learnt a long time ago that screaming, crying and tantrums won't get them anywhere in this household and it is much more effective to speak and ask politely to have their requests considered. 

So his squeaky little voice and polite manner of requesting with his "May I .... please?" combined with big innocent (and sometimes sad looking) eyes does have an effect on me, though there are still requests that I won't accede to. But in those cases, I can usually reason or negotiate with him or work out alternatives and compromises that he can accept. This in itself is testament to how much he has grown and developed cognitively and emotionally. 

He is surely one cool kid to have and I am so proud of him in every way imaginable.