Gabriel turns 4

So Gabriel is 4! It hardly seems like yesterday that I was cuddling the screaming little ball of fury that turned into Gabriel, and now here I am with a great big, grown-up, lump of a 4 year old (a very nice lump at that!).

He gets more grown-up every day it seems, a proper little boy now. His school application has been sent off ready for next September, and we (slightly) anxiously await news of his place, hoping that he will be in Discovery with Linus. Gabriel is rather looking forward to going to school... so he can "play with that farm".

Good progress is being made with Gabriel's speech, and a new form of bribery is really encouraging those F's and S's to be properly pronounced, although "Fireman Sam" is still a bit of a mouthful! We're waiting to hear back from the speech therapist to see if he needs any further sessions, but he seems to be doing well at home now, and nursery have said he is talking brilliantly there. He has also been learning lots of numbers at nursery and completed a whole dot-to-dot by himself which is rather clever I think!

Sadly, due to a bit of meddling by a certain pair of young boys, Gabriel's main present was less of a surprise than it should have been. But, despite him knowing what was coming, Linus and I spent quite some time the night before Gabriel's birthday wrapping his bike up and making a lovely pile of his other presents, ready for him to discover in the morning, knowing that he would be pleased and excited regardless. He didn't disappoint. Who knew that a small pile of presents could make one little boy so happy? Gabriel couldn't quite believe that it was all for him and tried to share out the presents with his brothers... "Asa, this is YOUR car". When I pointed out that all the presents were, in fact, for him he was just overwhelmed "and is THIS one mine too?" he kept saying. Bless his little cotton socks. The bicycle was a big success too, and thanks to having the learner bike first he is well away on it (without stabilisers). More pics to come on the bike front!

A while back we went for a meal at Frankie and Benny's. While we were there a birthday party was going on, complete with lowering of lights, cake with candles coming out and lots of singing Happy Birthday. Gabriel was slightly in awe of the whole thing and immediately requested that he have HIS birthday at Frankie and Benny's too, with a cake that has candles on. And so, the saturday after his birthday, Frankie and Benny's it was, with the usual crew in tow :-) We had a lovely time, Gabriel thought it was fab (even though he was a bit scared when the cake came out!) and went to bed happy and content. Just as it should be!