-  Hishgraphics  -

22 Jul '12 - 1040 W, 17 I 48 Months (a.k.a. Fourth Birthday)

The big day arrived! Yaya is four years old, officially! Unbelievable!

It feels like Yaya cannot possibly already be four. Didn't we just bring her home from the hospital last month? I guess time flies when you're having fun.

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

So her birthday came along a week after her birthday party. We had another busy month. It does seem to be that Vin and I sort of hibernate during the winter months, not doing too much if we could help it, but come the summer we seem to explode with activity! This past month we went to Bloomington, IN to visit the IU Campus and for Vin to attend a DVD launch party, and then a weekend trip to Vin's hometown of La Porte, IN for a class party, and then to hang out with Becky in Elkhart. Adik is getting his feet wet with all the road trips. Yaya, of course, is a seasoned traveler and a 4-hour drive is easy-peasy!

Food status: NO change! Despite her assurance that she would try more things when she's four, it's not quite true. Apparently she is still not ready. What are you going to do... We will wtill keep offering her food and accepting her refusals as gracefully as we can, but the toastivore lives on.

Potty training status: same. Dry diapers at night at home. No diapers in the hotel with no accidents so far. All location and outfit coordinated. One day!! *shakes fists at the heavens*

Swimming lessons went swimmingly and are over now. Yaya did well. Her directives from last month, she did start listening a little better to the teacher, but she doesn't seem to do group learnings well. Meaning if the adult isn't talking to her and her alone, her mind wanders. Group instruction becomes a challenge then. She did love swimming lessons and we will sign up for the next class soon. On sucking pool water from her "straw" (floatie strap dipped in water and sucked on over and over) we did not win this one. The girl drank a bunch of pool water via the "straw". Grrrrr. But she seems very confident in the pool now and able to kick and splash her way around (with her arm floaties on) never worrying about being unable to reach the bottom. So far she still refuses to put her face in the water as she swims but everything else seems fine. She climbs out on the ladder and is ok jumping in the pool by herself. The lessons really helped her get that much more independent in the water.

The day after she turned four, she had her annual checkup. She measured 43.5 inches tall (110.5 cm) and weighed 47 lbs (21.3 kg) which according to the pediatrician is the height and weight of the average six year old. Ha! I wonder how that happened? She conversed intelligently with her doctor, discussing the differences between Dr Small's otoscope and hers at home (Dr Small's has a light and hers does not). She seems to have hit all the proper developmental markers for a four year old, so we are all pleased! At the end of the doctor visit, she was given 2 jabs which she took extremely well. She complained that "it pinched" but absolutely no sign of tears, and she got 2 neon green band-aids and a bunch of stickers. Yay!

Since this is her fourth birthday entry, rather than just going directly to the pictures of her taken throughout the month, I think a review of what the birthday girl did on her birthday is appropriate, no? We had a quiet morning and early afternoon, and then we bundled everyone into the car for a birthday visit to the zoo!

She chose tiger because it's my favorite animal - isn't that sweet? Well plus tigers are cool. Did I mention that they're my favorite?

You can't have a birthday without cake (or ice-cream pie):

Since she's still a toastivore and refused to eat her ice cream pie, her birthday treat ended up being "green chips" (Lay's Sour Cream n Onion potato chips).

She had a fun day, and was sad that the tiger face paint had to be washed off at bath time. Now for some pictures that I love that were taken this past month:

For some reason, the above picture reminds me of pictures of Hisham and me (ages reversed obviously, I'm the "adik") from the 70s. Although, Yaya has better hair than me.

I know I put the above on Facebook already, but I do like the photo.

It has definitely been a wild ride with you, Yaya! You have enriched our lives and brought so much joy and laughter into it. You are a gift from god and we can't imagine our lives without you. Happy fourth birthday, baby girl! On this auspicious day, we pray for only the best for you in your life. We love you, darlin'!

yop: that video always makes us smile!!

lil: oh, check out the flickr album and see if you spot those

sila - 25 August '12 - 23:51