Four Things Around Age Four

Today is the first Thursday after Sienna turned four. I noticed four things that are worth mentioning as they first happened to Sienna.

1) Sienna started to use her palms to catch the tap water and rinse her face like an aduld would do.

2) It was discovered on her very birthday at her dental check up that she had three tiny little cavities on her teeth that need to have fillings done. She was fine on her last appointment in September, 2004

3) She read a complete storybook other than the Phonics series passed on from school. She could recite Madeline and Brown Bear in entirety without looking at the books. That's from her good memory. But for this one, Nancy Carlson's I Like Me, she READS word for word: "I have a best friend. That best friend is me. I do fun things with me. I draw beautiful pictures... When I get up in the morning, I say, 'Hi, good-looking!'... "

4) She scolds her mommy in a much fuller and more expressive way. When I stopped her from opening a present that had a million little pieces, she went:"Mommy, I don't like you. You are not my best friend any more. I will lock you up tomorrow. You are stupid..." She didn't get to open the present. I only pointed out that it was wrong to say those things. I will think of a measure of panelty to deal with it on it's re-occurrences. It's important to give a child a chance to be mean.