She's four.

What the WHAT?

Here we are again with the dandylions!  I just noticed I posted pictures of her playing with the puffy flowers on her 3rd birthday now a year later not much has changed that way.

But everything else?  MAJOR CHANGES!

In Olivia's 3rd year of life:

• we sold the "blue house" and moved in with "Auntie Sissy"
• started preschool and fell in love with her teacher, Miss Theresa
• Mommy started work full-time and Daddy went back to school online
• got a "partment" (important distinction made that we no longer live in a 'house')
• transferred to a new preschool with Teacher Cailee
• the world entered a pandemic and normal life as Liv knew it got "cancelled"
• started preschool online via Zoom and Teacher Brandi
• Mommy and Daddy decided to build a new house
• Idaho re-opens May 1st and Liv gets a playdate with her cousins, time with Nana and Papa and a stroll through a real store again with Mommy

Overall I'd say Liv handled COVID madness really well.  It was heartbreaking to explain to her that school, playdates, shopping and playgrounds were cancelled but my hours in the office were reduced so she and I spent lots of time outside with a soccer ball, frisbee and her new bike, courtesy of Grandma Dorothy.   She and Daddy went to the parks downtown and threw rocks in the river. We drove through Krispy Kreme for donuts and made our own oven baked donuts at home.  We wrote on the apartment patio in sidewalk chalk and made hopscotch grids.  We took walks along our neighborhood and hung out at Borah park. We watched a LOT of TV.

C'est la vie.

Now our little miracle is FOUR YEARS OLD and it hurts my brain to realize the same amount of time has passed since Liv was born as passed between Jaxson and Liv.  The first 4 years felt like an eternity and these second 4 years have happened, as all parents say, in the blink of an eye.

Liv definitely found her spunk this year.  More sass, more back-talking, more fists balled up at her sides when she doesn't get her own way, more stomping out of the room and eye rolling (THAT does not go over well with her Father...). Drama Queen much?

But this was also the year Liv fell in love with music and dance.  Girlfriend has every word to every Frozen song memorized.  COVID kinda blew up the last vestiges of naptime so without enough stimulus to wear her out every day she stopped sleeping...but can be found playing quietly in her room with her Kindle playing her Disney playlist on endless repeat.  She's gotten really girlie and suddenly loves all the princess dress-up clothes she got for Christmas. Wrapped in pink, lace and fluff she prances through the house with her wand and twirls in the kitchen.

She is in full-blown helper mode and always wants to be in the kitchen with me or putting the quarters in the machines for laundry.  She is my little coffee helper, pulling out her own step stool in the kitchen to climb up and use my Nespresso machine.  She knows how to do every step herself and it tastes delish.

I figure I'm in for a whirwind year with a 4 year old but I'm ready.  Liv has so much life and energy.  She is so funny and sweet and snarky. 

I'll leave you with my favorite highlight recently...poor girfriend will never live this down.  I was getting dressed for work and she picked up a bra and tried to put it on over her clothes while she looked at herself in the mirror.  She then proceeded to tell me, "Mom, this won't fit me.  My booms aren't big enough."

Insert hysterical laughter here.