About a week ago, I asked Beau if I needed to stop calling him my “Little Man” when he turned 4. He looked at me and replied, “I will always be your Little Man, daddy.” With that affirmation, the emotional toll of my youngest turning another year old lessened just a bit.

Happy Birthday to my Little Man! Today Beau turns 4 (📷: Ocean Simpson Photography).

Today is Beau’s 4th birthday, a date he has asked about insistently and looked forward to considerably over the past few weeks. It goes without saying that when you have a Monday birthday, it means you have to party a lot over the weekend—and that’s what we did. We had an Olive Garden birthday dinner on Saturday night and on Sunday we had his family birthday party. So as he goes to school this morning to celebrate his special day with his classmates, he will be in full birthday form.

I am so thankful to have this little guy as my son.

Beau was very busy as a 3-year-old. He went to lots of ballgames with his daddy, dressed up as Spiderman for Halloween, started school with his sister at St. Mary, made new friends, learned to play Nintendo, and watched all 151 episodes of “Bluey” numerous times. In fact, I think he did pretty much everything possible except visit the emergency room, which was very welcome considering all the times he went between 0-2 years old 😂.

One of my favorite moments with Beau as a 3-year-old was when our family went to the Seattle Mariners game

My little guy is a popular dude. His affectionate and loving nature is so endearing that it is infectious. Loved by all—including Sloan’s classmates—most people refer to him by his nickname, “Beau Bear.” The fact that he brings joy to so many people besides his immediate family makes me proud.

I think more trampoline parks are in Beau’s future as a 4-year-old.

I am looking forward to his stint as a 4-year-old. During this trip around the sun we hope to end his tendency to jump into bed with us at night and teach him that it is okay to simmer the heck down every now and then 😂. But other than that, we are just going to encourage him to be his special self because there is no one else quite like Beau Thomas Reser. Happy Birthday, sweet boy! Don’t Blink.