Happy 4th Birthday Kayden!

To my lovely firstborn,

You are 4 today! How quick the past year flew by. From a terribly shy 3 year old, you have now emerged out of your shell and are so talkative that it drives those around you crazy with your incessant chatter and questions :p Your vocab is superb and I just look at you in awe sometimes when you use words that I have never taught you before or when you string together sentences with whatever words you know in order to make us understand you.

You are kind and sensitive. While watching a documentary on elephants the other night, I explained to you that the baby elephant died soon after birth as it was too weak. You were silent and watched as the mummy elephant gave her dead baby a nudge then shed tears as she walked away to rejoin the herd. I hear you silently sobbing then suddenly you bawled your lungs out! It took a good few minutes for me to calm you down. How cute are you? :)

However I've noticed that you are also capable of being a bully. At your birthday pool party, you were enjoying yourself going down the pool slide but as you were slow, the kid behind you knocked onto your back and after you both landed in the water, I saw you turned around and pushed the kid angrily. That was the first time I see you react this way. Maybe it's a survival trait but I do not like it and gave you a warning. I hope you will be more peace loving among your peers. So far we have not heard any bad news from the school so keep it up baby!

The obsession you have with cows for the past year is finally wavering and you are beginning to take an interest in other animals now like the elephant, sharks and crocodiles. You still have the memory of an elephant and I hope you will always remember that your mummy loves you very much although I have to spend more time taking care of didi. Today you reminded me of the dead baby elephant, you say, "Mummy, the baby elephant was two weeks then it die already, then the mummy elephant cry." I didn't understand and kept asking you why two weeks? Was it two weeks ago we saw the programme? Did you mean the baby elephant died two weeks ago? After you kept repeating a few times I finally understood! You remembered what I explained to you about why the baby elephant die, that it was "too weak"! Hahaha, your daddy and I laughed when we finally figured it out :p

You like to announce out of the blue, "Mummy, I want to tell you something!" Then you will wait patiently for me to say, "What?" to which you will reply, "I love you!" Awwww, it always melts my heart :D You also love your baby brother "so so very much" as you like to tell us before kissing him 100 times on the sole of his feet with loud smooching sounds. Yes, that's your favourite spot for kissing your didi. It's hilarious seeing you kiss him like that, it's like an addiction! You are extremely protective of your little brother too especially when we are out of the house. When I let go of didi's hands while walking with him outdoors, your face will tense up tight as you scream for me to hold him, the look on your concerned face fearing that your brother will somehow disappear if I let go of his hands :s

Some annoying quirks you have picked up includes:
1. You will start crying each time the DVD you are watching is ending and you will shout in a panic to either of us to switch to the TV channel for you.
2. You eat so slooooooooooooooowly, each meal takes at least 30mins to an hour! It's especially frustrating as your father and I are fast eaters.
3. When you pass urine at night before you sleep, you will ask your daddy or me to hold your "kukujiao" for you instead of doing it yourself. Yes, only at night. In the day you can hold it yourself :s
4. Whatever baby is playing with at that moment, you HAVE to go snatch it from him just to make him wail for it. Arrgh!
5. You like to make a silly funny face each time we ask you to smile for the camera :p

As parents, we love you because of all these quirks and not despite of them. But please try and eat faster la! ;) And don't bully your didi ok? kekeke

I hope you enjoyed your day out with Mummy and baby today watching the movie UP and here's wishing you many many many more HAPPY BIRTHDAYS my son!

love, hugs and kisses,
mummy