The Meert Family... now in Florida!: Rylan is Four!!!!

Can it be that we already have a 4-year-old?? We were overjoyed to celebrate Rylan's 4th birthday on Monday, September 2!! We are so incredibly proud of Ry and have been thrilled to see all he's learned and done in his first four years. He's an amazing blessing to us, and we're so thankful for our precious family.

Rylan still loves to be outside most of all! He started riding a pedal bike in June (no training wheels thanks learning balance on his balance bike) and loves to go on bike rides with Dad, or with Maylee on the balance bike (while we jog behind!). He loves to play with his friends and other kids on the playground and often runs up and says "can't catch me!" to get a game of chase started. Inside, he especially loves playing with his little cars and trucks, duplos/legos, airplanes, space shuttles, and his wooden trains. As adventurous as he is, he's still our sweet boy and loves to snuggle with us in bed in the morning after he wakes up, and snuggle up in our laps to read. He can also be super sweet to his little sister (though they have a lot of struggles too! :) ). He's been into making forts again and playing in them, and has turned Daddy's closet into his "secret space" where he keeps some of his toys (made me remember how much fun I had playing in my parents' closet when I was little!). He's more detailed when he colors now (he likes markers best), likes his chalkboard, and can write the letter "R" some of the time :) and is recognizing more letters. His favorite foods lately are cantaloupe, fresh blackberries and almost all other fruits, mac and cheese, french toast, and grilled cheese.

A few sweet and funny things he's said this year:

R: "I love you mama"

me: "I love you to the moon and back!"

R: "I love you all the way to Uranus... that's farther than the moon!"
(he loves space!)

"Jesus is building us a home in heaven... isn't that nice? I want to go see Jesus"
(after we were learning about heaven in Sabbath school at church :) )

"You need to eat your greens, Mei Mei!"
(when Maylee didn't want to eat her veggies... especially funny because we don't normally use that phrase, and usually it's Maylee, not Rylan, who does better eating her veggies!)

R: "Where's Daddy?"
me: "He's at work. He loves you and misses you very much"
R: "When is he coming home?"
me: "After quiet rest time"
R: "I want quiet rest time now so I can see Daddy earlier"
(this happened just after he woke up one weekday morning... quiet rest time is in the afternoon during Maylee's nap since Ry doesn't nap anymore... Ry loves his Daddy!!)

"You're the best mama ever and I'm gonna love you the rest of my life"
(just out of the blue while we were getting ready to go one day! :) I want to remember this forever :) )

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Below are some highlights and favorite memories of Ry from 2009 through 2011, his two and a half years... there were so many photos that 2012 to 2013 will be in the following post :) (so very hard to narrow it down... there are many more special ones!). It was such a joy to go through many of the photos from the last four years and realize again... what a good life we have, and what amazing joy our little ones have brought us... we feel very blessed.