(For those that like to read blogs and not just look at pics, I apologize. Blogger wouldn't let me make paragraphs for some reason. Even though I made multiple paragraphs when creating this post and retried a few times, upon publishing, the typed part would always appear as one long paragraph. Perhaps because the typed portion is "a little" long. :) I put in asterisks to break up the typed portion a bit.) ****Can it be? Amaya is now four. No longer a baby. No longer a toddler. Now a kid, a child. Growing up and on her way to independence. She is already striving for that. Amaya likes to do things for herself. "I can do it" is a phrase we hear frequently. She doesn't want help. ****She also has a clear idea about what she wants to do and when. When that differs from what mom or dad wants her to do, she will debate the issue with determination and fortitude. She doesn't give up easily. We have to be strong and unrelenting so that Amaya doesn't take over the roles of CEO and CFO of the household. But trust me, somedays it is hard not to cave. Perhaps she will be on debate team when she is older. Maybe law will be in her future. Scott and I agree we wouldn't want to face her in court. ****She even makes sound and rational arguments when pleading her case. Example: me- "No Amaya, you can't eat your cupcake until after dinner." her-"If you let me eat my cupcake now, I will eat my dinner." me-"Um, no, that's not how it works." her-"How about one bite, then I can have my dinner." me- "No Amaya." her "If you let me have a bite I will be a good girl." me "If you're not a good girl, you won't get it all." her-"O.k. How about I can have the cupcake after dinner." She says the last comment as if it was her idea. Example two: If we are busy cleaning, making dinner, working on a project or something like that but she wants you to come see something or play something, she will say things like "come and play princess castel and then you can make dinner" and she will say come, come, come now, come, come while pulling on our arm or hand until we cave. In these scenarios we usually do cave because she just doesn't give up. She will pull and say come until the cows come home. And she knows by now she usally wins those battles. ****At four, Amaya enjoys learning about any and everything. She is a typical preschooler in that regard, asking countless questions everyday. She continues to love storytime and likes to "read" to us or her babies. She continues to work on writing her letters and numbers and can write her own version of her name. She spells it AMA or AMAA. It's crazy how proud I felt the first time I saw one her drawings with a AMA written at the bottom. I can only imagine how proud I will feel when she graduates high school. ****Amaya continues to enjoy swimming, dance, soccer and running. She loves the Disney princesses. Her favorite movies are Tangled and the Toy Story trio. She loves the whole Toy Story gang. She is a thrill seeker and loves roller coasters/rides. She has recently fallen in love with drawing and goes through reams of paper weekly it seems (slight exaggeration). Her fave foods are to numerous to list. So far the only food she doesn't like is bananas. She will eat anything else and lots of it! She continues to be very loving and sweet, but does have her moments, let me tell you. Though those moments are usually when she is hungary or tired...or wants something we've said no, too. She is definitely learning that no means no, though, and having a "moment" over it will only cause her to lose priveleges. So moments are fewer and further in between. ****We continue to feel blessed to have our little princess in our lives. She has caused us numerous smiles, chuckles, fits of rolling laughter and heart-melting moments. So many precious memories already. We are looking forward to another year of them. Each year just gets better and better. We love this little girl so very much! More and more each day. Here are some of our faves from her four-year pictures.
Sleeping Beauty: Children look so sweet when they sleep. Amaya doesn't usually nap, but on this particular day she was wiped out. She fell asleep at 5pm and slept until her usual time the next morning. Her usual bedtime is 730 or 8pm. She even stayed sleeping while we put her pajamas on. Had to be a growth spurt.
Scary monsters: Amaya has been having scary dreams lately. Sometimes we find her asleep on our bedroom floor in the morning. This is how we found her on one of those mornings...sound asleep with her head under our bed. Did she randomly roll into this position or was this intentional to hide from the scary monsters? I decided not to ask. Come daylight, it's best to let all thoughts and talk of scary monsters fade away into the sunshine.
Polka dot princess: Thank you Great-Grandma Keiser for this adorable dress. I love it!
