Our Rosie turned four last week, and since I haven't been blogging since she turned one, I thought I'd do an all about Rosie post because she's one of my favorite daughters.
Rosie is full of energy and spunk! One of her nicknames is Spunky Brewster, and she EARNS it. She has perfected the art of saying "No" over the past few weeks (pre-gaming for actually being 4, I think), but she also makes me laugh, so we're keeping her for now. She is stubborn but sweet, has an amazing memory, gets reeaaally loud when she's excited, forgives easily, and often refuses to things except on her terms. Luckily, her terms usually means once we've stopped asking her to do it - she just has to decide for herself. There are other days that she is helpful and eager to please, though they are fewer now that she's really asserting her independent four-year-old-ness.
She loves to play with dolls, ponies, her "stuffies" (stuffed animals), and her sister's toys. She doesn't usually have an extended attention span for coloring/drawing/painting, but she loves puzzles and will happily work on them for an hour or more. She loves to read stories but is in the phase where she tends to interrupt every page to tell me what she sees, and sometimes that's find and sometimes I can't handle it. She loves to snuggle and be held - another nickname is my little "snuggle-buggle." She is soooo silly and playful, and she makes us laugh every day. She still plays silly games with me that Georgie has grown out of and still loves being tickled.
She is incredibly articulate, clever, thoughtful, and insightful. She remembers things and brings them up (in the correct context) days or weeks later, but she also makes up words and hears works/phrases wrong and it's adorable. I love hearing her sing and we are frequently treated to spontaneous performances. She has seemingly endless energy, and still sometimes just runs around in circles to get it out. Literally. Runs in circles.
She also is firmly and forever attached her to special blanket, called Wah-Wah or Wah-Wee. Like, if it's out of sight and she can't find it, she goes full-on screaming/crying/hysterical meltdown as if one of her limbs had just gone missing. We are working on detaching a little (like, say, enough to not bring it to school) but that thing is just part of who she is. She still sleeps with it at night and wraps one corner around her index finger, puts it up to her face, and makes a sucking noise when she falls asleep, just like when she was a baby.
When I was pregnant with her and after she was born, I had several distinct impressions that she was a gift to our family - she came when we needed her, and she chose to come when she did, even knowing that it would be hard. She was born four months after my dad passed away and we needed her joy and light to help us move forward. She has a gift for creating joy and I am grateful for it and her.
