Four and a Half

Eden,
Today you turn 4 1/2, but in my mind it seems like it should only be 3 1/2!  Where did the time go?  You are such a beautiful little girl and I love spending my days with you!  Here are the things I always want to remember about you at this age:

-You are still the most easy going child in the family.  Like all kids, you have moments that drive me crazy, but for the most part, you are pretty easy to please. 

-You are still long and lean.  You are getting close to weighing 40 pounds and are the tallest girl in your preschool class.  You are wearing 5/6 size clothes. 

-You are finishing up you first year of speech with Mrs. Davis and have made so much progress this year.  You can consistently say your /k/ and /g/ sounds now with very little prompting.  While I'm so proud of you, part of me is sad that you can now pronounce things correctly, like "Parker" instead of "Pawper"!  

-You are not a very good eater.  Maybe that is why you stay so skinny!  You do not like fruits and vegetables and are horrible about trying new things.  Some of your favorites right now are bean/cheese nachos, black olives, nuts (especially pistachios), yogurt, and chicken nuggets.

-Your favorite thing to play with is not dolls or princesses, but Parker's huge box of Hot Wheel cars.  You play with them every day, sometimes for hours at a time. 

-You LOVE bugs!  Roly polies are your favorite but you also love worms and lizards.  You are not afraid to pick anything up and you love putting them in your bug box.  

 -You recently went through a month where you cried everywhere you went- Sunday School, speech, gymnastics, preschool, Cubbies.  We tried everything we could think of to try and get you to stop crying.  Finally, I came up with the idea of a sticker chart and letting you put a sticker on the chart any time you went to something without crying.  We are starting our fourth week and you are doing great!  You have not cried at anything for the past three weeks and we are so proud of you!

Your redneck "kite"- you flew that thing for several days! (For those of you who can't tell, she is flying the sun visor from Cory's car!)

 -You love to help me in the kitchen.  You are always the first to pull up a chair and ask what you can do to help.  I hope cooking is something we will always enjoy doing together.

-You have really taken an interest in reading the past few months.  You can read the words "the" and "is" and love finding them in your books.  You often ask that I let you "read" the bedtime stories to me while I listen. 

-One of my favorite things is that you refuse to go to sleep without giving me a BIG hug and kiss.  I'm going to miss when you don't want to do that anymore.

-You start almost all of your stories or questions with, "Mom, I wanna tell you sumpin".  It makes me smile every time!

You are such a precious, sweet, smart, sensitive little girl and I'm so lucky to be your mom!  You bring so much joy into our family and life wouldn't be the same without you as our middle child!  I love you to the moon and back, Mommy