Elizabeth at 4 years old

Elizabeth is 4 years old!

I need to write down a few things about what she is like at 4. 

Her favorite color is pink. It's ALL about pink here. She said the theme of her party is "pink." 

She LOVES to play with her brother. They can play really well together (or have lots of fights). It is really awesome to see them play together when things are going well. They make up all kinds of imaginative games. The messes they make can be very bad though...we can also spend all day cleaning things up! 

 Her favorite toy is play dough. She loves creating different play dough concoctions and our kitchen table is usually covered with play dough from morning until night. 

Art projects are also a huge hit. She could paint, color,  and do glitter glue all day long. If it's not play dough all over the table, it's paint! 

Pretty much all day, you can hear her humming and singing while she walks around the house and plays. It is so cute. Sometimes, she'll make up little songs and sing those as well. 

Her voice is still very loud. Very, very loud. Nathan's voice is so quiet in comparison. Sometimes, I can't hear what he's saying, but I can always hear her! It can hurt your ears! 

Her vocabulary is still quite large and she talks very clearly compared to most of the 3 year olds we're around. People tell me she talks like a regular 15 year old. It's pretty funny! 

She loves to hang out in just her undies. There are days when she only wears clothes when we leave the house. The minute we get home, she strips them off and is clad in undies only. 

We do a homeschool preschool this year. She loves to do that! She's learning a lot. She knows all of her letters, can count to around 20, knows her colors, days of the week and months of the year, and most of her letter sounds. Nathan is learning to read and sometimes I'll see Elizabeth with a book trying to sound out words since she knows most of her letter sounds. She likes to try to learn sight words alongside Nathan as well. 

She does pretty well with writing her letters too! She can write her own name and if you tell her how to spell things, she can write anything. 

She loves listening to books. Her attention span is pretty good. Some afternoons, we can sit and read books for an hour or even more and she listens the whole time. We'll go to the library and pick out 20 books and then just read them all. 

Health wise, her eczema is still an issue. It's actually a lot better than it was and she is scratching WAY less than she used to even last year. Her food allergies are peanuts and sunflower seeds. We've managed to keep those away from her for another year so no reactions! Her teeth are still good. She's lucky to not yet have any cavities. 

She's getting much better with her eating. Even from just a few months ago when she only wanted noodles and cheese and burritos. She'll at least try things she's not sure of now. Most nights, I can get her to eat a few vegetables and a lot of the main dish. She never used to do that! We've tried to limit morning and afternoon snacks and I think that helps. It's still hard to get her to eat anything for dinner that has onions or tomato sauce. 

She sleeps around 11 1/2 or 12 hours a night. She hasn't napped since about her 3rd birthday. I put her to bed around 8 or 8:15. She usually sleeps until 7:30 or 8:00. Sometimes when she's extra tired for some reason, she'll sleep until 8:30. 

She is still in a pullup at night. She's still super wet in the mornings. We're not really sure what to do! Jeremy tries to wake her up most nights when he gets home at 3:30 am. It's not enough though and she still wakes up wet both then and again in the morning. Hopefully when I write her "5 year old update" this won't be an issue any more!  

Elizabeth is still pretty easygoing and usually goes along with what we need her to do. She will fix her behavior quickly and doesn't fight us much and isn't too stubborn. She's way past having any kind of temper tantrum or meltdown. 

She loves princess stuff. Those Disney princesses are just everywhere so I've given in! She likes them more than Dora, My Little Pony, Hello Kitty, or any of the other "themes" aimed at kids her age. So far, she doesn't appear to be corrupted. She loves to play dress up and likes to put on plays and "shows" for me. 

I take her to swimming lessons twice a week. She likes that and is doing pretty well! We have fun doing our weekly shopping together at the grocery store. She likes checking out all the books for me at the library. 

She's still very attached to Mommy and I'm ok with that. She doesn't like to play at other kids' houses without me there- so any playdates are either here or I go with her somewhere else.