Delightful 4 year old

Sam turned 4 in January and is just growing into a delightful little boy. He still has moments of tantrumy crying, but they are becoming fewer and far between as he becomes more mature and capable of communication and problem solving. He plays quite happily and well with Andrew, their favorite game right now being "firefighter", involving the couch, chair, cushions and some "help" cries and saving each other. He is getting better at swimming at the pool and learning to ride his new bike. The other night he loved surprising Daddy by going downstairs and getting into pajamas all by himself (even putting dirty clothes in the hamper!). He loves his new velcro shoes he can put on himself and he was even quite a brave little boy at his second dentist appointment (four xrays and a thorough cleaning won him a Toy Story viewing). He and Andrew started sharing a room after coming back from a vacation in Lake Tahoe and Oakland and they are doing wonderfully. He stays up a little past Andrew either flipping through books or listening to music, but it seems to suit each of them just fine. Sam has certainly made a couple of friends at preschool who he enjoys being around and for whom he made special valentines. He even showed real signs of unprompted empathy when he hoped they wouldn't miss him too much during our vacation. My favorite recent memory of him was during our stay at Tahoe. It had snowed 18 inches overnight and we awoke to a wonderful blanket of soft, fluffy snow. We donned our snow gear and opened the sliding door to quite a wall of snow. I told the boys to wait while I tamped down stairs for them to climb up. Instead, Sam leaned forward and did a full-body plant right into the snowbank. I pulled him back and he was rather shocked at the cold snow on his face. When I later asked him why he did that, he said he just wanted to see if the snow was hard or soft. Now that's quite a way to find out!