Seriously, You're 4?

Dear Parker,

Well.  You are officially older than I can handle.  Three and under was alright.  You were still a baby.  Nobody can say that a 4 year old is a baby.  I can't believe it has been 4 years since you came into our lives.  It feels like both forever and yesterday.  I think you had a pretty good birthday.  We had your party a couple of weekends before.  You chose a Super Why theme.  It was pretty fun.  Your Mom made an episode for you, Alex and Grace to be characters in.  Grandma Sharp made you super capes so you could transform.  I had a good time.  I think you did as well.

On your actual birthday, we opened one gift in the morning (the Annie Soundtrack) and then headed off to school.  You had a great day at school.  You got to wear a birthday crown and got a special Oreo cookie at lunch.  We went to dinner after school, came home opened presents and had cake.  You were a little cranky at dinner, but then perked up after you got some food in you.  It was a good day.

Today, we got your 4 year photos taken.  You had such a meltdown this morning.  You have these mosquito bites (which for you are horrible - they swell up to the size of your fist and appear to be painful) and you didn't sleep long enough.  I thought things were going to go horribly.  I'm not sure they were fabulous, but not horrible.  I hope we were able to get a couple cute ones from the bunch.  Anyway, you were going to wear a jean skirt, but your legs are disgusting right now (see above comment about mosquito bites) so we decided to wear jeans instead.  Holy Cow. You put on the jeans and suddenly you looked 13 years old.  It was crazy.  Stop growing up.  (Well, I'd be fine if you could grow out of the whining phase you are in, but beside that...)

Anyway, we have a pretty big week.  You have your 4 year well child visit Monday (lost of shots - sorry) as well as ballet.  Wednesday, I get to come to school with you for a bit in the morning and Friday is the Orchard Family Festival.  Then, Saturday, Mommy and Mom have to go to some swanky Orchard thing and you get to go hang with your current crush, Keegan, and your big kid friend Bailey.  I think you are going to be wiped out!

Here are some pics from your party and your birthday.  I love you, Parker.

Love,

Mommy

Very excited about your presents!

Transforming into a Super Reader

Check out this fan!

The Big "0-4"

Cupcake.  Nom. Nom. Nom.

Mommy and Parker at birthday dinner

You, Mom and your silly faces

Posing with some presents

Getting ready to sing and blow out the candles!

A Whole New Outlook

Dear Parker,

I am so incredibly happy.  We have found the perfect place for you.  You don't cry or get upset in the morning, you don't want to leave in the afternoon (even after being at school for nearly 9 hours), you have made friends (even if you can't remember all their names yet.)  At the end of the day you are happy - not exhausted and cranky.  You have an entirely different relationship with school than you did in June.  Maybe it's because you are 2 months older.  Maybe it's because The Orchard School is absolutely wonderful and it's the perfect fit for you.  I don't know entirely, but I know that on your 3rd day of school - after a weekend - you gladly hopped out the car on the curb to walk inside the building with a woman you had never met.  You weren't sad.  You didn't do it because I asked you.  (I was going to trek you in in the pouring rain even though I would have been late for school.)  You volunteered.  You gave me a quick hug and said, "Have a good day, Momma."  Then you were off.  Today, I walked in to pick you up.  You gave me a hug, but then said, "Can we stay? I want to sit on the circle rug."  Primrose gave you a great foundation for loving school, but this place is perfect.  I'm sure it won't always be smooth sailing, but right now, I could not be happier with the way things are going.  I'm SO proud of you for being such a big girl and adjusting so quickly and so well to your new school.

Here are some pics from the beginning of your year.

Proudly showing off your bag of pink rice for the sensory table

1st Day of School at Orchard!

You and Mrs. Foley on the first day

In a World of Pure Imagination

Dear Parker,

You have always had a good imagination, but lately it just seems out of control.  You spend all day pretending to be Allie's Mom (well, usually.  Sometimes, one of us has to be her Mom so that you can be someone else.)  You take her to the zoo, buy food there, go to see fireworks, change her diapers, take her to the doctor, to school - the possibilities are just endless.  Sometimes, you are the teacher or your own classroom.  I believe your children are: Cruter, Holly, Jolly, Polluter, Papooter, Allie and Leah.  Your children are never well behaved.  They fight and hit all day long.  (This concerns me a little.)  You stay in your persona all day long.

In the past couple of days, you have added in performing. You have been huge into making up your own songs lately, but since your recital, you are all about performing.  Tonight you put on a recital for us (complete with ballet shoes and one tap shoe since the other one was FAR too small).  You sang your own made up songs to go with your "dances."

Also, you have turned the Santa's Elves are watching thing against us.  Every time you do something good, you stop, get very serious and say, "I think I just saw an elf!  I bet he is going to go tell Santa I did _____."  Interestingly enough, the elves never show up when you aren't making the best choices.  Too smart, little girl.  Too smart.

Although, it can often get a little irritating when we are forced to participate in these elaborate worlds for hours on end, they are pretty hilarious.  You are pretty hilarious.  You are such a funny kid and I love spending this summer time with you.

3 more weeks. :-(

Love you so much,
Mommy

The Dance

Dear Parker,

When you moved to the Primrose School in February, you were very sad that they didn't offer a dance class at school.  So, I called up the dance studio that came to your old school and inquired about classes.  I was very hesitant, but we signed you up.  It has been a roller coaster ride.  The class meets at 7pm on a Monday night.  During the school year, this significantly cuts into your time at home as well as your bedtime.  So, you are often pretty tired by the time class comes around.  You always are very excited to go, but don't often present your best self in class.  You aren't (usually) poorly behaved, you just sometimes prefer to stand and stare at other kids, parents or yourself in the mirror rather than dance.  This, of course, made me very nervous about your performing in a big recital, but the time came and you were PUMPED!  You had a dress rehearsal and you could not wait to get going.

Silly Faces in the dressing room

Your first dance, a tap number, was to Sesame Street.  You did really well.  You watched Miss April and did your best.  I was really proud and relieved that you actually did kind of know what was going on! ;-)  You also had a second tap number to the Oscar Mayer commercial.

"Sweepin' the Clouds Away"

Your ballet number was to the song in Beauty and the Beast where Belle is walking through the village saying good morning to everyone.

Looking all demure

I was most nervous about this number because you have to hold hands with the other girls in your class and occasionally you have to hold the hand of the youngest girl who is not always as concerned about order as you are.  You really struggle with that.  But it all worked out just fine and you, again, did your very best.  I was really proud of you.

I NEED 6 eggs

During the actual performance, the girl who came out first stopped on the wrong "x" and this confused you, so you sort of wandered around looking for your spot, but then just settled at the end since someone else was standing on your "x."  It was pretty funny.  You still did a great job and after you had finished your tap numbers you came off stage and said, "Let's go change and do it again!"  You had such a fun time performing.

Waiting to leave stage at rehearsal

Shockingly, you love being on stage.  I think that this is just one of many performance that we will attend of yours - whether it's dance, music or theater.  I think you will be on the stage again.

Backstage at the performance before the "Electric Parade" finale

I love you so much, Parker and your Mom and I were incredibly proud of the way you behaved during a very long rehearsal and performance.  Many of the other girls were just running around and not listening.  You did a great job keeping quiet backstage, waiting your turn and watching the other performances.

You did a great job.  I love you so much.
Love,
Mommy

Dear Parker,

I've been very bad about writing during the last couple of months.  Things have been so busy.  That's never a good excuse, but that is the reason.  So, here is my attempt at a catch up.  

I feel like you have grown up so much in the last couple of months.  You have started doing a better job of going to sleep without us in the room.  We are still working on it, but you are getting so much better. You don't cry when we leave you with babysitters or other people.  You venture off to play by yourself - even in new situations.  

You act out "Pinkalicious" all the time.  You have the funniest facial expressions while you sing.  You are developing the ability to exaggerate.  You were telling me a story about a girl at school doing something you didn't want her to.  I asked if you asked her to stop.  You responded, "Like, 17 times, Mommy!"  

Speaking of school.  Yesterday was your last day at the Primrose School.  That has been such an amazing place for you.  You have come out of your shell and become more independent.  You love school again.  I'm so grateful for everything they have done for you.  You are really going to miss your teacher, Mrs. Fredericks.  She was awesome!

You and Mrs. Fredericks on your last day

I was very proud of you yesterday.  You were able to tell me that you were feeling happy that it was summer, sad that it was your last day at Primrose, excited about going to Orchard in the fall, but also nervous about a new school at the same time.  That's some self-awareness, baby!

And, tonight!  You started to learn to read.  I think you are mostly "reading" from memory right now, but it's a good place to start and you are excited and proud.  Me too, honey.  Me, too.

Happy Summer!
Love,
Mommy

Spring Break 2012 - Chicago: Day Two

Dear Parker,

Well, you certainly started this day off bright and early.  At 5:45, you called for me and immediately asked if we could go eat breakfast.  I tried dragging you into our bed, but it soon became clear that you were not going back to sleep.  So, we got up and around and down to breakfast early.  (You were very excited about breakfast.)  We came back to the room for a little bit and then headed to the aquarium.

We had to take the subway and you were SO excited. You were also a little nervous I think.  We got on the train and you wanted to know all about the different stops.  I told you what stop we were getting off at and every time they announced a stop you would tell me that this wasn't our stop and we needed to stay on the train.  Apparently, you were a pro already.

We got off at our stop and you rode in your stroller as we made the walk to the aquarium.  We stopped to look at the art installation of "feet" and you had tons of fun running and hiding.

The time at the aquarium was, at times, a bit harder.  We had to wait a decent amount of time to get in and you were clearly getting tired.  You perked up a bit when we got inside and you never had a meltdown or a tantrum and were very clearly having fun, but we often had to convince you to keep going.  You kept asking to go back to the hotel.  I'm glad we just powered through.  After seeing lots of river fish and the sharks and other fish downstairs, we saw the 4-D movie which you thought was amazing.  You kept reaching out to grab the things, it was pretty cute.  We were going to try to cram seeing some other animals in before the Aquatic Show, but decided you could use the rest.  During our down time waiting, you insisted on taking pictures of us and Allie and even took Allie down to the water to show her the whales.  It was hilarious and cute.  We had lunch and you perked up.  We went downstairs and you had fun playing in the water.  You had fun watching the penguins for a little bit before we had to move so the man could do his talk.  We went upstairs to see the jellyfish - which you LOVED and then decided that if was finally time to go.  We let you pick out a souvenir (this is vacation after all).  And you chose a pink, sparkly turtle that looks just like the baby turtle (well, minus the pink sparkliness) in "Finding Nemo."  Apparently, marketing is not lost on you.  You love it though - and named it Squirt, just like the turtle in the movie.

We intended to run to the Target (as I forgot to bring socks and neither your Mom nor I remembered toothpaste!) and head back to the hotel.  As we were walking, you passed out.  I have no idea how you slept in that tiny little stroller, but you did and that nap pushed you through.  We ended up going to get a snack and then coming back to the hotel to take a quick swim and head to dinner.  We went to Millenium Park first.  You loved the bean.  You kept running and running and running.  You started to tank a little during dinner, but held in there.  We came back and you asked to watch a little tv.  It was only 6:30, so we said you could watch 30 minutes.  At almost exactly 7:00, you just started crying because you were so tired and just didn't know what else to do.  We did a speed bath (I mean, you were already crying, so why not?) and you were asleep before 7:30.

You did such a good job today.  I know you were tired, but you didn't throw any fits or have any meltdowns.    I'm proud of you.  I had so much fun and I know that tomorrow will be just as much fun.

I love you, little girl.  Sleep well and long!
Love,
Mommy

Spring Break 2012 - Chicago: Day One

Dear Parker,

Today we drove to Chicago for the first day of our vacation.  You were so adorable all day long.  You woke up and were ready to go right away.  Once we finally got on the road, you made us take turns yelling out the fun things we were going to do and then everyone had to cheer.  It was hilarious.  You kept asking how many more miles we had to go.  You love looking at everything in the city.  You are like the crosswalk police - commenting on everyone who walks when there is no walking man and people who cut the corner off the end of the crosswalk to start heading the direction they need to go.  You are fascinated by the idea of the subway.  It will be really fun to take you on tomorrow.

Tonight, we arrived and went swimming.  The pool is a little bit jank, but you didn't seem to care.  We then went to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  You were quite unsure of the animatronic animals.  You would tell me to get away from them at first, but then you warmed up.  You never did want to get close to the crocodile again, but you liked the Cheetah and totally loved the Elephants at dinner.  You had a really good time, but were so tired.  You asked us to skip dessert and come home so you can go to bed.  I can't even imagine how tired you are going to be the rest of the week, but I think the fun will override.

You were really well behaved today and I'm hopeful that will continue.

I love you so much.  You were so amazing today.  I love you more than anything and can't wait for tomorrow!

Love,
Mommy