OMG he's 4

My little guy turned 4 this past week. I can't even believe it. It was kind of an emotional week for me. I tried hard not reflect too much on how different my life is today as opposed to 4 years ago and how much I have been through in the last 4 years but every once in a while those memories creep up and it's extremely painful and at times paralyzes me. I am doing a lot better in regards to the feelings of sadness and lonliness but this new stage I'm in is causing me to have a lot of unpleasant flashbacks especially during this week when my little man turned 4. All I know is that I would be so lost without his smile. He has kept me going for the last 4 years and motivated me to be strong. I love him with all my heart and soul. Some days I lose patience or I have no energy and I don't feel like I'm the best mom all the time but I think I've done a pretty good job considering. So that being said. Here are the professional pictures we had taken for his birthday. I just wish he'd smile a little bit more.

 

The many smiles of Eric Charles

With another birthday comes another cake challenge. This year he wanted the Cinderella castle, all the characters and Shamu. At the last minute he wanted a dolphin too but I drew the line! The castle is hand iced and then I bought sugar paper and drew the characters and Shamu with food coloring markers. Pretty inventive if I do say so myself. I can only imagine what his request next year will be! Some of these pictures are out of order or duplicates. Sometimes blogger gives me a hard time and I'm not patient enough to go through and try to fix it all.

Within the first hour of him being awake. I think even before he opened presents he exclaimed, "This is the best birthday ever!" It makes me happy that he enjoyed his day so much.

For his birthday I got him the Dr. Seuss book Happy Birthday to You

And some Peter Pan figurines because he's a little obsessed with Peter Pan right now and insists that he comes into the apartment at night and takes him to Neverland.

I also got him this really cool track that hangs on the wall. The apartment is small so any toy that doesn't take up space is a great toy to me. I mounted it on the wall and at first I thought it was pretty lame until I put the batteries in it. It turns out it is pretty awesome and he loves it!

Checking out his cake for this first time:

So I can't afford a big fancy party like people have these days nor do I think it's necessary to spend that kind of  money on a birthday for a 4 year old. Next year I will splurge because it's a big birthday. But this year my mom picked up my nephew Ryan and then picked Eric and I up and we went to Pump It Up. The boys had a lot of fun and were exhausted by the time we were done.