Zeke at 3 and a half

Our Zekers is three and a half!  I can not even begin to believe that he is going to be 4 this summer.  I'm already thinking about his party and collecting ideas.  If you have an tips or ideas for making an Olympic themed birthday party (totally playing on the Olympics since that is all.we.did right after he was born since he was born the day of opening ceremonies in 2008), send them my way :)

This isn't a dr visit milestone, but he is about 37 lbs we think.  He wears mostly 4T shirts and needs to be wearing 5T pants, but mama is waiting for the consignment sale at the end of February.  Poor boy having a thrifty mom ;)  He has had a recent growth spurt and has shot up in height.  He is slimming down and shooting up it seems.

Interests: CARS, books, CARS, make-believe, and more CARS
Enjoys: reading, pretending, watching movies (begs to watch tv all day long, I promise that isn't what we do though!)

Turn-Offs: doing things on his own, seperating from mom still a bit, (tantrums really have gotten better recently)
Vices: staying in his bed for rest time (he has realized if he lays down he falls asleep and he doesn't like that), not looking us in the eye when we ask
Strengths: super sharer, thinks of others a lot of the time (wants to get things for Ben or dad when they aren't around), memorizing verses

Favorites of my 3.5 year old;
Foods: blueberries, french fries, animal crackers
Songs: show themes
Shows: Jake and the Neverland Pirates, SuperWhy
Books: Cars 2 book he got for his birthday, Mater book
Toys: cars, scooter, balls
Activities: any kind of pretending, getting a little into crafts, trying to read words/sounding out words

How Zeke is like...
daddy- so shy in new situations!!!  (Spence is not like this now, but growing up was super shy.  I know you don't believe this, but it's true)
mommy- needs a bit of wake up time.  Zeke tends to wake up and hang out in his room for up to 30 minutes before wandering downstairs

Treasuring Details of our 2 year old Ben
*love learning!

*very particular about his stuff (needs 3 books and 3 cars to sleep, don't dare move his cars that he has in their special box or windowsill)
*Collects things and stores them all over the place
*still such a mama's boy
*tries to get Ben to follow his directions.  We heard him the other day try to make Ben say "yes, sir" to him
*prefers snacks over meals
*has gotten so much better about trying new foods and generally will take one bite (if appropriately bribed)
*never wants to go anywhere, but once we get there doesn't want to leave
*enjoys irritating his brother (and thus me) by roaring and "scaring" Ben- we have been quoting over and over that we do not get joy from upsetting others, but it hasn't sunk in yet because Ben's reaction is so much fun :-\
*really into letter sounds and putting them together.  while reading he always says "hey, Mom, what does these words say?" I'm trying to decide if I should start teaching him some early reading skills
* has really turned a corner at Awana.  He loves memorizing verses and even enjoys going each week
*will be registered for preschool for the fall by the end of this week  (EEEE!)
*counts how many people are in a room when we are with lots of people and enjoys counting the girls and the boys
*asks lots of questions and also gives answers (likes to ask people what their fave color, ice cream, etc are or things like what color are their eyes)

Zeke currently isn't super into getting pitures taken and when you combine that with me not remembering my camera/feeling yuck we just do not have many pictures this month

 First mall ride, definitely won't be able to go to the mall with out doing this anymore

LOVES his Kumon books that he got for Christmas