Sissy turned 4 today.
As I write this, my baby girl is fast asleep on the couch--too tired even to open her last two birthday gifts of the day.
At four, Sissy is tall and strong and smart and beautiful. She is sunshiny, feisty, and girly, and she knows what she likes. She sings lots of wonderful made up songs and loves to dance. She loves princesses and Hello Kitty and dolls and stuffed animals and all things sparkly.
Sissy easily keeps up with the older neighbor kids and begged Daddy to let her try out her purple bike without training wheels. She loves reading books and swimming and picking flowers for tiny vases and talking to Debbie next door. She loves grilled cheese and french fries and hardly ever eats dessert. She wants the first and the fullest smoothie but is always willing to share any of her treats.
Sissy has drawers upon drawers of fabulous clothes from Olivia and Louisa (more than she could ever possibly wear in a season!), yet she often declares she has "nothing to wear". Every day I keep my fingers crossed that she will just appear in an outfit so that we don't have to discuss what she will wear--mismatched separates and seasonally inappropriate combinations are the norm. (I always make sure to document as much as possible with the camera for posterity.)
I have become the mother who takes her child out in public without having brushed her hair...for days. Sissy loves to wear her waist-length hair down but hates to have me touch it. It's usually a battle I choose not to pick, even though I swear sometimes she is just hours away from dreads. She always looks darling anyway. If I'm lucky, her dad will offer to do a blow-out for her after her shower--she loves that.
Sissy loves concerts and plays and dance performances and has even gotten to attend formal tea parties with Minna and Aunty Em. She loves to dress up and wear her patent leather Mary Janes...sometimes she just wears her Mary Janes barefoot with her shorts...or whatever. She takes ballet and Irish step classes and loves to show everyone what she has learned. She tries to get her dad to do the proper ballet positions, but he seems mostly hopeless in that regard.
Sissy loves "Girl Time", "Ladies' Lunches", and "Special Daddy Time". She (mostly) adores her older brother and he is (mostly) very patient and sweet with her. (Today, on her birthday, she went to spend her birthday $2 from our neighbor Ellie and Snacks gave her $1.05 of his own money to add to it. He also helped her put together her new doll carriage from Kiki while Daddy was out of town.)
This past year Sissy did away with most of the baby talk that makes my heart melt--no more "fwoodies" (smoothies) or "Forgetti" (spaghetti)--but she did just show me that she was wearing her new "tambourines" (capris) the other day, so my heart still holds hope that she'll be my Little Girl for awhile longer...
We are so in love with our precious Big Girl whose "turning 4 birthday" is today!
Happy Birthday, Sissy!
