. . . Because I'm Four Now!

Apple turned four yesterday and now she's an entirely new person. She spent all day telling me how things were different. "I'm older enough now because I'm four!" "My hair growed longer last night because I'm four!" "I'm a big girl now because I'm four!" It was too adorable. Actually, for the past week she'd been telling me how things were going to be different once she was four. She was going to not run away while we're walking to school. She was going to clean her own room all by herself. :) She's never been this excited about a birthday before. When she turned three, she refused to admit it. "I not three, I two!" And she used to get so mad when you said she was a big girl. "I not a big gayel. I tiny!" But I guess now she's ready to grow up. I said to her the other day, "Stop growing! You're getting big too fast." And she got very upset with me. "Why won't you let me get big?" The funny thing is, I'm totally unprepared for her to be four. When we went to the doctor a few weeks ago, he told me that she is actually in the 10th percentile for height and weight. She is tiny! I had no idea. I thought she was pretty normal sized, but she's actually quite a bit older than she looks. In my mind I'd grouped her with kids that were almost a year younger than her because that's what she looked like, but she really is a big girl now.

We actually weren't planning on having a party, but two girls in her Primary class had birthdays this month and she'd gone to this fancy princess parties and so I couldn't just make it a family affair. We invited over two little boys from the neighborhood and their big sisters. I had no idea how much noise four extra kids could make. Holy smokes! Apple really really loves to play with the boys. At Strawberry's party, she spent the whole time playing with the boys instead of the girls. And every day when we go pick up Strawberry from school, she's got 5 or 6 1st and 2nd graders chasing her around the schoolyard. She loves boys and boys love her and this party was no exception. Those three were just going crazy. It was so funny too because I'd never really seen boys that age play together. The whole time they were just piling on top of each other. First outside in the grass, then on our porch swing, then on the LazyBoy, then on the couch. It was hilarious. Meanwhile, Strawberry had the older girls at the kitchen table doing a craft that she had pulled out. It was funny.

Apple was pretty underwhelmed by the presents we got for her when she first opened them. It was funny because she was trying to act excited, but she was sort of, "Um, what the heck is this?" She'd say "wow" and "cool" and look at it funny and toss it to the side. Luke and I were feeling sort of bad that we hadn't gotten her anything she wanted. But she'd never experienced a remote-control car before and once we had it out and the batteries put in, she was absolutely giddy. All 6 of the kids were crowded around it, giggling their heads off. I love when something is brand new and they have that super-excited awe. Through the evening, she discovered how all of her presents were pretty awesome, so Luke and I were able to high-five each other on a birthday well done.