Four years old. That just seems too crushingly old. Four is like not toddler anymore. It is ‘little kid.’ My first memories are from when I was four years old. Guess I have to start being nicer to you : )
Need I say I love you? Sometimes I forget that you came out of me because I find you so intriguing, but then I have this memory of how you acted in my belly or what it was like to hold you as scrawny, scary little baby and somehow I can connect it to the funky little people you are today. And I realize how quickly time goes. And I want to cry.
For what it is worth, four is my favorite number. Here is too a banner year for the Dodson Big Girls.
(C on left)
For your birthday this year we decided not to have a big party. You said that you wanted to go to Carmel for your "party" and we kind of jumped on the bandwagon (honestly, I just didn't have it in me to throw a big party right now). But we took you, along with my Mom and Chris, to an afternoon tea celebration (we left LBD with a sitter). It was a great little celebration and I think you had a good time. We love you monkeys.
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BOTH OF YOU
You don’t know the word “am” and to hear you say “Yes I are!” or “Here I are!” or “No I aren’t” with such conviction is so freaking cute I have no intention of correcting you.
We change up books a lot thank to Book Tree, but you guys like the Mercy Watson books of late. Dylan seems to prefer books that explain things—like Carolina’s Story or the book about Giant Pandas, while Charlotte likes books that have you search for things, like “Wacky Wednesday, “ the “Gecko Book” or “Busy Busy Town.”
We still aren’t completely sure if you are right handed—I mean you both seem to write exclusively with your right hand, but with almost everything else you do as much with your left as with your right.
You leverage ‘potty’ time to get some privacy with your parents. You want alone time with one of your parents with all the doors closed. It can be tedious for us, but I can’t say I blame you.
You actually like to watch sports. Your favorite is Cal Women’s Basketball, but you will get into just about anything we show you.
You still love to climb. If they build it you will come. I don’t think I have been to a park where you guys haven’t been the kids highest up on any structure.
You have great imaginations. You spend much of your time at home creating scenarios and acting them out. You also love projects. If you aren’t imagining you are working on one project or another.
You really enjoy writing. I hear “Mom how do you spell “X” across the house often. You don’t like writing “Rs” though.
You are a long way from watching movies. Episodes of “WordWorld” and “Dinosaur Train” have brought you to tears (out of fear). You don’t have the attention span for a movie anyway.
You don’t seem to like it when people refer to you together. Recently you have told me that you don’t like it when one teacher calls you “The goyls” and the other says “Hi Ladies” every time she sees you. I think it is because you get tired of everyone referring to you as a group (because I hear most people call you “the twins”). I don’t blame you at all. I will gladly fight that fight with you.
DYLAN
You are 30 lbs (10th percentile) and 38.5 inches (25th percentile).
You like to list out what you are saying in letters, but there is no rhyme or reason. For example: “”B” we need to call Daddy and “D” tell him we want to have lunch with him and “F” he should meet us at the churro place.”
You have this funny way of pointing. You scrunch your little hand up right next to your face and point in a very curled motion.
Your Favorite Songs are “Swimming in the Pool” and “On the Road Again.”
You are shaping up to be a great “fan.” You love to watch games and yell “offense, defense” and you actually know when to say what. You would yell it all game long if someone would do it with you.
You still wear boys underwear 80% of the time. The latest are sponge bob square pants—Country Club. I absolutely love it. You also like shorts, anything with Cal on it, and anything with giraffes. You claim to hate pink. You like things that twirl. Mostly you like things that feel comfortable. You love to wear headbands across the top of your forehead.
You are a good snuggler. You will crawl into bed in the morning and just curl up and never move.
You are very focused. Not in an autism-spectrum sort of way but more in a “just trying to figure it out way.”
You love pirates.
You hate pink. You get angry when people try to force pink on you. Yesterday you told me there way “way too much pink stuff” in the house.
You are truly one of a kind. A good friend of mine says you are the most unique kid she has ever met, and I think I agree. You beat to your own drum in so many ways it is almost hard to explain. You wear what you want, dance the way you want, play with what you want and who you want. And because you do it your own way you generally don’t care how other people do it. This may make you a little bit of a loner sometimes but it also makes you very accepting too.
You are a little OCD. At bedtime you insist on the white noise machine being “a tinch higher “ or “a tinch lower” (you misheard your grandmother when she would say “it needs a titch more sugar.” You want things the way you want them and God help the person who gets in your way.
For a little thing you are really loud. And you want everything really loud. Sometimes I think you have hearing problems but you test fine. I think you just have a sensory issue—your auditory level is basically just too high and we need to work on lowering it.
You are funny. Quirky, silly, odd, goofy. I wish I could give some examples right now, but I guess you would just have to spend some time with you to understand.
You are a good sister. You love C in a very direct way. She is your best friend and I think it is fair to say you treat her as such. You generally don’t like to see her unhappy but she can also get on your nerves at times. You love L in a very easygoing way. You are kind to her but generally don’t obsess over her. You think she is just really nice to have around.
CHARLOTTE
You are 31lb (10th percentile) and 39 inches (25th percentile). Either Dylan is catching up or you are slowing down.
You're very articulate. You sound like a kid. A real kid. You can hold good phone conversations, and you use expressions that make you sound like a mini-adult. Phrases like “Sadly, ….” Or “I realized” or “So I said to myself” or “No I am not kidding, I am being very serious” are common.
You talk with your hands. You straighten your hands and then use a side arm chopping motion to prove your point. We love it.
You often talk out of the corner of your mouth. You lift up the lift side of your mouth as you say something like “I’m sorry Ava but we can’t go to your party because we have to go to a basketball game. I’m sorry.” You almost sound like you just came from the Cape with the Kennedys.
Your favorite songs are “Texas on a Saturday Night” and “Little Miss Magic.”
You are a great cleaner and you are proud of it. I think the school gets the benefit of it more than I do, but I’ll take it where I can get it. (The ski school manager said she was also a professional organizer and that Charlotte, based on her days there, could be one too.) No need to mention, this didn’t come from me.
While you might be a good cleaner and organizer, you are also an incredible lollygagger. I have lost years off my life getting you ready and out of the house.
You get really sweaty when you sleep.
In your world there is Andrew, and there is everyone else.
You are an antsy little thing. You will crawl into bed and start moving around and talking—to us, to yourself, to anyone who will listen.
You're very perceptive. You don’t miss a thing. You can tell me what every kid is doing in school, who left when to go to what doctor’s appointment, who ate what at school, who got hurt, etc. The moms of some of the kids say that they can’t get anything out of their children about what happens at school. I get play-by-play action.
You are very nurturing. You want to make sure that everyone is taken care of…for example, the other day someone was giving out treats at school pick up and her mother showed up, and you were panicked that the two kids left weren’t going to get a treat. You wouldn’t go until you knew they were taken care of…it was very sweet.
The mother hen in you also makes you a little bossy at times. At your birthday celebration at school you were running around making sure everyone got treat bags and I heard you say to Jesper “You’ll want to wash your hands before you get a treat bag. You don’t want to get your treat bag full of cupcake.” (For the record, I have heard a very similar story about me at my 4th birthday party)
You are sensitive. You are very aware of everything that is going on…sometimes it makes you overly sensitive to things like family dynamics. But that same sensitivity makes you more aware of socialization nuances and thus you are the first person to reach out to other kids. I hear you say kind things to other children all the time ("I like your costume" "That is a beautiful picture you drew" "I like how many ways you tried to fit that puzzle piece in.") You love meeting new kids because you assume they will be new friends you will love to play with.
Sometimes you like to push the envelope just to see how far you can get (or what I might do).
You are very physical in your own way. You have a hard time standing still. You have a hard time not jumping on people, running around, etc. You sometimes just can’t help yourself. 90% of the time I think it is a great thing-- I just need to learn to channel it :).
You are innately kind hearted and VERY loving. You adore D and for the most part your happiness is intrinsically linked to her happiness. As for L, you adore her too. You started out indifferent to her and have since become her greatest fan. Sometimes you smother her with love and it makes me sad because she pulls away from you simply because you don’t know how to not show her love in a very physical way. Someday soon I hope L realizes it is all born out of love.
