Ten Things about Four

I'll be honest.  The first few months of our oldest being four weren't great.  Maybe it was the gluten intolerance.  Maybe it was still the residual threes.  Maybe it was still figuring out life with a baby in the house.  Maybe that is how every kid is when they turn four. Whatever it was, it was ROUGH.

I feel like (4.5 months later) we have finally settled into the fours, and I MIGHT even venture to say that they are pretty darn entertaining.

Here are 10 things about four.  At least, 10 things about OUR little four...with a few of her sweet pictures sprinkled in.

1.   Maybe it is because she was born so close to Christmas, but the girl LOVES anything Christmas.  She still chooses to watch Christmas movies occasionally, and I have gotten good at singing my entire repertoire of random Christmas songs.  Why, you ask? Every night when I ask her what songs she wants to hear before bed, she usually requests "Amazing Grace, The Water is Wide, and a new Christmas song."  Because by "new" Christmas song, she means one she hasn't heard in a long time.  Sometimes I just make up my own 30-second Christmas song and call it a night.  Pretty much if it mentions Christmas, Jesus or snow, I'm good.

2.  When it comes to food, we have about 3 options: sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly or ham/salami and cheese), gluten-free mac & cheese, and gluten-free pizza.  She eats fruit and yogurt and cereal and snacky foods, of course, but that's about it for meals.  She'll SOMETIMES eat eggs, but only at restaurants or at G-ma and G-pa's house.  She'll never eat them if I make them at home.  And she is not afraid to tell people that she is "allergic" to things that she doesn't want to eat. 
For example, I picked her up at preschool one afternoon and her teacher (mostly kidding) asked, "She's not allergic to vegetables, is she?"  No, she's not.  But she didn't want to eat the carrots for snack that day, so she told the teachers she was allergic to them.  Well played, Callie.  Well played.

 3.  She wants to dress herself.  And she puts together the most FANTASTICALLY HILARIOUS outfits.  And we go out in public anyway.

4.  She is slowly but surely coming out of her shell when we're around other people.  Yesterday she even wanted to "deliver" pages she had colored to our neighbors.  So she and Chris walked around our cul-de-sac to do just that.  When they got back, I asked her if she talked to anyone.  She said, "I said bye-bye to one person, Mom!"  That's what I call progress.

5. She has entered the phase where if she doesn't get her way, or if we have to be stern with her, she says, "NOBODY LOVES ME!"  My parents remember me fondly at this stage, when I'd stomp up the stairs saying something very similar.  I found out years later that they would stay downstairs and laugh.  Now I understand why, because when she says that, I can't help but giggle a little bit.

6.  Her imagination is amazing.  I wish I could be a fly on the wall of her brain, because it seems like a very magical place.

7.  Now that Maya is getting bigger and more interactive, she loves being a big sister even more.  And she is SUCH a good one.  A goofy one, but a GREAT one.

8.  She is so beautiful it makes my heart stop at least once a day.  I seriously can't believe how sweet her little face is. 

9.  It appears that she will never fully be potty trained.  Logically, I know that is not the case. But when you're going on two years, it seems like you will forever be talking about poop and wiping butts.

10.  Along with her beauty she has an awesome goofballish charm.  I can't wait for (what seems to be) some risidual three-ness to chill out a little bit and to just bask in the glow of this little person who is so hilariously amazing. 

And four.