Four!

I can hardly believe my big girl is four years old today. It seems like just a blink of the eye - and yet forever at the same time - since that day when Joe and I drove with nervous excitement to the hospital for a planned c-section. There have been so many sweet moments, and fun ones, and yes many many hours of insomnia and slogging through since then.

Now we arrive at four, and it is not so bad. She rides the bus to school, she loves ballet lessons, she walks nowhere without her signature jumping, dancing skip. She loves to make rude noises from raspberries to belches, and anything else she can think of to get my goat. She will gently hug her sister, or sometimes knock Sophie down either on purpose or by accident. She does not eat tomatoes, but is still far less picky than most kids we know. Julie's favorite word is "Why?" and she uses it at least 100 times a day. She can hardly stand to have her hair combed, but will still sometimes ask me to put it in "barraids". We have our good days and our bad days. Thankfully today was a very good one.

She woke up this morning and bounded out of bed asking "Am I four today?" and I answered "Yes, baby, and every day from now until your birthday next year. Then she wanted to know if she could open her present NOW (not till after dinner) and whether she was getting a yo-yo. (No, sweetie, you're not getting a yo-yo today, but I'm not going to tell you what it is because it's a surprise.)

She came home from school wearing this awesome birthday hat she made there:



The teacher called me this afternoon to thank me for sending along birthday treats, and to explain that she had planned a cut-out birthay crown for the project, but Julie had insisted on this giant cone for a hat instead. I told her "that's my Julie for you." Julie loves to make cone-shaped birthday hats. By the way, we are loving our new teacher so far this year.

The doorbell rang not long after Julie came home, and it was the mail carrier with a long triangular box. Inside was the umbrella that I hadn't been sure would arrive on time, so I let Julie go ahead and open it as a bonus birthday gift. She was....



pleased.



We went to ballet class later in the afternoon, and Julie behaved herself a little better this time. Still, that teacher is a saint. I think I may have to plan a little knitting project for her Christmas gift. Maybe some leg warmers. Or something.

Joe came home and we went out to dinner - Julie changed her mind about ten times before she decided on hamburgers at the Edina Grill, and we all enjoyed it. We came home and served up some of Joe's left over birthday cake that I'd kept in the freezer. It tasted fine, and Julie will get her own much fancier cake on Sunday.



Finally, it was time to open her present. I was worried that she'd be disappointed that a)it wasn't a yo-yo and b)it was something as practical as pajamas that she needed anyway.



But they were purple Hello Kitty pajamas, already washed so that she could wear them tonight, and she was thrilled. Whew!

I've been doing little things to get ready for Sunday's party here's my little assembly line of goodie bag stuffings...



Everyone gets a new yo-yo, along with a bunch of other plastic junk, some stickers and a fruit leather. Julie still doesn't get to eat much candy - I think she's now had one lifesaver and two starlight mints total ever. No way we're going to sugar up all her friends on top of pizza and cake. Julie will get a bag too, and therefore will be the proud owner of a new yo-yo of her very own.

Happy Birthday punkin' pie, Monkey, sweet pea, darlin' girl. I love you even when it's hard.