Stop! (week 401)

In a house with a 4-year-old brother, the most common word you will hear is the word "stop!".  That is stop! with an exclamation point, often repeated four or five times in a row. Sometimes, it comes from a mom or dad, but mostly it comes from the 7-year-old big brother.  It is so common that it goes largely ignored by the 4-year-old and has little effect on his behavior.  

4-year-olds are just naughty.  Even naughtier are 4-year-olds that haven't been going to school for a while and haven't been on a regular schedule.  They are even naughtier during the Summer time when they get ice cream or other treats just about every day.  They revel in knocking things over, teasing, and making obnoxious noises that they know their big brother hates.  And they like to say hate a lot as in "I hate this day", "I hate this show", and I hate my older brother".  

I am sure that if I looked back at my 4-year-old-nearly-five-year-old blogs around December of 2011, there were probably similar things said about me but Christoper is just plain naughty right now.  At the same time, he is super fun and super funny right now; often cracked-up by his own jokes, but also often offended and hurt because people are laughing at him for being dramatic or ridiculous.  Mainly, he just wants attention--all the time--and will do anything to get it whether good or bad.

This past weekend was Labor Day Weekend meaning that the Summer is coming to an end.  We had a blast with Aunt Kelly (since Mom and Dad were at the USC vs. Fresno State game), hanging out at the pool and barbecue with Gigi and Mr. Beans.  I also got my first haircut at the Barber on Saturday morning because my dad threw his back out (again), and couldn't finish the job. 

On Sunday we went over to Stacy's and Nathan's for the big El Dorado Park Estates neighborhood party.  They had a giant slip-and-slide, face painting, snow cones, taco guy, and lots of pools to swim in.  They also had a live band (the Elm Street Band) and people danced in the streets.  We swam until almost 930 pm, so we slept until almost 800 am the next day, which was a relaxing day of rest making pipeline race tracks in the backyard, playing with our baseball guys, building puzzles, and barbecuing in the backyard.  As an aside, the Angels also won their 6th straight to sweep the A's in 4 and take a 5-game lead into the last month of the season.  It is important to note because the last five years have been so depressing and now they are the best team in baseball by a wide margin.