Four

Dear Emma Rose,

On this, your 4th birthday, I wanted to take a moment to write down a little bit about what you love right now, before you move on to your next, new loves.

You love Hello Kitty, Dora, monkeys, and the color pink, and often all at the same time.

You love purple if pink is not an option.

You love tea parties, with real tea and china cups with saucers.  And a cookie. I sometimes think the cookie is the real reason for the tea party.

You love to play dolls, doctor, school, cooking and dress-up.

You love to sing out loud, and dance, dance, dance (even when there is no music- my favorite.)

You love to sing "You Are My Sunshine", "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider", "ABC", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", and "Single Ladies" by Beyonce.  I don't know how that last one got in there.

You love making art whether it is with crayons, markers, paint, chalk, pencils, playdough or anything else you might come across.

You love to be loud.

You love carrots, raisins, grapes, bananas, pepperoni pizza, black olives, celery, broccoli, pasta with cheese, salami sandwiches, chicken, ham, donuts with sprinkles, bacon, apples, milk, water, hot cocoa, toast with a "mama egg"- aka over-easy, crackers, Tillamook cheddar cheese, tacos, pickles, and trying new foods, even when you spit them back out and declare "I don't think I like this kind of food."

You love babies, new people and your family. And you love to tell everyone that your "best friends" are the younger sisters of Ben's friends.

You love anything Ben is doing, anything Dad is doing, anything Mom is doing, not doing what you should be doing and doing what you should not be doing.  You are a doer.

You love to go places.  You always ask if we can go to "one more stop".

You love to come up with new reasons that you don't need sleep.

You love books.  We go to the library at least once a week and four books quickly multiply to a dozen.

You are a loving, kind, spunky, spirited, funny and unique girl and my wish for you is a year filled with love and laughter and discovery and joy.

You are my sunshine.  Even when the sun is  already shining.

Love,

Mama.