Joanna!!

Today Joanna is four years old!  I hunted back, and you can read her birth story here.  You know, if you’re so inclined.  :)

Four is old.

• Joanna is always thinking.  This morning she came into my room when she woke up (hello, walking alarm clock!)  Here’s our conversation:

Me: Happy birthday, four year old girl.
Joanna: Am I four now?
Me: Yes baby, you are four.
Joanna: But I’m not as big as Anna.

And she said it with a sad, pitiful kind of voice.  She knew she was about to be four like Anna (her BFF, who has been four since September), but when it happened she was surprised that she wasn’t suddenly as big as her friend.

• Sometimes Joanna is the first one up (after James’ early feeding), and she comes into my room, crawls into bed with me, and tells me “I will give you two more minutes.”  It’s a good thing she can’t actually tell time yet, ‘cause I milk it.  :)
• Joanna is a good buddy for just about anything.  She’s fun to take on errands and she obeys pretty well, especially out of the house.
• She can pretty much dress herself unless there are buttons in the back.  She’s also not 100% with socks yet.
• She can unlock and open the front door, BUT she knows not to unless she’s been told to.
• She can check the mail.  I like just walking outside and sending her for all the heavy lifting.  :)
• She can open the car door from the outside and completely buckle herself into her car seat.  She cannot unbuckle the bottom buckle.
• She LOVES holding James and wants to do it all the time.  Occasionally she does it stealthily.
• She can carry on real conversations with just about anybody.
• But sometimes she won’t.  She isn’t usually comfortable talking to new people or even people whom she sort of knows (like from church or the doctor’s office).  We’re working on being polite.  :)
• She can recognize a lot of letters, but isn’t interested in writing them or making sounds.
• She has a great sense of humor.
• She’s old enough to eat a few bites of something even when she doesn’t like it very much.  We don’t force the kids to eat anything, but they do have to try a bite.  And if they want more of something else (say, bread or fruit or whatever), they’ve got to eat what’s already on their plate first.  She gets it.
• She is such a good big sister.  Yes, sometimes her sole purpose is to make her sister crazy, but for the most part, she is very loving and helpful to Natalie and James.
• She is a very good helper to me.  More often than not, she helps very cheerfully.
• She likes to talk.  A lot.  And ask questions.  Often.
• She is just so stinkin’ precious, and she knows it!
• She is very very loved by her mom, dad, sister, brother, and oh so many others.

Happy fourth birthday, my first-born.  I love you.