One SUPER fourth birthday! (Family Edition)

Can someone please tell me when my baby grew into a four-year-old boy who loves superheroes, dinosaurs, sports, reading, dancing and outer space? When I look at him I still see an infant or, at most, a toddler. 

Even though he is growing bigger and needs to be coddled less with each passing day, I hope he never grows too big to take pictures like this with his mom. I love the feeling of that little arm draped around my neck more than words can express.

Emerson is learning so much from him. She can make truck sounds and superhero flying noises. She can run and is working really hard on jumping. All these skills are coming to her faster than they did to Ford and I know that's because she has him to model these things for her. Check her out, little Miss Sassy Pants:

Birthdays are a big deal to me and Matt is slowly coming around to the idea that such celebrations can feasibly last a week or more. So I knew when we were planning his big superhero birthday party (the "child's-age-plus-two" rule never applied for some reason), that we would also have to plan a smaller family thing. We decided on a few of Ford's favorite outings: Lover's Pizza and frozen yogurt.

Sassy-Pants loves her fro yo, too.

When we got back to the house, we found that our awesome neighbors, the Andrys, had left a gift for Ford. Alicia said that no boy should be without a camp chair, and Ford couldn't have been more pleased. Now to plan an epic camping adventure, possibly in the backyard...

And so the gift opening commenced.

This is precisely why Ford
received
two superhero masks for
his birthday.

Practicing his web throwing
and experiencing a little confusion
with his Longhorn gesture.

Fighting crime can wear a girl
(and her favorite baby doll) out.

Happy birthday, Ford. We love you more than you'll ever know.

- Stacy