Tabby at 4.25

June 4th ticked off a quarter year of the way through Tabby’s fourth year. I’m still shocked and dismayed as these milestones fly by. Wonder if it will ever slow down a bit?

I’m really loving this little girl. I know she’s not 100% perfect, but the small battles we have over this and that (she’s a bit prone to drama and sometimes she doesn’t mind) are so small that it’s almost not worth mentioning. Sometimes this freaks me out a little. She’s too good. Too easy going. What am I in for with the teen years? Major payback? Oh well I won’t ruin this by borrowing trouble.

I notice the changes more slowly with Tabby these days, but she still does change. Just recently, she’s stretched out a bunch and seems to be all legs and arms. I’m sure that’s where all the food she’s been packing away is going to. She’s been eating like a horse and still hovering right around 35 lbs. She wears everything from 2T to 4T and I need to measure her again soon because I’m sure she must be inches above her last mark on the kitchen wall.

She seems to have abandoned some of her picky eating ways. We’re having more success with not gagging on “no thank you bites.” She’s also succumbed to my marketing campaigns for this and that. Quiche is gross but egg pie is tasty and delightful. Seaweed? Repellent!! But nori? SO YUMMY!! She will pretty reliably eat meat and cheese (but not string cheese – prefers bleu cheese or sharp cheddar or some of that delightful Wensley-Dale) and most carbs. She just recently discovered grits and I think Matt about burst with pride.

She is becoming a master at the art of negotiation. Some of her favorite phrases these days are, “but Mommy …” and “actually, Mommy …” It’s quite killing to hear her talk in her little girl voice with her adult-like vocabulary. She says almost all words perfectly, though ‘R’s give her some trouble still. Three=”fwee” for example.

Her newest interest is video games. She and Ben have a computer in their playroom. He loves it because it plays his beloved “Buzz!!” but Tabby loves it because she can play all the latest Dora and Kai-Lan games and draw and Skype with her family in Nashville. She also acquired a Dora Gameboy game (you take care of Dora’s puppy) that she is much in love with. We have to strictly limit access or she would play nonstop.

She has also recently overcome her fear of the waterslide at our rec center pool. This is huge for her and wonderful for us. You can only sit in the shallows of the kiddie pool guarding against disaster for so long before you want to scream. Now we can make the long trip up the stairs eleventy million times which is a vast improvement, believe it or not. I think we’ll get to take the kids to Waterworld this summer!

In many ways I am so sad at how fast her childhood is going by, but I dearly love the incredible little person she’s become. She is my little buddy and we both love doing things together … reading, cooking, making things … and the older she gets, the more stuff we can do together. Definitely a silver lining.