Jadealicious

I have a 4 year old!! I can't believe how fast the time has flown. I look back on baby pictures and feel like it was just yesterday. Jade has been such a joy in our lives! She is a very caring little girl who hates to hurt feelings or have feelings hurt. She is Mommy's big helper whenever I need her to be. She loves to help cooking and baking, setting the table, and with Megan. She even likes to help pick up toys. She likes things organized (just like her Mama).

Jade started preschool 2 days a week this year and has already learned a lot. She can identify most capitol letters, about half lower case letters, can count to 15 without help, knows all colors, can spell her name, knows what town/state she lives in and was born in, knows what town her Grandparents live in, knows where Dad works, knows shapes (circle, square, rectangle, diamond, oval, heart, star, crescent, triangle, etc.). She can talk very well and clear. She is able to pronounce all letters. Although she is initially still pretty shy, I think preschool has helped her socially quite a bit. Jade still needs "warm-up" time with people, but has really started to open up to people.

Jade continues to be a Mama's girl and wants me for most things, but has really started to be ok with Dad and Grandparents doing things. This sure helps me out quite a bit!! She also is starting to do more things on her own. She can come close to dressing herself on her own, but still wants help. She can put on her own shoes (we don't have lace up shoes yet), she is able to get all her snow gear on alone but needs help zipping and putting 2 mittens on. Is able to brush her teeth (I help so they get brushed good) and goes potty alone. She has been completely potty trained for almost a year including at night. She has had just 2 night accidents!!

Jade gave up napping a week or 2 before her 4th birthday. She would still go right down for a nap during the day, but we had been having a really hard time with her at night going to bed for a few months (probably close to 6 months!). She went from needing one more drink of water, going potty one more time, needing to tell us something, wondering when we were going to bed, etc. to just saying good night to both of us and going to bed. She also used to get up almost every night in the middle of the night to go potty and now she usually sleeps all night. We would have probably taken the nap away earlier, but I was scared that she would have night terrors again. She's had about 4 of these and they are really scary to me. So, she is now sleeping from about 8:30 - anywhere from 6:30-8. On days she wakes up at 6:30, I have her try to go back to bed...more for me than her. Most of the time she's up around 7, which is great especially on days she has preschool. It gives her an hour before we have to leave.

Jade is still not the best eater and that's probably my fault for not making her try new things and making her eat what's on the table. She has gotten better about trying things but so far hasn't loved anything right away. She is not a big meat eater. She will eat most pasta dishes. She eats spaghetti, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, tator tot hot dish, pancakes, waffles, breakfast sausage. Sides she likes are chips, crackers, French fries, yogurt, strawberries, grapes, watermelon, pickles, apple sauce, etc.

For her 4th birthday party, she chose a Pinkalicious theme. She loves those books and that made decorating easy for me! Everyone invited to the party had to wear pink. We had both sets of Grandparents and Great Grandma Elgin at our house for the party. We served different appetizers for food as it was a 3 o'clock party. We had fruit and vege pizza's, spinach dip with bread, and a meat and cheese trey. We had pink lemonade to drink and a pink cake from the local bakery. Jade got a tea set, clothes, books, cupcakes and cake set, Legos, games, a princess for her dollhouse, playdough set, etc. for her birthday. I wish we had a group picture, but I couldn't figure out how to work the timer on my camera. Maybe next year we will have to start inviting friends...

Height: 43"- 99%

Weight: 42lbs - 89%

Jade's Favorites:

Color: pink

Thing to do: paint, crafts, puzzles...she doesn't do just one thing ever. She does a good job of playing with everything

Food: Grilled Cheese

Animal: Horse...not sure why, we aren't big animal people so I never know what she'll say for this one

Song: Go Tell It On the Mountain or Joy to the World - she just learned both of these for her school Christmas program and has actions that go along with the songs.

Movie: Inside Out - We just rented this one as a family and watched it a couple times

Show: PJ Masks on Disney Jr.

Candy: Sucker

Toy: Building blocks (Lego's) Again, her favorite here could really be anything, she plays with all her stuff.

Best Friend: Megan! I love this answer so much!!