4 Years Old

My little Natalie-boo turned 4 last week. I can't believe she's that big.

She wants to be big. She is starting to form definite opinions about things, especially clothes and hairstyles. She only wants to wear dresses and leggings lately and she only wants her hair done a certain way--right now either in braids or half-up, half-down. It has been driving me crazy. She is just in that stage. I remember going through this with Elizabeth. She and I still have the occasional struggle but it's not as bad. I guess it's just 4 year-old independence. I'm trying to relax about things but I just wish she would wear some of these cute clothes she has.

For her birthday, she chose to wear the above outfit. She's got a white sweater on underneath (not on top!) a white t-shirt and her "school uniform" on. That is a jumper someone gave us for Elizabeth to wear to school but it was too small so it got passed down to Natalie. I just think it's funny that she thinks wearing a uniform is so great.

Anyway, she had a nice birthday. We had the birthday dinner (burgers, fries and strawberry spinach salad this time), cake and presents. She also helped me put up our Christmas decorations that day. That is becoming a tradition, too.

Here she is opening presents...

She got some fun stuff like a pretend school kit...

(they have been getting good use out of that)

...and a Dinosaur Train game from Lizzie.
And some more practical things like gloves...

...and boots!

She loved those just as much. That's one of the beauties of girls (at least my girls)--I can give them clothes or shoes and they are thrilled.

She also got some lip gloss. Here she is showing it to Daddy. Look at that beautiful face.

Her poor chin! She had the dryness from Utah and then also got a scrape which we covered with a band-aid that somehow left a rash.

Here we are singing to the birthday girl:

She was very specific in how she wanted her cake decorated and I did my best to make it happen.

We are so proud of Natalie. She is such a sweet girl who tries so hard to be good. She is a good friend and a good sister. She will share anything with Elizabeth (the video shows that it sometimes takes a bit of prodding :). In fact, I'm always telling her she doesn't have to give up everything to Elizabeth. She is a peacemaker. She is so sweet to her little brother. He loves it when she plays peek-a-boo with him.

She loves to sing and dance. She is mastering the art of making up her own lyrics to songs just like her dad. Some of them aren't half bad! She wants to do things well and gets frustrated when she can't do something, but she is persistent. She is excellent at folding laundry! It amazes me. It's a good thing, too, because it can be hard to get her to clean up in other ways. She loves to draw (except when a drawing doesn't turn out how she hoped it would). She loves to make patterns with colors. She is becoming quite the little reader and has some sight words. She gets tired of sounding things out and doesn't like to practice much right now but she will look at books and read with me for hours. She loves to be tickled. She loves preschool.

And we love her.