To think that four years have passed since Katie came into our lives seems unimaginable. But at the same time, I absolutely can't think of life without her. She is such a fun girl and lights up our days! She turned 4 on November 14. The night before her birthday, we packed the playroom with fun balloons and buried her presents inside. She got some birthday cake legos (a huge hit as she loves celebrating birthdays of all her animal friends) and the Hungry Hungry Hippos game (big mistake - loud and annoying and she wants to play all the time). But the big hit was a giant sized version of her puppy, Max. It doesn't look that big in the picture, but it's about 3 feet long. She loved it and named it Grandma Max.
The Thanksgiving program at her school was the same day as her birthday so it was a fun treat to get to go to school as a family. Both grandmas, a grandaddy, and even Nana Baggerly were there for the show. Here's our little performer just after the show ended. So grown up looking!
It was a pot luck lunch at school so we all got to eat together. We stuffed ourselves silly and watched Katie run around and play with her school friends.
The day after her birthday was the dreaded 4 year well check up. She didn't get shots at her 3 year visit so it had been 2 years since she had shots and basically completely gone from memory. I really debated about telling her what was going to happen at the visit. We eventually told her about the shots while were in the doctor's office. She had to get four shots plus a finger prick. The shots were in her arms (band aid pic below) and she definitely cried. She had actually enjoyed the visit up until that point...She loved the eye chart and getting weighed and having her blood pressure taken. After she regained her composure from the shots, she very simply said, "I'm ready to go because I'm not having fun anymore." Just broke my heart! She was being such a big girl! She weighed 37 pounds (65 percentile) and was 40 1/4 inches tall (62 percentile).
We had her birthday party at The Mad Platter the weekend after her birthday. It's a "paint your own pottery" place and Katie requested to have her party there after going to Maddie's 3 year old party there last year. Speaking of Maddie, she and her mom and sister drove all the way from Virginia to spend a few days with us and come to her party! Best. Gift. Ever.
We did a rainbow theme to go with the colorful idea of painting. We had rainbow twizzlers, rainbow confetti cupcakes, fruit, rainbow goldfish, cake, and fruity pebbles rice krispy treats (my favorite).
We invited cousins, church friends, and school friends. It was quite a mix of kids and fun watching Katie work the crowd with so many different people there. Each child got to paint a plate, a lion, or a mug. Most kids chose a plate and painted some pretty "abstract" stuff. We opened presents and Katie was so excited for everything that she got. I couldn't even hide things from her when we got home. She had to play with each and every item and give each of her new animals a name.
Katie,
You are smart, witty, kind, loving, sassy, vibrant, dramatic, and so many other things. You make me laugh every day. You are so inquisitive. When we're reading a book or watching something and there's a word you've never heard, you always want someone to stop and explain it to you. You have a great imagination and will make up stories and words and games all the time. You are still pretty timid when you're not comfortable somewhere which is fine with me. I like being there to hold your hand and help you get adjusted to new things. You adore animals. You find pretend baby animals on the playground and want to keep them. You set up animal clinics in all the beds around the house and you have the most amazing stories about what's ailing them.
This past year, you played soccer, did gymnastics, and took ballet. You still talk about each of them and seem to want to do more. By far, your favorite physical activity is running. There's a track team somewhere that's gonna have a superstar on their hands someday! You learned all of your letters and their sounds this year - always asking how to spell things and trying to sound them out on your own. You're using scissors and glue all the time in your "crafts."
Your biggest change this year was becoming a big sister. You dealt with me being pregnant and how that changed things for you. Mommy couldn't always chase you or roll around and you took it all in stride and just made new games for us to play. When I didn't feel well, you wanted me to get better. You were so excited to get a baby brother and I worried how you would adjust when he finally got here. And you simply blew me away. You never missed a beat...you adore your brother and have not had one bit of jealousy of the attention he gets. In fact, you give him the most attention of all. You're always concerned about who will watch Baylor while you're at school or who his teachers are at church and will they know how to give him his bottle. You are an amazing girl and a phenomenal big sister. I love you!
