Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Addison Mae - 4 years

















I can hardly believe I have been mom to this amazing girl for four years! I am so incredibly proud of her kind, caring heart, maturity and even her independent streak. She has amazing insight into just about everything, and ended her school year as one of the smartest 3 year olds ever, I'm confident! She had a great first year at Warm World, and is already looking forward to being in the "4 class" or butterflies. 

Addie excelled at soccer and gymnastics, which means none of her athleticism came from me. Truth be told, it's her tenacity and hard work, not always ability, that make her so good. She's looking forward to starting music class again next week.

We had a wonderful time at the beach with my parents. She loved getting in the ocean, playing in the sand, hanging out at the beach house, swimming in the pool and being with her family in general.

And she's looking forward to being a big sister to ANOTHER baby brother! We had to tell her pretty early on in the pregnancy due to some issues I was having, and she was just ecstatic. While she said all along that she thought she wanted a sister, she was thrilled to be having a brother. Names she has suggested include Drum, Leopard, Polka Dot and Crushton. She really loves that other brother of hers too and is so good with him ... most of the time. When she wants to, she's awesome at entertaining and taking care of him, getting him a drink, a fork, making up games to play, "reading" him books, etc.

Her fourth birthday party was a wonderful time, especially when Elsa surprised her with a visit all the way from Arendelle! Addie was truly shocked and hugged her for up to 5 minutes. They sang songs and danced together, played games and read stories. She was enchanted, and I of course cried. It was so magical. She loved her Elsa Barbie doll cake and was thrilled to have so many friends celebrate with her at her "Elsa and swimming party." We had a great, albeit quieter, time on her actual birthday with a morning at Unpluggits, lunch at Hideaway and dinner at home with grandparents. And presents!

Another recent favorite experience was seeing Disney Magic for the second time. She sat on my lap to see better, but she paid close attention for hours to the show and wasn't scared at some parts I thought were a little frightening for a 4-year-old. She loved all the processes, Tinkerbell and Woody and Jessie especially. Elsa chose her to come up on stage and dance at the end, and she was elated. She later told me, "mommy, that was a different Elsa than the one at my party." Observant little thing. The $5 I paid for a photo with all the princesses after was worth its weight in gold - they spent so much time hugging and talking to her. Again, I cried.

This girl of mine can be so stubborn, so bossy and so sassy ... but I'm pretty sure I know where she gets all that from. She also has the kindest heart and spends a lot of her time thinking about others and how to help others. I hope I can continue to nurture that in her.

Weight: 33 pounds
Length: 40 inches

 New things:
  • Excelling at letter and many number recognition. Writing her name perfectly and starting to write and recognize other words. Spelling words in front of her doesn't work most of the time as she can often recognize what we're spelling. 
  • Memorizing her books and "reading" them back.
  • Buckling her own car seat. Hooray!
  • Swimming on her own, no flotation device. Her swim lessons were, again, awesome, and I'm so proud of her. Helps that she can stand up in Grammie and Pawpaw's shallow end, and if there are lots of kids or just me with the two littles, she'll wear her floaties for swimming in the deep end or jumping off the board. But she has really mastered swimming this summer. She can float on her back too.
  • Being a big sister, times 2!


Likes:
  • Watching "the house show" aka HGTV. We've been looking at houses, since we're outgrowing this current one, which she also loves to do. She often has very insightful things to say about what she did and didn't like about a house. She'll often say, "we should put an X on that one," a la HGTV
  • Going to the beach. We had a fabulous vacation in June and she didn't want to leave. Mama's girl.
  • Swimming
  • Going on any outings. Recent favorites have been Science Museum and Unpluggits
  • Eating at restaurants. Especially Chick-a-lay :)
  • Going to the library. A recent kids zumba class was especially exciting
  • Helping me meal plan
  • Helping more around the house with chores and keeping her room picked up, mostly
  • Singing
  • Watching movies

Dislikes:
  • Brother taking her stuff
  • Not being in charge

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