Henry at 4

4 is a big step. 4 seems miles older than 3 somehow. I think it's something to do with it being school age, and if Henry had been 3 weeks older, I'd have a little school boy on my hands. He's settled into nursery amazingly, he loves it and he's now there 30 hours a week. He loves it but I'm struggling with it. I hate having to share him with school, I hate that I only see him for 3 hours a day during the week, even less on a Monday. But like I say, he loves it and that's the important thing. He tells us very little about his days except for odd snippets and usually what he's had for lunch and snack. It's strange having to let him go a little bit, let him have his independence and let him have a few hours every single day when I don't know what he's doing. But that's just what growing up's about isn't it? Every year I'll have to let him go a little bit more, but 4 seems to have been a big step in that respect so far and it's taken me by surprise. It's ridiculous that he's coping with it far better than I am. Says a lot about his personality really.

He still is the most beautiful and laid back little thing. Everyone comments on it. I know I'm his mummy and everyone thinks their children are amazing, but honestly, he is. He's kind, empathetic, calm and polite. He's rarely upset or cross, never rude and hates any form of injustice. I'm so beyond thankful every single day that I get to be his mummy and despite the worries about having to let him go a bit, I just love watching him grow up. It's an absolute privilege to be able to call him mine. Ours. Our little Pigwidgeon.

He is still a perfect big brother. In 12 months he has never shown even a scrap of jealousy towards Archie. I really thought he might be jealous of Archie going to my mum's while I was back at work and he was at school but he hasn't been at all. He shares with him, lets him play with his toys, lets him go in his bedroom (and usually absolute destroy it), lets him have the last biscuit, chocolate, whatever. Archie honestly couldn't ask for a better big brother but I'm slightly concerned all of this may be turning Archie into a spoilt monster, but you can read his 2 year update in a year's time to see how that turns out. Pray for us! 

He'll still eat pretty much anything and loves his food. His current favourites are any form of fish or shellfish. Fish and chips with Marmar on a Friday tea time is probably his favourite meal of the week but his other favourites at the moment include 'fish with heads on' (what you and I call whitebait), calamari and prawns. He loves his daddy's paella and huge bowls of pasta and any sweet treat going. He's still an absolute pain to get anything milky in to. Yogurts and cheese he'll tolerate but he certainly doesn't love them, and milk is an absolute no no. And peppers. Don't ever suggest he eats a pepper. He'll eat a dirty fried fish head in the form of whitebait but not a pepper. Go figure.

His other loves at the moment are dragons and knights, sword fights and anything from How to Train your Dragon. Vikings and Romans are a huge hit and he's fascinated with periods of history. He spends the majority of his time living in some kind of alternate world, role play is absolutely his thing. Small world play isn't something that interests him at all; if he can't act it out, he's not interested! We are all usually the characters from How to Train your Dragon, but also dip in and out of the worlds of Fireman Sam, Postman Pat and Bob the Builder. He loves to sing too and I think he's going to love drama as he gets a bit older, he absolutely takes after his Daddy and Uncle Simon there, I can think of nothing worse.

In terms of routine he doesn't usually nap anymore because of nursery, but he's more than happy to have a good few hours sleep on a weekend afternoon, but it does mean he'll go to bed a lot later that night. During the week he's up by 6:30 and always asleep by 6:30 too which is quite a big change over the last year. He's so flexible and when we were away in Spain he had a sleep every afternoon, so it's really lovely that he will still nap if we need him to or if we're going to be up particularly late one night. 

I've always noted down his weight, height and sizes in his annual updates so just for the record, he weighs 2 st 7lb and is 103cm, still pretty much 50th centile for both. He wears a mixture of 3-4 and 4-5 clothes and his feet are now a size 9. 

And that's it really. We have a 4 year old. I still can't get my head around that and I can't believe it was 4 years ago that I met him for the first time. Little did I know then about how much I'd adore him, how beautiful he'd turn out and what a perfect and loving little boy he'd be. Every night since he was a tiny baby, I've said the same thing to him as I put him down to sleep. I tell him that I love him to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond and forever and ever. He says it along with me now and I mean every word. I just hope that he always knows just how loved he is. 

Happy 4th birthday, little Pigwidgeon, you're the best thing that ever happened to me xxx