It was bound to happen. With three older brothers and a house full of trucks, trains, and footballs, there is no way she would turn into a princess.
SuburbanMommy has been waiting seven years to shop for frilly dresses and hair bows. But no matter how girly she is dressed, Thing 4 just wants to follow her brothers. I see a lot of very pretty dresses getting very dirty in her future.
Here is Thing 4 as the best dressed basketballer ever.
Tomorrow marks the end of an era when Thing 4 graduates to the toddler classroom at daycare.
No more infant room. No more taking my shoes off to enter the classroom. No more filling out the sheet detailing when she last ate, last slept, and her mood for the day.
We’ve been in infant mode for pretty much the last 7 years. Bottles, baby carriers, pack and plays, spit up. It has become normal to us. I don’t remember life without it.
I won’t miss it a bit.
Parents try hard to pass on to their kids what they feel is important. They want their kids to grow up to be well rounded, functioning members of society. And they want them to have a bit of culture and style.
With three brothers ahead of Thing 4, SuburbanMommy wasted no time instilling important life teachings to her daughter. At just one year old, Thing 4 already has a genuine love for shoes. We often find her in the closet going through the shoes, walking around with them, and sometimes, putting them in her mouth (she’s one year old).
And now, she has also become very fond of Coach handbags. Much to the delight of SuburbanMommy who has never met a Coach anything she doesn’t like and has the closet to prove it.
And never wanting to be upstaged by his sister, Thing 3 is also partial to Coach bags.
Or, as they refer to it in politically correct preschool: Happy Green Day.
Here is Thing 4, dressed in green, enjoying a ride on her birthday present from SuburbanGrandpa.
We have settled into a new pattern with Thing 4. She has started waking up around 4 in the morning. She is wide awake and wants to crawl/walk around and play.
I guess she isn’t needing as much sleep anymore. Except, shortly after being wide awake, she is so tired, she’ll fall asleep anywhere.
This is what she looked like at 5:30 this morning, after getting up at 4:15. Passed out in the high chair.
When you are a fourth child you get a lot of hand me down toys. And when the three before you were boys, those hand me downs include a lot of cars, trucks, trains, and blocks.
So I guess this was expected. Thing 4 likes to play with cars. And bang on drums. And climb.
She does NOT like to play with dolls. She doesn’t just prefer other toys. No, she is actually *afraid* of dolls. Especially the ones that look like real babies. She cries until you take it away. We need to change this. So SuburbanMommy has already bought some to give for her upcoming birthday. We’ll see what happens.
As her personality emerges, we’ve noticed a lot of similarities between Thing 4 and Thing 2. Both are easygoing babies who thrive on being around people. They are happy, smiley, and entertain themselves with their own voice. Thing 2 is still like this but when you compare these videos of a recent Thing 4 and Thing 2 when he was about the same age, the similarities are clear.
Here’s a recent video of Thing 4 in her high chair.
Compare with a video of Thing 2 in the same high chair four years ago.
In the course of just one week, Thing 4 has gone from taking her first crawl, to pulling herself up and standing, sitting back down on her own (not always a given), and starting to shuffle her feet. At that pace she may be walking next week, when she turns 9 months old.
