Almost-four again

Last night, the end of a long week, I texted The Man and said our child wanted sushi for dinner. So we met him at 5:45 at our nearby sushi place. We got there late enough, even on a Friday, even in Vancouver, that there were no tables, so we all three sat at the sushi bar. The Boy ate his usual udon noodles, and edamame (more enjoyable to pop out the beans than eat them, but he still did eat some), avocado roll and california roll.

Today we ate Chinese food from the mall food fair when we went shopping for his birthday party next week. He insisted on beef with broccoli, his favourite vegetable.

And tonight we went to a new nearby Vietnamese pho restaurant, where he ate beef pho and lemongrass chicken.

Quite apart that we've eaten out more times in the last 24 hours than we have for a month (it's been a long week ... did I mention that?) it never ceases to amaze me that among my four year old's favourite foods are sushi, broccoli and pho. Two of the three I'd never heard of at four, let alone eaten. And I have to admit that I completely love it that he eats food from many varied cultures (Not just Asian ones, too!). It's one of the many things I love about living in a big city -- Vancouver is great, but I'm sure every city has its cuisines.

Among our adventures today, we went out and contemplated the purchase of a new bed. A twin bed. A nice one. Because up until now he's had, in his room, our old queen size. There are many reasons for this -- because we don't care if it gets wrecked by pee from a leaking diaper or child who hasn't totally finished toilet training. Because we lie with him there a lot. Because we have the sheets and we're cheap. Because we weren't sure what we wanted. But we've decided, at four, with a new baby on the way, that he needs to be the big boy, to have the big boy bed -- and preferably one that can be a loft bed or bunkbed since in a year or 18 months he'll be sharing that bedroom with his smaller sibling.

We took a photo today, of him and his father. They are wearing matching shirts, and The Boy is standing on a stool, but oh, it took my breath away at how much he looked like a little boy. My little boy. My tall, lanky, losing-all-his-baby-fat little boy. He's just ... so grown up.

It seemed somehow strange, to have two four years apart. But right now all I can think is how perfect it is. My little boy is becoming his own man. He can eat his own sushi, and sleep in the top bunk, and he is lean and fast and has an amazing imagination. And just when I see my baby running from me in leaps and bounds ... another one comes along.