OK, it's not really 4. It's more like 4 and a quarter. I am nearly 3 months overdue in writing my missive on you being 4. But, so be it.
Moving from age 3 to age 4 is a major shift, I think. I remember seeing you sitting on our stairs one day when you were 3 and you were this cute little toddler/preschooler. Now, there is definitively no toddler left. You're a full-blown girl! Here's what's going on now:
You listen to and understand most adult conversation. It's becoming increasingly difficult to talk about you (or anyone else for that matter) around you. You know what's going down and you're pretty happy to interject your opinion/commentary.
Your silliness is at optimal levels these days. Pulling one over on Mom and Dad (or at least thinking that you are) is just about the funniest thing going. The day you walked into our room when we were asleep, quietly got in front of Dad's face and yelled "Surprise!" was a pretty good one, I gotta hand it to you.
You are still unabashedly in love with your sister. She is your favorite person on the planet by far and the more she develops and interacts, the more exciting it is for you.
You are still very opinionated about fashion and not very accomodating about letting me brush your hair. You have gotten much more at ease at the dentist though. This last visit was a piece of cake.
You are still not very daring about trying new foods, but once in a while, you'll have a bite.
You are getting slighty better about saying hello to people when they address you. For some reason you will wave or say hello to anyway when you are riding your bike. I'm not sure why this is.
You love to sing and are pretty good at memorizing lyrics. I'm fairly sure you'd like to be a rock star.
Last night you told me that if monkeys want to eat people, we could put bananas into space and the monkeys would be distracted and eat those and not people. You also told me that you're probably the smartest person in the world and probably don't even need teachers. Hmmmm.
I try to learn from you all the time. I learn about kindness. I learn about patience (patience! from a 4 year old!) I try to learn that sometimes you just have to stop for a minute and have fun and not just hasten to finish the task at hand. Because what is the point if you're not having fun?
You love rainbows more than anyone I know, to the point of obsession. There are worse things to obsess over.
I love you and I'm grateful for you every day.
