Caroline - 4 Years Old

Our 4 year old!!

She is a GREAT big sister and takes it very seriously!

C at her Frozen party with her friends Charlotte (in the background), Aydin (her best friend), Alea, Patrick, Dhruv, and her cousants Anna, + Jack!

Caroline is now a four year old!!  She is very proud of this and 'helps' us remember it all the time.  She will tell me several times a day that when she was three she couldn't do something, but now that she is four, she can do it all by herself.

I don't even know how to start explaining our sweet girl.  She is the funniest, most dramatic, most unique, most helpful, sassiest, sweetest, smartest, and most amazing little human.  There are times where she frustrates us to high heaven, but most of the time I think she is just awesome.  I have tried to save some of the funny stuff that she says by posting it on Facebook, but that is maybe 20% of the funny stuff she says.  I feel like I will always remember the funny stuff, but I don't unless I have it written down somewhere.

Here are some things that I want to remember about Sassy Pants, Whack Job Sandwich, Hot Mess, Scooter Pooter, Smush Pocket, Hot Mama herself:

• She weighs 40 pounds (89th percentile) and is 3' 6 1/8" (81st percentile).
• She is so smart.  We are so lucky that we found Generations and Mrs. Val and Ms. Nita do such a great job with those kids.  She has been doing a preschool curriculum since she could sit up.  She can now completely write her own name, recognize all letters and numbers, count to 100, and she is beginning to pick out the sounds of letters in words.  It is amazing to see what she can do.  She brings home her school work and I am just amazed.  We also bought her a preschool work book to have at home and she will ask us if she can do her school work.  I will start to show her how to do something (go through a maze by drawing the line through all things that start with a 't') and before I even have the chance she has it finished.  She is very smart and she is already very excited about going to Kindergarten like Anna!  She will start school during the 2016 - 2017 school year.  She will start at age 5 and turn 6 March of that year.  That is too crazy for me to even think about!
• She loves being a big sister and she is great at it.  She helps us do everything from feeding him to giving him a bath to putting him in the bed or getting him up.  She had a little bit of a delayed reaction after he got here and acted out for a couple of weeks, but after that she has been fine.  She loves to make him laugh and he watches EVERYTHING that she does.  We try to remind her of this because he will be copying what she does very soon.  She takes her job as 'Big Sissy' very seriously.  She even started crying last night at dinner because she was going to miss him (and us) so much when she goes away to college!  If only she knew how much he is going to irritate the mess out of her!
• Things she loves: princesses (of course) - her favorites are Elsa and Rapunzel (her all time very favorite), her collections (she has lots of Magic Clips, My Little Ponies, Itty Bitties), her Nabi (she plays Hay Day and the grocery bagging game, checks the weather on her own app, and she loves watching PBS Kids shows on the app), watching movies in her DVD player (that she can work all by herself), all things Frozen (especially listening to the music and dramatically recreating every scene), playing with all of her 'cousants' and her neighbor Charlotte, playing games (Go Fish, Matching, games our of her Highlights magazine), coloring/painting/cutting paper, reading books and having books read to her, riding her bike, going to the park, playing in the building footings at Bethabara Park, wearing her sassy brown knee high boots, her rain boots, and her 'fancies', eating chicken 'nunnets' at Dairio (her all time favorite place, with Buffalo Wingos being a close 2nd), getting the mail all by herself, feeding the dogs all by herself, anything she can do all by herself :), watching Pinky Dinky Doo, Daniel Tiger, and Sofia the First, listening to Taylor Swift (Shake It Off and Blank Spaces are her two faves), click her eye (winking with a little added mouth click), being in charge (of Cam or anything else), mac + cheese, asking 7,506 questions a day, knowing why things are the way they are, ...
• Things she does not like: having to be patient, having to go to the bathroom when someone asks her to, trying new foods, seeing boogers or her own poo (she gags every time), not being able to do something the first time she tries, ...
• She all of a sudden has gotten very sensitive.  If she says something funny and I start laughing she will ask me to stop and tell me that it is hurting her feelings.  She has also started really crying (I mean crocodile tears, lip quivering, break your heart kind of crying) over leaving us to go to college and going to Heaven and other people playing with her toys!
• She is tall and lean and I really hope she stays that way.  She wears 4T or 5T pants (only for the length) and 5T or kids XS shirts for the length.  She wears size 11 shoes - her feet are going to be huge (like mine).
• She wears leggings and shirts almost every day, but she does love a dress once it gets warm.
• Her hair is getting really long, but is still really curly on the bottom and then straight on the top.  She wears it in a ponytail or with the front up in a 'hair up' most days.
• She loves night gowns to sleep in, but she still likes wearing her footy jams on cold nights - especially when Bubba wears his.
• Her room is still awesome.  She has the bed that is raised up and she is starting to use her Secret Spot more and more.  Things in the house are starting to make their way into her room (pictures that we have in frames, books she loves, etc.).  She has even begun hanging things she colored up onto her wall.
• She can get herself completely dressed - from the pants and shirt to the socks and shoes and jackets.
• She brought home a piece of paper from school and it asked what she wanted to be when she grew up - my girl said a Girl Fire Fighter!  Get 'em!

Caroline Grace,

You are growing up to be such an amazing little lady.  You are so smart and so funny and so YOU.  I hope that never changes.  You are always going to be so loved by your Daddy and me and I hope this crazy world doesn't make you anything different than what and who you are.  You are so strong willed and stubborn - it drives your Daddy and me crazy some times, but I know that you are going to be able to take care of yourself.  You make us laugh every single day and I am so glad that God picked me to be your mama.  I am so proud of you and I can't wait to be there to help and watch you grow. 

P.S.  If you could slow down that growing up a little bit I'd appreciate it! :)