Edie,
Here are 50 things you might want to know about
yourself at the age of Four:
1. Every
time you have to use the bathroom, you ask us "leave me some
privacy"- a phrase leftover from when your grammar wasn't so good. You
will shut the door in the face of anyone who tries to join you in the bathroom
while you are peeing. You wipe yourself thoroughly and if possible, wash your
hands without help as well.
2. This is
how you wash your hands if your step stool is missing:
3. You are very sensitive to the feelings of
others. If you sense that someone has had their feelings hurt, (by you or
someone else) you will offer them something to make them feel better. If you
misbehave and I seem frustrated, you will get quiet and eventually offer a
direct apology without me prompting.
4. If I give you a compliment that you particularly
value, you will say, "Thank you Mom for saying that to me."
5. You dress yourself every day. Most mornings, you
wake up around 7:15am and dress yourself before even coming to wake me up. Your
outfits are eclectic and you are always very proud of them.
6. Your favorite breakfast is Nutella toast with
raspberries on the side. You ate this almost every morning this summer. When
Fall comes, it will be sad to transition to bananas and oranges again...
7. Your favorite dinners at home are teriyaki
chicken with rice and broccoli, spaghetti with turkey meatballs, or spaghetti
carbonara.
8. You are a pretty good eater right now, happily
eating many different vegetables and while you pull the typical toddler move of
saying you don't like something before having tried it, you are at least
usually up for trying one bite of almost anything. Most times you just end up
spitting it out like Tom Hanks in Big when he accidentally tries caviar, but at
least you are up for trying.
9. You are a real champ at restaurants and take
pride in being well behaved and sometimes even like to say judgey, superior
things about the other kids in the restaurant who aren't behaving quite so
well. I probably shouldn't encourage it, but it's sort of hilarious and also?
Whatever it takes to keep you dining like a grown up, I'll take.
10. You hate to have your hair washed and weep if a
drop of water gets in your eyes. I dread swimming lessons.
11. You love love love unicorns.
12. You go days and days wearing nothing but
princess and fairy costumes.
13. You frequently dress yourself in a rainbow
fairy costume and wear it with pride to daycare and the park.
14. Recently, you wore your Snow White costume
(including the cape) on Orcas for the entire duration of the trip.
15. Tonight, the night of your 4th
birthday, you are sleeping in a Sleeping Beauty costume for pajamas. When I
suggested that they weren’t for sleeping in, you looked at me like I was an
idiot and said, “Mom, it’s a SLEEPING beauty dress.”
16. Recently, you slept in your "princess
dress" that has 10 layers of tulle skirting and woke up with the print of
tulle all over your little legs.
17. You like being my "shopping
assistant" and going clothes shopping with me. You take the job very
seriously and it's sort of embarrassing the things that came out of your mouth
while at Anthropologie recently because you must be learning them from me and
you bust out with phrases like, "Oh MOM, this top is So cute!" and
"Mom, this dress is the most beautiful, please buy it?!" or even
better, "That dress is boring - I like this one with giraffes on
it!" (actual quote)
18. You told me you are going to marry Julian when
you get older. Julian is the son of your teacher who is/was in your class. He
is 4 and declined your offer. He suggested maybe you could marry his older
brother Aubrey.
19. You had your last day with “teacher Jen” this
week. Next week you start your new school and have been assigned to the “Green
Group”. This will be the first time you
carry a backpack to school and pack a lunch every day.
20. You are learning to read and it's the coolest
thing ever. You can sound many 2 and 3 letter words out and are getting better
and better at figuring out all the different sounds vowels can make and how to
guess at whether an O is making a "oh" or "ooo" sound, etc.
It's tricky business, but you grasp the concepts and just need to keep
practicing.
21. On Orcas in early August, you were asking me
the names of dogs on your new game board. I was washing dishes and had my hands
full so I asked if you could try to read them by yourself first. I heard you
saying, “Teh-Oh-Beh… Mom, I think this dog is named TOBY!!” It was so exciting.
You read the word Toby without any help at all and the pride you obviously felt
when your Dad and I congratulated you was enough to make me tear up.
22. We were reading “Where the Sidewalk Ends"
last month, and when we read Hungry Mungry you went from amused to sort of
alarmed and eventually asked, "This is just for pretend though, right
Mom?"
23. When we watch movies, you sometimes ask for me
to fast forward through sections. Sometimes they are the scary parts, but more
frequently they are the tense moments you want to skip - when someone can't
find his/her mother, or is being embarrassed/teased by other kids. It’s sweet
that you have such empathy.
24. You L-O-V-E roller coasters.
25. You are so articulate but have a few speech
quirks that haven't gone away and I fear that they won’t last much longer.
Feathers are "Feavers", together is "togever", and anything
is "anyfing". I will die when you stop saying these adorable things.
26. You are obsessed with gargling right now. We
hear you in the bathroom sometimes just gargling away.
27. It's important for you to feel helpful. It’s a
small example, but when we were snacking on chips and salsa at the cabin, you
wanted to move the food closer to where Dad and I were sitting so that we could
reach it easier.
28. You always want to be my baking assistant and
are very good at cracking eggs yourself. Other specialties are peeling butter
wrappers off, mixing and whisking. And of course, licking the beaters.
29. Your favorite foods are candy, ice cream, cake
and cookies. I feel like I spend most of the day with you asking if you can
have a treat. You are relentless. If I say no, you ask Dad.
30. If I am not telling you no about treats, I am
telling you no, that you can't watch a video.
31. Every walk we take becomes a nature walk with
you. You collect feathers (feavers), leaves, dandelions, and like to make
bouquets out of them. Leaf bouquets are quite the specialty of yours.
32. You gave up your nap about 5 months ago, but
still take them on particularly long days or when going for a long drive.
33. If you fall asleep on the way home from daycare
at 5pm, you will stay asleep through the “transfer process” when I lay you on
the couch and ignore all attempts at waking you. You will sleep until 6 or
later sometimes, and ALWAYS wake a hot mess of tears and wailing. It’s like
your brain gets rewired wrong when you take an evening nap.
34. Instead of "right side up" you always
say "up side up"
35. You love to be read to, some favorites we've
read this year are Charlotte's Web, a cheesy chapter book series from the
library about animal fairies (I think called Rainbow Magic?), Fancy Nancy,
Green Eggs and Ham, and Skippy Jon Jones.
36. When asked what you want to do when you grow up
you say you want to be a veterinarian. This sounds impressive, but I think it
is solely the result of a terrible book we received called "Barbie: The
Pet Vet" in which Barbie is a veterinarian that helps cute puppies and
kittens.
37. You seem highly tuned into the music we listen
to. Dad is usually our "home DJ" and sometimes a few notes into a
song you will tell him "This song is boring Dad." and other times you
will hone right in on the lyrics and ask what they mean. Just today a sort of
folksy song we'd never heard came on the radio you perked up and said, "I
like this song!"
38. Despite your interest in listening to music,
you generally have zero interest in singing solo or even singing along to music
on the radio. You get terribly shy when I suggest you sing something.
39. We frequently refer to you as “Option C”. This
is because every single time you are given a choice between 2 items, you will
always always always invent a third option instead of choosing one of the two
choices provided to you. Examples: “Do you want a peanut butter and jam or
peanut butter and honey sandwich?” Answer – “Ham and cheese please” or “Do you
want to go to bed now or in 5 minutes?” Answer – “I don’t like either of those
choices”
40. When asked who your favorite friend to play
with at daycare is you always list every single kid in your class and say they
are ALL your favorite. It is SO cute. If pressed, you will say that Alison
Jane (AJ) is your “best daycare friend”.
41. When I casually asked who you wanted to invite
for a birthday party this year, you listed every friend you've ever made. Penny
is usually at the top of your list though.
42. You had a cold the week leading up to (and on)
your birthday and I took you to the doctor for a wheezy cough one day (you were
fine). As a result, I have your growth stats: you weigh 30.8 pounds (in
clothes) and measure 40 inches tall. This roughly puts you in the 13th
percentile for weight and 55% for height. Pretty much exactly the same percentages
as last year.
43. You’ve had the same haircut – a short bob –
forever. I feel a bit sad that you’ve decided recently to grow it long. You
keep saying you want it to be as long as my hair and frequently ask if it’s the
same length as mine yet… It makes you look so grown up to see the long hair on
you now.
44. You have the most emo pout of all time. When
you don’t feel you’re getting what you want or that something isn’t fair, you
sulk and won’t look up for anything.
45. If prompted heavily you will say (without a lot
of passion) that you’d like a baby sister. But you are adamant that you would
not like a baby brother. You have never once unprompted, asked or even
suggested that you’d like a sibling. You seem very content being an only child.
46. You can be intensely social and are very
outgoing, but ultimately I think you might be an introvert like your Dad. After
playing with friends for an hour or so, you usually ask me if we can go home
where you proceed to play quietly by yourself happily.
47. Penny (2 doors down on our street) is your most
frequent companion. We’ve tried once for a sleepover with the two of you, but
it ended around 10:30pm when it was clear that you were never going to sleep
together…
48. One of your favorite activities is beach
combing. You could spend hours and hours looking for special shells, rocks and
beach glass.
49. For your birthday this year, you received a new
backpack, lunch box (both unicorn themed), a tea set and some new dress up
clothes. After opening everything, you said, “Thank you
50. You are so very, very likable my dear. I'm sure most parents get
this to some degree, but people go out of their way to tell me how much they
enjoy spending time with you. Your teacher Jen told me that all the other parents
at daycare frequently tell her that you are the sweetest and most polite kid. I
would love to take all the credit for this, but the truth is that you are, and
always have been incredibly self possessed.
