And Then She was 4!

Tomorrow my baby is 4!  Well she has not been a "baby" for a while, especially in her own eyes.  In fact, it is about the worst insult her brothers can say to her, and boy does she let them know it!  This has been a transformative year for Lissa.  I have seen so much growth and change it is hard to organize my thoughts and make it a cohesive read.

This year she made that big shift from parallel playing to playing with other children.  Her play became more imaginative. She has recently decided that she wants to be a pet doctor (she can't say veternarian so that is what she calls it) and she wears a Dr outfit and uses the toy doctor kit on her dolls and stuffed animals with great care.  A year ago she was beheading Barbie to my constrenation and KC's great distress LOL  Now she combs her babies hair and wants them to have pony tails like she does.

Her gross motor skills have always been excellent and gymnastics is helping her to develop more control. She has such strength but also that fearless abandon to experiences that both thrills and terrifies me as a parent. She has the best smile and we see it more and more.  I think this is because Lissa is truly an independent sprite. She wants to do for herself, companionably with someone else perhaps, but doing for herself.  All that waiting till she actually could was not fun for her.  Now she can do a lot of her own dressing, take care of most of her own toilet needs, wash herself in the shower etc.  She is just happy to do this. 

Being a lover of literature and believing ardently that books hold the key to all that is right and good (smile) you can imagine my worries when she seemed slow to learn her letters.  We spent this year figuring out the learning style that would help her accomplish this.  She has with 95 per cent accuracy--there are 3 letters that are always still on the iffy side.  But I am happy with the major improvement and with the fact that she simultaneously began to notice that certain words started with specific letters.  And today, the last day of her third year, she wrote her name.  Just decided to write it on the white board while I was getting ready for work and then called me in to see.

She is a very active, very physical girl.  Sitting still is not her style, so I was worried when she started her church school class this year.  But she does really well and is so proud of finally being in the class, that I think she is really working on making sure that she is doing things in the style of the classroom.

I remember holding her for the first time and staring into those enormous dark brown eyes. Such a tiny wee mite, and tomorrow a confident 4 year old ready to have her Snow Princess party.  Pictures will surely be posted!