Four Years Old

Tomorrow Kathleen will be Four. Such a big girl. She seems a lot older than that sometimes. Her friends are all older than her, some are four and some are already five. I worry a little what will happen when her four-year-old friends turn five and go off to school. She will just have to play with some of the younger children I guess. Kathleen is practically ready for school already and I think this is going to be a very long year waiting till she can go to school. She knows her alphabet, can read and write all her letters. She can read some words and knows how to sound the letters out to read the word, but gets frustrated sometimes. Over the school holidays we've hired a couple of board games from the Toy Library. One is called Bus Stop and you play by adding or taking away passengers from your bus whether you land on a + or - sign. So Kathleen has been learning some maths basics as well.

Last weekend Kathleen had her birthday party. She had a lot of fun. It was my first time hosting a children's party so it was a learning experience for me. Kathleen invited three friends - Erik, who's 5th birthday party she went to in November, and Carmel and Jamie-Lee from her preschool, and all our Palmerston North friends. Unfortunately Carmel had to cancel at the last minute. So there were three 4 & 5 year olds, plus Victoria and Phoebe who are both two. Victoria has been watching her big sister a lot so she joined in on the game of Simon Says (Dimon Dez), but mostly it was just Kathleen and Erik playing all the games. Everyone joined in for Pass the Parcel, which was very popular.

Tomorrow is Kathleen's actual birthday. She doesn't know it yet but she will be getting a brand new bunk bed. Followed by a trip to Palmerston North to buy the duvet of her choosing (please, please don't choose Princesses). She is still sleeping in the same Touchwood cot (with sides removed) that she's had since she was born. But her feet now reach the very end so it is time for an upgrade. We're getting bunks that convert to single beds. The idea is that when Victoria is older they can share a room and Kat will have the top bunk, but for now the second bed will live in the spare room.

If I were to make a prediction, I would say Kathleen will have a career in the performing arts, whether as an actress or as a writer. Her passion is definitely drama. Today for example all she wanted to do was to play act the stories of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, etc, etc, etc. I wish she could get her toys and play the stories with them, but she needs human interaction and feedback and so I got roped in to play these games with her. She has always loved play acting, whether it is simple pretend games or playing out fairy tales like we did today, or acting out the movies and TV shows she loves to watch. When she's not acting or watching TV or playing computer games, she likes to look at books and make up her own stories. She has quite a vivid imagination. We've gone for a lot of long drives lately and Kathleen likes to talk the entire time. When we get sick of playing eye spy or guess the song she will just start talking to herself and telling stories. I'll even suggest a title for the story and she will make up something appropriate.

Just before Christmas we travelled to Wellington so that Kathleen could audition for the TV show Giggles. You can see a copy of her audition here. Giggles is a silent show so you can't hear anything. You just have to imagine she's being told to jump or fly or roll, etc. Towards the end I got so caught up in watching Kathleen that I forgot to hold on to Victoria, and Vicky wandered in to the shot too. It was more of a fun opportunity for Kathleen to see what it's like to make a TV show. We weren't seriously hoping to get on the show (although it would have been nice). Haven't heard anything back from them so assume this means she didn't make it.

Kathleen's other loves are Princesses, Fairies, Barbie movies and Barbie computer games but not Barbie dolls.

I am debating whether or not Kathleen needs a haircut. Her hair is beautiful but it also gets messy and knotty a lot and she hates having it brushed (nowhere near as much as she used to though). She got given a ton of hair ties and things for her birthday but the only thing she likes wearing are headbands. Her hair is now reaching down her back and is a good length. I don't think I would like it to be any longer than this. But I can't bear the thought of cutting her baby curls off. The curls are only at the ends of her hair now, maybe because of the weight but I'm afraid if we cut them off then they'll be gone for good and I would be very sad. So I'm not sure. When I first suggested it a month ago she was all for it, but now she doesn't want to. So I guess I'll leave it for a little bit more and see how she feels in another month or two.

Cheers,
Megz

PS: More photos to come soon