Four Years

Nora celebrated her fourth birthday this weekend. Her birthday fell on the actual Labor Day holiday so we spent the day together as a family doing some fun things; all her choice, naturally. Nora chose to go to the trampoline park and also to eat ice cream at "the place by the fountain" aka Yogurtland. She also decided to add in a "special drink" {which means Ocean Water from Sonic} to which we replied, "We'll see..." to which she replied, "But... it's my birthday. I can have fun, mommy." So now we know that she has the whole it's-my-party-and-I'll-cry-if-I-want-to gig down pat at age four.

First stop was the trampoline park. Janie's first question was, "Where's Elsa?" Because the last time we went, there were people dressed as Disney princesses and why would she ever in her life forget that happened?? The girls bounced around and got bounced around by nearly everyone around them. We played a little family dodgeball. {For the record, mommy totally won.} And Justin had more fun than all the children combined jumping into the foam pit.

We went to Yogurtland for ice cream with Mimi & Pops & Grandpa, too! Nora picked four different flavors of ice cream and I had to stop her after four different toppings on her ice cream. Which is what she really wanted... the candy. The girls both threw some coins into the fountain and then picked out treats for Ford at the store next door, which I guess is something we have to do while we are there now since Auntie K took them in there just one other time.

After naps, we gave Nora her birthday present, which is a BIG GIRL BIKE! Woah... She looked like a serious big girl when she was sitting on it! And she needs to practice a whole lot more before she will be able to ride it. We don't need just a helmet. We need pads... like everywhere. She seems eager to practice riding her bike though, so that's a positive thing.

After riding the bike around, daddy took Nora in the pool and after cleaning up, she got to pick out some favorite Sofia shows to watch before bed. She even reminded us that she gets to pick the shows because {surprise} "it's my birthday so I get to pick." I think she had a fun day! I know she is looking forward to her party this weekend. She keeps asking me how many days are left until her party. Mommy has to get it together!!

Year three was a big year for growth. I guess they all have, but I feel that there have been a lot of emotional changes throughout the course of the past year. I am looking forward to year four, and am hoping that as she grows older that she is able to continue growing stronger emotionally, physically, and academically.

Nora is not the most coordinated of children {see bike note above} but she does like to swim in the pool {assisted}, play on playgrounds, and go to her dance classes. We started our second year of dance at Dance Axiom this fall and Nora is really into it. She told me all about the positions of dance before bedtime one night. Demonstrations and all. Despite her struggles with the recital, she definitely likes going to class. She has a new teacher this year and enjoys her already.

Where Nora excels the most is her love of all things academic. She loves learning new things and listening to stories read aloud to her. She has an excellent memory and doesn't need a lot of repetition to remember things. She recently started a pre-kindergarten program at her daycare and although starting back up after the summer and then transitioning into a new class with new teachers was a little bit rough, Nora loves it now. She is very into school and likes things to be "right" and fair. She loves learning the letters and writing and drawing.

She loves to spell Pops! She writes him notes & text messages. 

One big change that I've noticed with Nora is that her storytelling has become very detailed and comprehensive. She can give you step by step instructions on how to play a game that she knows. She will tell you everything that she did throughout the course of the day. She will retell a story that she knows well. She will say things like, "Do you want to hear more?" when you think she has already told you enough, and then add tons more. She's always talked a lot when she's comfortable and content.

I found this to be extremely appropriate. Thanks, Jane!

Our biggest challenge with Nora is her adjustment to the unknown or adjusting her expectations to what is happening or what we are doing. She is very particular about what she likes and what she doesn't like and because she is very vocal about it and quite persistent, coupled with the fact that Janie did not put up a fight about what she wanted or didn't want, Nora has gotten away with it for awhile. I know she does a pretty good job of convincing her friends and teachers at school to accommodate her as well. When we push back on certain things {example: You cannot have the blue plate because your sister has the blue plate...} we end up tackling some pretty serious tears. As long as we can anticipate these situations or provide her with some reasonable choices, she can recoup, but it is definitely the hardest aspect of parenting her at the current moment in time. We are constantly trying to give her an appropriate amount of control over both big and small situations.

She has also hit a spot in her development where being silly is one of her favorite games to play. We've had to have {more than} a few conversations about when it is okay to be silly and when it is not okay to be silly. It was rough for a period of time, but she is usually able to control it now. Usually...

And on that note, Nora is rarely napping when we are at home. I think that she is napping at school every day, or at least most days, but probably only for an hour or and hour and a half, but when we're home... nothing. Not because she isn't tired per se, but because she has toys to play with and books to read and no one is up there monitoring what she does with that time. She is usually good about staying upstairs until her clock "changes" but she does come down during nap time on occasion to ask when it will happen, or even in the middle of the night if she has a "bad dream". That happens pretty seldom, though.

Last night as a three year old!

Things Nora loves at 4:

dressing up with Janie

Sofia the First {specific episodes only}

her striped blankey

baby Jo {duh!}

her pink comfy dress & her flower comfy dress
pajamas

Chic-Fil-A & Chic-Fil-A sauce

Highlights magazine {thanks Mimi & Pops!}
listening to Pandora
swimming in the pool

finding treasures {pearls, rocks, coins, anything shiny}

sleeping with the light on

routines

her grandparents
playing games on the iPad
texting her Pops
"playing" on snapchat {thanks Auntie K!}
harassing poor Ford!
black olives on everything and nothing
tomato soup
her teachers at school
sparkly clothes

Things Nora does not love at 4:

taking naps
messes on her clothes
sleeping with the light off
bad dreams
not being "first" up the stairs
putting her head under the faucet
"poofy" clothes
TV shows that make her uncomfortable/scared
small reptiles & amphibians & insects, too!

We are so proud of our big girl! She's growing so much and it's amazing to see. We love you, Nora!