Nadia will be five years old in exactly six months. Shudder. My preschooler is on her way to becoming a Kindergartner. That thought would likely bring me to tears if I wasn't planning to homeschool her. Whew. Here are 54 facts about Nadia - one for each month of her life.
1. She prefers to wear dresses, which is fine by me.
2. She says she doesn't like jumpers (which sometimes she calls "hoppers" ha ha), but the fairy/castle jumper is her favorite dress! I have to be creative. One jumper (that is made like a sweater) I call her "sweater dress" and then it's okay. I pointed out how wonderful the pockets were in a denim jumper, and then she wanted to wear it.
3. She would wear her princess footed pjs every night if we let her. Actually she prefers her princess nightgown, but we don't let her wear nightgowns in the winter because her bedroom is the coldest one in the house.
4. She is absolutely crazy about the color pink. Just call her Pinkalicious (or Gigi, the character created by Sheila Walsh).
5. It's been months since she's taken a nap in her bed. She still falls asleep occasionally in the car. When Ian has a nap, she has what we call a "quiet time." That is a misnomer. I should call it "room time" because it's anything but quiet. She either is chattering away (telling stories with her princesses) or is listening to a book on a CD.
6. She loves being able to run a CD player for music or books on CD.
7. She adores Oliver and wishes he would stay a baby. I told her that no one stays a baby and that everyone was a baby at one point. When I told her that I used to be a baby, she responded, "No way!". Ha ha!
8. She can't wait to become five years old because she wants to be in Sparks with Madeline (our neighbor who is 1 year older than her - they were in Cubbies together last year). She's disappointed though that they don't serve snacks in Sparks like they do in Cubbies.
9. Food is generally the highlight for Nadia. After she comes back from something (ex. Cubbies or VBS), the first thing she tells us is what food and drink was served.
10. She's very aware of girls versus boys right now. She thinks she should only play with girls (in Sunday School and such), listen to CD's that feature girls singing, read books about girls, etc. She tells Ian he's supposed to play with boys, but he doesn't really care.
11. She often reminds me that she's a Christian now. On several occasions she's told Ian that he has to pray and ask Jesus to forgive his sins if he wants to go to Heaven. Ian then starts to pray his usual "Dear God, thank you for xyz Amen" prayer. It thrills my soul that she is trying to lead her brother to the Lord (even though he's definitely too young to understand).
12. She loves to help me. Her current chores include: putting away clean silverwear from the dishwasher, setting the table, helping fold clean laundry (she's learned to fold washcloths and hand towels), making her bed, bringing down the small trash cans from upstairs on Monday night, and helping clean up the toys. She receives a smile on her magnetic chore chart when she completes these tasks.
13. She drinks milk, apple juice, water, and cranapple juice.
14. One of her favorite snacks continues to be pretzels and raisins mixed together.
15. Raisins help her eat carrots, green beans, and peas.
16. She would watch tv for hours on end if I would let her. She enjoys quite a variety of tv shows (the three stations they watch are PBS, NickJr, and Disney Junior) and dvds (Veggies Tales, Disney princess movies, Gigi, Hermie & Wormie, etc.). She enjoys selecting one DVD to check out from the library each week.
17. She loves doing puzzles. She can handle up to 100 pieces. We haven't given her one with more pieces than that yet so maybe she could handle more than 100 pieces. For some reason, the middle of the puzzle is easier for her than the edge.
18. She loves playing games, especially if she wins. We play memory, Candyland, dominoes, etc.
19. She is obsessed with princesses - Belle, Tiana, Jasmine, Ariel, Rapunzel, etc.
20. She can write 24 letters of the alphabet. The two she hasn't learned yet are "R" and "S".
21. She's definitely a Steelers fan. She says boys root for the Giants.
22. She still doesn't like having her hair brushed.
23. She's almost completely independent with getting herself dressed and undressed. I need to teach her how to do things like button and snap. She does come up with some pretty "interesting" outfits though. I should have taken some pictures of some of the combinations such as when she wore a a turtleneck over a cardigan. Oops!
24. She still sneezes huge strings of boogies out of her nose every day. I can't wait until this ends as it's really gross.
25. She often asks me to read Berenstain Bears or Amelia Bedelia books.
26. She's definitely a chocoholic. For example, she won't eat a piece of chocolate cake if it has white icing. It has to have chocolate icing.
27. She can eat carrots, peas, and green beans without tears if we give her some raisins to eat with the vegetables.
28. She loves to run around and play with Ian although the two of them also fight a lot. She has a LONG way to go in learning to share.
29. She is completely independent with getting in and out of the minivan. She opens the door, climbs in her seat, closes the door, and buckles her seatbelt.
30. She loves to sing!
31. She's getting very close to being able to do a headstand at gymnastics.
32. She's purchased two princesses with her own money thus far ($7.50 plus tax).
33. At McDonald's lately she's been having McNuggets (no sauce), fries (with ketchup), apple juice, and ice cream.
34. Her favorite flavor of hard ice cream is cookies and cream.
35. For breakfast she either picks a raisin bagel or a bowl of cold cereal. This morning she had scrambled eggs and gingerbread pancakes. Yum!
36. Her favorite meals for dinner include pizza, fish sticks, and pasta (spaghetti, ravioli, macaroni and cheese, etc.). Yesterday she ate a 6 inch meatball sub from Subway for dinner.
37. On Saturday the kids were introduced to the concept of a commercial as we watched a couple of Christmas specials (ex. the Grinch). They had to deal with them again today when we watched "The Polar Express" for the first time. She really, really doesn't like them! I muted the tv during the commercials because I don't think the content is always appropriate for preschoolers.
38. I asked Nadia which present that she opened today was her favorite, and she responded that she liked all of them. Aww.... It's very obvious that Ian's favorite gift today was the Larrymobile.
39. When she's sitting beside me on the couch she often reaches up and plays with my hair.
40. Last year Nadia used her AWANA shares to buy herself a very large present (a huge stuffed animal and a blanket) and small presents for Paul, Ian, and I (for example she gave me a ball). I am not sure if the change was from her initiative or if an adult guided her, but this year she bought herself a small gift (princess Pez candy) and selected nicer gifts for the rest of her family. She gave me two really nice pairs of socks, Paul a collapsible water container, Ian a book and Duplo Legoes, and Oliver a tiny doll.
41. She really wants a baby sister, but she's also nervous that either she'll end up with another brother and/or I might have another extended stay in the hospital.
42. She can now draw a stick figure and a few shapes. She's getting a little better with coloring also.
43. She still goes through millions of tissues and napkins a week.
44. She's gotten very good at her Leapster games. She can handle level 3 (most difficult).
45. She loves to paint, use glue, etc. She's getting better at using scissors although she still has a LONG way to go in that skill.
46. She loves to play outside, even in the winter. I haven't succeeded in teacher her how to pump her legs on the swing yet. I have to push her.
47. It's quite obvious she's a first born child. We have to remind her not to boss Ian around. The upside of it is that at times she helps him out. When I let Ian pick something, she tries to manipulate him to select her choice. Lovely.
48. I'm working on teaching her to count to 100. Most of the time she can count at least to 40 without mistakes.
49. She loves her grandparents oh so very much!
50. Her princesses and her dragon pillow are her most prized possessions.
51. We're going to have to break out the thumb guards again as this habit is not going away easily.
52. At the end of taking a bubble bath with Ian and Oliver she likes me to turn on the shower to rinse out her hair.
53. She enjoys ballet/tap and gymnastics, but she still likes Cubbies the best.
54. Although she's not as affectionate as Ian, she does love hugs and kisses.
In 2011 I organized my goals for the year through a new schedule. I was thinking about my schedule as I was writing my goals for 2013 yesterday. This is by no means set in stone, but here are my thoughts at the moment.
While Oliver takes his morning nap (which sometimes is his only nap such as yesterday he napped from 11am-1:30pm and then was up until 8pm), this is my best opportunity for "schoolwork" with the kids as well as doing crafts.
Although this might be the general plan, flexibility is KEY. Oliver only slept 9 hours last night. His norm is 10 hours, and the longest he's slept is 11 hours. Usually if he gets up too early, I put him back down after feeding him (which takes an average of one hour), and he'll sleep another 60-90 minutes. I don't count that as a nap. That was my plan this morning since he got up at 5:00, but Ian woke up at 6:15, and Paul had left for PSU a couple of hours before that. Ian needs to be cuddled when he first wakes up or he screams and cries. Normally it's easy to cuddle him because Oliver is in his crib. That wasn't the case this morning so Ian screamed to the point I thought he would throw up (even though I told him I was trying to put Oliver back to bed), and all that screaming made it impossible for Oliver to get back to sleep. Fun times! I finally threw in the towel, and kept Oliver up until 7:30am. That's very early for his first nap! Usually his first nap starts between 10-11am. In light of his Synagis shot appointment at 10:45, maybe it's for the best that he took a really early nap today. 
