Rose is four!

Ah Miss Rose, how are you already four years old?? Time is going so quickly, although you've had a bit of a pre-teen attitude since you turned 18 months. You sure are all spunk! You know just what you want and how to get it. "No" along with "I'll think about it" are your two most dreaded phrases uttered from my mouth. You love getting your way, but don't we all!

You are now sleeping in a big girl bed with your Mom by your side (since it's much too scary to be all by yourself). Every night you turn towards me, arm up in the air and say, "Cuddles? Cuddles!" How can I resist your cuddles? You wrap your arm around my neck and squeeze tight. You LOVE your nightly cuddles with Mom.

You still love sucking on your middle and ring fingers. So much so that you know not to put lotion or anything else on them that might cause them to taste gross. If you go to suck on your fingers and something tastes off, you're sure to let me know that your fingers "aren't so tasty" and anxiously wait for me to help get them tasty once again.

Then...

And Now

You recently misplaced your most beloved elephant lovely that you named Tutu. You actually have 4 of them, but only 2 are the originals you've had since you were a wee one. They were so loved by you that they have grown a bit raggedy.  One even lost its tag from your constant tugging at it. But your favorite of the 4 has been missing for some time. You'd bring it with you EVERYWHERE that it was bound to happen. That's why I bought you two more, but the new ones just weren't the same. They were too, well, new and just don't feel right to you.  So they are now living in the laundry room where I try to throw them into the wash at least once a week to hopefully make them feel as "loved" as the originals.

You have the cutest way of expressing your excitement. It could be something simple or something big, but the announcement of any type of positive news results in a big "Woo hoo!" from you. Your mispronunciations continue to make us smile. For some reason, you'll add a "L" or "F" sound to some of your favorite things. Mango is pronounced "Fa-mango"; Ice cream is "ice cleam"; Banana is "Fa-nana"; and Balloon is "Fa-bloon".

You are obsessed with boxes. Whenever a big box comes in the mail, you ask if you can keep it to make a puppy house. Sometimes you'll draw on it, other times you strategically place tape to get it just right. Then you squeeze yourself in and often ask mom to tape the box shut! You are so silly!

You love to dance. When you hear the perfect tune, you just can't help yourself. One of your favorites is the theme song to the "Spirit" Netflix series. When it starts to play, you drop whatever you are doing and make a mad dash to the family room to strut your moves - you simply can not help yourself! You've been taking dance classes for about a year and love it. You've got moves like Jagger!

You are quite the girly girl. You love clothes, especially dresses. When I pick up a new outfit for you, you eagerly try it on (unlike your brothers!) You love wearing tutus and jewelry.  You've become quite enthralled with all of Mom's fun hair products and make up. Every morning and every night, you're looking through the bathroom drawers asking what each item is for and if you can try it out. One of these days, I just know I'll walk through the doors to find you all dolled up in lip stick and eye shadow.  Luckily that has yet to happen as you are usually pretty good about asking for permission before using anything - except for that one day you came downstairs smelling like you put on Pa's ENTIRE bottle of cologne!

You love the great outdoors! Playing in puddles, shoveling sand off the street, collecting leaves, picking flowers, riding your bike - you could spend hours outside every day enjoying nature. You often beg to go for a bike ride and always look forward to when Pa gets home and can take you out on a long adventure on your bike. Every night when Pa comes home from work, he enters the house and announces "Pa's home". Your ears perk up as you loudly squeak, "Pa's home?!?" and you make a bee line to the mudroom running as fast as you can right towards him.  Often you are trying to beat your brothers to see who can greet Pa first.

Even though you are small in size, you are fierce! You have your big brother Cole wrapped around your little finger. He will do anything you ask and always wants you to be happy. You and Cole love sitting out on the deck, enjoying a cold glass of juice or milk, having a bite to eat and playing on some sort of electronic device. Well, it's usually Cole that has the device and you who's taking it away from him.

 

You and Owen are a bit of a different story. You two are so similar that you constantly butt heads. But you hold your ground against your much bigger older brother that I'm often breaking up the fights. You are one feisty four year old!

As for Kate, you love playing with her, feeding her, and holding her. You are always fighting with your brothers over who gets to play with baby Kate. When Kate wakes up from her nap, you eagerly ask for permission to go "make her happy". You'll unzip her sleep sack, turn on her light, play her music and give her toys. You're such a great big sister!

On your birthday, you slept in - a rare feat now that you are out of your crib.

After getting ready for the day, us girls were off to donuts! You LOVE "going to donuts". You always get the same - a donut with chocolate frosting, although you tend to graze off everyone else's plate "sharing" their yummy treats. You, Kate and Mom made a pit-stop at the playground on the way to donuts, but when you saw the beach nearby, there was no stopping you. Instead of donuts, we spent the morning splashing in the water, digging in the sand and playing on the playground.

Then we picked up Cole from his tutoring session and finally were off to donuts, just in time for lunch. Donuts for lunch? Only on your birthday!

That evening, you requested dinner out at one of your favorites - Shore96. Sometimes you forget the name of the restaurant and call it "that one where we run in the halls". That just may be the reason you love Shore96. It's attached to a fairly quiet strip mall and you and your brothers run full speed up and down the halls while you wait for your food to arrive.  For your special dinner, you choose chicken strips and fries.

Off you go to run in the hall

Enjoying your birthday dinner

The celebration continued at home as we sang Happy Birthday and gobbled up some chocolate cupcakes.  The perfect way to end the perfect day celebrating your 4th birthday!

A VERY happy 4th birthday to you, Rose! We love you to the moon and back!