Four!

My darling Beanie,

Today you turn four years old!

Time is flying by and now when I look at you, I no longer see the baby or toddler, but a bright, curious and independent little girl. You are happy, smiling and always ready for fun!


You enjoy playing "pretend" - whether it is a pretend classroom where you are the teacher, or family where you are the Mommy, or other games such as taking a trip, or staying at a hotel, or going to a restaurant. All your games center around activities we have done and it allows you to express yourself.

Your language skills are excellent, and at four year old, we have regular conversations. You routinely use big words and I am always impressed at how well you can express yourself. Yesterday at a friend's birthday party you told me that having their dog around you made you "feel uncomfortable". That is a big word!

You love babies. You have many baby dolls but you keep telling me that one day you want to be a Mommy and have a real baby. You make Mommy laugh when you ask me if I will help you take care of the baby since you cannot cook :-)

You are sweet and loving! For example, when Mommy had a cold this week you asked me how I was feeling, and kept an orange out for me on the kitchen counter, so I could eat it and feel better. You enjoy helping around the house and love to have things neat and tidy. You never complain about picking up your toys and do so without much fuss.

You are creative. You enjoy coloring and art work. You like doing your own crafts, where you will cut paper and make a collage, or draw a picture. You drawings are getting better and now when you draw people you put in details such as hair, eyes, fingers. You love sidewalk chalk and you cannot wait for the weather to warm up so we can spend lots of time outdoors coloring.

You love food and enjoy eating. Even your teaches tell me that "Beanie loves her food!". For school lunch you like to take PBJ  on wheat bread, cucumbers or carrots, and fruit. You sometimes take a banana too. You love fruit and always have it for lunch, evening snack and dinner. You particularly like fruit cups where Mommy cuts up different fruits. You like to eat grapes, strawberries ( your most fav), blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, orange, mango, cantaloupe and watermelon. You have recently started enjoying pineapple, too. You don't like apples too much, but will eat pears if Grammy cuts them up for you. You are still enjoying milk but you don't drink as much anymore.

For food, you will eat fish sticks that Mommy cooks or BBQ chicken, and tacos. But you generally don't like meat much. For, vegetables you like grilled zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower cooled a special way, cucumbers, celery (!), carrots and corn. You will eat spinach sometimes. You don't like peas or beans any more. This year we will try to eat some different veggies and maybe you may find something new you like!

Your latest thing is dressing yourself. You love picking out your own clothes and putting together "outfits". I love your sense of style! You put together things Mommy would not think of, and it looks really nice!!  Every morning you wake up and want to wear something "cute"! Now when we go shopping Mommy makes sure you like what I am buying for you, so you will wear it.

You are enjoying dance class. You teachers say that you listen very well. You will be starting swimming classes next week!

You are now big enough to play games. You got a fun Pepp.a P.ig game for your birthday party that we have been enjoying. You also got Chu,tes and L.adders and we will play that soon.

You have a great sense of humor and enjoy making up funny stories - or jokes. It makes Mummy laugh!

You enjoy going out on weekends with Mommy. You wake up and ask me  "so what fun things are we doing today?" You no longer nap in the afternoon. That allows us to stay out most of the day. We go to the library, parks/playground, get lunch, go to stores, etc.

Your favorite restaurant is Pan.era B.read where you like to get your "usual" - grilled cheese sandwich and yogurt. You also like Tac.o Bells (yes, you add the "s" at the end), and a few BBQ places where you get Mc n Cheese.

Your favorite stores are Tar.get, G.ap and the "smelly store" (aka Bath. n B.ody!).  You like going to Wal.Mart to run errands, since it has the small carousel that you can put a coin in and go around. You love that.

You still love going to the big mall to sit on the carousel. We do that every other month and you get to go THREE times. Lucky you!

You love playgrounds and enjoy the slides. You are now sitting on the big swings - no more baby swings - yay!!

You have a lot of friends in school. Your best friends in school are Alex and Josh. You like to play with the boys. You sometimes complain that they are rough, but you are learning to say No and to walk away if they get too rough. Mommy is  encouraging you to play with some of the girls as well. You get invited to lots of parties!

You usually listen to Mommy, but now that you are getting independent you are beginning to question authority and push boundaries.  This is your way of asserting yourself and is normal at your age. Mommy will need to learn to be better at setting rules so you understand what you can and cannot do. You are also now beginning to get timeouts for when you don't listen to Mommy.

While on one had you are getting big, sometimes Mommy can still see her little baby in you. Like the other day when we were playing a game, there was a noise outside and you leaped into Mommy's lap and clung to me like a baby lemur.

That is when I realize that while you are so much bigger than you were before, you are still little.


You had a early birthday on the 19th. You invited 12 friends and 9 were able to attend. It was at your favorite indoor playground. You got lots of presents and your friends enjoyed pizza and a Hell.o K.itty cake. Today, your 'actual' birthday, we went to a nice restaurant with Mommy, Grammy, Grandpa, and the rest of the family and you got even more presents!

 I love you, baby girl. You are the best decision I ever made in my life. Your hugs and kisses make everything better.

Have a  wonderful birthday!