Minnesota Barlows: Happy 4th Birthday to Kylie Bean!

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Well, it happened again. Kylie went and had another birthday! I just can't believe how quickly she is growing up. It's so bittersweet to see your little girl grow from a baby to a toddler to a little girl. I miss those baby days, but I am so proud of the wonderful girl she is becoming.

Kylie is sweet, smart, and caring. She is also very social. She is developing lots of cute, little friendships. She loves having play dates and going to child care so that she can play with friends. At preschool, her teachers have informed me that she is a good role model for her classmates, and that she plays well with others and independently. She also likes to do all of the art projects! She cares a lot about other peoples' feelings. She loves when the people around her are happy, and does not like when they are sad. In fact, she will make it her mission to make a person happy who seems sad. She regularly gives me a huge smile, and says, "Are you happy now, Mama?"

Kylie has some favorite things. I did the same little birthday interview with her that I did last year, and these are some of her answers:

Favorite color: purple and pink
Favorite animal: elephant
Favorite TV Show: Blaze
Favorite Movie: Frozen
Favorite Food: "Daddy's favorite cereal" (Frosted Mini Wheats)
Favorite drink: milk

Favorite Toy: Hello Kitty

Favorite Fruit: apples

Favorite Lunch: Peanut Butter and Honey sandwich (we had it today)

Favorite Outfit: Birthday clothes (see picture above)

Favorite Snack: Cupcakes

Favorite Song: "Let It Go"

Favorite Book: "Little Red Riding Hood"

Best Friend: Cristian

Favorite Holiday: Christmas and Halloween

Favorite thing to do outside: play in the snow

Favorite thing to do at school: Play with Danny (she also told me that she likes to hold Danny's hand)

Favorite thing to take to bed with you: bunny
What do you want to be when you grow up: sheriff

What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Grilled Cheese

A few other things she likes to do...Pick out her own outfits, do puzzles, read books, help me cook/bake, eat anything chocolate (wonder where she gets that from), tell jokes, go to preschool, go for walks/runs, "swim" in the bath tub, watch her "pretty" shows (PBS Kids/Disney Jr.), ride on airplanes, and color with markers.

I didn't ask her about the things that she dislikes, but I can list a few off the top of my head...

Eating food that she doesn't like such as peppers, strawberries, pineapples, and onions. She actually gags when we make her try them. She also isn't liking the cold wind the past few days. She doesn't like when people are upset. And she doesn't like to share certain toys with Brooks.

As far as her milestones, she's really developing cognitively. She has really become a real, little human this past year with real thoughts and ideas. She is always coming up with some "really great idea," or "really funny joke." Her jokes never make sense, but it's funny to hear what she comes up with anyway. Some of her recent developments include learning most of the letter sounds, spelling a few words (boo, zoo, kylie, brooks), and being able to sound out a few basic words with help, counting 1-15 correctly and 20-30 correctly (she is still trying to figure out 16-19), and drawing animals. She seems to talk non-stop, and is constantly asking "why" and "how come." I love that she wants to share every thought that goes through her head. It makes me so happy to know what is going on in there, especially because I know it's not always going to be that way.

Not much is changing with her gross motor skills except that her coordination and agility are continuing to improve. She can jump well. She is throwing well, but still working on catching. She can balance on one foot for short periods of time and hop on one foot when she holds on to something. She can leap, and gallop, and do a basic skip. She loves sports. She loves to talk about sports. She loves to watch me and Jon play sports. She loves to plan her sports future. Right now, she wants to play "girls' soccer and girls' volleyball." She still likes to run, and I pray she always likes it! I hope we always share a love of fitness and sports!

She is still a good sleeper and eater. She still sleeps from about 8:15pm-7:30/8:00am. She also still takes an afternoon nap, and will sleep anywhere from an hour to two hours. (Side note: She is also still sucking her thumb, which I think is why she will still nap. My goal for the year is to help her quit sucking her thumb, so we'll see how well she sleeps once that happens.) She eats almost everything I give her, and drinks lots of milk and water!

I'm not exactly sure of her measurements, but I weighed her on our scale and she came in at 41 pounds. I think she is still really tall. She seems to be taller than most kids her age. *She has her 3 year check up in a few weeks, so we'll know more then! She is wearing pretty much all 5T clothes, mostly because of her height, and size 10-11 shoes.

*At her 4 year well child check up on 12/8/14, Kylie weighed 41.5 pounds (87th percentile) and was 43 inches tall (greater than 97th percentile).

On her birthday, we celebrated by going to Chuck E Cheese (at her request) for lunch, face timing with lots of family members, opening presents with daddy, and eating grilled cheese sandwiches for supper and cinnamon rolls for dessert!

Here are some pictures from her day: