Butterfly is 4 Years Old!

Everyone,

My sweet baby girl is 4 years old today.  She is a master staller and will say, "Wait, I haven't finished!" for everything.  Eating, playing or pottying...she hasn't finished!  This is espeically true when we are going to bed.  She hasn't finished doing whatever it is she wanted to do before we send her to bed. 

She is all about the "most" right now.  Like Vinny is her bestest bestest friend or "I have been waiting for this my WHOLE LIFE."  That's what she said about most of her presents she opened today.  "This is my WHOLE LIFE!"  It's really very funny.

She is very cuddly.  She loves to give hugs and be as close to anyone as possible.  Something that gets her in trouble with everyone sometimes, but espiecally her friends.  They do not always appriciate her need to be next to a living person at all times.  In addition to her being so cuddly, she can't do anything by herself.  As in, you have to be in the room with her or she's upset.  She won't eat alone, won't pee alone, etc.  While it's very nice to have a shadow, I don't want to be that shadow.  She does still take a nap alone (although we call it quiet play time in bed since she sleeps maybe one day a week).  Her brothers do not count as people yet.

Speaking of her baby brothers, she plays with them sometimes.  She bullies them sometimes (they don't know it...they just look at her and smile because she is amazing!) and she loves them sometimes.  She really really wants to play with whatever the boys are playing with, and sometimes snatches it out of their hands.  They cry, she gets in trouble, and she cries.  She tries to hide her toys from them by only playing with them on the couch (we have this big sectional couch and often you can't sit down for all the toys on it) but that doesn't always work since Professor can now climb up on the couch.  She does love to play with them when they are in good moods and lately has watned to feed them and eat exactly what they are eating.  I keep having to remind her to use her utensiles because she is a big girl.

She builds these big elaborate "sets" with her toys.  Mostly her little people or her ponies.  They have to be set up a specific way and she gets upset when a baby crashes through them.  Sometimes she screams, "Oh no!  Giant baby!  Ahhh!" and helps the boys push over everything.  She'll then sigh and say, "Well.  Looks like we'll have to rebuild,"  and gets to work.  It's so adorable.

She is loving stories and loving reading still.  She wants to talk about her stories all the time, which are mostly princess stories.  She loves to watch her movies while the boys are taking their first naps and will act out her current movie of the day, week, or month.  Yes, she has watched the same movie every day for a month.  That was Chicken Run.  I finally made her pick a new movie and we watched Pocahontas for close to a month.  When I asked her to pick a different one, she asked me if she could watch Chicken Run again "Because it's been a LONG time since I've watched that one.  And it's my bestest bestest movie of all!"  Uh, no.  We watched something else.  We still don't let her watch anything PG and she only wants to watch cartoons.  She is not at all itnerested in live action stuff.

Her current favorite color is blue because she wants to be just like Mommy.  This little fact got her in trouble at her birthday party because she only wanted the blue toys and didn't get a blue straw and threw a fit.  She only wants the blue cup (we only have one so that's a problem) and cries whenever the boys or I are wearing something blue and she is not.  I got her pink sandles for the summer and she cried so hard that they were not blue I sent them back and got her blue ones. 

She is loving her swim lessons.  I think mostly she loves them because she gets to be with her bestest bestest friend Vinny before and after the lessons.  She is by far the biggest kid in her class and I imagine that will not change for most of her life.  She is the biggest kid in my moms group too.  So tall!  Yesterday we went to a party and everyone kept asking what grade she was in.  No grade, just 4 years old.

Speaking of grades, we have decided not to send her to preschool in the fall.  Honestly, I think she would love it and do great with it.  But the logistics/money aspect of it really just wasn't worth the hassle.  I am toying with a few different ideas (doing preschool with a few moms from church, doing a home school type approach) and trying to find things to keep her busy in the fall.  I may continue swim lessons through the winter.  I may sign her up to start violin lessons sooner than  I thought.  I'm just not sure how to keep her sharp mind occupied.  Although she takes care of that herself.

Wow does she have an imaginiation.  I often hear her adding, "she said" or "she cried" or "the end" to all of her play.  She talks like she's living in a book.  It's very funny.

She recognizes all the letters and can write them all.  (Although they aren't always in a line and range from being huge to being tiny.)  She can count to 30 and to 100 by 10s.  She is ALL about the rules and directions right now.  She got a bunch of new toys for her birthday and she had to read the direction sheet first to find out "how best to play with them mommy."  She can dress herself, do buttons by herself, put her shoes on (no ties, just velcros), and get her coat on and zipped up all by herself.  She can set the table, clear her dishes, and pick up her toys at night.  I think now that she is 4 I'm going to give her a specific cleaning job beyond her toys but I'm not sure what yet.

She is sweet, sassy, bossy, moody, lovable, and oh so vibrant.  I just love her so much.  Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Safire