All about Lily: Age 4

4 year check up:

Her height and weight are slowing down a bit(down 10 percentage points in each area, as compared to last year):
Height: 40.25 inches (60th percentile)
Weight: 34 pounds (41st percentile)

She may not be as tall as I once thought, but you never know. Since her pediatrician said that girls tend to follow their mothers, I'm guessing that she'll be an inch or two taller than I am. Here is my very scientific reasoning: Since Lily has consistently been above the 50th percentile in height most of her life and I happen to be the national average at 5'6", then it stands to reason that she'll be close in height to me, but still above the national average. Well, it makes sense to me:) So, anyway, my official guess is that she will be ~ 5'7" - 5'8".
 
Her vision is 20/25 in the right eye and 20/20 in the left. Finally, she also passed her hearing test. The doctor was also impressed that she hadn't been in since last year. She's a really healthy kid- Praise the lord!
 
*BTW: while she was screaming bloody murder during her shots, Sophie was sitting right next to her on the table happily looking at a book- didn't even look up once (so much for her compassion)!


Behavior/Personality:

Here are some adjectives that describe Lily at this point in her life: imaginative, creative, inquisitive, friendly, and GOOFY! Some days it seems like she fluctuates between quiet seriousness (like when doing arts or crafts) and extreme silliness. She is also very observant and usually describes her observations in great detail:) As she gets older, I've also noticed her becoming increasingly friendly and outgoing. In fact, it seems like every time we go to the play park she makes a new friend and if the child happens to be somewhat younger, she often ends up befriending the parent as well:)
Here are a few other observations:
She can be somewhat attention seeking and positive reinforcement works wonderfully with her for this reason. She also loves to use the same positive strategies with Sophie (partly because she enjoys imparting her knowledge and feeling grown up and partly because she knows I think it is cute). For example, I often overhear her saying something to the effect of "Good try Sophie, you almost did it!" or "that's just scribble scrabble but, I like the color you used." Gets me every time- so sweet!!!


Knowledge:

Lily has learned a ton of new things in school this year! She knows all the letter sounds and now is sounding out simple words with me at home using simple phonics books (ie- cat, dog, mat, sad, etc) and is recognizing some connector words(the, on, and, a). She can also count with one to one correspondance if she remembers to take her time, although sometimes she still gets a bit ahead of herself when she gets beyond the 'teens. She loves to paint and knows what colors mix together to make new colors. For example, red and yellow makes orange. She has also learned quite a few bible stories in school and remembers them in great detail. For example, after learning about Easter events in school she told me that Jesus was captured by the roman soldiers in the garden of Gethsemene and then was taken to the pilot:) I think she remembers them so well because they are fascinating to her, as well as perplexing- Oh boy do I have my work cut out for me in answering all of her questions!


Motor skills:

She is really quite a daredevil. She has jumped off of pretty much everything we own, can run pretty darn fast, rides her scooter (3 wheels) well and is learning to ride her new bike with training wheels. I think it will be quite some time before the training wheels come off:) She can also pump on the swings pretty well now, but when she is distracted she forgets to keep pumping, so I guess she hasn't really mastered this as a skill quite yet. In terms of fine motor, she can write her name and many of the letters- of course in a very immature manner. For example, her i's look like lollipops:)


Sleep:

Nightly sleep: 7:30/8:00pm - 7:30 am
Daily sleep:
at school:  2 hour nap from 12:30 - 2:30pm (her teacher says that she usually falls asleep within 5-7 minutes)
at home in her bed: 0
at home on couch (with TV on very low volume): 0
at home on couch (with soft music playing): 0
at home in mommy and daddy's bed: 0
basically, I've tried everything- she just doesn't take naps at home anymore, but she must take a rest!


Lily's favorite things:
1. Dressing up!!!! : She has dressed up as Word girl and Snow White about a million times. It doesn't stop there though. Here's a few of the most recent :

Random Super hero

Mouse (inspired by Angelina Ballerina)

notice the tail:)

Mary Poppins (yes, this one was completely her own creation)

Penguin (more inspiration from Mary Poppins)

her baby is hatching!

2. Drawing/coloring/painting- right now Lily is in a princess/superhero phase (if you couldn't tell). They are the subject of virtually every picture she has drawn as of late. Here is the best of her gallery of work with this subject matter:

Word Girl

Snow White

Cinderella

Beauty (Belle) and the beast

Jasmine from Aladdin

Tinker bell

Rosetta, Tinker bell's friend

Iridessa, Tinker bell's friend

Silver mist, Tinker bell's friend

Vidia, Tinker bell's nemesis

3. Stuffed animals!- Her favorites right now are her piggy (given to her by grandma at Easter), penguin, and three little horses given to her by grammy and bebop (Danielle, Mistic, and Fable). She sure has some very interesting conversations with her little friends!

Overall, she is a pretty cool kid and I love being her mama- most of the time:)