Avery at 4 Years Old

After months of asking, "How old am I today?" Avery is finally 4 years old.  On the day of her birthday I woke Avery up for school and as usual she was not too happy about it until I said those magic words, "Happy Birthday".  Her eyes opened wide and she smiled so big and said, "How old am I today?" which I replied "You are 4!"  She leaped up and gave me a huge hug.  Emily awoke and with such happiness wished her sister a happy birthday.  It was perfect start to Avery's special day.

At 4 years old, Avery is such a character.  She surprises us with the funniest statements at the most unlikely of times and with the silliest of faces.  Although Avery is the youngest she is not a pushover and does not let anyone boss her around, especially her big sister.  She is very stubborn and hates to say she is sorry when the time calls for it.  At this time in her life Avery's imagination is bigger than ever and she loves to come up characters to play and is sometimes the brain behind mischievous situations.  I have always bragged about how great my girls are and how they never get into serious trouble.  Recently that has all changed within a span of a week.  On one occasion while dad was out working nights and after giving the girls dinner I excused myself to change clothing.  I heard too much laughter coming from their bathroom and when I went to investigate I found water flowing out of the door.  It seems as though Avery got some dinner on her face and went with Emily to wash it off.  They began to play and got toilet paper to wet and wipe her face.  The toilet paper got soggy and clogged up the sink which filled up with water and ended up flowing onto the floor.  The girls thought this was hilarious and decided to splash around in it.  By the time I got there Avery was soaking wet, there was water all over the floor and walls, and all the towels in the cabinet under the sink were soaked.  On another occasion someone decided that it was a great idea to play with the salt shaker and pretend it was potion.  Both girls ran around the kitchen table shaking salt all over the floor.  At the end of it all there was a whole salt shaker's worth of salt on the table and floor and Avery got salt in her eye.

Summer school is coming to an end and Avery had to say goodbye to her best friend Michael Cox as his parents registered him in private school.  She was sad to see him go but they will be able to see each other in Religious Education class.  Her teacher Ms. Sami gave me a great report on Avery and said she is one of the brightest kids in her class.  Avery has always been a fast learner and she is very good at her numbers.  She doesn't seem to find writing very interesting and has fallen a little behind on writing her name.  When writing her name she always forgets the "e" and when I let her know it's missing she doesn't seem to want to try and fix it.  I have a feeling she will be great at math and less interested in the arts, although she does like to read and can recall details in stories very well.  At the end of this school year we have decided to let Avery go into Kindergarten with her sister.  If she doesn't do well we can always hold her back but I'm sure she is ready.  

At Avery's 4 year well checkup she did wonderful and passed her vision and eye test.  She did get two shots which she wasn't happy about but was such a trooper.  Her doctor gave her a lollipop and sticker and mommy was so proud of her she even got to pick out a toy at the store.

One development I am sad to report is the learning of how to say Emily's name correctly.  Since the moment she could speak her sister's name, Avery has been pronouncing it Emina, until recently when she started to pronounce the L syllable.  I honestly have to say that I was sad because I realized that Avery was becoming a bright little girl and wasn't a baby anymore.