Saku at 4 years and 6 months

It is a bit more difficult to do updates on your kids when they aren't babies anymore and the mile stones aren't "crawling" and "walking" and "he knows 10 words".

Saku likes playing outside. It has taken some serious convincing to have him come inside for lunch.

He loves to bike. He bikes around the race track and he is really good on the bike. 

I would say that legos are his favorite toy. 

He also likes to play dress up. 

He loves listening to stories and reading books. The biggest punishment that we could give him is to deny him a bed time story.

He is not sleeping in as late as he was sleeping six months ago. But he goes to bed without too much hassle, which is a nice balance as I listen Eerika sing songs an hour after the lights have been turned off. 

He still loves to change his clothes a lot. He might go through two to three outfits each day. 

Saku has been working on his reading. We don't put any pressure on him. In fact it has been more than two weeks since our last reading lesson, but he does really well when we do them. He can read the reading lesson words with 90% accuracy, but I wouldn't say he knows how to read yet. I am proud of his focus while we do the lessons and his willingness to practice. 

Saku can go to primary without much hassle. Especially if I drop him off and I give him a note to have in his pocket. 

Saku says beautiful prayers. 

He has memorized the first and second article of faith. It is awesome to listen to him recite them.

We are working on being grateful for the things we have even if they aren't our favorite. Saku has also learned to apologize and seems to understand the effect that his words have on people. 

 Saku has very recently started to have night terrors. It is very difficult to watch him be so scared about something and not be able to wake him up. Last night it took five minutes to calm him down and have him wake up enough to feel calm.  

He also has a difficult time dealing with soccer games when the other team is better than his team.  Or when the other kids on his team score and get more time with the ball. He does fine at a soccer practice and most of the time, he really enjoys them and plays well. However, games are tough. I would say that Saku would make a good defender as he isn't much for running after the ball. He likes to do big kicks 

Saku still plays with James about every two weeks. Since James is in school now, it is more difficult to find a time to play. He likes playing with Curtis and Will. He thinks Ella, from his soccer team, is cute and funny. We have been playing more at home and Saku plays really well with Eerika. 

Saku is good at making friends in new social situations. He continuous to play very well with older kids. 

This is how Saku dressed himself for the photo shoot.

Fortunately he was happy to get dressed in the clothes of my choice and even posed for a picture.

Two things that make me happy: Saku sounding out his words and enjoying it and Saku eating ruisleipä (rye bread).

Who knows where this pose came from but he was into it.

The picture above is a perfect depiction of my house. I would say that it is not messy or dirty; however, random items get scattered around the house. It drives me a bit crazy but I know one day my floors will be empty of clutter and I will miss it so I will just keep putting things back to where they belong 100 times a day.