ALL ABOUT CORA: 4-YEARS-OLD

If this photo doesn't demonstrate how much Cora has grown in the past few years, I don't know what does. Between her long hair and LONG legs... Crazy that she still fits (comfortably!) into this pink romper. It's fun to look back over her past portrait sessions (years 1, 2a/2b/2c, and 3) and see how much she's changed, yet also realize how much she has stayed true to her personality (oh those facial expressions...)

And on that note, here's the annual round-up of all things Cora!

At 4-years-old, Cora is a force to be reckoned with... Unlike the move from 2 to 3 (leaving the toddler years behind), and as wild and exciting as her fourth year was, we are not sad to be leaving the 3's behind (forever!) as our youngest turns 4 today. The 3's are just not our favorite age. Nope. And though we hear conflicting adjectives to describe the 4's (I'm talking to you Karyn!), we're crossing our fingers that we get the Fantastic Fours with our girl, 'cause we're ready for a year less filled with drama and sassiness and potty accidents!

As in years past, we'll admit that this little queen of ours still rules our household more often than we'd like (we're trying people, we really are), so it's quite appropriate that she celebrated her birthday dressed as a Queen this year.

Our girl can fake cry like an Oscar winner. This works very well for her in public situations. Not so much at home, but that doesn't stop her from trying. She can turn the switch on a dime too. Combine that with her vast array of facial expressions, and her love of singing and dancing, and I seriously wonder how we don't have a little child actress on our hands... The good news is that when that switch flips in the positive direction, she is just the absolute sweetest and most adorable little girl on earth. And she knows it! (Which can be equally as problematic at times...)

Her sass is still a constant (and growing) battle for us. It manifests itself in dirty looks, body language, harumphs, door slamming, outright defiance, a little eye-rolling, and some phrases that would make you cringe (if you weren't trying so hard not to laugh about the fact that a 3-year-old can turn a phrase like that...) Sass (of any kind) is a zero-tolerance offense in our house - you get one chance to correct the behavior or you bite the soap. Unfortunately, while the soap threat does actually work these days, it doesn't ALWAYS stop her from continuing her rampage. In those instances, we generally send her to her room so that we don't have to listen to her meltdown directly into our souls.

As for the potty accidents, you're all well aware of our lengthy battle... Was it physical (small bladder), mental (wanting to stay the baby), medical (unlikely, since her docs ruled out all the major causes and we were able to correct the small issues easy enough), revenge (many accidents happened during time outs or tantrums), or laziness (many other accidents occured while she was preoccupied with something she refused to take a break from)? Probably a combination of all of it, but we are thankfully well past it at this point (she's been mostly accident-free for over 3 months now - we really think the clincher was being in dance class, where undies under tights are not allowed, and witnessing other little girls get sent out of class early for having accidents). Occasional accidents still happen with her (and she could care less when they do, so we don't make a big deal out of it), but those for sure can be attributed to her being busy playing (or reading books) and not wanting to take a break, so we are no longer stressing about them. We worry the accidents will be more frequent over the summer months (because we spend a LOT of time outdoors, where she has a harder time admitting she needs a potty break, especially when there are no bathrooms nearby), but we'll just have to see how it goes. We're just thankful the trend finally turned itself around!

Starting at the end of last month, she moved up into James' class for summer school. There are far fewer kids at Agape in the summer, so there are less teachers and classes are combined. The director was unsure whether to put Cora with the 1-3 year olds or the 4-6 year olds, mostly because she worried about having siblings in the same class, but we worried that Cora would be extremely bored in the younger class (especially because, by our accounts, she seemed extremely bored for the second half of the school year with the 3-year-olds). Turns out that she and James are doing very well together. Ms. Tina keeps them separated during seatwork and Montessori centers (more to keep James focused than prevent conflict), but they play together at recess and sit together during circle time and lunch, and usually nap (or is it "nap") next to each other. Ms. Tina informed us that Cora tends to act like a mother hen with James, which we don't doubt for a second, since we see similar behavior at home. She is always "doing" for him and worrying over him and reminding him about what he is or isn't suppose to be doing. Good. Takes the pressure off us parents. Ha! They are still the best of friends, and conflict between them is really very minimal these days. We love that she's finally being challenged at school (not just doing THE SAME EXACT WORKSHEETS EVERY SINGLE WEEK) and feel that it's going to help prepare her for 4K with Ms. Kati in the fall, which is pretty exciting! She shows so much interest at home when we do early reader books or flashcards with James, and she beats him to the punch way more often than he'd like when we quiz him, that we expect her to continue to be one of those kids that just loves all things school! And reading (give her a stack of books, and you won't hear a peep out of her for 30-60 minutes, and we LOVE that) We find books in her bed in the morning more often than not, meaning she has stayed up past her bedtime reading by the light of her nightlights, but we won't complain... as long as she stays in her room!

Lets see... What else do we normally sum up in these yearly recaps?...

Sleeping? Speaking of that staying in her room after we declare bedtime... yes, this year has been HUGE in the sleep improvement department. We may have lost naps for the most part (they supposedly happen at school, definitely still happen in the car if we time it right, and occasionally happen at home on weekends if mama naps with her), but bedtime has become a breeze and she sleeps through the night in her own bed 90-95% of the month. Incredible, right? We want to move her out of using pull-ups overnight, since they are dry about half the mornings of the week, but we're not willing to regress in the sleep department, so until she's 100% dry overnight for a month straight, the pull-ups stay.

Eating? Yup, she still does it. A lot. It's seems like she's been growth spurting for months. She's not quite the adventurous eater that she used to be, but she enjoys lots of veggies and fruits, tolerates cheese and some meat (mostly fish, but chicken and occasionally turkey work too), and could live off "snacks" and "treats" if we'd let her (not that we would). Bags of crackers and gummies can still calm her when she becomes a "hangry" beast, and she's finally gotten on the bribery train as far as finishing certain dinner items to be allowed to pick a treat from her "munchbox" (the princess lunchbox where her leftover holiday candy lives... when mama and daddy don't raid it...)

Favorites? Her favorite movie is Frozen (obviously), though The Croods is a close second (which is funny because we fully expected to hate that movie, yet we actually love it too). Her favorite TV shows are Octonauts and Paw Patrol (which we approve of due to the lessons in animals, nature, and teamwork). Her favorite toys are her dress-up clothes (every day, all day - many outfit combinations!), baby dolls (and stuffed animals), Disney ballerina princesses (and any princesses, honestly, and even Barbies as of late), crafts (coloring and painting, especially), puzzles (as always), and once again, various building toys (we keep catching her with the Lincoln Logs, Pegboards, and Magneatos lately).

Current (unofficial) Stats? 34.5 lbs and 40.5"

In summary, she is still our highly independent, strong-willed, confident little girl, and those are definitely characteristics that we approve of. Long live the queen!