Liv-
Happy 4th birthday sweet sweet person. You are without a doubt the nicest kid I've ever met. You are so genuine. You care so much for other people and you are incredibly empathetic. Your thoughts are deep and provoking. You want things to be fair for everyone. I love how expressive you have gotten to be over this past year and all the amazing things we have learned about you. You are simply good.
You are such a well behaved little lady. Although there are times you get in trouble, you always seem shocked when it happens. By that, I mean that you are never trying to be bad, and never making choices you know are inappropriate. So, when you do something that makes me upset, it crushes you. You get very very sad. But, it's always a short amount of time before you've rebounded and return to your wonderful happy-go-lucky self. You are forgiving, and resilient.
When you and your sister argue (which is pretty much daily), we do "knees to knees" where you sit and talk about what's going on. You ADORE this. Sometimes there will be a minor dispute, "I want the pink bowl" "NO! I want it" and you'll quickly suggest: "Jillian, let's do knees to knees." Jillian does not love this as much as you. HAHA! At the end of knees to knees you kids say to each other, "The most important thing in the whole world is my family." Then you hug and try to make each other laugh by tickling/biting/toe grabbing... whatever works. This is the highlight for you, I think. Evan loves knees to knees too, but it frustrates you that he can't remember our "most important thing" catch phrase. You walk him through it word by word until he has said it correctly and in it's entirety.
We call you: Lou Lou, Lou Lou Bear, Livy Lou, and Lou. Sometimes, we call you Liv. -wink-
You're not interested in any group sports yet, and still want to sign up for ballet and gymnastics. You seem to enjoy both of these activities which is good because they are challenging for you. Your ballet teacher has you keep a waltz beat while chanting/patting, "Clap, Knees, Knees". Until recently this was impossible for you. You're rounding the bend now though, and can keep up for a few beats.
According to you, your favorite books are: "Birthday books, flower, spring and pumpkin books, fruit, vegetable and recipe books, making stuff books, and rainbow books and sewing books." You're starting to put together words now and feel very proud when you are able to read a book with Mommy. This still takes a lot of time and teamwork but you're getting better every day! Yesterday you told me, "I think you spell Mommy, M-E... Mmmmmmm.....eeeeeeeee.... is that right!?" Close! -smile-
One of my MOST favorite things about you right now is how you hold one (or even two!) pointer fingers up in the air when you are about to share something you thought of. It's ADORABLE. Out of the blue: "You know what?! (*fingers up!*) today, at school, we had.... oranges!" Haha! You're awesome.
I'm not a fan of kids asking me if they can watch TV so I've told you guys, "TV is only a Mommy idea and my answer will always be no if you ask to watch". So, your idea to get around this is not to 'ask' per say... You just start to say, "G." (over and over). This is code for, "do you want to cuddle in bed and watch Giada?" Yes, yes I do. -smile-
According to you, your favorite TV characters are: "Giada, Dora & Boots, Peter Rabbit, Strawberry Shortcake, and My Little Pony". This is mostly accurate aside from Peter Rabbit and My Little Pony which we have banned from your selections due to sassy episodes. -smile-
Your favorite foods (according to you) are chocolate!, strawberries, oranges, bananas, bean burritos, and sugar snap peas. You told me the other day you would like to eat a bean burrito every day forever.
I know I said you and Jillian argue, but it's only because you play together so much. You really do get along well and I'm very proud of both of you for being so sweet to each other. It's awesome. You're also really good with Evan. You mostly call him "boy" and enjoy having him follow you around. The two of you play babies together all the time. You are both great at being the Mommy. -wink-
You have a sweet tooth. You love treats and you are very excited when they are a choice.
You're a great sleeper- you go to bed at 7:30 and wake up around the same time. On the weekends we have you "wait for the eight". That means we get to see you at 8:01. You sit and stare at your clock until it's time to get up! :) You're wearing 3T clothing, and size 8 shoes.
This year you've really come a long way. You know all the letters and their sounds, you can count to 30 or 40ish and you're starting to read. You LOVE to do "homework" with Mommy and you are very excited to learn. When you grow up you would like to be a chef.
This year for your birthday you decided on a rainbow theme. You're a big fan of "all the colors" and felt very excited about this. We had lots of balloons and streamers as well as a rainbow of fruits and drinks for your friends. We had a beautiful day with great weather so there was lots of backyard running around and jumpy house playing. We played the song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow and watched all the kids dance with the rainbow ribbon bracelets we made. It was a perfect celebration.
For your DC trip you chose to go the National Zoo. You really enjoyed being the only kid out and about with Mommy and Daddy and we had a great time at the zoo (despite getting turned around and walking (and walking) for quite some time. We ended up picking a place called Medium Rare for your birthday dinner. It was awesome. It was a pre-fix dinner where your only choices were how you wanted your steak cooked, and if you wanted salad dressing and steak gravy on your plate, or on the side. There were a couple dessert choices so we got a giant sundae for you and took home a piece of key lime pie for later. It was awesome. We rode the metro and soaked in all your chatty-ness the whole time. You're precious.
Thank you for being such an incredible person. You have a heart of gold and we cannot wait to see what the future has in store for you.
Happy 4th birthday, sweet Lou Lou.
xoxo
Mommy
