Elsie

Little Elsie joined me at work on Wednesday. She had her 4-year-old check up on Tuesday and had to get three shots. She woke up with a fever on Wednesday morning. I sent her to school thinking she would improve but she didn't so they called me to come pick her up. I brought her back to work with me and she was so good the entire day. She watched a little TV, colored, and played Starfall on my iPhone and on my computer at work. She didn't disturb anyone and occupied herself even when I was in court. She is a truly exceptional child.
She weighs 32 lbs. with all of her clothes on, that's four more than at her 3-year check up, and she is 37 1/2 inches tall. She is in the 25% for height and the 50th for weight. I'm not sure if I believe that last one, though because she seems so small. She's still in 3T clothes! She counted to 20 for the doctor. I know that she can count to at least 30, though, because that's how long the kids give each other when they are playing hide-and-go-seek. She knows most of her letters, as in, if she wants to write a word, you can tell her how to spell it and she will write it out. She knows most of the sounds that go with her letters, too. And she can write her name. She's been doing that since the summer. She can easily follow patterns and loves puzzles. She also loves color by number. She often sits in her bed at night after Mary Grace has gone to sleep and works on puzzles, "reads", and colors, sometimes as long as an hour and a half. She can read her friends' names and can even write some of them on her own.
She loves to ride her big wheel and her bicycle. She and Mary Grace love to play school. They will line their baby dolls up in the floor and read to them. They will also pick a line leader for the day. Restaurant is a favorite game, too. They like to carry a pad of paper and pencil around and take "orders". They will tell you the options, you order, they write down your order, then return with something for you on a plate. Then they'll take your dessert order.
She also loves to play Memory. We have both a princess Memory game and a Mickey memory game. She would prefer to play this with Mary Grace, mommy, or daddy but will play on her own if no one will play with her.
She, however, is a very picky eater! It's so hard to get her to eat any vegetables or really anything at all other than crackers and dry cereal! She did enjoy spaghetti last night, though, so I guess we'll be eating more of that in the future!
She also does not really care for TV. While Mary Grace could sit for hours and watch TV if we let her, Elsie is really only entertained by a few shows in particular and for only a few minutes of TV at a time. She likes Cat in the Hat, Between the Lions, Good Luck Charlie, and, of course, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. That's about it, though.
She loves to sing and is one of the louder kids when her school sings for the parents. For the Valentine's parties, the school enrichment teacher put Elsie in the middle of the kids because she sings so enthusiastically! This is a change from last school year when she would just sit and stare at the crowd and not sing at all!
She loves her dance class and I often hear her in the other room singing about first position, second position, etc. and doing the corresponding moves.
She also loves to run! Yeah, that's my girl! Mary Grace's school had a little one-mile fun run last weekend that we all participated in. She ran for most of the mile. I wish we had timed her. When she finished, she even went one more lap (a quarter mile) with Stephen.
She is a special child. I enjoy being her mom so much and look forward to seeing what kind of woman she will become. She says she wants to be a doctor (like Momo!) when she grows up and I know that, if she wants to, she certainly will!