Miss O at age 4

Since Olivia recently had her 4th birthday it's time for my annual description of her personality. Yale and I have definitely seen a leap in her maturity since she's turned 4. I think it's mostly due to her seeing herself as much older. She's been much more polite. For example, just today we were at the Butterfly Pavillion, and I asked her if she wanted to hold Rosie, the giant tarantula, and she calmly said, "No thank you." A year ago I would have never asked because I think she would have run out of the room screaming. Tomorrow Olivia will be going to her second tao and ballet class at the Little Theater near our house. This, too, has contributed to her new sense of independence. Yale took her to her first class and said that she did quite well and seemed grown up compared to many of the other little girls, some of whom were attempting to pull their skirts over their heads while simultaneously picking their noses. Recently we told Sophia that she would get to drop Olivia off at her next dance lesson so that she doesn't feel so left out. Olivia told Sophia, "You can go to my dance class as long as your not too wild." Olivia made a big step last weekend when we went swimming as a family to the Golden Rec Center. Not only did she go down the little-kid water slide (its about 3 feet long) all by herself and about 50 times, but she also went down the huge, twisty slide with her dad twice. She was quite proud of herself, especially since her head went completely under water both times! This was an impressive accomplishment because in the past she has always refused to go down any water slides. Books continue to provide Oli with hours of entertainment. She is taking a great interest in learning how to read. She can identify almost all of the upper and lower case letter and knows many of their sounds. She often asks how to spell words and even "reads" some words if there is a good picture clue and she knows what sound the first letter of the word makes. Some of her favorite books include: Any Fancy Nancy book, all of the Angelina Ballerina books, many of the Dr. Seuss books, and a current favorite is The Little Engine that Could. Livi is also very interested in numbers. She can almost count to 30 (she sometimes forgets 15 and 20). She often asks the time, and wants me to show her how to count to a certain number. She's exploring what different combinations add up to a number. For example, 4 and 4 make 8, and so does 5 and 3. Friends have become more important to Olivia in the past few months. She has several good friends at preschool, including Anna Grace, Jenna, and Reagan. She met her friend Mae at the rec center and her friend Ellen at Parents' Day Out. Whenever I get a chance, I like to show up to preschool a bit early so that I can watch her play with her friends. Lately, she and Jenna and Anna Grace have been huddled behind a bush playing quietly. When I ask her later, she tells me that they're pretending that they have a baby unicorn or that they're kitties.