I wrote this on Kinley's 4th birthday but haven't gotten to wrap it up until now.
On Kinley's actual birthday, we spent the day doing what she wanted. She wanted to go to school. She loves school and learning so much that when she started a little summer program the month of June that was relaxed, she didn't like it. She wanted to go back to her purple room with Mrs. Melissa and Mrs. Favi and learn something. Before school was out for summer, she was always asking me if I could take her cupcakes on her birthday. I took mini cupcakes up for her class after lunch that day. They put a birthday hat on her and we all sang to her! This will probably be one of the only times she gets to celebrate her birthday at school since she has a June birthday. That particular day, the Kona Ice snocone truck came to school and every kid got to get a snocone. I'm pretty sure she thought it was there just for her birthday! After school, she came home and started watching a movie with her Dad until it was time to swim. Chuck and Michelle brought her friends Kara and Adyline over. Josh and Owen came to swim too. She loves swimming and loves friends. After swimming, we let her decide on dinner. She picked tacos, one of her favorites, so we went to On the Border with Kara and Adyline. She gobbled up two tacos, tortillas and chips! When we got home, she opened her presents from Colt and I. She read some books with the Me Reader that we got her, which was right up her alley. Then we let her stay up and watch Super Monsters, some show on Netflix that she randomly got into. She then told me that her "birthday was making her super tired" and literally passed out as soon as the words left her mouth!
Here's a little more about Kinley at 4:
She is 40 lbs. and 3 ft. 4 in. or 40 in. tall. At the doctor last week, she was 38 lb. 12.8 oz. (76th %) and they measured her at 3 ft. 5 in. or 41 in. (75%) but I think they got her bow in there. Her well check was a disaster by the way! It was on July 5th so we stayed up late the night before so she was whiney from the beginning and on the verge of tears because she was scared of shots. Then brother fell and hit his forehead and eye on a stool. It left an imprint and I thought it was going to leave a black eye. While I was tending to him, she somehow fell off the exam table! Then she wouldn't answer any of the doctors questions that he asked or speak clearly for some reason. There's no telling what he thought! Then as soon as he left, when I asked her the same questions, she answered me! She had to get her hearing screened and had to get all the 4 year shots at her appointment. She had a nurse on each arm and before they even gave her the shot, she was in hysterics. When she started screaming, Cutler started screaming. Needless to say, they left and told me to take all the time I need. We were there for 1 1/2 hours and I was wore out by the time we got to go home. She then cried all the way home about how she didn't ever want to go to a doctor again and they hurt her!
The last time she had a well check was on 12/14/17 and she was 32 lbs. 6.4 oz. (85%) and 3 ft .61 inches (79%) and her head was 50.3 cm. or 19.8 in. (88%). She grew a lot from 3 1/2 to 4 years!
She wears mainly 4T and 5T clothes. I've even bought her a couple things in the smallest size of the big girls section recently. She wears a size 9 shoe, size 10 in her tennis shoes.
She loves to wear dresses.
She won't leave the house without a bow.
Her favorite colors are pink, purple and yellow.
She loves school and even loves to play school at home. She only goes to school two days a week from 9-1:30 at Little People's School. Every day when I pick her up, I ask her what her favorite part of her day was. It's always making surprises or something she did in science.
She loves being around friends. She's social and wants to be around everyone all the time. When we were planning her birthday party, she wanted to invite EVERYONE!
She's a talker. She also repeats herself over and over until you acknowledge her. She had a babysitter the other day for a couple hours and I asked if she ever quit talking. The answer was no. She has a little trouble saying words like "girl" and "Cutler" still.
She's sweet. She loves to hug and kiss people. She hugs her friends and tries to kiss them. We recently talked about how she can kiss family but she doesn't need to kiss all the kids!
She's also a cuddler. She will say, "Let's cuddle." She loves cuddle time. She also loves Mommy, Daddy and Kinley time or just Mommy and Kinley time. She'll also come sit by you and saw,"I wanna hangout."
First thing in the morning, she'll run to me and wants to be picked up and hugged. I always ask her, "Did you sleep good?" and she always says, "Yes, I did."
She has a spunky fun personality. I get told all the time how happy and smiley both my kids are!
She loves to participate in everything we've tried. She loved dance last summer, she loved gymnastics, and she loved soccer. I try to limit to one thing at a time. She isn't doing anything this summer besides swim lessons, but the other day she asked me if the dance place was open and if I knew where it was!
She has a super long attention span.
She's great at playing independently and entertaining herself while I put her brother down to nap or put him to bed.
She loves crafty projects. She loves puzzles. She loves building with her legos and magnetic blocks. She loves playing kitchen and playing grocery store. She LOVES games. This is fairly new and it's something I told people to get her for her birthday because she's been on a game kick. Her current favorite is probably Zingo. She also loves her screen time. She loves her iPad and watching shows. For punishment, we take her computer (iPad) away. She gets super irrupted when her brother messes up her stuff.
She sleeps great from about 7:30-7:30. She's given up naps for the most part but every once in a while, she'll crash late. It's always too late that it messes up bedtime though so I'd just rather her go without one at this point.
She typically takes a bath with brother these days for ease or she'll shower with me.
Calls her brother "my baby." Both her teacher and babysitter have both asked me recently about her baby. She also called Cutler "Brother" instead of his name. She likes to go into his room in the morning if she wakes up before him and give him his milk or talk to him through his crib. She'll get upset if I go by myself.
She is a good eater. She loves tacos and chicken best. She specifically likes chicken patties heated up at home. She loves cheese. She loves strawberries. She also likes pork tenderloin or pork chop but we call it chicken. She likes steak. She likes corn dogs, of course. Recently, she's tried grilled cheese, a hamburger, and a normal hot dog and she was a fan of all of them. She loves watermelon. She loves apples and likes to dip them in peanut butter. She also loves to eat peanut butter, honey and oatmeal with me at night with milk. She likes guacamole. She loves french fries. She likes nutella and peanut butter sandwiches. This was a staple at lunch for school. She likes bologna but won't eat turkey or ham. Just in the last couple weeks (after she turned 4), she started eating bologna and cheese sandwiches and now she loves them and asks for them. She will eat green beans. She loves hot rolls now. She loves macaroni. She likes quesadillas. She'll pretty much try anything I make in some form or fashion. If I make a roast, she'll eat a couple carrots and a couple bites of roast. We don't make special meals really unless something is too spicy or something like that. She WILL NOT eat eggs, sweet potatoes, or mashed potatoes AT ALL. She will literally gag and throw up. Evidently she doesn't like onions now either because I made chicken fried rice the other night and she gagged and almost threw up because of the onion in it. See below on her sensitive stomach issue! For breakfast, she's hard. Since she doesn't like eggs, she's usually eating carbs. She like blueberry muffins, cinnamon toast and pancakes. She'll also eat pigs in a blanket.
She has a super sensitive stomach evidently because she's thrown up twice at school now. Once was was because another kid threw up in front of her. Another time was because the girl Logan that sits in front of her had something on her face that grossed her out. Her teacher rolled her eyes a little on that one.
She loves sweet tea. She also loves orange juice in the morning.
When we go out to eat, if we eat at a mexican restaurant, she orders tacos. Anywhere else, it's usually chicken and french fries. One of her favorite places is the orange and white Place (Whataburger). Her order is chicken, french fries, chocolate chip cookie and sweet tea. She has it down pat. She also likes the yellow and green place (Jucy's). She likes Slim Chickens. She's recently started liking McDonalds. Whataburger is definitely at the very top of her list though!
She calls Target the Icee store. She likes the car carts at the grocery store or the huge carts at Target that are hard to navigate. She likes to go in rather than do grocery pickup.
She likes to pick out her own clothes, panties, and shoes.
She likes to ride her bike and ride in the wagon in the neighborhood. She also likes to scooter.
She loves the Incredibles right now. Her favorite show changes daily. She likes them all... Blaze, Super Monsters, True, Butterbeans, Umizoomi... you name it and she'll watch it.
Her favorite books right now are You Choose and any of her three Billie books, the bakery, animal hospital and mermaid adventure.
She loves to dance. If she hears music, she'll start dancing. If she's walking in front of you, you can see her grooving to the music in a store or the gym.
Whenever she poops, know that you'll here her yell, "I need help wiping!!!!"
She thinks how tall we are is how old we are. When she was 3, she would always measure and be 3 ft. something. Since her Daddy is 6 ft., she thinks he is 6. Since I am 5 ft., she thinks I am 6. She had it in her head that when she turned 4, she would be 4 ft. suddenly. On her birthday when she woke up, she immediately said, "my pajamas still fit. I'm 4 I should need new clothes." At first, she insisted she wasn't 4 years old yet because she wasn't 4 foot tall. We've had to explain it OVER AND OVER
She sleeps with her flower Matilda Jane blanket that she's slept with since she was tiny. She also sleeps with Tigey and Kitty Kat. Every once in a while she'll sleep with her baby that has a couple matching nightgowns. She also sleeps with her projector light on and sound machine. She has to have her fan on. If any of this isn't done, she won't go to bed. She also has to have her flower blanket under the rest of her covers.
She thinks its a race to get naked for bath and loves to run naked.
She loves to take pictures with her Vtech camera and my phone. It's funny to look and see pictures she's taken.
She can buckle herself in the carseat and that's been a time saver and game changer. Today, we switched her to a booster so mama gets a job again though.
She is super observant and she doesn't forget a single thing! She remembers so much. She remembers places and tells me who she went with. She'll tell me what direction to go. Her little memory shocks me all the time. She also doesn't forget if you tell her you're going to do something!
She likes to help make her lunch. She likes to help cook certain things, like muffins and pancakes. She likes to help in general. She likes to help put groceries on the slider at the store. She likes to get the bags and put them in the cart. She likes to unload all the grocery bags when we get home.
She knows what she likes and what she wants. Her 4th birthday party she pretty much planned. She picked the theme. She picked her invitation once I narrowed them down. She picked her outfit. She said she wanted a cookie cake, cupcakes and ice cream. She's a decision maker!
She is a good big sister unless he is messing up some of her toys.
Out of nowhere, she'll say, "I love you so much" or "I love you mommy." It's my favorite.
When I put her to bed now, she'll say, "See you tomorrow!"
She is very type A and particular about stuff. If toys get put up in the wrong bins, she'll say that's not supposed to be there and move it. When her room was "torn up" after I flooded her carpet a while ago, she did not like it at all. She threw a fit one night because she couldn't find anything and nothing was where it was supposed to be! She will also tell you that you aren't doing something right and tell you how you are supposed to do it. She's also very motherly. For a while, she would always remind me to brush her brother's teeth.
She's also type A about her cups. She drinks certain drinks out of certain cups. Ariel babysat her for the first time and she told Ariel that she had the wrong cup! She also have to have certain plates and utensils.
She likes to help me fold wash rags and dish towels. She lays them out and has to have them perfect.
She likes to go fast in the car. She likes daddy's truck for that reason and say he drives faster than mommy.
Even if she hears what you say she has a habit of saying, "What you say?" Its like it gives her a little extra time to think about what you said before she answers.
If she gets into trouble she'll say, "but I love you."
She is manipulative and smart. For example, when Colt told her that some of her birthday presents came in the mail. She said, "Can I help you wrap those presents? Where did you hide them?"
She's stubborn... like her daddy.
If she tells me about her brother doing something he's not supposed to, like climbing on the table or couch, she always says, "It's a good thing I told you."
Sometimes she wants me to take pictures of her and send them to Grandma, Papa, Giggy and Pa.
She is pretty amazing. I get sentimental looking back at pics and miss her as a baby, but she amazes me everyday with her fun personality and how smart she is! She's awesome and we love watching her grow into an amazing little girl! We've also loved seeing her take on her new role and be a great big sister!
A few notes that I put in my phone of things that she said or did in prior months:
August 2018
She would always go in her brother's room and say, "Good morning sweet boy."
Her favorite books were You Choose, Pete the Cat My White Shoes, and Princess Party.
One day she went to the window and looked for Colt's truck and said, "It go away." I didn't want him to go to work. That makes me so sad."
She looked at Alexa and said, "Alexa, turn mommy and daddy's lights on."
She had a thing about saying, "Daddy say no, Kinley say yes. "
When we were bathing with brother she said, "I like brother's booty tail."
She had a little stutter issue that got bad around August. Her school even called me because they thought something was going on. It has since went away.
She dressed up like a princess every day. She started like the Disney princesses and specially Belle around this time.
Her favorite was Elsa, hence while we were Elsa for Halloween.
Her favorite color was yellow and since she's added purple and pink to the mix.
If anything gets broken or messed up, she would say, "It's ok. Daddy's gonna have to fix it."
September 2018
She got in a kick about telling stories. She would always have a rainstorm and the sun coming out.
She almost knocked her two top teeth out. They were both loose, but they stayed in. They are both just a little gray now.
October 2018
She got in a kick about changing her color clothes pins. Her school they had green, yellow and red clothes pins for behavior. She got clothes pins out of our kitchen and would pin them on her piggy bank in her room. She would change my clothes pin to yellow and red if she didn't like something I did.
She learned all her months of the year and would always sing the months of the year song.
One day she said, "I don't like Lucky and Alex. I want a cat." To add onto this, just the other day in June 2019, we were babysitting our neighbor's fish and she said, "I always wanted more pets than just a dog."
One day she said, "Mommy you passed all those cars. Mommy you're my hero."
She also said, "I don't want to miss you while you shower," and one day she even said "I don't want to miss my toys," when we left the house.
One day she said, "Daddy is at Lowes. I don't want to miss him. He's my dad. Colt is my dad. I don't want him to be lost and not in my neighborhood."
Her favorite books became the Billie B. Brown books.
She said, "Mommy you are going to get in trouble for not following directions and being a good listener."
It was raining one day when we went to Target. I told her that I wanted to find a spot where we didn't have to be in the rain so long. She said, "Thats a good choice. I like your choice. Thank you mommy. Thank you for not wanting me to get wet in the rain."
"I'm big and strong, and I can carry big things just like my daddy."
December 2018
She started calling me Keri.
She also started saying, "But I love you Mommy."
One night she said, "Close your eyes sweetie" to me. I asked, "Did you call me sweetie?" and she just giggled.
She went through a phase where she wanted me to stay in her room at night and would say, "But I don't want to miss you and brother."
January 2019
She started watching Blaze a ton and started loving store bought mini blueberry muffins.
She called flies flyers... still does.
February 2019
When her brother was sick, she said, " I hope brother feels better soon."
She started saying I need a hug randomly.
She told me , "Mommy you're my best friend forever and ever."
One night when I put her to bed, she said, "Night, night mommy night, night my sweet mommy."
March 2019
Two of her favorite things are unloading groceries and cleaning up her toys.
She would make things for you and say, "I made it for you because I love you so much." I wish I could trap her voice!
When she eats, she'll say, "I'm growing bigger!"
She told me she worked because she helped with brother, helped daddy wash his truck and helped clean up.
May 2019
Colt bought me a pair of tennis shoes for Mother's Day and my birthday. She can't keep a secret. Mother's Day morning, she asked if Daddy had given me my shoes yet. He hadn't so she ruined the surprise. I ended up exchanging the shoes one day for a different size and she was with me. After the fact, Colt mentioned the shoes that he got me.... she quickly corrected him and said they were not the shoes that he got me. She told him that the shoes he got me were too small and I had to take them and get bigger ones. Haha.
At the end of the school year, they did a little evaluation. She knew almost everything on her evaluation. There were only 4 letters that she didn't completely recognize.
**UPDATE... she also recently started saying "see you in the morning" when I put her to bed. It's the cutest!
I just wrote a book... this is why I will never get caught up on my "scrapbooking!" I just want to try and remember as much as possible because these years are going too fast!!
