Olivia at four years old

I have a four year old. She’s not a toddler anymore. She’s this little preschooler who asks me if we can go to Old McDonald’s for lunch, and loves Peter Potter (Harry Potter) and walks on her “high heels” when her shoes are wet.

This girl is hilarious. She continues to love life and make us laugh on a daily basis. Her tantrums are intense, and she loves nothing more than talking. We tell each other stories, and her drawings of people now include eyelashes and babies in the tummy. I pick her up from preschool and her arms are of full of balled-up works of art she created. I can barely pick her up anymore because she’s solid and can brush her own hair now, but refuses to look at the camera or smile for pictures (unless you’re a professional photographer).

We celebrated her birthday with pizzas and cake and she had a blast.

As part of her birthday gift, we took her to her first movie theater experience, Frozen 2.

She loved it and did so well.

Stats

Olivia is 44 lbs and 3 feet 6 inches. She’s gained 10 pounds and grew 4 inches this year. She’s in the 94th %tile for weight and 91st %tile for height. She’s in 5T clothes, and size 9 shoes.

Milestones

She’s now able to completely dress herself, but has trouble with buttons. In fact, she’s been loving picking out her own clothes and getting herself dressed and I don’t know where all this grown-upness came from. She does a good job brushing her teeth, but we finish them. She loves to play board games, even if she cheats sometimes. She loves to draw people and can copy shapes. She also loves tracing words that we write in pencil or in dotted lines. Her speech is almost all understandable by others (I’m still her main translator) but she can’t say her f’s, v’s, and sh’s. I think it’s become somewhat of a habit to say “he” in place of “she” because she can say it, but for a while back then, everyone was a He. So her little sister is always “he” and we’ve been trying to correct her, but so far she does what she wants. She can count to thirty.

Health

She had an ear infection back a few months ago. Her third in the last six months. Luckily, she was a lot better at taking her antibiotic this time around. However, on the last day of her dose, she woke up with hives all over her body. I brought her in and the doctor said it was likely due to the Amoxicillin, but because she was in the raspberry bushes the night before he couldn’t rule out a reaction to that, especially since the scratches she obtained were swollen. She had a consult with the allergist who determined this was likely a med reaction. Interestingly, he said she may have a condition, derma-something, where her skin is highly sensitive and she gets rashes easily. Which would make sense because she’s always had sensitive skin where she gets rashes pretty easily.

We also may have an answer as to why she had vomiting episodes more frequently. She had a consult with a pediatric neurologist who determined this may be migraines, abdominal migraines to be exact. My nephew has them, and migraines are rampant on Chris’s side of the family. We got a prescription for nasal Imitrex, but haven’t had to use it yet. It’s possible it may not work and therefore isn’t migraines, but we won’t know until we try the medicine. Still, it would be really great if it worked, not that we want her to have migraines, but that we’d have an answer, something that has been nagging at me for years. We’d be able to treat it and make her feel better. So time will tell.

Other than that, she’s just had colds, but luckily, we’re all healthy right now.

Eating

She loves drinking almond milk, and knows that if she’s coughing, she shouldn’t have regular milk because it makes her more congested. Which is hilarious because any cough will make her pipe up from the backseat on the way to daycare, “And I have to tell Miss Sarah I can’t have milk for lunch because I’m coughing!”

She doesn’t like spicy food (but she used to when she was little) though salsa is still good in her book, and continues to be a bit picky, but overall, I’d say she’s pretty good with eating. She continues to love her usual tacos, spaghetti, and breakfast foods. She’s even now liking chicken nuggets, fish sticks, and mac n cheese, things she used to be more particular about.

She loves setting the table, and clears her plate and goes to wash her hands without us asking. She has us all say grace before dinner, and does good sitting for the whole meal.

Since my first trimester, I haven’t done well with eating breakfast with her at the table and now that there’s a baby, it’s continued, but most of her weekday breakfasts are at the living room table watching TV. Don’t judge.

Potty-training

She doesn’t have any accidents during the day in underwear. She does great going to the bathroom and wiping (but that’s a little work in progress). She always washes her hands after, something we’ve realized isn’t the norm for all kids (Parents, for the love, your toddlers are capable of handwashing, so take note). This past week, she’s been in underwear for naps while she’s home with us and hasn’t wet the bed. We have some Pullups left and are debating if we’re going to bite the bullet and stop buying them for overnight or if we’ll try to wean gradually. She’s not great at staying dry overnight, but she has some nights where she will. I’m just not keen on changing the sheets every morning, though now that we have a newborn, we may as well wake Olivia in the night to use the bathroom anyway. Chris is getting up with her once at night to go potty and so far, she’s been doing a lot better at staying dry. Any advice welcome.

Sleep

She’s still napping in the afternoon, her usual 1.5-2 hours. She’s really good for the most part at going down without a fuss. However, her provider told Chris at her well-child check that she may need to be done with her afternoon nap in order to sleep better at night.

Bedtime is a bit of a challenge. She’s good at doing her routine (two books, put on pajamas and pull up, brush teeth, prayers), but there’s moments when she just switches and has a meltdown. She’s down for bed around 8pm, but won’t actually fall asleep most nights until after 9. She comes out of her room 1-3 times initially, but then falls asleep for the night and will sleep anywhere until 6-7:30 in the morning. Since we stopped her nap, she’s been much better at falling asleep at night and rarely comes out at all anymore. I hate to admit it, because I love her naptimes, but she’s doing a lot better with her sleep.

Favorites

Toys: Her art supplies, My Little Ponies, her kitchen stuff

Books: Recycle, Reduce, Reuse book with the CD, any princess book or Shimmer and Shine or PJ Masks book. Elephant and Piggie books

TV shows/Movies: The Incredibles, Ralph Breaks The Internet, anything Micky Mouse, Finding Dory, Tinkerbell, Frozen

Activities: Playing outside and going for walks, helping us shop, coloring, beading necklaces, drawing pictures, painting, making forts, riding her scooter, dancing, going to preschool, library, and out to eat.

Dislikes

Having to leave fun places, having to wait at the table while we finish eating. Having plans change, but she’s good at taking it in stride. Most vegetables.

Looking forward to

Emelia can’t do a whole lot right now, so I can’t wait to see their bond grow as Emelia grows. Olivia is such a good big sister and takes every opportunity to tell everyone that.