Happy 4th Birthday Cannon

Cannon is finally four!  

Cannon loves motorcycles, the color green, fighter jets, and the Johnny Cash song, "Ring of Fire." 

  

Cannon has rhythm.  He dances whenever he hears a good beat. 

 Sometimes we can hear it too.  

  We should have known, he's been dancing to his own beat for a long time.  

He loves his trips to Enchanted Rock.  When he isn't there, he talks about going there.  He pretends to go there.  His animals and lego men go there.  When he learns to fly a jet, he and his dad are going to fly there.  Everyone goes to Enchanted Rock.  

 Just tonight, he told his dad he wants to play the cymbals.  

He loves stuffed animals...the smaller the better.  He calls his favorite stuffed animals his "best animals."  He also pretends to be tiny animals - a baby worm, a ladybug, or a turtle.  I know this because I find him crawling through the house, making high-pitched noises, and he tells me what type of animal he is pretending to be.  Sometimes he pretends to be a dolphin and I have to feed him fish...buckets full of fish.

   

And it's not just limited to stuffed animals.  He loves Kiki's little dog Spenser,  his big dog Murphy, and any dog he sees out and about.  He also loves to play with ladybugs, snails, and turtles.  He told me the other day that the horned beetle on our front porch loved me.  A few weeks ago, he told me he had never seen a turtle and that he wished he could see one very soon.  The next morning, I looked outside and there was a turtle in our fenced backyard.  Apparently, he has some connections too. 

Cannon enjoys Star Wars just like his big brother, albeit on a more simplistic level.  He likes me of Kiki "play" Star Wars with him.  This involves the girl being Princess Leia, him being Luke Skywalker and him running through the house shooting bad guys.  It is a very intense, fast-paced game. 

 There are also lots of sound effects.  

Cannon doesn't always seem like he is paying attention.  He is.

To some, Cannon may seem quiet.  He is not.

To those outside of his family, he has come out of his shell quite a bit in the past year.  He is slow to warm up, and when he does, you won't believe you are talking to the same child.

He has learned so much at school this past year.  He goes 3 days a week and loves to teach us what he has learned in his authoritative, but kind, "teacher voice."  One of his favorites is to let me know the weather report.  "Mom, did you know it is partly cloudy today?" He knows how to spell his name, recognizes all of the letters (Uppercase and lower - and he will correct you) and numbers.  He can even write his name if I hold slightly just to steady his hand.

Beginning in September he and Carter began taking Karate Just this past Thursday he earned his yellow belt.  And he EARNED it.  The youngest in the class by a few years, he kept up with the big kids kick for kick.  This was a huge confidence boost for him.

Cannon has put his own twist on pronunciation:
Turq-a-boys:  turquoise
Trencie Rolls:  Tootsie Rolls (a family favorite)
Prencils:  Pretzels (another family favorite)
Tweezers:  Twizzlers
Flatted:  Flatten
Trans-en-form:  Transform
Recordian:  Accordion
Veronica:  Harmonica

I know I am missing some...I'll add more later as I think of them.

He loves to go to the shooting range with dad and can name most of the parts of a gun.
His favorite trips this past year include going to Sea World to feed the dolphins and going to Pampa and fishing with Grandpa Richard.   The only disappointment at Sea World was he didn't get to eat the "Sea World Popcorn in the big bucket."  We hear about this often.  Next time we will get the popcorn.

Cannon, you are such a joy.  You make us laugh with your quick wit and dance moves and you melt our hearts with your kind and loving spirit.  You amaze us with your perseverance and you are becoming "bigger enough" just as you would tell your brother.  We "love you love you."