Four!!!

It is hard to believe that my spunky little girl is already four years old!  She has made life SO fun and always keeps us guessing.  It has been such an experience to watch her personality grow and to realize how completely different she is than me.  Maya is so similar to me that I can usually figure out what she is thinking... Laurel, not so much.  It can be a bit challenging, but I am really learning to love the different perspectives.

Some of my favorite things about four year old Laurel:

- Her energy.  If she is going anywhere, she tends to run there.  She doesn't do well just sitting still and is known to pace around a room in circles.  Until she is tired.  Then it is like someone turned a switch and she refuses to take another step and wants to be carried.  That has made for some fun adventures (can you sense the sarcasm?).

- Our morning snuggles.  Laurel is an early riser and almost every morning she makes her way into our room, usually between 6:30 and 6:45.  Rey is typically at the gym so she climbs into bed with me and we spend some time together snuggling, checking out the weather forecast and chatting about the day to come.  It is probably my favorite time of the day.

- Her sense of humor.  She is constantly making us laugh with her make-believe play, her jokes and her stories.

- How thoughtful she is.  Her valentines day card for us said,  I love you because: - you pray for me at night time! - you read books to me! - you give me hugs and kisses! - you take me to do fun things! She really thinks through what she wants to say.

- She still loves her art, although has a streak of perfectionism that can sometimes make it challenging to complete a project.  We are working on understanding that not everything has be exactly perfect and it is a good thing when everything does things a little differently.

- She has quite the little temper and I have learned that sometimes it is best to give her a little time and space in order to work it out herself.

The Pink Lion Cubs

I finally got my act together and signed Maya up for a soccer team, we missed sign ups in the fall but managed to make it into the spring session.  The spring session is great for her to check out her skills and decide if soccer is a sport she enjoys as it is more relaxed; no score keeping, less rules and flexible practices.  We had our first game on Sunday and despite having not yet attended a practice (the first one was rained out) she did great!  A little hesitant at first, but by the end she was quite the little player.  Her team is the Pink Lion Cubs and she did not stop talking about it the rest of the afternoon - so far she seems hooked!

This little one spent most of the game on the playground.  Notice the shin guards? Someone was more than a little jealous of her big sister so I decided it was money well spent to grab her a pair as well.  She wore them around most of the day so her "legs were protected".  

A Princess

The theme for Laurel's class was Fairy Tales and to wrap it all up they got to dress up as a fairly tale character.  Laurel picked a princess.  She picked out the glittery dress and all the accessories she could find (which are typically not allowed at school so she was thrilled!).  And, in true Laurel style she finished it off with her rain boots.  I love that she still has her own sense of style and has no interest in conforming to what others might be considered the "correct way"!