Wait, didn't I just write the three post last week? How does this happen so quickly every year? Children's birthday's are such a great reminder for us to really appreciate each day because the years fly by too quickly. I will try to cram as much as I can into this post about Harper at age 4. She is VERY proud of being 4 now and on her birthday told EVERYONE we met that she was 4 now.
SOCIAL SKILLS: Harper and her core group of friends from school are all very outgoing and social. They ask other people their names, introduce each other, and are generally very friendly. It is funny to see such adult like behavior in such little people. But I love it! Harper is doing well when we go to restaurants. She can order her own food in a clear voice, says please and thank you appropriately, and in general uses good manners. When she wants to. We still have to remind her to say yes ma'am or yes sir sometimes or please. Most of the time I just don't respond to a request unless she says please and then she will ask again appropriately. I realize not every family has the same requirements manners wise but this is what works for our family.
SELF HELP SKILLS: Harper can put on her clothes by herself pretty much. T-shirts are obviously easier than more complicated shirts. She CAN button shirts but it takes SO long that usually I just do it. Which is terrible and I need more patience but that's just how it is. She puts on shoes and socks by herself as well. Most of these things are with the caveat that they are easy to put on. She did finally figure out how to buckle and unbuckle her sandals this summer which was super! She can also give her full name, our first and last names, her birth date, and our street address.
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE: I'm not even sure if I need to include this category anymore. Which is crazy considering I am a speech language pathologist. But language-wise Harper talks pretty much like an adult now. She still gets confused with figurative language, though more and more she remembers when we explain it to her. She uses phrases such as "speaking of..." appropriately now. She has now mastered her /k/ and /g/ sounds (she had been fronting for all of my SLP friends) and is actually getting /r/ in some positions, too. She likes to pretend to say things wrong or make her animals and dolls say things wrong so she can correct them. For example: "Mommy, Leo (the lion) says pum-pups for pull-ups!". She also likes us to tell her how she said things differently when she was a baby (Dati for Daddy or mok for milk). She is very interested in my job and will ask how my "little clients" did that day, even though some are old enough to be her great grandparents!
MOTOR SKILLS: Harper started gymnastics classes this summer. She has always been very active and it has been a great use of her energy, though she loves it so much she is often more wired when we leave! She just takes the basic preschool gymnastics class, they learn to roll and do obstacle courses and jump on a trampoline and have hung on some little bars. She has great balance and is learning to ride a bike with no training wheels. I'm not sure how she is so accident prone when her balance is so good, but probably because she never stops moving! (She got her first and hopefully last set of stitches this summer!). She can jump super far and can kick and catch and throw well still. We tried doing monkey bars at the park a few weeks ago and she didn't quite understand the concept but was strong enough to hold herself up. She can climb up a rope as long as it isn't too loose. Fine motor wise her new "3's" class at school has really amped up the fine motor curriculum, which I love! She wrote her full name all by herself for the first time this summer. Now she can write, fairly well, upper and lowercase A-E, thanks to school. She also write random letters, too, like 'Y' and 'T',
PRE-SCHOOL: I've already written about Harper's writing skills, she can also identify some whole words in print. She identifies her name, a few friends names, the word 'STOP', and 'Auburn'. At one point she identified 'Mom' or 'Mommy' but I haven't really tried to see if she can do that again. She can identify all uppercase letters and most lowercase. Again, I am terrible and have not really tried in a while to see if she knows all lowercase. She can identify numbers 1-10. She can count up to 39. She can keep counting if you help her by saying "40, 41...". She can count items now, too, at least 5, probably 10. I am trying to think about the games we play that involve counting spaces or tokens, etc.
Not sure where to include height and weight. After her doctor's appointment today she is officially 34 pounds and 41.5 inches! Harper we love you so much and are so proud that you are our daughter! To quote Jason (who should be writing this blog, because he writes much better than I do!) "You have taught me how to play again and how to enjoy the little things I too often hurry past. I love being part of the story that God is writing called your life!".
I've included several pictures, one is an interview I did with her over breakfast the morning of her birthday. I am hoping to make it a annual tradition but we will see if I remember next year!
