Shelby: 4 and a half!!!

Well, 2 days ago Sissy Missy Prissy turned 4 and a half! In my head she is 5, and I don't know why! So then I am mad at myself for aging her early!
A few days ago I was asking her, "Could you please stay little forever? Huh? Please?!?!" as I was tickling her. She was giggling and saying "No!" and I kept asking "Why not?", and then stopped and seriously said, "Because TIME PASSES Mommy!" Well, okay then. :(

Sissy is 4 going on 20. She loves fashion and she loves changing clothes (like multiple times a day!) Getting dressed in the mornings is hit or miss, and I haven't noticed any pattern of what I do or say or don't do or say that will make it go smoothly (or not.) I think it's just that lovely GIRL attitude. Oftentimes she gets dressed in the clothes I put out, and is happy. The object of most contention is shoes. Very often she doesn't like the shoes I have picked out, and wants to pick her own...but if I don't put shoes out, she asks me to help her pick them out, saying, "Well what do you think would look cute Mommy?" Sometimes she doesn't like the clothes I put out (but that isn't very often) and in that case I tell her to pick some other ones out. I mean, it's SCHOOL not a fashion show!!! :) One day she got all pouty and said, "Mommy I don't feel like this is cute!" after she got dressed. Oh, my! I assured her she looked wonderful and she happily moved on. She likes to choose what is done with her hair, and what goes in it. She does NOT like taking baths.
She walks into school every morning, always grinning and waiting for Ms. Barbara to go on about her shoes or her outfit or her hair or all three, and she just gushes and blushes and loves it.

This is just all documentation for me to look back on and see the foreshadowing for what was to come... ;)

At four and a half, she loves to draw and is very good at it (which she must have gotten from her daddy!) She can color a whole page all in the lines. She still loves to watch movies and still loves her babies and Bobby. She has been going to sleep in her own bed every night, and sometimes ends up in ours. She is a homebody and LOVES to be at home with Daddy or Mommy (or all of us is the best!) She also loves our girl times when I take just her shopping or out to eat.
She is a very sweet sister and never takes one of anything without also taking one for Coleman. She likes to make sure Cole is taken care of. On that same note, the tattling has begun, and man it is exhausting! She obeys the rules for the most part and always tattles when Cole says something he's not supposed to (which lately is "Shut up.") She has come into a new stage of not wanting to spend the night anywhere away from home...she used to want to spend the night with Nonnie all the time, and now she still asks to go over there but specifies that she does not want to spend the night.

Shelby is always the one who reminds us to say our prayer before dinner and at bedtime. She loves it when her Daddy reads books to her, and she loves going on walks/runs around the neighborhood.
She has become a great eater and has definitely filled out this year, skipping right past size 5s and into 6s. She eats veggies and LOVES bread...she could take or leave meat. Of course she loves candy and sweets. She licks the icing off cupcakes. She notices how I eat sometimes or things I say to Jeff, and in turn asks me if certain things are good for her before she eats them. I don't want to talk about DIETING to her but instead just encourage putting healthy things into our bodies to stay healthy and happy.

Raising a daughter is the most challenging and rewarding thing in the entire world.