Life with 4 year olds

Rich and I are finding that there are new challenges with each age but in general, life with four year olds is fun. The girls continue to learn and grow at an amazing rate. I came home one night to find that Allie had written out the alphabet on the chalkboard. Before I could take this picture, someone went and made a horizontal line through each letter. Not sure if Allie was pretending to be a teacher or if one her sisters decided to mark up her masterpiece, which is a common occurrence in our house.

Yes, she did forget the M and the N and the J is backwards but still pretty good for a 4.5 year old.

Stickers are a popular item in our house so it's always a good idea to check your clothing items lest you be caught out in public with a sticker on your bum. I left these lounge pants on the arm of the couch for a few hours...

Dressing up and funny faces.

So let's talk about the door. This door in our kitchen is usually where the girls stand for photos. The problem now is that I can barely (and sometimes not) fit them in the frame using my 35mm lens. For those of you who may be deciding between a 35mm lens and a 50mm lens for your camera, keep indoor space in mind.

The girls love crafting and art.

We can leave them somewhat unattended with scissors, glue, paint and markers (washable, of course) now. They have actually never been naughty with any of those items. (Knocking on wood.)

Allie's artwork is becoming more and more detailed.

So here's a challenge that we are currently facing. Anna has known how to spell her name for a long time now but she has some difficulty in writing the letter N. Over the summer and leading into the school year, she decided to write her name as "A space space A" with someone else filling in the two Ns. Anytime I mention helping her work on the letter N, she becomes very mad.

A few weeks ago, her OT sent home sheets with Anna's name on it for her to work on. Anna wasn't too happy about it and fought me over working on it. Rich and I finally managed to calm her down and she did work on the sheets one evening. I wrote a note to her OT explaining the situation. Interestingly, she replied that Anna doesn't fight working on writing at school. She also stated that if Anna is upset over it, not to push her.

She is such a smart little girl and I can see her frustration over her hands not doing what her mind is thinking. Are there other parents out there with spina bifida kids (with shunts) experiencing the same issues? I still think she is average for her age in terms of development (we'll find out in a few weeks at parent/teacher conferences if that has changed.)

I'm happy that my four year olds still like to cuddle and snuggle with me. They think that the clothes I sew them are cool and don't know what Justice is. They say the funniest things like, "Maybe I should relax like I'm having a baby," when sitting on the potty to poop.

(I want to thank all of you who have been scrolling to the bottom of the page to vote for my blog. And for those of you who vote when I include the button in my posts. I appreciate the support and am VERY happy with my #2 spot.)