An example of her outgoing friendly nature, on the playground she'll walk up to any of the kids there and say, "Hi, I'm N. What's your name?" Not a shy bone in her body when it comes to other kids.
An example of how independent she is, she fell off of her chair and went running from me because she wanted her blankie to snuggle with and not me. How many kids would rather snuggle with their blanket than their Mom? Maybe their blanket and their Mom together, but N, she just needs her blanket. Once when she was sick, the first time she threw up actually, I asked if she wanted me to sit with her, her response..."My tummy has a fever, and I need to sleep." She is so independent!
An example of her drama, nothing is ever said in a normal voice. It's either tragic, the world will end if I don't get this now; or pitiful, the world is completely against me and everyone hates me. I guess that's pretty normal for 4 year old though.
N is going to a very academically oriented preschool and is loving it. She is doing many pre-reading activities including learning to write, spell, and sound out 3 letter words. She's not reading yet, but that's okay. I'm not pushing her. I want her to enjoy learning and I think the things she is doing are phenomenal. She really loves school. When I take her she never even says good bye to me because she's too busy running in to get started on her day. (Literally the first day she ran in and NEVER LOOKED BACK.) (Another example of her independence.) (The first day was emotional for me, but she has loved it since the beginning.)
A few nights ago she was adding for me. Simple addition, just adding a one to numbers, but still, she was demonstrating that she has the concept of adding 1 internalized. I am proud and glad we chose this school for her. She will be totally ready for kindergarten. She doesn't start in the fall. Because of her birthday, school is still 1.5 years away. If she'd been born 1 month earlier she'd start this fall. I can't decide whether I'm happy about the wait for school, or sad. I think ultimately it will probably be good for her. She's so tall though, and she's a girl, so she's going to be towering over the boys in junior high. That's okay. We don't need her dating sooner--later is good on that one!
They are studying the ocean at school and she draws octopodes all the time. She also drew a great picture for me that she hung on my bedroom wall. It is a picture of the ocean, the beach, some seagulls. The lines in the picture are drains... "All drains lead to the ocean." (If you've seen Nemo you know this.) I really like the seagulls flying in the sky.
Here's a picture of an octopus... I think it's pretty cool.
N is very into coloring and she now "makes books." She takes paper and tapes two or three pieces together and then draws pictures on them and then "reads" us the story. Her most recent book was about a lion who pretended to be a camel and his mother was very worried about him. (Come on, you would be worried too if you were the Mama Lion!) Other stories have been about the forest where the witches live and playing basketball; going to the store to buy jelly, but running into strangers so you couldn't; and catching butterflies. Maybe she's going to be a novelist.
I'm encouraging her interest in making books because it means that when she's making books she watches less television (actually videos). I'm okay with video watching. In fact, I have read much of the research on media and children (I'll share more of this with you someday) and the shows we watch are good and the research done on them have shown positive effects.
N is so into videos. She has always been addicted to videos. When she was 14 months old she would watch as long as I would let her. I didn't let her watch for too long at any one time, but it did come in handy when there was something I needed to do. (Yea, yea, I know the American Academy of Pediatrics is worried that I'll ignore my child and let the television babysit.) Anyway, I've wondered if she wasn't going to be a filmmaker given her strong interest in the videos. She watches them over and over. I've always figured since she watched each video so many times that she was trying to understand each shot, the lighting, and I figure she was storyboarding in her head. (I can rationalize anything and make it positive!)
In other news, N really really wants a kitten. We've told her we'll get her one when she's five. Yesterday, she asked, "If we find a lost kitten, can we keep it?" I told her we could, but first we'd have to take it to the vet to make sure it was healthy and to make sure it wasn't a pet that was lost. The whole drive home from preschool she kept her eyes "peeled" to see if she could find a kitten. I think we're going to have a long 10 months till her birthday if she already wants a kitten this much! Oh, the funniest thing about the drive home, I saw a kitty sitting outside, he was probably a pet, but she didn't see him. So much for peeled eyes!
And finally, she seems to have turned a corner, or maybe it was only that yesterday was a really good day, but she was so sweet and helpful last night. If only she'd learn to share with her sister K (22 months). Life would be a lot quieter and calmer if she would.
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