4

Dear Abby-girl,

You are 4! You rocked your 4 year appointment.  You didn't cry after the shots and even thanked the nurse when it was done.  You are 40 1/4 inches and 36 # 8 oz.  You are perfect.

You are amazing, challenging, kind, fiery, loving, sassy, sweet, and spiteful.  You are a mini me which makes it hard for me to parent you.  It's difficult to teach someone to be a better version of yourself.  I am amazed how much you have learned to do in this last year.
You can write your name, draw a heart, draw stick people, draw basic shapes, count to 15 consistently, recognize all the letters.  Sometimes you even "read" a book title to me by saying all the letters you see on the cover.  You still enjoy anything art related - crayons, chalk, paints and now workbooks.  You are definitely ready for school.  This year you are in Preschool Adventure one morning a week and the teacher reports you are progressing every week.  You have learned many new songs there like "Rise and Shine and welcome to school today" and "I like the pumpkins with the happy face".

Cinderella is still your favorite movie but closely followed by The Lion King and The Jungle Book.  These are the three movies you most often like to play when you are imagining or playing with figurines.  Your favorite shows right now are Peg + Cat and Word Girl on PBS but you still like Curious George, Dinosaur Train, Super Y and Sid the Science Kid too.

You are really good at riding your trike.  You still can't catch a ball or hit it with a bat but you love to try.  You have really excelled in the water this year.  You are no longer afraid to put your head in and have been teaching Emerson to blow bubbles.  You often didn't even want us near you and just wanted to try floating and kicking by yourself.

Our current bedtime routine is 3 books, but long books count as two.  Then hugs/kisses, sometimes you'll say prayers, and then you want one of your music boxes on.  I kind of miss when you used to ask for us to sing all the Princess songs or Twinkle, Twinkle before bed.  You are able to calm yourself down a little bit better by yourself.  Sometimes you sleep with "Grandma Bear" or Dumbo and his mom but usually you sleep alone.  Well, until about 1 am when you come sneak in our bed for a little snuggle in your perfectly chosen mismatched pjs, because that's how you like them right now.

Your favorite meal is breakfast.  There is not a breakfast food you don't like.  Otherwise you have become kind of picky and don't like meat right now unless it's meatballs or sausage of some kind.  You still love yogurt and could eat 3 a day and fruit is always a good go too.  You still don't always like noodles or potatoes which is weird for a kid.  You'll almost always eat corn or carrots.  You will NEVER pass up chips or ice cream just like Mama.

Your friends you talk about the most are Orla, Broc and Eli.  In fact we are pretty sure you think Orla's name is really "My best friend Orla".  You often sing songs about how much you miss her even if we just say her yesterday.  We can't go anywhere in West Allis without you looking for Eli and questioning why he didn't show up.

Your favorite toys right now are still animal figurines of any kind especially to play Lion King, any dress up clothes and your Leap Pad.  Mostly you still do alot of imagination play so you are not that into toys.

You can do buttons but not zippers.  You can put your shoes on the right feet more than half the time.  You can use a fork, spoon and sometimes a knife.  You can use scissors for straight lines.  You can brush your own teeth pretty well, wash yourself in the tub well, and wash your hair in the shower now.  You can get food out of the fridge to help with meals, help clean up your toys, help vacuum,  and clean the mirrors.

But most importantly, you still love to be with your family.  You still love family hugs, family movie night and story time.  You are growing too fast but I'm happy to see you are still a sweet, kind, loving girl.

Love you Gator,
Mommy