Happy 4th Birthday, Sydney Jo!

When I say to myself, "She's been in our lives for four years," it sounds like a long time and I can't believe it. But most of the time, especially in the last few weeks, I feel like I'm dealing with and interacting with someone much older than four, and it seems perfectly logical to me that she turned four-years old yesterday. Either way, our first baby is four--happy birthday, Sydney Jo!

Here are four things about 4-year old Sydney:

1. She is fearless. Never do I have to worry about her when she's faced with a new situation. She just jumps right in and doesn't worry about not knowing the people around her or the fact that she is in an unfamiliar place. And her fearlessness (combined with a little bit of clumsiness) on the playground gives us daily heart palpitations.

2. She likes to GO. As in, every night before bed and each day before we put her down for a nap, she asks, "Where are we going when we wake up?" She asks the same thing once she's awake: "Where are we going?" The girl likes to be out and about I tell you.

3. She values exactness and correctness. She likes for things to be just so, and insists everyone around her uphold the same standard that is expected of her (read: when her little sister does something that Sydney would get in trouble for, Sydney loves to use her "mommy voice" to correct Lorelei). Chet and I are striving to cultivate this trait so that it works FOR her and not against her later in life (we'd like to spare her from developing extreme bossiness with a side of OCD).

4. She's a girly girl. She loves clothes and likes to get dressed as soon as possible upon waking (unless she's wearing new pajamas, then she prefers to continue wearing those). When opening birthday presents from us yesterday, she barely acknowledged the new dance tights, Hello Kitty dance bag, and "Sydney" cup, and swooned over the new dress and shoes (as in, she immediately took off the current dress she was wearing and put on the new one). She also likes to have her hair fixed, and has become quite opinionated on how it gets styled. (We struggle when she says something like, "Fix my hair like Bailey's." Um, Sydney, mommy barely knows who Bailey is, much less how she wears her hair...)

Here are just a few iPhone pictures from Syd's special day. 1) It started out with some quiet time in the morning with Daddy and Baby Brother (and new pajamas). 2) She picked out her own outfit with no input from me (she chose to wear a dress AND a skirt). 3) She wore a Tinkerbell crown to school. 4-6) We celebrated her birthday and her friend's birthday at school (Lorelei was downright thrilled to be so included). 7) She was pooped, even after her nap. 8) She loves the doctor kit from Papa John. (She says, I'm going to listen to your heart "beep.") 9) She chose a Tinkerbell cake (I wasn't aware she was such a huge Tinkerbell fan). 10-11) Her dinner consisted of not much more than cake after she blew out the candles. 12) Lorelei was happy to watch the candles get blown out. 13) Syd is happy to finally turn four. 14) Fancy birthday hair-do.