Life with the Leibrocks: Our baby is 4!

My sweet Brinley Joy, I always get intimidated when trying to start a post like this because I just know that I will not be able to sufficiently capture all that you are at this precious age with my written words. And oh how I wish I could fully capture all of the joy, laughter, awe, sometimes frustration, and incredible love that you bring to our lives. I wish I could bottle you up as I know you will never be this little again and I'd love nothing else then to experience these moments over and over again.

You have grown into such a wonderful little kiddo and your Daddy and I couldn't be more proud of you! I was extra emotional this birthday (I'm also pretty pregnant with your new baby brother or sister so that didn't help!) but turning four just seems to represent such a huge milestone for you. You're no longer a baby, or even a toddler anymore. You're a true little girl and it's so incredible watching you learn and grow.

I always tell you to "stay little" and you love it when I push on your head and try and make you "shrink." I've also tried reasoning with you and telling you that getting bigger isn't all that great and perhaps you can just stay three for always and always. (You weren't buying it!)

We are in the midst of some major house renovations so you got jipped a bit in the Bday department this year, but we still tried to make it special for you. You've also been much more aware of your birthday this year and kept telling us that it was coming up and wanting to add all of the toys you saw in TV and in your American Girl magazine to your "birthday list." It was cute, you actually sat down with the American Girl catalog and I told you to circle things that you wanted. About 20 minutes later, you had almost the whole book circled! You wanted everything! It's sweet to see you start to get into that as I remember loving all that stuff myself as a little girl.

The morning of your birthday I heard you wake up on the baby monitor and then exclaim "Oh!" and immediately run into our room and announce that today was your birthday. Daddy had gone into work early that day so you and I got to enjoy some birthday giggles and cuddles before we got up and got up. It was a really sweet time as I told you all about the day you were born, and so many other things I remember from each stage of life. You reminded me that you were my "little hand holder" as a baby and you love to hear about what you were like.

We then went downstairs for breakfast and I told you I was going to take you to the store to pick out a birthday doughnut. You were really excited about this but insisted on eating a yogurt first because you needed some "protein." We've trained you well, little one! ;)

When we got to the store you ran to the doughnut area shouting "it's my birthday" to everyone you passed. You also hadn't wanted to get dressed so mommy let you wear you PJs to the store.

Later that day, Daddy came home earlier and we all went to Valley Fair for the afternoon. You loved the water park the best (and tried to drown yourself in the wave pool, while laughing the whole time!) as well as the kiddie roller coaster and the spider ride! You went on the kiddie coaster with Daddy at least four times and the spider (big kid ride!) twice. I think Daddy got sick on the spider but you loved it! It's so awesome that you love all kinds of rides. It makes taking you to places like this tons of fun. You are definitely fearless!

We got home so late from Valley Fair that we didn't feed you dinner until 10 p.m. and then you immediately went to bed and slept in until 8 the next morning. Then on Saturday night we had a pizza party and Grandma Ann and Grandpa Rob's and you insisted it be a "bow" party so Mommy got Minnie's Bowtique decorations, complete with a balloon drop. Grandma made you a special butterfly cake which you loved. We sang you happy birthday and you were smiling so cute (proud and embarrassed). I got it on video, will be fun to watch as you get older! Grandpa also let you have two cupcakes and you were trying for a third before I reminded you about your surprise (balloon drop). It was really funny, you immediately left the table saying that a surprise was way better then a sick tummy from too many cupcakes! (See how smart you are? :))

Overall it was a great low-key birthday and I think you loved it!

Now more about you, and who you are at four years old!
- You are in lots of activities, this was your first year of dance (you definitely don't have stage fright!), you also like your swimming lessons (but enjoy playing in the pool more) and specifically requested that you go back and take gymnastics, so Gracie is bringing you on Thursdays this summer
- You are very opinionated about the things you like, especially when it comes to your clothes. You don't like lines or seams on dresses or socks and really hate wearing shorts. You always want to wear pants no matter how hot it is out! You can dress yourself but don't always want to. Sometimes you surprise us though and pick out all your clothes and completely dress yourself. You also hate the lines on the toes of socks and we keep telling you that someday you can invent socks with no lines if you want. Nana told you that they will "disappear" during the day though, so you think this is magic and that the fairies take all the lines away!
- Speaking of socks, you don't like to match socks and enjoy picking out two different ones everyday. It's your own quirky trademark, along with shoes on the wrong feet. You're getting better but this as been your MO for awhile now. :)
- Your favorite foods are still fruits, but you also really love your "treats" and taking the stool and going up in the treat cupboard and picking out a piece of candy or chocolate after dinner. You are very motivated to eat all of your dinner if you think you are going to get a treat. Overall you are a really good eater but you sometimes complain about dinner or that the food is yucky. But we keep working on it with you and you eat a variety of foods and almost always eat what we eat for dinner, which is great.
- Your best friends are Greta (from 'quels' house and Katie and Kiera from Prestige Preschool). You are still very social and love meeting new kids at the park to play with you. You are also sensitive though and get sad when bigger kids don't want to play with you. :(
- You enjoy being helpful and the other day we caught you sneaking downstairs by yourself to put flowers in a vase and "work in the kitchen." You ended up rinsing all of the dishes in the sink which was a big help!
- You've got an incredible imagination and always want to play pretend games with us. Your favorites are playing Barbie, Stacey and Chelsea with Mommy (you be Chelsea and I be Stacey, mom), Cinderella and her step sisters, or Clover, Amber and Sofia with Daddy. You can be pretty specific on what you want us to say and how you want us to say it so sometimes we make you mad when we don't do it right. But we love your imagination and creative side and hope you always keep that!
- Speaking of playing, you do great playing by yourself too and it's fun to watch you play with your dollhouse or "read" books by yourself. You love telling us the stories too and can even "read" the palace pets book all by yourself (you get most of the words right too!)
- You're also very artistic and love creating. You love to draw, color and paint the best. I love your pictures of people as they all kind of look like minions at this stage. SO cute though! You've also recently (within the last 6 months) started drawing pictures and scenes. Besides people, your second favorite thing to draw is rainbows. You line all the colors up vertically though vs. making a horizontal rainbow. :)
- As far as learning letters and numbers, we are getting there. You can write your name fairly well now, and do know the letters in your name. You point out the letter "B" a lot when you see it, but so far can't recognize or write the rest of the alphabet. We have an ipad app, ABC Mouse, that we have you play to learn all this stuff. We ask you to do your learning path but honestly, you'd rather watch PBS kids of toy videos on youtube. You love the Elysia and Annyia toy videos the best. They drive mama nuts but we do let you watch them sometimes...
- You also really love stuffed animals and your favorites are your dog fetch, and the kitties that you got for your birthday. You are an animal lover in general and always want to pet every dog we see. You also love all of the grandparents dogs (Harley, Birdie and Sadie)
- Your favorite people in the world right now are your mommy and daddy (to our absolute delight!) and you really really love our family. You like to initiate family hugs, family cheers or our secret family handshakes (thumbs with the "ting" or mommy's pink swear). I love these special things about our family and pray that we always stay super close!
- You got to Raquel's house three days per week and then during the school year you were at Prestige Thursdays and Fridays, but are now home with Aunt Grace during the summer. Every night before bed you ask what kind of day it is tomorrow and your favorite days are "stay at home days." If you had your way, you'd stay home with mommy every day (and mommy would love that too!)
- You still wear pull-ups at night, but have been dry most nights lately so we know you will in big girl underwear 100 percent of the time really soon
- You are very excited to be a big sister and insist that you are going to be a big helper (which we know you are). The whole time I've been pregnant you've wanted it to be a girl but recently you've said that it's okay if it's a boy too. :) Boy or girl, I know you're going to adore this little one and I can't wait to watch the two of you grow together!

Oh Brinley Joy, you are such a wonderful, loving, caring, kind and spirited little girls and mommy and daddy couldn't love you anymore! You are the absolute joy and light of our lives and being your mommy has been the best thing that I've ever done. My fervent prayer every day is that God will grant us many, many, many, many more years as a family and that you will grow to all that He intends you to be! I want nothing more than a happy and fulfilling life for you. God bless you sweet girl!