Happy 4th Birthday Taylor!

My dear sweet baby girl...can you really be 4 years old already? I know I say this every year, but I can still remember like it was yesterday when Daddy placed you in my arms for the very first time. You were the perfect little baby. You were so pretty and so sweet. Over the last 4 years you have grown into the most beautiful, lively, sweet little girl. I hope I have given you as much joy as you have given me! Here are some pictures from every month of your last year! You have grown so much!

December 2009
January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

April 2010

May 2010

(you look so very different with straight hair!)

June 2o10

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

You are doing so much these days! I hope I can remember it all!

You are about 42 inches tall and weigh about 37 lbs. (official measurements to come after you go for your check-up!). You seem so tall to me! And sadly, I almost can't carry you anymore. I will keep carrying you as long as you will let me though, because I know there will come a day when you won't let me anymore!

Just in the last month you officially stopped peeing during the night! You had told me that you didn't want to wear pull-ups at night anymore and I told you that you didn't have to, but that you couldn't pee in the bed either. You thought about it and after a week of having a dry pull-up every night, you decided it was time to wear panties to bed. You have been wearing them to bed ever since and have only had 2 accidents and that was right in the beginning! I think we are officially over that hump! I am so so happy for you to get to wear panties to bed now and not have to worry about wearing a pull-up anymore. I know they made you feel like a baby and you didn't like them.

You love to go to school and learn. You still cry a little sometimes when I drop you off at school, but you learn so much while you are there and you have so much fun. You go to school on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. You have made a lot of friends and love to play with them. You know how to write your name all by yourself. You recognize a lot of the letters and are working on that everyday. You do really great at tracing letters in a book or on a paper. You are recognizing your numbers 1-9 already and I think that is great! You can count to 29 without any help. We are working on what comes after 29, because right now you think it is 80! You love to try to add things together but haven't quite mastered that yet. You are very interested in time: what time is it, how long until we get there...things like that. You just don't get the concept of time yet though. 5 minutes seems like an eternity to you!

You love to sing songs. Right now your favorites are Rocky Top, Jesus Loves Me, and the Wheels on the Bus. You love to try to sing anything though. And you love to make up songs. I did that when I was little too...

You are still having trouble going to sleep at night. We have really messed you up there! You still like to go to sleep out in the living room snuggled up next to your Daddy. There have been a few nights when we have been able to put you in your bed and you went to sleep on your own. But those nights are few and far between. Once you get to sleep though, you usually sleep really good. Ocassionally you still get up in the middle of the night and come to bed with me and Daddy. I kinda like the cuddle time, so I don't mind that so much!

You do pretty good when I have to wake you up in the morning to get ready for school. You don't completely wake up until I already have you dressed. You like to watch cartoons while I am getting Liam dressed. You are usually in a great mood in the mornings!

Your favorite foods to eat right now is probably mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. You also love yogurt and cheese. You like to eat the hot dog out of a corn dog, but not the breading part. You like hamburgers and french fries both dipped in ranch dressing. You LOVE chicken nuggets with ranch dressing too. You like to eat beef stew and that is the only way you will eat carrots is in there. Your favorite drink is still chocolate milk. You occasionally drink juice and you love water. Those are about the only things you drink other than the occasional capri sun or kool-aid.

You started a tumbling class in September and you love it! You love to show us your rolls and your cartwheels and your roundoffs. You always have so much fun at tumbling class. You all have been learning a cheer to do for the Kingston Christmas parade and you love to show that to everybody! I hope you always enjoy being active. I secretly hope that you love gymnastics and cheerleading forever! But if you decide that you don't like it one day, I am fine with that too! But right now you love it so much and I love that it makes you happy.

You have started asking a lot of questions about God and Jesus lately. You ask a lot about whether Jesus is in your heart or not. I tell you that Jesus is not in your heart yet, but that as you get older you will learn more about Jesus and His love for you, and then you can ask Jesus to be in your heart if you love Him. You remind me that you do love Jesus already...and that is enough for you right now! You love to go to church and learn about Bible stories. I am excited for you to learn all the stories and see them with little kid eyes. You love preschool choir and love to sing the songs in there. You always have a favorite that you want to sing!

Your favorite toys are still babies and princess dress up stuff. You love to "mother" your babies and feed them and dress them and push them around in a stroller. You love to dress up in your dress up clothes and wear crowns and sunglasses and dress up shoes. You love to feel pretty! You also love to pretend to do your "homework." I think you do this because I am always saying that I need to do my homework. But you will take a little notebook and write letters or draw pictures in it. And you have to write with a pen when you do that, not a crayon. I guess that would be too much like a baby! You like to play with Liam most of the time. Sometimes you all can fight pretty good, but most of the time you are the best of friends.

You love to read books and have them read to you. It doesn't even really matter what the book is about, but your favorites are Pinkalicious, Green Eggs and Ham, and Tea for Ruby. Some of the books we have you have heard so much that sometimes you will sit down and read them to Liam. It surprises me how much you remember of the stories!

Your favorite shows to watch on TV are Dora, Kai Lan, Tom and Jerry, Olivia, and Mickey Mouse. You watch a lot of other shows too, but those are the ones you ask for the most!

You love to do cheers around the house. Your favorite one right now is "Open up the barn door." I hope that I can get you on video sometime saying this little cheer. It is really cute!

You have been very healthy all this year and have only had the sniffles a few times. You are hearing much better now that you got your tubes back in February. Me and Daddy are so blessed that you are so healthy. I pray that God always keeps you healthy so that you can focus on playing and learning and not on being sick. You went to the dentist for the first time back in July. You did great! As a result of that visit though, you are going to have to have surgery in January to remove an extra tooth. I am not looking forward to it and I am so nervous for you, but I know that God will take care of you!

You are so excited about starting preschool next year. I think you would go to Kindergarten already if you could. You always ask when it is going to be time for you to go to real school and be in a "grade." You are just always so excited about learning new things.

Taylor, you are the most amazing little girl and I cannot believe that I get to call you mine. You are so smart it amazes me most days. You love to have a good time. You are a little daredevil at times and aren't afraid to jump off of things or ride roller coasters or anything like that. I am glad that you have a great sense of adventure! I cannot believe how fast you are growing up. It just doesn't seem possible that you are as big as you are already. You are still supposed to be my little baby, and you are definitely not a baby anymore. Sometimes when you fall asleep with me at night I just hold you and look at your sweet little face and think back to all those nights I used to sit up with you. Sometimes I just hold you and hold you, because I know that it won't be long until you don't want to sit with me anymore and you don't want me to cuddle you. But I don't want to think about those times yet. Right now I am just going to enjoy you being four. I think four is going to be an exciting year for you! I am looking forward to all the girl things we will do together. I pray for you all the time. That God will keep you safe and will help you grow into a great little girl. I pray that even at this very moment He is with the man that you will one day marry. As much as you wish you could, you can't marry your Daddy! And I just pray that the man you do marry is a Godly man who will take care of you. I pray that you will have a heart for other people and will grow to love others more than yourself. I love you so much baby girl. You will be my baby forever, no matter how big you get. I hope you have had a great four years so far and that me and Daddy have made you happy. Love you sweet girl!