5 More Months

Nadia will turn 4 years old in 5 months. Wow. Here are some recent changes with our sweet princess:

1. She's switched from primarily drinking skim milk to apple juice. Now if I could switch her from apple juice to water, that would be awesome! It started when she had a cold, and she rarely asks for milk (to drink) these days.

2. She used to sleep with LOTS of animals in her bed. For the past several weeks, she's only slept with Sweetpea. Larry used to be her favorite, and then he was her second favorite for the past year. He's fallen so far down the totem pole that she actually put Larry in Ian's crib! She also has been sleeping with these small plastic Disney princess figurines.

3. She's very excited that we're having another baby. When I told her yesterday morning, the first thing she said was, "God said yes!" We had been talking about how God might say "yes," "no, " or "wait." We shall see if God has answered her specific prayer that this baby is a girl.

4. She now wants me to leave Paul's office light on so that her room isn't totally dark when she goes to bed. I turn Paul's light off at 9pm if she hasn't fallen asleep yet (she goes to bed at 8pm every night except for Wednesdays due to Cubbies).

5. She is almost always role playing that she is Sweetpea's Mommy. She calls her "daughter" Karen.

6. She's made so much progress with learning some letters over the past month! She now knows EIGHT letters, and she's learning them very rapidly. I predict she'll know all of the uppercase letters within the next month. The letters she knows right now are A, B, C, N, O, I, W, and X. Way to go, Nadia!

7. She's back in the groove as far as feeding  herself. I'm glad she's out of the phase of wanting me to feed her because it's enough for me to feed myself and Ian while we're eating. I've also weaned her off of vegetables. She's doing a lot better with eating the hot food I serve for dinner. Because I've been working on self-feeding and eliminating raisins, I haven't been pushing the veggies lately. Veggies need to be a higher priority in the next month.

8. I read Charlotte's Web to her over the past month. Sometimes I'd wonder if she was listening (since she colors or plays with Play-Doh while I'm reading to her), but then when I ask her questions she is able to describe what I had just been reading.

9. Over the past month she has included Uncle Maurice in every single prayer she has prayed.

10. She's really been into puzzles and games. She can play Zingo without help as well as Candyland. She looks at the card and knows where to move her piece (even when she gets a double red or something like that).  Way to go, Nadia! She also enjoys playing Spill the Beans, Cootie, Chutes and Ladders, and Break the Ice.

11. She has a long way to go with learning to share with Ian, but she was a great cheerleader for him over the past month regarding potty training.

12. She's gotten over her obsession with wanting to wear a costume All The Time.

13. In the last couple of weeks she started to make progress with not sucking her thumb as much. She asked me to buy her something to help her stop.

14. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is now cookies and cream. She says her favorite desserts are raisin cookies and cake (or cupcakes) with chocolate frosting. It's really just the frosting she wants, ha ha. She's been enjoying eating some of Paul's white chocolate fudge.

15. Some of her favorite books lately have included: Peter's Chair, The Best Pet of All, her new VeggieTale books that we gave her for Christmas, Little Critter's Bedtime Storybook, Cinderella, and of course Bible stories. Before her nap and bedtime I read her a Bible story, and over the last month we've been reading through one Bible story book page by page (whereas before we used to jump around a lot). The first two books listed here are also two of Ian's current favorites. It's so exciting that now there are more and more books that they BOTH really enjoy! It's so special to have them both on my lap while I read a book.

16. I asked her recently whether she likes ballet or gymanstics better. She told me that she likes gymnastics better than ballet but that Cubbies is her favorite (and I hadn't even mentioned Cubbies). She can memorize Bible verses really easily for Sunday School and Cubbies.

17. Her fine motor skills have dramatically improved in the past month as I've been teaching her how to write letters of the alphabet and draw some shapes. She loves doing "schoolwork." She asks all the time if we can do some schoolwork.

18. Her puzzle skills have continued to progress. She can do 24 piece jigsaw puzzles all by herself.

19. Her favorite DVD's to watch lately have been her Gigi ones (by Sheila Walsh). Her favorite tv shows right now are "Max & Ruby" and "Miss Spider's Sunnypatch Friends."