The Whaleys: To our FOUR year old, Jackson

Dear Jackson,

Not that long ago, you turned 4! How can that be? As cliched as it is, I swear it wasnt that long ago that I held you in my arms for the first time...and yet here we are 4 years later!

At four years old, you are ALL personality! We have had several people tell us that you should be on TV. You will talk to anybody and you are not shy at all. We just never know what you are going to say :) You always ask the guys behind the fish counter at W.hole Foods to do a show for you with the frozen fish (making them talk) and they do everytime because you are so funny and they get a kick out of you. You also have wonderful manners, which makes us so proud!

You have an AMAZING memory. We will read you a book a few times and then you can recite the whole thing on your own. Your teachers at school have made several comments about how good your memory is. You love to learn about anything and be read to. You and Daddy have a book that you love to read together-a book about Space and the planets. You have been talking about the planets, rockets, satellites, comets, the galaxy, etc. You say you want to go to Space Camp like Daddy did one day.

You are completely into superheroes. You love Spiderman, The Avengers, The Justice League, etc. You talk about super heroes all of the time and you think it is your job to "defeat bad guys".

You love to point out people who litter (especially cigarettes) on the ground and discuss why some people just dont care about the earth. You have promised Mommy and Daddy that you will never litter and never smoke, and I sincerely hope that you mean that!

You are quite the ladies man these days. Daddy got taken aside by your teachers a few weeks ago because you were kissing on a few of the girls and we had to talk to you about kissing at school :) Secretly I know Daddy was proud, though. You pretend to marry a girl named Scarlett often at school and you want us to invite her over for a play date so that you can "marry her and kiss her without the teachers seeing". I dont know how I feel about that, but I am pretty sure it is all innocent fun. You are extremely affectionate and we love your sweet heart.

Speaking of affection, you are obsessed with pretending to marry Mommy and adamant that you are the groom in our wedding pictures. You get EXTREMELY jealous and upset when Daddy hugs or kisses me. We have to have lots of talks about how Mommy loves you, Daddy, and Rhett. You do not like to share me. Daddy says he has some great stories to tell you (to embarrass you) when you get much older. I am enjoying all of the love from you lately, because I know one day you will be "too cool" to show too much affection to me :)

You are ALL boy in that you love roughhousing, cars, sports, trains, and potty jokes. If we want a cheap laugh, all we have to do is insert the word "poop" in a sentance and you think it is hilarious. You are also super competitive and sometimes a little too hard on yourself, especially when you are not the best at something.

You have some really cool dance moves, and you command an audience when you sing or dance. Sometimes you get really silly and pretend to fall down, or make your song sound funny. You tend to get really hyper when all eyes are on you but I can tell you are feeding off of the attention.

You eat really well, but wont eat certain "kid" foods. Some foods that you do NOT like: french fries (what what!?), chicken nuggets, spaghetti, pizza, broccoli, watermelon (or any melon for that matter). Your favorite food is SALMON and you love fried fish as well. You ask for salmon all of the time and will eat a huge fillet. You also love many fruits, pancakes, scrambled eggs, pulled pork bbq, roast, and of course, all things chocolate!

You do NOT like when you fall down and get a boo boo. You get very upset if you are bleeding and need a band aid. It is getting better, but you are pretty dramatic when you see scrapes on your body from a fall.

You are super independant and get yourself dressed, brush your teeth, help me cook, set the table, sweep, vacuum, clean up, brush your hair, help unload the dishwasher. You often say " I can do it myself!!". Right now we are working on getting you to hold your pencil properly and you are getting there, but you do NOT like to be corrected.

Overall you have a very sweet and laid back demeanor. We have had occasional weeks where your behavior has been not so great and you are testing us, but nothing too challenging...yet. Since the day your were born, you have proven to be a pretty easygoing person and for that we are so thankful. I hope you always keep that happy and positive spirit.

Some of your favorite things: playing superheroes, playing "kitty cat", candyland, cars, doing anything outdoors, going to the movies (you just saw your first: "Planes" with daddy and LOVED it), Disney World, staying in hotels, Waterparks, Disney Junior, snuggling, reading, art projects, and running around naked :)

Some things you do NOT like at all: shots, boo boos, bees, being corrected, not being the best, and flies.
You 4th birthday party was so much fun. You wanted a "Cars" theme and we did it at the Children's museum. This year was the first year that you had a major say in the guest list and you invited many friends from your school. You ran around and had a blast with your friends.
You are such a big boy now and we are so proud of the amazing person that you are. As always, you bring SO much joy to our lives and we are so blessed to call you our sweet boy. We LOVE YOU so much!!

Official Stats:
Weight: 37.4 lbs 63rd percentile
Height: 42.5 in 91st percentile
BMI: 14.5 13th percentile
Last day of 3K: