April 14! - Katie’s 4th Birthday

Katie has known her birthdate for a while now – “April 14!” she’d exclaim anytime she was asked.  She’s been anxiously waiting for her turn to celebrate a birthday.  “April 14” couldn’t come soon enough.

Justin went to work a bit later than usual and prepared a special birthday pancake breakfast for Katie and the kids.  Katie knew it was her special day and she seemed to take full advantage.  She was able to watch a movie during Drew’s morning nap.  Play DS that afternoon.  She proclaimed she didn’t have to do any chores.  She wanted chocolate milk with lunch.  Every request or declaration was followed by "...cause it's my birthday!"  Thankfully her requests were all fairly reasonable and it was fun to have her feel so special.

We met up with Justin for lunch at Panera Bread.  She typically just eats off our meals, but for her birthday we decided to get her a kids meal of her own.  She chose mac & cheese. 

After lunch we headed home to clean up my cake decorating mess from that morning and start preparing dinner.  The kids get to decide what they want for their birthday meal and Katie decided she wanted ‘pasta with white sauce’ – fettuccine alfredo isn’t a difficult meal, but it’s a meal that can’t really be prepared a head of time.  We also had salad, breadsticks, grilled chicken, and broccoli – definitely not as easy as pizza, but it was yummy.  Most of the Fletcher family joined us for dinner and dessert.

As is customary we all sang “Happy Birthday” to Katie while Justin lit the candles on her cake.  She started blowing out the candles before we’d finished the song so Justin relit them so she could blow them out again afterward.

Katie got some pretty awesome presents.  We gave her some much needed sidewalk chalk and the Tangled movie in 3D.  Grandma Fletcher wrapped a gift in an old bluray player box.  When Katie saw the box she took it over to Justin and said, “this is for you.”  We convinced her there was something else inside and she was excited to find a cute outfit and the Frozen movie.  Grandma and Grandpa also gave her a big stuffed caterpillar. 

Her cousins brought her a gigantic stuffed chick.   That was one happy birthday girl and I think some pretty envious siblings and cousins.

So an update on Katie at 4…  

(sorry, it ended up really long, but she’s got a lot of personality and I don’t ever want to forget what my baby girl was like at four)

At her well child checkup she came in at taller than average (94th percentile) and thin.  She grew 3.5 inches in the past year, but only gained 3 pounds.  She is a skinny little thing, which is surprising because she seems to be asking me for food all. day. long.

Katie is a good little eater – when she wants to be.  She thinks her tummy is bigger than it actually is so it’s not uncommon for her to ask for more of something and not be able to finish it.  She doesn’t like to eat tomatoes or much lettuce, but she loves to drink my ‘green’ smoothies and eats lots of yogurt, bananas, and cheese sticks (staple snacks in our house).

Katie took me back to my childhood when I saw her doing this one morning during breakfast.

January 2014

I used to enclose myself with cereal boxes just like that.

We don’t eat out as a family nearly as often as we did when the girls were little, but Katie’s not missing out because she gets to join Justin and me when we meet for our lunch dates.  She really looks forward to meeting up with Justin during the day.

Katie is so patient with me.  She had Jason home with her all morning last year and then she napped in the afternoons so she usually had a buddy around to play with whenever she wanted.  Drew’s getting more and more fun, but I’m all she has during the day and I’m usually trying to get things done.  For the most part she’s pretty good about playing on her own, but she tends to want to hang out around me.  On this particular day it seemed she’d brought most of her toys into the office to hangout with me.

November 2013

Katie and Jason have played a lot of UNO this past month.  They play before Jason leaves for school in the mornings, they play when he gets home, they play before and after dinner, and up to the moment they have to get ready for bed.  During the day Katie and I play numerous games.  For a while there we’d fallen into a bit of a routine.  While I got Drew down for either of his naps she would prepare a game.  If she wins we play again.  If I win I get to get something done.  Thankfully, spring break brought with it a little UNO reprieve.

Katie also enjoys doing puzzles.  Sometimes we’ll bring down her little table into the office so she can work along side me.

November 2013

Katie’s favorite shows are Bubble Guppies, Dinosaur Train, and pretty much any movie.  If she gets to watch a movie I usually try for Letter Factory because then she’s at least getting some education, right?

Katie likes to doodle and color – her and Jason use oodles of my copy paper.  Katie also loves to play on the piano and knows how to navigate through to listen to her favorite songs and recorded music of her sisters.

Sadly, Katie doesn’t have many friends.  Maybe it’s a fourth child thing and a lack of effort on my part.  She’s had several friends since we’ve moved here, but the ones we were closest to have moved away in the last year.  There are plenty of kids her age in our neighborhood and church, but I haven’t been good about fostering those friendships.  Hopefully next year we’ll have enough friends to warrant a birthday party with friends.

Katie’s lack of playing with girls her own age likely attributes to her not doing activities you would typically imagine a preschool girl doing.  On the unusual occasion that she got into our dressup clothes I could resist taking a picture.

January 2014 – Isn’t she pretty?

Another thing I could improve on is getting this girl outside during the day.  Often there are kids playing at the park, but rarely do we go outside to play.  A lot of that is because Drew is napping.  However, if it’s a nice day she goes out with her siblings when they get home from school.

Katie is the only one in our family with her own room.  Abigail thinks that is a shameful travesty, but unless she can convince Carly to let Katie move into her place it's gonna stay that way.

Katie is terrible about picking up her clothes.  Her room usually has clothes all over the floor.  When I ask her to clean it up she claims she can’t and that she needs help.  To her credit I’m sure it isn’t easy for her to know which clothes are dirty and which need to be put away.  I guess her claim of inability works, cause I usually help her out. 

Katie has outgrown the happy-to-help stage.  She can still be a great helper, but she can also be completely unwilling.  One chore she still happily helps with is doing the laundry with me.  She’s not super fast, but she helps sort out the socks and underwear and can hang some of the smaller clothes.

Katie stopped taking naps last summer.  I don’t remember there being a period of trying to get her down and her resisting.  I think we just let it go with the craziness of having everyone home all day and a new baby to take care of.  She’s fine though without it and goes to bed now around 7:30pm (the same time as Jason).  This past week she told me she was going to rest on the couch.  I think it’s been months since she’d taken a nap.

Katie will wake up during the night crying probably on a weekly basis.  We aren’t sure what causes these night wakings.  We usually go to her (shh, sleeping baby!) and when we ask what’s wrong she’ll mumble something about bears, storms, or friends that have moved away.  She’s getting better at calming herself down quick enough that we don’t need to come in, but it’s been a weird thing for us to deal with.

Katie is good about brushing her teeth.  She’s been cavity free.

Like all my children Katie is shy.  Near the end of last year her nursery teacher made each of the kids a cute flower with a photo of the child’s face in the middle.  When they tried to take a picture of Katie she refused to smile.  They said they took several shots but each time got a scowl.  Which is so funny to us because she is so happy and smiley at home.  I wish I would have asked for her flower when she advanced in January so I could keep it as a memento.  Instead I have a picture of a snowman project they made in nursery.  

I’ve mentioned this before, but it remains true.  Katie has the best manners in our family.  She says ‘your welcome’ pretty much every time anyone says thank you.  She’s also good about saying ‘thank you’ but could use a little improvement on saying ‘please’. 

Katie is loving.  She declares her love daily for each member of her family.  I don’t think I’d be exaggerating to say that lately she tells me hourly that she loves me.  She freely gives kisses and hugs.  She’ll often come and sit by me and give me a big kiss on the cheek and tell me she loves me.

We sure love her too!

Happy Birthday Katie Batie!