Happy 4th Birthday, Sallie Cate

My sweet Sal,

I cannot believe you are FOUR years old today! It doesn't seem possible that my baby is now a little girl. It doesn't seem like I'll ever not think of you as my baby, even when your little brother is born in a few months. You still like to be carried around, and a few weeks ago I asked what you were going to do when the baby was born and I couldn't carry you around anymore. You said, "Well, I'll just get Daddy to carry me." You are not quite ready to give up your position as baby of the family. :)

You are the most affectionate child I have ever known, giving us a million kisses and hugs every day, and saying "I love you" over and over all day long. You always ask "How are you feeling? How is the baby?" in the sweetest voice. You are very attune to other people's feelings and needs. You have a good memory and several days after Sissy was very sick, she called me phone and when you answered (you love to answer my phone), the first thing you asked her was how she was feeling.

Speaking of the phone, you speak very well and people tend to think you are Curran when they talk to you on the phone. I think you are even far easier to understand on the phone than Curran is. You have a pretty big vocabulary and use adverbs correctly at the ends of your sentences, and it makes you sound so old. The other day in the car, one of you was being impatient about something, and I said "Patience is a virtue, my dear." And you immediately said, "No, it's PERSEVERANCE!" Not sure where you come up with this stuff, but you make us laugh. At school mass a few weeks ago, a girl in your class interrupted the homily (the priest was standing right in front of the pews and your 3K class sits on the front row) to say she had "that Jesus book". I guess she thought the story he was telling about Judas sounded familiar. Anyway, you quickly piped up and told him that we didn't have any Jesus books at our house. I was a good many rows behind you, and I could hear you loud and clear. I was laughing hysterically while also wanting to crawl under my pew. :) I was just thankful it was a visiting priest and that he had no idea who you were. :)

You are doing well in school and seem to really like it. You know how to spell Sallie (we are still working on Cate and Quinn), but we really need to work on your handwriting. You are starting to be interested in writing your name, but barely. You are good at recognizing letters and started to learn letter sounds. One of my favorite times with you is on our drive home from school. You are always very quiet and spend most of the ride looking out the window. You talk about your day in a very quiet voice, and I always love hearing about what you are learning. You have learned so much in religion class, and I am always amazed when you perfectly recall certain bible stories, Stations of the Cross, etc. I would venture to say you know more than Curran where all that is concerned. Y'all go to school Mass about once a quarter, and I always enjoy being there too and spying on you from the back. :)

You are still taking gymnastics and are quite the little monkey. You really enjoy it but need to work a bit on your listening skills. You are also taking ballet at Children's Dance Foundation (which is really more Creative Movement and not ballet) and you enjoy that as well. Your first recital is coming up in May, and you love your outfit, of course!

You still love to dress up in princess clothes, but I would say you don't go through quite as many outfits a day as you used to. Your favorite shows are Peppa Pig, Bubble Guppies, and Lion Guard. You still enjoy playing board games and have really gotten into playing with Curran's American Girl dolls and her little toy princesses.

You can be very shy, but you are also very outgoing too, especially with strangers, which is interesting. You will ask their names and tell them basically everything about yourself. You love (most) dogs, and if we pass one outside somewhere, you are not shy about asking the owner if you can pet it.

We struggle with discipline with you. No one certain thing seems to work, and we have definitely have contributed to that problem, I'm sure, with babying you all these years. Gonna have to work on that. :)

I love when you laugh out loud at something funny on TV, I love how much you love your buddy Cooper, I love it when you kiss our noses and then rub it off, but most of all I love that our lives were so incredibly blessed when you entered our world four years ago. We love you beyond words!

Happy Birthday, Sallie Cate!

Edited to add your stats from your check up. You were 3' 3 3/4" and almost 35 pounds, both 50th percentile. You were so cute at your appt and did great answering all their questions!