Maliana ~
So you are FINALLY OFFICIALLY FOUR! As of this Tuesday, you turned the BIG 4! And by the end of the week, we had wrapped up your four year check up with Dr. Dan and your annual birthday pictures...so we are completely done. Whew! What a celebration!
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| we love our Dr. Dan! |
As for the rest of the week, speech went pretty well again. I do have a feeling it will be slow going and we all need to be a little patient but we’ll get there. We'll definitely get there! After speech, I took you to CiCi’s for pizza (your choice) and you would have thought you owned the place with how you strutted around and eventually boogied in the booth (completely in your own world). You were in a GREAT mood, a nice surprise for a Monday. In spite of requesting pizza for dinner, you picked at your food like a mouse, and when I tried to get you to eat a few more bites, you turned the tables on me by saying, “Mom, I’ve got a deal for you.” Hmmm…where have I heard that before? (It is exactly how I start off negotiations with you at mealtime!) Then, when I rejected your “deal”, the master of distraction in you began plucking at random things to deter me, such as, “I like the hair on your arm. Who got it for you?” (Wow! Seriously? You’re going with that?) I tell you kid, you are too much! I had to exchange some shoes at Kohl’s on the way home and to my surprise, you really got into shoe shopping with me. You were trying everything on, but we need to work on the concept of shoe sizes. You kept insisting that you needed size 3’s…even though you are clearly a 7 or 8. Why size 3’s? Because that’s how old you are (for the next 24 hours anyway)!
Once we finally made it home, you and I set to making your rainbow pancakes for your birthday breakfast in the morning. You had wanted to help, and I dare not wake you up at 5am to assist me, so we figured it’d just be best to do it the night before and then heat them up in the morning. You had a ball making these pancakes together. It was a great lesson in mixing colors, and you loved using the leftover batter in a squirt bottle to make all kinds of strangely shaped pancakes that you could eat immediately. It was a good time together and I think my favorite part was when you said, “Mommy, you my best pal!” So sweet.
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| mixing our rainbow batter |
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| rainbow pancake stack! |
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| 4! |
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| your fake smile, ha. |
Then once you were finally in bed, Daddy and I decorated the kitchen for you.
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| the birthday dinner gang at Red Robin |
In other big news, your first night as a four year old began in your bed, but then (all on your own) you got down in the middle of the night and came into our room. This is news because previously you had whimpered and then sleepily called for us through the baby monitor, but now you used your own initiative and came in all by yourself. As hard as it is to have my sleep interrupted, I welcomed your tiny little voice, smile, and body climbing into our bed at night. Eventually I’ll look back and miss these days, so I choose to cherish them now, sleep deprivation and all.
So, more big news at our house lately is our plan to remodel the kitchen. It always seems to end up as the place where everyone gathers when we have company anyway, but unfortunately ours is so small that we're practically sitting on top of each other! Throughout history, many fond memories have been made in kitchens so we decided we wanted to make ours more spacious, inviting, and just a more comfortable place to make those memories, and of course have more fun cooking. Uncle Ross has agreed to help us with this and so in the middle of the week, we met him at a showroom to pick out cabinets, check out countertops, peruse hardware, etc. Let me just say that you were a trooper! You were so well behaved and only whined a teeny bit towards the end since it was past your bedtime. I was thoroughly impressed!
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surprise!
you spooked several other customers by hiding in this lazy susan, ha. |
Over the last week or so, I have been reading an autobiography of sorts, “Life Without Limits” by Nick Vujicic. Nick is an inspiring guy who, in spite of being born without limbs, has overcome nearly every obstacle in his life thus far, and is a shining example of having hope, loving yourself as you are, and believing in your abilities and purpose no matter what your circumstance. He has had a long personal journey through a lot of dark times, but now travels around giving motivational speeches and bringing hope to all kinds of people around the globe. His story is pretty remarkable and his positive outlook is one I hope that you can develop for yourself in your life. I know you are only four years old, but I sat down with you on the couch and pulled up a bunch of his videos from YouTube so you could see this man and perhaps understand some of his message. If nothing else, it’s good for you to see someone who looks so different from you or me and realize he’s not really that different. This little time together provided us with an opportunity to discuss differences and similarities, disability and ability, being special and amazing just as we are, having hope, and learning to overcome obstacles in our life no matter how big. It was a great opener for what I hope can be a bigger life lesson as you grow. They showed a lot of clips of him doing everyday stuff, just without the use of arms and legs. It’s amazing to watch how he has adapted and discovered new ways of doing things that you and I take for granted. You loved watching him surf, go up and down stairs, skateboard, and type. And I had to giggle that you honed in on two things in particular in these videos…one, that he likes to watch Shrek (just like you); and two, that you pointed out, “Hey! He has a stinky foot. Just like me!” Ahh, out of the mouths of babes.
On Sunday, the weather was "out of this world" nice so, you, Daddy, Abby, and I all headed to the trail and the playground. You ran almost the whole way (amazing stamina), shooting any bad guys that happened to be lurking in the woods. Watching you running so far (for such little legs) and then seeing all the new and wonderful things you can do on the playground, along with your ever-growing imagination, Daddy and I wondered aloud about your birthparents as we walked home again. Which of your traits and qualities come directly from them? I wish we knew more. And while we may never know for sure, we are grateful for every single one of them.
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| destination spotted ~ PLAYGROUND TIME! |
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| racing each other on the slides...1-2-3 GO! |
Once home, you started up a funny little thing that you and I do sometimes, but usually it happens after school. One of us (typically you) will look at the other with an incredulous look and say, "I never ever gave you a really big hug yet!" And then the other (usually me) will say in all dramatic flair, "Well, let's fix that!" and then of course we give each other great big bear hugs. You kept doing this all throughout lunchtime. I have no idea how this all started exactly, but it's kind of our "thing" now. I love it.
What with all of the sunshine today, it was hard to stay inside, let alone take a nap. So, I decided to trick you just a little and got you to agree to load the jogging stroller with all of your naptime essentials and hit the running trail with me. It worked like a charm and you were asleep within 5 minutes. I got my daily exercise in and we both got more fresh air! I know we're probably not completely done with winter weather yet, after all this is Ohio. However, we are making the most of the unseasonably warm spring-like temperatures this weekend!
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| out like a light! |
Here's to more sunshine and family fun this week!
Love you girl!
Love,
Mama
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