The Priest Clan: September 2009

Today is our precious Lorelai's 4th birthday. How time flies, I just don't believe it!

All in the same breath, the past four years seem so long, but still so short. She's only turning four... not 10! But it still feels like it's been a lifetime. When I try to think back to when she was a baby, it's hard. We have pictures and videos, but my internal memory for that time in her life seems to be replaced with all the newer images and conversations. It makes me very thankful that I have kept this journal from the very start. Even though I don't document every little thing, I at least have something, which is more than I have from my childhood. It's not only for me that I write, but it's for family and friends and especially, it is for Lorelai.

She has become such a sweet girl - no longer our little toddler. She is very independent and VERY particular. Everything has to be blue because "it matches her eyes." At dinner, Felicity gets the pink (or green or purple) bowl and Lorelai gets the blue bowl. If it is not this way, you are most certainly going to hear about it. If there is not a clean blue bowl, Lorelai takes the color she most desires and assigns the remaining bowl to Felicity. And the spoon/fork has to be the same color as the bowl. If there is no matching color spoon/fork, Lorelai takes it upon herself to pick the one she wants and assigns the remaining color to Felicity. I suppose that's how it goes... The big sister gets first dibs on everything? :) Shane will sometimes interchange the tops to their cups, so that the colors are mismatched (pink top on a blue cup, purple top on a green cup, etc.), and this really, really, really upsets Lorelai. Sometimes it even brings her to tears because it just isn't right! I often wonder if I'm spotting signs of early OCD or if she's just a child with a highly sensitive attention to detail.

Her stories are getting more and more elaborate... they go on and on and on, she'll run out of breath, breathe quickly, and then keep going, and going, and going. She will recount the days events, or even events from several days ago, with unbelievable accuracy. She is learning her city/state and now we need to get her to learn her address and phone number.

As of about a month ago, she can swing on the swing with great success. She would have been able to do it some time ago, but we never anchored the swing set into the ground and always cautioned the girls to swing slow and not very high. But, over Labor Day weekend, Shane rigged up an anchor system and she has gotten on with her swinging skills! She goes as high as it will go. She is even learning how to hang upside down from the trapeze and flipping over. All the more reason I think she would get more benefit from gymnastics.

Her imagination is really taking off. When she is driving around the yard in her truck, she will go places, whether it's to school, the grocery store, or to visit someone. She and Felicity love to play the 'Ice Cream Truck' game. They pretend they are working at an ice cream stand and we order ice cream from them. More often than not, they are out of something we want and we have to order again until we finally name something they have. They walk over to us and hand over the imaginary ice cream. If we ask how much we owe, Lorelai usually says something to the effect of, "Twenty-thirty," and Felicity once said, "Too much!"

She is quite the little mommy to Felicity and Lathel. With Felicity, she plays mommy by 'reprimanding' Felicity for certain things. With Lathel, she likes to give him his pacifier, make funny faces to make him smile, and likes to take over whenever I am feeding him solid foods.

We are still trying to work with her on [not] sucking her fingers, but as long as they're there, it's instinct for her to want to suck them, especially at night. We try to bring it to her attention without creating negative feelings, but it doesn't seem to be working. I think I need to do some research on the internet to see what I can find.

The plan for the evening is to sit around the fire pit cooking hotdogs and roasting marshmallows by themselves or for making S'mores. No-frills, just mellow time with family. Tomorrow we will take her to Toys 'R Us so she can pick out her gift from Grandma and Grandpa Priest. Aunt Mandy gave Lorelai $10 in the card we got in the mail on Wednesday. We are actually going to follow Dave Ramsey's plan and put it into a jar (broken down into $1s for visual effect), so she can start to understand the concept of money and what it means to save and spend.

My how she has grown!