Leah @ 4 Years Old

 

It seems over the past few weeks our little Leah has really started to grow and mature. She’s whining less and doing more for herself. She still tends to be a little clingy and show some separation anxiety—meaning she worries A LOT and asks tons of questions when we have to leave her or she thinks we’re going to leave her (even to go just outside the house), although she does just fine without us there and is very social. She will talk to anyone and makes friends easily.

She asks so many questions now—she wants to know the meaning of everything (and sometimes she asks hard words to define!). She loves to tell stories—things she makes up, or things that happened in the past (or she thinks happened), although her concept of time is a little skewed and she often can’t remember what was yesterday and what was a year ago. We’re trying to teach her days of the week, but often she doesn’t know what was today or last night or Saturday.

 

We started doing some preschool work together a little over a month ago and she really enjoys it. She loves sitting down to “do school.” We’re working on recognizing letter sounds and she’s basically got almost all of them down, but she’s not quite ready to read yet. We’re also working on writing, especially her name. She seems to be best at mathematical concepts, like counting, patterning, shapes, puzzles, and things like that. She’s a whiz at memorizing Bible verses and is starting to grasp some of the basic Bible stories. She is already improving on cutting and fine motor skills. She’s eager to learn and I’m looking forward to teaching her!

   

Going to church is one of her favorite things to do, and each time she gets a chance to pray, at meals or bedtime, she prays that she “hopes we go to church tomorrow.” I suspect part of it is that she gets to see her little friends. But she really does enjoy learning about Jesus and loves it when she can memorize a Bible verse.

She is all about Princesses and loves to dress up. She loves to dance and sing and show off her outfits to anyone who will look. She is very excited about starting dance class next month. She can basically dress herself, although she still requires a little help getting her pants on frontwards.

When it comes to her relationship with her brother—for the most part they get along and can play well together, but they often have a hard time understanding the concept of sharing, and she really hates it when he takes a toy or book that she rightfully believes is hers’. Her instinct is to hit or lash out at him, although we’re working on that! She really does like to boss him around  take care of him, and a lot of times, he’ll do whatever she convinces him to do! She seems to understand the idea of the new baby arriving and goes around telling people she’s going to have another baby, and her name is Abigail.

I can already tell that four is going to be a fun age—I’m excited to see how much more she’ll mature and grow into a young lady!

At her 4-year check-up yesterday, Leah weighed 31 lbs. (20th%) and is 38.5 inches tall (30th%). In the dr.’s words, she’s “petite”, but not too small. She’s staying on her growth curve.

Happy Birthday Little Princess!

Leah Through the Years

I know I have used this song before with a slideshow of Leah, but it makes me a little teary-eyed every time, and reminds me to cherish this little Princess before she grows up before my very eyes. So, happy birthday to my sweet little Cinderella!

Mountain Adventure 2012

 

This past week the kids and I got to take a little mini vacation to visit my friend Sarah who lives in the mountains. My best friend Elizabeth drove there from the opposite direction to meet us—a fun girls’ weekend! Her kids are 2 and 7 months old so we definitely had our hands full, but it was still a lot of fun.

The first day we went to where Sarah’s husband Ben works. It’s on a farm with cows. The cows weren’t too sure about us.

   

Leah and Andrew pretended to be cows.

Later we played in the river beside Sarah’s house. Out of both my kids, I would have thought Andrew would have been the one to jump in up to his waist, but my normally adventurous little boy preferred to stay on the shore to throw his rocks in. On the other hand, my prissy little girl was completely unafraid to get wet and dirty. She was in up to her knees, bending over to pick up rocks to throw in. All the kids would have loved to stay and do this for hours if we would have let them!

  

Amelia accidentally got all wet. She wasn’t happy. It was fun watching Andrew and Amelia together. Amelia is only about 5 months older than he is. Let’s say two 2-year-olds together makes for an interesting time!

 

   

Of course, then they needed a bath.

That night we cooked hot dogs on the campfire. Sarah has a cute little patch of wildflowers in her yard—great for some photo ops, although my kids are cheeseballs.

    

The second day we went to play at a park in Asheville. After we wore the kids out, we let them sleep in the car while us girls enjoyed a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

  

Wednesday before Elizabeth had to leave, we took some group photos by the River. It’s a little difficult to get 4 kids all looking at the camera, let alone smiling, so you take what you can get!

 

   

And then there were a few shots when the kids were just playing around right before we left. These were some of my favorites!

I must say, these little kids are becoming so much more fun to be around. They were—for the most part—pretty good little travelers, adjusted well to all the different situations they were put in, and, even though there was a little whining and maybe a couple tantrums, I really enjoyed their company. I no longer dread going places because I’ll have to put them to bed in a strange place or because they may not have all their usual comforts. (Now let’s add a newborn into our mix just to make things exciting!)

 

  

Leah’s Water Fun Birthday Party

 

Last Saturday, the 18th, Leah had a super-fun 4th birthday party with all her friends from church. I wanted low-key but still memorable, so we set up a kiddie pool, slip ‘n' slide & sprinkler in our backyard. I had planned some games, as well, but really they just enjoyed playing around in the water all afternoon. We had a total of 6 kids, mostly 4 year olds, along with Andrew & one big sister. I think they all had a blast!

 

 

This whole tub of water balloons was gone in seconds. Who needs organized games when you can just throw them at your feet?

 

Not all of them enjoyed the slip ‘n slide, but it definitely got some use!

  

We set up the food outside. I wanted somewhat of a princess theme, but not overboard. Mostly just girly. I kept the cake simple and sweet, with a princess crown and wand.

     

The candles had a hard time staying lit outside, but she loved being sung to. And they all loved the food!

  

The birthday girl had no problem being the star of the show. She talked non-stop the whole time, telling her friends what to do and telling all kinds of stories about her day. I have no doubt she enjoyed being the Princess.

Time for presents! She got fairy wings with a wand, 2 versions of the Candy Land game, a doll whose hair you can style, some puzzles, and dance leotards. Andrew even got a present! Someone brought him a dump truck—he was in heaven!

 

 

 

After it was all over, this little girl was ready to go inside and play with her new things. She said the presents were her favorite part. She and Andrew snuggled up on their new bean bag chairs from Grandma.