Sophie is 4!

Here is the latest on my precious little Sophie, now that she is 4 years old!

Stats (at 4 years 1 month):
34.5 pounds, ~43thrd percentile
40.25 inches, ~64th percentile
vision- 20/25 in R eye and 20/30 in L eye

Motor skills:
Fine motor- Sophie can write her own name and her sister's- you'll see why momentarily:) She is also starting to get the hang of cutting. Sophie's drawing and coloring have also improved significantly- both her teacher and her Sunday school teachers remark at what a nice job she does with her coloring. Her drawings of people look quite similar to last year, but with a lot more detail:)
Gross motor-Sophie is a great galloper and somersaulter:) She can pump on the swings really well now and is quite proud of this accomplishment. She is also learning to ride her first bike (thanks, Grandpa Bill!). Once she gets the hang of the whole looking where you're going thing, she'll be great!

School skills:
Sophie is starting to put letter sounds together. In fact, she surprised even herself when she read the word 'me' the other day. However, I think her area of strength is with numbers, as she is catching on to some of the same concepts that Lily is learning in school, such as coin identification and counting by 10's- much to lily's annoyance:) She is also loving learning new bible stories each week in school and she is really absorbing what she is learning. For example, she often reminds me that God loves everybody so, so much even when we disobey. . .

Personality:
I would characterize Sophie mainly by the following: Strong-willed, persistent, determined, imaginative, inquisitive, creative, loving, sweet and cuddly. The first three traits have gotten her into a bit of trouble at school on a few occasions, but I must say I'm glad that she has the courage to stick up for herself. Unfortunately, school is not a democracy and I think eventually she will learn to pick her battles. I mean, having to sit on the potty when you don't have to go (even if it is just for your teacher's own peace of mind) is not the worst thing in the world;) Moving on. . .She is definitely a mama's girl; in fact, when we are home she somehow always seems to finagle herself so that she is either sitting on my lap, or at least leaning against me, as well as gives me countless hugs daily.What a lucky mom I am! She loves her daddy a whole bunch too- while she also gives him lots of hugs, she seems to think of him as a great big play structure- ouch! Not to leave out Lily, Sophie will also frequently say, "Oh, Lily. . . I love you" in the most sincere little voice- what a sweetie- a stubborn little sweetie:)

Favorite things :
Color: pink and purple  -Say what!? Yep, green is no longer number 1, but I can tell she still likes green quite a bit.
Food: Meal- macaroni and cheese  Dessert- ice cream and  Vegetable- broccoli
Song: Away in a manger
Book: Madeline
TV show: Mike the Night  -No longer, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!- Yay!
Movie: Cinderella
What she wants to be when she grows up: Dentist

Favorite activities:
1. Drawing and coloring and any type of crafting! On the weekends, Sophie usually wakes up early and goes straight to the toy room in which she will sit at her "desk" and draw or color various masterpieces for at least 1-2 hours! Lately, her main thing is to make a card for Lily. This involves drawing a picture, folding the paper in half, then writing Lily's name on the folded half with a heart underneath. We have countless examples, but here's one of her better ones:

The front of the card- night sky with crescent moon

Inside the card- Sophie, Lily and mommy in a tent and daddy coming with plate of cookies

Back of card- Lily's name with pink and purple hearts

and here's one more of her drawings:

(Members of the Mickey mouse clubhouse holding umbrellas underneath raining heart clouds)

Here is an adorable video I caught of Sophie in action while crafting one day. I call this video "Hidden Tiger, Crafting Sophie" aka Sophie crafting while wearing her Chinese dress and tiger face paint- and singing her little heart out to boot! (the banging you hear in the background is Lily deciding to add some percussion)

and finally here is an example of how creative she is. We have some square pieces of tissue paper sitting around and she used them to make this cute little creature early one Saturday morning:

*I'd say that this favorite of Sophie's is by far her strongest favorite and is what she spends most of her time doing. In fact, I had to sit and think for a while before I could come up with other favorites. I guess this goes back to her determined and persistent personality!

2. Singing and dancing: As I've written and posted video of before(and above), Sophie loves to sing and that she does quite a lot- along to the radio, songs she learns in school, and various songs that she makes up while playing. She also loves to dance to music. She loves to learn Lily's tap numbers and can do most of them right along with her when Lily is practicing at home- it is so cute to watch!

3. Cuddling with her blankies and stuffed animals: This has been fairly consistent over the years. She loves cuddling up with her favorite blankie (over her head) and her favorite stuffed animal at the moment, which changes frequently. She continues to love and nurture her stuffed animals and neglect her baby dolls- just like Lily did!- I guess it runs in the family:)

From the words of her new favorite book, "that's all there is, there isn't any more."