Grace and Hazel

Dear Gracie-

Happy Birthday!

Today is your REAL birthday, as we explained this weekend, not your “Birthday Party” day.  Today you are 4.  The day that Princess Belle AND Cinderella came to your house and did a puppet show (plus face painting and balloon animals) for you and your friends while your friends’ parents (and your parents) drank coffee (plus bubbly orange juice) in the kitchen, you were still only 3.  You got presents for yourself and for your yearly donation to the NICU and it seemed like something had changed, but you were still 3.

I had to look back at earlier blog posts to really see how much you have changed.  Watching you gradually change over the course of a year makes it very difficult to notice all differences.  Some you simply can’t see in pictures.

Your love of Princesses has not been replaced by anything specific, but you definitely have expanded your interests.  You still love Dora, bless her little bowl cut head.  I encourage other shows, as I have begun to dislike maps and monkeys in equal proportion and I root for Swiper.

Anyway…you can write your name!  Even though you have some confidence issues about your “R”s, they are a family-favorite.  Your “E”s show an enthusiasm that brings with it horizontal lines WELL beyond the requisite 3.

In addition to your name, you LOVE to draw.  You have moved beyond scribbles (scribble-scrabble, as you call it) and coloring things in, to drawing stuff.  For example…

…this is Hazel…

…and this is you…

You also love to draw hearts, rainbows, rainbow snakes, flowers, dragonflies, clouds, the sky and dirt.  Sometimes rocket ships.  You don’t always agree to draw things I ask, citing your lack of ability.  You still don’t realize that there is no wrong answer.  You are amazing and anything you draw only requires an explanation and you will have NAILED it.

You are also getting good at coloring things in…

Needless to say, you like girlie stuff. Thus, you enjoy the occasional manicure, when Mommy has cause for bribery or justifying her own.

Your food tastes are not quite as colorful as your pencil choices.  Your current favorites are “big chicken nuggets”—these are breaded chicken breasts that your Mommy wants the world to know are NOT chicken nuggets, but we want you to believe that they are—pizza, noodles and peanut butter sandwiches. You have eschewed jam out of what must be sheer stubbornness.  You recently ate a number of grilled shrimp that I insisted were made of chicken.  You also like pumpernickel bagels, but only after I explained that “pumpernickel” is a kind of chocolate.  Before that, you liked “chocolate bagels”.  Strangely, you also prefer your corn straight from the freezer over the recipe that requires a minute or two in the microwave.  We call this dish “frozen corn”.  You always enjoy crushed ice for dessert.

Your Mommy has high expectations for you in the fashion realm, based on your ability to choose interesting and fun color combinations for your dress-able sticker dolls and your experience picking my dress shirt every morning.  Good luck with that.

You have recently discovered the library and proudly signed your own name to the card application.  You quickly discovered that your could get innumerable books AND access to a vast collection of movies starring a scary-looking animated Barbie.  Yay, education!

I could go on and on, but it will be my bedtime soon.  I need my rest, because at 6:15, when your clock glows green, I can expect the thump, thump, thump of little 4-year-old feet ready to start the day.

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Love, Daddy, Mommy, Hazel and Lincoln.

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