Alexandra Turns 4
// July 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // General
Another year has passed and our girl is now 4 years old. At this age, the changes from month to month are not as dramatic as they were when she was an infant, except for maybe how fast her feet can grow!
In the past year, Ally has honed her sense of “style, ” which can be described as the more princesses, pink, rainbows or hearts the better (I’ve long given up on my oath to never let my kids wear silly character clothing), but an outright battle to wear anything with buttons.
Despite her love of polish, lip gloss, dress-up clothes and heaping on the drama over small things, she’s still a bit of a tomboy. She doesn’t like have her hair done, although her teachers have been able to occasionally. She’s also a bit on the tough side, and loves to rough house with us!
Ally likes her brother, who she enjoys acting crazy with, and Ian tries to do every single thing his sister does, which I find terrifying and she finds frustrating at times. We’re already hearing the ever popular refrain ring through our house, “Ian, stop following me!”
She’s added a few new characters and shows to replace the ones she believes are strictly for “babies and toddlers.” Episodes of Phineas and Ferb, which I also enjoy, and my childhood favorite, Scooby Doo, now fill our DVR.
I took Ally on the train to the city a few weeks ago, to show her where I work. She had fun, but was wiped out after just 2 hours, so we headed home, enjoying cookies and a nap on the ride home and an enormous cupcake.
This weekend we will be celebrating her birthday with a party at Pump It Up for her classmates and neighborhood friends, and then a joint family celebration in honor of her birthday, as well as Josh and Grandma Hensell’s at our house. Two parties, each with cake. It’s clear where she, and Ian, get their love of sweets. Our house is always stocked with dark and milk chocolate, Swedish fish, peanut butter cups and Twizzler pull and peel – yummy!
On the down side, Ally gets everything now. There are few sidebar conversations Eric and I can have where she isn’t able to interpret what we meant, so we’ve resorted to the age old trick of spelling certain things instead of saying them. She knows her letters, but can only spell a few simple words, so I think that will work for a while.
As with every stage/age, it presents new challenges, but we are thoroughly enjoying the person our daughter is becoming. She is bright, strong-willed (inherited from all sides of the family!) and creative with tons of energy. She tells me I’m her best friend (I should record that for later), and I remind her that I have to be her mom first, meaning she won’t always like what I tell her and the decisions I make. I told her the other day that she owned my heart, and her reply was, “that’s because you love me so much, mom.” My dearest Alexandra, you have no idea. Happy birthday, my beautiful girl.
