The day is here! You are officially a 4-year-old! FOUR! I can't believe you are already 4. I say it every year, but I still remember the day we found out that I was pregnant. I remember the moment I saw your face for the first time and how much I loved you immediately. Now, you continue to become more independent... and sassy... as each day goes by.
You are getting so very big. Seriously. Big. I do not yet have formal measurements for you because we do not go to the doc for a couple of days but we did our crude measurement and weight for you a couple of days ago. You are roughly 41 inches (79th percentile) and 37.8 pounds (72nd percentile). Take it with a grain of salt because we are typically off a bit. My height is usually slightly higher but I measured you about 6 times and came up with 41 inches to 42.5 inches so I took the lowest. We will see at the doc in a couple of days. I also weighed you at night so you likely don't weigh that much. You love to weigh yourself at Publix and usually sit between 36.5 and 37 pounds. Despite your weight seemingly being a higher percentile than normal, you are still so skinny and we have an issue with clothing. I think you are just mostly muscle at this point. Haha! You wear every bit of a size 6-7 shirt and dress. That means you are entirely out of toddler sizes. We don't even look in those departments for you anymore. Your pants/shorts are another issue entirely though. You need at least a 5, 6, 7 for length but your waist is more like a 4t. It's a bit ridiculous. Good thing you prefer dresses to anything else, because it is the only way we can get clothes on you that fit right. Otherwise, we are mostly letting you wear shorts that are bordering on being too short.... or a belt. We tried that once. It wasn't a lot of fun. You wear a size 10-11 shoe (closer to 11 most of the time.) You are just so tall. We are often asked if you are older than you really are. Between your height and the way you speak, we get that question a lot. Looks like you are still going to be pretty tall. I am already beginning to feel short next to you. As far as other health related things go... You have officially been diagnosed with seasonal allergies and will take Claritin and Flonase when they flare up. That was a recent occurrence but it is nice to finally have a reason for your seemingly constant runny nose. This last year you had quite a few sicknesses. Some minor colds and one not fun stomach bug. We definitely believe it is related to you being in school and the church kids sunday school but we are, honestly, okay with it because we want to build your immune system prior to entering elementary school in a year. Otherwise, you are often the picture of health. You rarely complain about not feeling well even when we know you are sick and you don't let anything stop you usually. In the last 6 months you have started to eat all. day. long. You eat 3 full meals and still continually ask us for food throughout the day. We try to limit your "snacks" to things like fruit (and you being able to eat an apple or pear or peach or whatever without it being cut is a game changer in this regard) or maybe a cheese stick, raisins, or something. We have times that while you are eating one meal you are asking for a snack or what our next meal is going to consist of. You still turn your nose up at a lot of foods but are coming around to more things. It's nice to have a few veggies back in the rotation after quite some time of that terrible picky toddler stage. You love love love juice but we are not keen on giving it to you and you get tops about 1/4 cup a day of a 100% fruit juice. You drink about 16 ounces of 2% mile during the day but we have to be careful when we give it to you because although you can eat all day, something about milk right before a meal makes you full. Weird kid.
You are such a talker. As in... you rarely stop. Maybe when you are asleep. Though you have talked in your sleep a few times, as well. You just can't help yourself. You also have the most amazing vocabulary and understanding of language. You hear a word once, and can use it appropriately when you feel the need to break it out. Your Daddy and I still shake our heads at you sometimes with the random things you say. The other day you told me that Daddy has stayed in "numerous hotel rooms" when he is out of town working. It's true... and I guess you just heard my use of the word "numerous" so you decided to use it yourself. You were able to tell me what it means, too so I know you meant to use it that way. We have lengthy discussions that I never thought I would have with an almost 4-year-old. For instance, we are constantly discussing animals that are "domesticated" versus "wild". You wanted to know what "domesticated" meant one day and here we are. Having discussions about whether squirrels are domesticated or wild. When we drive, you just chat away. Sometimes with one of us and sometimes to yourself. You have the best imagination and I hear you all the time in the backseat (or at home) making up games or acting out scenarios. You continue to ask questions like it is going out of style. We have moved far passed the "what" questions and through the "why" stage. Now, you are focused on things like "how" or questions that look for deeper meaning of things. You question everything. You soak up knowledge and want to learn all you can. For instance, a few months ago you wanted me to get strawberries at the store. I told you that they weren't in season so they were extremely expensive at the moment. That ended up leading to a full discussion on supply and demand where you asked question after question to understand the reasoning behind why the strawberries were not on sale and the price was higher at that time than it would be in a few months.
You are the best big sister. You argue with Will... a lot. But you love him so much and it is easy to see. You love to play with him, as long as he is doing what you want him to do. Not always easy when your little bro is only a year old. I have caught you playing "school" with him more than once and "reading" a book to him. You sometimes lead him around the house by his hand and take him on "adventures". It is precious. I have found myself just sitting and watching you interact for long periods of time. We have been later leaving the house at times than I planned because I hate to break up the games you are playing. You love to play kitchen with him or make him dress up in your dress up clothes. Whenever you watch TV, you are usually sitting next to each other... or on top of one another. Sometimes it is like the WWE in here. You guys roll around on the floor tackling each other and laughing hysterically. You love to dance together. He likes to follow you around which isn't always at the top of your must do list. I hear you say things to him like, "Wiiiiilllll! I know you love me, Buddy! I love you too but I want to go to my room by myself!" You haven't yet seemed to figure out that he is more than willing to do things for you right now... like clean up your room if you give him direction. You aren't using this little brother thing to its full potential yet. Better act fast! Eventually this will end.
You just finished your first year of dance lessons (well, 1/2 year) and you LOVED every minute of it. You keep asking when the next dance season starts. It is soon and I am so excited to see you get to dance again to your little heart's content. You had your first recital and it was beyond adorable. You danced to "A Whole New World" and made me cry. You have learned so much and it isn't uncommon for you to randomly run up to me and ask me to do "tendu" with you. I usually have to ask you to show me what each move is, but you can and then we practice our barre exercises using the kitchen counter. You also like to put on some of your dress shoes and "tap dance". We keep your tap shoes up so they stay nice for as long as you can fit into them so you have to improvise. You do though and still practice your tapping all the time. I'm so excited to see what you learn next and if you want to keep up with dance over the coming years. It seems right up your alley and you took to it like a fish to water. Those crazy long legs might even help along the way.
While we are on the subject of fish... you are one. Swimming lessons totally came together for you this year and everything seemed to click. You sometimes still have some fear, but you can swim and you do remarkably well. Last year was great prep for you and this year, you just took off. You love to go to the pool and practice your swimming. You even go underwater now without getting upset. That is a major accomplishment when we are talking about the girl that would get majorly upset less than 6 months ago when water dripped in her eyes during a bath. Now, you just plop down in the water and go under like it's nothing. You love the beach too. As the summer progresses, you get more and more comfortable with our rougher waves. You like to go into the water with one of us holding you and jump over each wave that comes by. You will venture in to about your knees by yourself, but are not yet confident enough to go much farther than that without us. You love to gather shells and have quite the collection going already. You also love to dig in the sand and bury everyone's feet. When we leave the beach, you are covered in sand but you never seem to mind.
You finished your first year of school. You are officially done with "preschool" and moving on to VPK this coming school year. That means we are only 1 year away from elementary school and kindergarten. That seriously makes me sad. Not sad that you are doing so well and learning so much but sad that my baby is getting ready to go to a big school and take her first serious steps towards independence. That same baby that needed me to get her dressed every day and change her diaper is going to walk into school in a year. I'm sure she will go in like she owns the place too. That's just what you do. It's what you did last year. You never shed a tear but I cried like a baby (once back in my car) and I'm sure you will do the same this year (and I'm sure I will cry again, too). You love your school (which is a church preschool) and your teachers. You haven't met your teacher for next year yet, but I'm sure you will love her, as well. You can write your name without any help now (Kenzie... not Mackenzie though you are working some on adding the first 3 letters too) and love to practice that. You actually just love to write. You will ask us all the time how to spell words and then ask us to tell you how to write each letter. We can usually either draw it in the air or talk you through writing it and you can do pretty well. You also periodically ask how to spell words and repeat them after us. One thing that surprised us that you are able to do so well is rhyming. You recognize rhyming words immediately and with some help, can usually come up with a rhyming word to a word that we give you.
You love, love, love to play outside. You are the master of playgrounds. If we can go to a playground, you are totally up for it. Always. You are getting to be more and more monkey-like. You swing from things and hang off of random things. (Not only at playgrounds but at the house too. I have to constantly get onto you for hanging off the back or side of the couches.) You love to just play outside our house too. You are often found riding your scooter or bike. You also love to draw on the driveway with chalk and play with the girls next door (both next doors as we have two close neighbors with kiddos). You and Will also love a rousing game of hockey ball during which you use brooms to try to knock a large ball around the front yard. We pull out your kiddie pool and water table in the summer and you love to splash around in those. You have also gotten really into running through the sprinkler we sometimes use to water the grass whenever it is on. In the last few months you are also sort of obsessed with the rain and always want to go out and play in the rain if you can. This is also weird for that girl with the concern of getting water in her eyes. Funny how you can change so quickly. You are getting better at your balance bike and I think there is a strong possibility that we will be working on a regular bike by Christmas. We will see. You still love your scooter and are constantly asking us if you can show us scooter tricks. You are starting to work on using a true razor scooter some too. Our neighbors have them and you are trying. You aren't quite there yet, but you probably will be soon.
You still think reading is one of the best past times. A few weeks ago we got you your very first library card. You thought you were the best thing ever with your library card. You immediately wanted to pick out books to check out on your card and have done so every week since then. We have been going to story time at the library since you were 8 weeks old (with a few small breaks here and there because of your nap times and then Will's as a tiny baby) and we have been checking out books and books at a time for the last few years. We must read 10 different books a day on a slow day (and sometimes the same book a few times per day depending on your mood.) You then "read" them yourself during your rest time or when you are playing alone. Just the other day I heard you reading a book to Will. You finished and he brought you another one. I heard you say, "You want me to read this one to you, Buddy? Okay, you sit right there and I will read it." You melt me. You also love puzzles. You have enjoyed them since back when you were doing the block type ones but you have moved on to larger things. About a year and a half ago, you started seriously putting together small 12 piece puzzles and it is nothing now for you to finish a 24 or 48 piece puzzle with minimal or no help. I will often find you on the floor of your room with finished puzzles all around you as you try to put together every one you have at the same time. In the same sense, you have gotten really into Legos lately and want to build things all the time. I'm loving watching your mind learn new things and watching you perfect new skills.
Your love of dress up is starting to subside slightly. Don't get me wrong. You love to wear your dress up around the house and are often asking me to help you get something new on or buttoned or something. You just don't wear it 24/7 like you once did. I don't have to argue with you any longer about whether or not you are allowed to wear dress up when we run errands as you are usually okay with removing it when we need to leave the house or want to play outside. You do like to dress up your brother though... and he totally lets it happen because he is pretty sure that you hang the moon. You have days when you wear dress up almost all day and then you have days that you never even open your trunk that we keep everything in. It jut depends on your mood, I guess.
You love, love, love Disney. We kept our annual passes this year and got you your very first one. You think you are hot stuff with your magic band. (Pink, of course.) Your favorite park is Magic Kingdom, but I think it is followed closely by Epcot. Your favorite princess is Rapunzel despite your favorite movie still being Frozen. You want to be Rapunzel though with her long hair. You are constantly asking us if your hair is long like Rapunzel. Speaking of hair, it is getting so long. Hard to imagine you were turning a year old and still had hardly any. It started coming in quickly after that though and now you have pretty long hair. Though, because of the curls, it doesn't seem as long. You love trying out new hairstyles though and your favorite is an "Elsa braid." Okay... back to Disney. =) You have a ton of favorite rides. I think your very favorites are probably the carousel, Tomorrowland Speedway, Dumbo, and Spaceship Earth. You are pretty much up for trying just about any ride there is though. You even did Barnstormer, which was your first roller coaster. You weren't as sure about that, but you keep asking to go back on. We haven't had a chance yet, but you seemed okay with it. Now that you are over 40 inches tall, you can ride pretty much anything at Disney that you want. The sky is the limit! Okay, maybe shooting for the sky as far as rides go isn't the best right now. You actually still have a few inches before you are going to take off on Space Mountain.
You seem to just love life. You relish in meeting new people. You are a social butterfly. It is still nothing for you to walk up to someone, introduce yourself and ask them if they want to play. Anytime we leave a playground or play area, you tell me about the new friends you made. You just love people. You are so friendly and so kind and polite. We are so proud of your manners and how nice you are to everyone around you. We couldn't be more proud of the amazing little girl you are turning into. You tell people please and thank you. You always seem to remember to thank people when they give you something or do something for you even without us encouraging you to say it.
We have started giving you "job" or chores every day. You have a little chore chart and you earn "badges" each day when you do your chores. You have good days and bad days, but you generally do really well. You earn 10 minutes of iPad time at night if you do all your chores for the day and if you earn enough badges through the week, you get to pick a fun thing to do. You usually pick things like having play picnics with us or going to the pool after dinner. You keep asking if you will get more jobs when you turn 4 so we need to decide what to add on at this point.
I could talk forever about what an amazing little girl you are but I will leave you with this as you turn FOUR... You are such a sweet, loving, generous, caring little girl and we love you more than we can ever tell you. Happy 4th birthday, Sweet Girl. We love you to the moon.... and back.
Love,
Mommy
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