Happy 4th Birthday Faith!

A four year old seems A LOT older to me than a three year old. My little Faith is officially no longer an "older toddler" but a real preschooler.


A picture of our four-year old from today!

 I am so proud of my little girl and there are so many things I love about my precious Faith.  Here is  an abbreviated list of the many things I love about my four-year old:

• She loves story-telling. When she tells me a story, she nearly always starts it out by saying (in her melodious, whimsical voice), "Once upon a time..."

• She is a compassionate child.  Tonight, when Jillian found out that just Faith and her daddy were going on a date to Chick-Fil-A, Jillian became sad.  Faith consoled her sister, "It's alright Jillian.  You can sit in the booster seat in the red car (the official date car in our family)."  She willingly set aside her own desire to have alone time with her daddy, so her big sister wouldn't feel left out. (In the end, Brad decided it would be best if he and Faith had their special date alone tonight, but Jillian is anticipating her upcoming Chick-fil-A date with Dad too.)

• Faith is the most cheerful person in the morning! She is a bundle of delight when she wakes up with the sun-rise.  :-)  It almost always brightens my day (and puts me in a better morning mood) when I see her smiling face early in the morning.

• She is a loyal person. When you first meet Faith, typically she can be a little shy and reserved.  But once you pull her out of her shell, you have a friend for life. She loves her family and friends deeply. and is super affectionate too.  I especially love watching her with her friend Buddy.  Buddy is a tender little guy and he loves Faith so much.  They give one another the biggest hugs and kisses and they tell one another "I love you!" very often.  He told his mom recently, "Mom, I am going to marry Faith someday."  :-) 

• Faith often tells me that when she grows up she wants to have three girls. She wants to name them "Jillian", "Faith", and "Anna"! :-)  

• A couple of months ago, Brad and Faith were sharing some sweet cuddle time on the couch.  Brad was enjoying his time with her so much, he affectionately asked her, "Faith, will you stay little always?"  She gigglingly answered, "No! I have to grow up so I can be a MOM! And then she pointed directly at me, and said, "LIKE YOU, Mommy!" 

• She is my little nurturer, care-taker.  Both our friends, the Glenn's and the Pull's have toddlers that are a couple years younger than Faith. She loves them so much. Whenever, she is around either Oliver or Aliyah, she will stroke their arm and talk gently to them and try to help them with whatever they are attempting to do at the time. On other occasions, she will keep them out of mischief too. Just last week, little Oliver was having fun running around in Chick-Fil-A and Faith was running after him, yelling "Ol-ver, Ol-ver!!!".  I don't know if Oliver running or Faith yelling at the top of her lungs was more of a disturbance to the customers, but I thought it was sweet nonetheless. She was genuinely concerned about her little friend and didn't want him to get hurt or lost.

• She LOVES being a girl. If she had her choice, she would never wear pants a day in her life. She always wants to wear a skirt or a dress. She likes when I curl her hair with a curling iron. As a special treat for both Faith and I on my birthday last week,  I painted both sets of our toe-nails.  She thought my birthday was the greatest day and even today mentioned again how fun that was! :-)

• Several times a week, Faith will write and "compose" a new song (and if she is in a place where she can dance to her song, she will do that too).  She expresses so much of herself and about the things she is learning in life through her singing.  Last week, she was singing about obeying God and your parents.  Other times, she will sing about brushing her teeth, going to bed, reading a book, or being a princess.  

• She loves learning the alphabet and her numbers. She especially does well recognizing letters/ sounds that have a snack associated with it. For example, "P" is for pizza and popcorn.  :-)   This summer, she loved all the learning we did about the ocean before going to the beach for the first time. Over a couple of weeks, we read at least a dozen books about the ocean and one day, as a special treat, I borrowed a video about oceans from the library. We watched it while we had a picnic with a blanket on the living room floor. We ate fish-sticks and made a little ocean scene with graham crackers with blue icing and multi-colored gold-fish on top! :-) She had so much fun and I loved seeing her enthusiasm for learning blossom even more.  

•  I also love my little girl's love of rainbows and the thrill she feels when she experiences a new adventure.  She loves nature walks and enjoys seeing the beautiful things in God's creation.  And even though she is my "girly girl", she amazes me with her fascination with bugs and her fearlessness in riding a roller-coaster at a theme park! 

• I love my Faith.  I am so thankful to God that I have the privilege of getting to know this precious little girl intimately and call her my daughter. Happy Birthday Faith!