Happy 4th Birthday, Etta!

Today our sweet, funny, shining daughter turned four! "Hard to believe", "time flies", and all of those other cliches apply.


Etta, you have grown so much in the last year! You are an amazing big sister (I never had a doubt!).  You are very helpful. You always tell Daniel goodnight and many times you come into the room to watch me put him in his crib. You like to make him laugh. Recently, you have been making him laugh by running and hopping around him while he's laying on the floor. You love Daniel and he loves you.

You are doing SO well in school! You are making friends and your teachers tell me that everyone loves you. You are learning to listen and follow directions and sit still for circle time. You have made great strides in speech. You've been dropping your signs and prefer to actually make vocalizations. We don't always understand what you are telling us, but you usually do a pretty good job of getting your point across. You have also started to potty train. You started that one day when you were at school. All by yourself! We are all very proud of you and know you will get the hang of it soon.

You love music! Your birthday party is going to be music-themed this year. You love to sing and dance and you will turn almost anything that has a long shape into drumsticks (spoons, forks, chopsticks, straws...). Your favorite TV show is The Fresh Beat Band. You bring us the remote when you want to watch an episode and will get mad if we don't put one on for you (you usually get over it after a couple of minutes). You watch a couple episodes a day and have most of them memorized and will sing and dance along with the show.

We can't wait to see how much you grow and what you will learn in the next year! We love you very much!
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Keith took the day off so we could spend the day together with Etta. It was a chilly day today. The high only reached 67, I believe (it was in the 90's yesterday). We started with brunch at Cracker Barrel. Etta loved the chocolate milk and ate a bowl of bananas. We got her a pancake, but she didn't want to try it.

After breakfast, we took her to Storybook Village, an indoor play place here in Spring Hill. It was pretty dead in there which made it nice.

Then, we took her through the drive-through for some of her favorite french fries, before heading home for a nap. Which she didn't take. Of course. Even though she REALLY needed one.

After her "nap", we went up to the play room for a while.

 

Later in the afternoon, we gave Etta her birthday gifts.

We gave her got this multi-instrument toy (we also gave this toy to her friends Owen and Emma for their birthdays this year).  

She also got a Woody doll! (She loved playing with Woody while we were visiting with Lori's family in Atlanta over Spring Break)

Woody plays the keyboard

Getting acquainted with Woody 

After dinner we sang "Happy Birthday" and gave Etta her annual Zebra Cake. I'm sure you know the long Zebra Cake story by now, but for those that don't, I will tell a quick version.

On the day Etta was born, I had not had a chance to eat much. When I arrived at the hospital to be monitored (because I was feeling very little movement), the nurses asked me what I had eaten that day and all I could remember was that I had eaten a Little Debbie Zebra Cake. The nurse gave me a *tisk, tisk* and told me that I was likely dehydrated and made me feel like my poor diet was the cause of Etta's distress. Jerk!

Anyway, we all know that the zebra cake didn't cause fetal distress and we also know that they sure are tasty! I ate a very healthy diet throughout my pregnancy with Etta (even better than my pregnancy with Daniel. Sorry, Daniel. lol), but those zebra cakes... those were my weakness! (For the record, I had zero zebra cake cravings during Daniel's pregnancy.)

So, every year, on Etta's birthday, we give her a Zebra Cake (Links to videos from her first birthday, second birthday, third birthday). She didn't always enjoy the cake, but this year she ate every. single. bite.

***If you'd like to read the full Zebra Cake story, you can find it by clicking here (scroll down to the fourth entry toward the bottom).

Happy Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you very much!