The Dow Family: Owen is 4!

Owen Dow

We can't believe that you are FOUR!

You and Grace had your birthday wellness visits together.

At four, you are 40.5" (3 ft. 4 1/2 in.) and weigh 34 lbs., 8 oz., putting you at exactly the 50th percentile for both height and weight.

Before our visit you asked if you had to get shots...

I deflected the question for as long as I could because I didn't want you to fixate on it and stress out. I finally broke the bad news to you when we were sitting in the office. At first you took it pretty well and started bargaining (something you've just begun to do more and more),

"How about we don't do shots today..."

You finally resigned to the fact that you weren't going to get out of the shots but some type of compensation was going to be necessary (a sucker, a donut, etc). Fair enough.

After Dr. Fletcher checked you out from head to toe and proclaimed you to be "perfectly perfect," you were totally calm and relaxed... until his nurse swept back into the room with 6 needles in her hand (4 for Grace and 2 for you). You. Totally. Panicked.

"NOPE. No. This is a bad idea. No. I don't want to do shots."

While it was mildly entertaining listening to you (I also felt a little bad), the whole ordeal was over in less than 30 seconds. As I was pulling up your jeans you decided,

"OK... we're getting donuts, right?"

(Darth Vadar helmet on Christmas morning.)

You also have a great amount of patience and can delay gratification.

After your shots, you got to choose a donut from The Donut Stop. I knew that we had a couple of stops before going home so I told you that you could carefully eat your donut in the back seat.

You opened the bag on your lap to peek at your prize before replying, "No... I'm going to wait until I can eat it at the bar."

I vacuumed and washed the car and made another stop to feed a friend's dog before we pulled into our garage 20 minutes later. You carried your bag in, got your animal plate and finally proceeded to slowly eat your donut at the bar.

I smiled.

As you can see, you LOVE to dress up in costumes and play make believe.

Bumble Bee costume from Drew @ Christmas.

You're a great kitchen helper. You like to dump measured items into the bowl and like to stir everything together... and, of course, you wait for a taste and love to lick the beaters.

rolling out pizza dough for dinner

As far as eating goes, you are more adventurous than most 4-year-olds. If you won't commit to the whole dish, I can persuade you to at least try one bite and then decide whether or not you want to keep eating it. More times than not, you'll keep eating it.

You just might be the slowest eater we have ever encountered. It can be pizza or it can be curry... you don't want to be rushed and more often than not, you are still sitting at the dinner table completely alone long after everyone else has finished their meal.

The promise of dessert doesn't seem to prompt you to eat faster either; many times you can take it or leave it.

We still consider your our blanket baby. You have always wrapped yourself up in the softest blankets in the house, so it was fitting that Nonnie got you a new "soft blankie" for Christmas.

Every morning you stumble into the kitchen wearing your blankie like a cloak.

newest "soft blankie"

You are funny and definitely have a playful personality.

You repeat funny lines from movies and wait for a reaction.

You've also been known to parade (or bear crawl) through the house naked until someone says something about it.

Middle-child starved for attention? We're not sure.

When we give you a job, you are a hard worker and usually keep going until you finish (i.e. stamping all of the Christmas cards, coloring a page, or creating a bead project).

You are definitely a hard worker.