Miriam,

You are 4! How fast the years have gone. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of who you are, and are becoming! You are truly our brave and sweet and smart and beautiful young lady. Like Daddy said this morning, “You are swell!” and we love you so much 🙂

Some highlights from Year 4:

*You started preschool at Sunbeams in August. You loved your teacher, Ms. Glover, very much and you excelled in your social and academic skills over the next 9 months. You also made some great new friends, like Josephine!

*You went on your 2nd camping trip with Mommy and Daddy at Smithville Lake in September. We had a lot of fun even tho it was super hot still. The sunsets were gorgeous!

*The holidays were extra fun this year because you had so many great questions. Why do we get a Christmas tree? Who is Santa? – where does he live? You picked out a Sophia the First Duplos set for Pop-pop to get you and every time you opened a present, you thought that would be what you were getting. Unfortunately, we didn’t celebrate with Pop-pop until Dec 31st so you had to wait until the last Christmas celebration to get it. Boy, did you learn about patience this year 😉

*You are now 38 1/2″ tall and you weigh 37.5 lbs.

*On Easter this year (April 1st), we went to Mimi’s house in NE (as usual) in the midst of a huge snowstorm! It was so fun to hunt eggs outside in the snow.

*You’ve made significant gains in your verbal sentence construction this year; you’ve been writing your first name on your own for about 6 months now and you’ve learned how to spell your last name over the last few weeks. We’re working on your middle name too 😉 You like to know your schedule for the day, when things start and end, so we’ve touched on the hour and minute hands of the clock; you can determine where the minute hand needs to be to measure a 30-minute quiet time in the afternoons. You come running out at the 30-minute mark, “Mommy, quiet time is over!” LOL I’m confident the END of quiet time is your favorite part 😉

*You’re incredibly funny, Miriam. You love to tell jokes! Your current favorite is “Knock, knock. Who’s there? Interrupting orange. Interrupting orange SQUEEZE!” Yes, you made it up and no, you don’t interrupt us. Yet!

*You are known for your kindness and politeness. We consistently hear from your teachers, friends, friend’s parents, etc that you are helpful and thoughtful, always thinking of others. Great work, Miriam!

*You have intensities, for sure. You want things the way you want them *I have no idea who you got that from 😉 Everything has it’s spot and arrangements. We observe that your favorite ways to play are building/creating (duplos, blocks, magna-tiles) and dress-up; you play some version of these every day.

*You started a combo dance class in June – tap, ballet, and acrobatics at Diane’s School of Dance. You are thoroughly enjoying it and one of your teacher assistants (Avery) is also one of your teachers in Kids’ City at church!

*For your birthday this year, you chose the theme ‘Unicorns’! Aunt Tricia made a gorgeous cake for you; you wanted a unicorn piñata and to make unicorn headbands for your activities. Those who came to celebrate you were:

Kinley & Corban
Josephine
Elie
Harper
Cousins – Zeke, Levi, Zoë, Naomi
Lexi & Aiden
Rigby & Layla
Mimi & Seanna
Pop-pop
Lauryl, Brendan, Aubry
Mommy & Daddy

Here’s some pics from your birthday party!

You are loved so much, Miriam Elayne Sidwell! #ourbelovedsunshine

Love, Mommy