40 Months Old

1. Nadia is no longer afraid of whales or of the story of Jonah!
2. In fact, the Jonah VeggieTales DVD is currently the one she requests the most often to watch. 

3. Similarly, a book she selected at a used book sale titled The Story of Jonah is currently her favorite book.
4. Her favorite CD at the moment is Princess and the Popstar (VeggieTales). I recently switched the CD's in the car to Christmas ones so that we can enjoy them for two full months. I love Christmas music (and am not a big fan of the Princess and the Popstar cd).

5. If I were making a book list like I did last month, I would have to add Ribbon Rescue and We Share Everything (both by Robert Munsch) to the list.

6. She's really into puzzles these days. I'm not saying she's very good at them, but rather that she wants to do them all the time. I feel like I am the one doing the puzzles not her if they have more than 12 pieces. She hasn't yet grasped the concept of separating the pieces which have an edge from those that don't.

7. Her most requested meals for dinner include pizza, pancakes, and french toast. One of the reasons she prefers these three entrees is because she knows I don't serve vegetables with any of them. She also loves spaghetti, but she doesn't request it because she knows I'll serve a vegetable with it.

8. Her favorite Bible stories are Jonah, Daniel, Esther, and Moses (in that order).

9. We own two Bjorn bibs. For the last few weeks she only wants to wear the blue one. In the spirit of "choose your battles," the red one has become Ian's bib (at least for now).

10. Her favorite type of sandwich is egg salad. She prefers to eat egg salad with crackers, but she will eat it as a sandwich.

11. Her favorite type of hot lunch is ham and cheese.
12. In the last month she's been very prone to mosquito bites. She didn't use to get any of these, and now she's getting quite a few that swell up quite a bit.

13. Thus, putting some all natural anti-itch spray on her bites has become part of her bedtime routine.

14. The routine also includes drinking a little water (one of the few times a week that she'll drink water), brushing her teeth, going to the bathroom, praying, and me reading her one book while she's in bed.
15. It was her idea that she kneel at her bed for her bedtime prayes, and she insists on being on the left side of me.

16. In her prayers she most often thanks the Lord for the following: Mommy, Daddy, Ian, friends, neighbors, animals (stuffed), curtains, and pillow. She thanks God for a variety of other things, but those are almost always included in every prayer.

17. While she sleeps she almost always pulls the bottom sheet off of the left side of her mattress. I have the opportunity to put the sheet on her mattress twice a day.  I'll be glad when she outgrows this habit!

18. She likes to have the following things in bed with her when she sleeps: two pillows (one must be the pillow Paul got her in Poland last year), one book (she'd take more in bed with her if I let her), and a few stuffed animals (she'd take more in bed if I allowed her to).

19. She also must have a myriad of tissues in her bed with her. I'll be thrilled when she outgrows this tissue obsession.

20. She pronounces most things correctly, but there are some words she hasn't mastered yet. One that always amuses me is that she doesn't pronounce the "y" in yard sale. She calls them "ard sales."

21. When we watch VeggieTales Ian usually sits on my lap, and Nadia sits really close to me with my arm around her.

22. She's usually in her bed for a nap for 2 hours (1-3pm) although she doesn't sleep that entire time. Every once in a while she takes a really long nap and is in her bed for 3 or even 3.5 hours.

23. She's usually awake when I open her bedroom door (sometime between 645-7:30am depending on when Ian wakes up), but she stays in bed until I open her door.

24. Her bedtime is 8:00pm, but sometimes it takes a long time for her to fall asleep. Last night she was still awake at 10pm!

25. She drinks milk all day long. She has had a few Caprisuns when we've been somewhere that they're serving them, but at home she drinks skim milk 99% of the time.

26. She almost always has cereal for breakfast. Somes days she only wants one cereal in her bowl, and other times she wants a few mixed together. I won't let her have more than 3 kinds in one bowl.

27. She still alternates which hand she uses when she's feeding herself with a spoon or fork, but she's pretty consistent in always using her right hand with pencils, crayons, markers, etc.
28. Raisins help her eat foods that she thinks she doesn't like.

29. She is obsessed with the color pink. It's definitely her favorite color!

30. She hates to have her hair brushed or shampooed. Lately she's preferred pigtails over a ponytail, which is fine with me as I love pigtails on little girls!
31. We're working on breaking her thumb sucking habit. She knows she'll get a new DVD when she conquers that habit.
32. She doesn't like to brush her teeth.

33. Sometimes she cries when she's going to the bathroom. I think it's because she doesn't drink enough.
34. She loves pretzels, cheese curls, fruit snacks, and most desserts. I have to limit her intake of these foods.

35. She enjoys ballet, gymnastics, Sunday School, Children's Church, and Cubbies. Her favorite of these five activities is definitely AWANA.
36. She can count to 20. She can usually correctly count a set of objects up to about 14.
37. It's very easy for her to memorize the lyrics to songs, Bible verses, the text of stories we read her, etc.
38. It's much harder for her to learn to identify things she sees - shapes, numerals, and letters.

39. She loves to play games. I must admit that her attention span for Candyland is longer than mine.
40. Several times a day she tells me "you're the best (or greatest) mom ever." Awwww...