Winding down with the Whiteds: Madison turns 4!

Our little girl got a little bigger. She turned FOUR this September. I just can't believe how fast she is growing. She is our firecracker. She is still as courageous as ever, but cautious and smart now. She is strong, never stopping, energetic, and seeks adventure. She has said it to me before (who knows where she got this), "I do what I want." With that, as you can imagine, we pray for patience and deal with discipline on a daily basis with this sweet girl. I think one of my biggest prayers is to teach her well without crushing her God-given spirit. She is unpredictable and a little all over the board with her emotions at some points. I attribute that mostly to her age, trying to learn how to regulate her emotions and learn how to control them. Despite what you'd expect from a girl with her personality, she is very shy. It has been so fun to watch her grow since having started preschool. I didn't see her speak to her teachers for the first 3 weeks. Now, she has good friends and always has a buddy while at school. I believe she's a natural, quiet leader. There have been a couple times when she's asked me, "Why do they want to do what I'm doing?" At the same time, in many situations, she is quick to follow others (like if someone at the park isn't wearing a coat or shoes, she quickly throws hers off...or if her class mate is drawing the bear holding lollipops, she draws that too).

She is still so.strong.willed. There are so many times when I have told her not to do something and she says, "actually I can" and goes ahead. Many times at the park, I have told her not to do something because it's for the big kids and she just said "yes, I can" and went ahead to try it--monkey bars or whatever. She truly learns best when she figures out something on her own because she just doesn't want someone else to tell her what she can or can't, should or shouldn't do or try to do. Right around her birthday, she was particularly difficult and I really got frustrated with all those people that said "Four is just the sweetest age!! You just wait!" Because it was anything but sweet. There were many nights where I was in tears of frustration complaining to Bryce and wondering what to do in certain situations. But now, as I write this (in February), she really has grown up a bit. She actually responds to discipline most times, she understands when I mean business, she gets that certain situations are more serious than others and she needs to be responsible. She actually obeys many times when I ask her to do something (I know, crazy, right?!). Still, bedtime is our most difficult time most days. I don't try to force naps anymore because the fight isn't worth it for her to sleep a mere 30-40 minutes. She fights bedtime four out of seven times a week and comes out of her room at least once after being put down every night. If she doesn't put up a big fight, we are almost surprised. It's usually very difficult for grandparents or a babysitter to put her to sleep. BUT, I am seeing some light of encouragement in this whole parenting journey. Many nights, she begs to stay up and "read" her princess Bible book by night light after we say goodnight to her. She also has become WAY more affectionate with family (including us) over the last few months. Before these last few months, she was either too busy or not interested in giving out hugs and kisses or even high fives. Now, she is much sweeter in that regard. She likes to be hugged, kissed, rocked and sung to before bed. She even gives hugs and kisses to Bryce, Carter, and I when we don't even ask for one.

Making a bouquet for Mother's Day

This is what I get 9 out of 10 times I try to get pictures. This girl.

Her favorite colors are pink and purple. She has said many times that she wants to be a mommy when she grows up. She still loves playing with baby dolls. She can't get enough arts and crafts. She loves to color. She loves baking (and loves eating dough even more). One of her favorite things to do is to go "on a date" with Daddy to his office on Sundays. They drop his ironed clothes off at his office for the week, get a drink out of the snack machines, she draws pictures for his office, sometimes they go get his hair cut or drop by Home Depot, and they almost always drop by Baskin Robbins so she can get a cone. She stuck to plain vanilla for a long time, but now, her favorite flavor is chocolate chip cookie dough. "Dates" with Maddie almost always have to include ice cream.

First roller coaster: in the front row, with her two girl friends, arms up.

She went to a small amusement park and on her first roller coaster a few months ago. She had absolutely no fear and wanted to go on every ride. I am convinced that her love language is good quality time. She likes gifts and when you do things for her or say nice things to her, but she beams with joy when someone gives her full undivided attention for any amount of time. She is still not crazy about car rides longer than five minutes, but is has improved *a little*. I find myself shocked or praising her when we get through even a 20 minute car ride without a complaint or an "I'm so bored" or "This is taking too long." However, both our kids are great with airports and flying on airplanes. She is definitely a people person. More often than not, she begs to do her quiet time downstairs just so she can be with someone else. She doesn't like to be by herself for very long. Depending on the day, I insist that we all need some alone time and we need to learn how to be alone. Other times, I let her sit and color quietly while I do whatever it is that I need to get done. Even recently, she has asked to wake Carter up from his nap just so she can play with him. She still loves jumping on the trampoline. She had been going to gymnastics at The Little Gym until January 2017 when I switched her to an bigger gymnastics gym (Metro gymnastics). She loves "hot chips" aka salt and vinegar chips. She is generally a great eater as far as variety of food that she eats. But sitting through a whole meal or even eating while sitting still proves difficult. She'd rather do headstands against the couch in between bites. And even though she will eat almost anything (except mashed potatoes or green beans), it's like pulling teeth to get her to eat breakfast. She usually has a cup of milk shortly after waking up, and then maybe eats a few bits of cereal or one egg. Lunch and dinner are much easier and she's very hungry for those meals.

Trying out a ballet class just for the summer.

A common reward if she has a good day: "a gymnastics night"--15 minutes of YouTube gymnastics videos with us after Carter goes to bed and maybe even some "hot chips"

1. What makes you happy? "Going to America. Well, I love living in America. Oh and I just think of a name for a boy. Johnny. And Valentines Day."
2. What makes you sad? "When Carter hits me."
3. What makes you laugh? "When bubby makes funny faces and then I laugh so hard. And then I make funny faces and then he laughs."
4. How old are you? "Four"
5. How old is mommy? "Fifteen."
6. How old is daddy? "Fourteen five. Is that when his birthday is?"
7. What is your favorite thing to do? "Play with my baby crib and baby high chair and baby stuff."
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? "A mommy. And then we will be friends."
9. What are you really good at? "Cartwheels and front rolls and hanging on the bars."
10. What are you not very good at? "Doing like, so many cartwheels and then land. Like a gymnastics girl. It's so hard to do. I'm learning how to do it."
11. What is your favorite food? "Ice cream. Vanilla and chocolate and strawberry."
12. What is your favorite song? "Go tell it on the mountain."
13. What did you get for your birthday this year? "Roller skates from Nana and Papa."
14. What do you want for your birthday next year? "New underwear. Well, I don't want new underwear. New Bibles. Or Shopkins. And new booties for my baby. I only have one pair, so I need more."
15. What is your favorite animal? "Cheetahs. Because they run so fast that they can run into a tree. Then they can scratch the tree."
16. What does daddy do for work? "Uh...he makes us money so we can buy stuff and at Switzerland he has to get more money. He just works. Just work and work and work and work.
17. What does mommy do for work? "uh...You clean the kitchen up so it looks super clean. And my room clean. Just work and work and work like daddy. You clean and make lunch for us. And you wash clothes. And you play with us. And ...you...
18. Where do you live? "In Oregon. Do you don't know where we are?"
19. Where is your favorite place to go? "To Addy and Lexi's house. To everybody's house."
20. What are your favorite books? "This book. About the Bible. I read about all the kinds of food that this guy gave to Jesus (picture on the front)."
21. What is something mommy always says to you? "Not getting on the counter."
22. What is something daddy always says to you? "Don't jump on the couch and don't sit on top of the couch." (clarification-the top of the couch back)
23. Who is your best friend? "Taylor and Maisy. Everyone. Kasia."
24. What is love? "If you're hugging and kissing, that's love." ("Really?", I said.) "Uh huh. No, it's about Valentine's day. Where you're happy and you want to have things like Easter eggs. Then you open them and if they have things in them, you can eat them. Then if they don't have treats...(trails off). ("Is love really all about Easter eggs?" I asked to clarify.) "Yes. And it's about God loving each other. And that's all about love."
25. What are things we like to do as a family? "Play games together. Like, Maddie and the baby, and children. Everyone."

This year, she has really started to fall sweetly into her role as a big sister to Carter and the new baby. Of course they fight about sharing and scream when they get frustrated with one another, but there are so many moments when she shows him the sweetest love. She helps him find his special toys, she shows him how to do things, she helps him out of his crib after his nap, she calls him her "best friend." There are even times when we have friends over to play and she prefers to play with him. We went to an indoor play area with a huge play structure a few weeks ago. Carter was too short to climb up the steps to the top of the slide (think of a McDonalds type play structure but much bigger). The entire morning, she pushed his bottom up every one of those steps to the top of the slide over and over so that he could enjoy it. It almost made me cry watching her because not only did she do it when I asked her, but she did it out of joy because he was having so much fun.