The family came over at noon and we all ate homemade pizzas and cupcakes. Julia only ate the frosting from her cupcake because she wanted to move on to opening presents as quickly as possible. According to her, we were on a time schedule since Jonathan was taking a nap. Although she loved all of her gifts, to include lots of play-doh and a new bike, her reaction to opening a little white baseball cap was probably the most memorable. She was so excited and let out an "awww, Mom" and gave Stacey a big hug when she realized what it was. For some reason she really wanted a hat of her own, probably because we've been talking about getting her one for a long time and always have said how cute she is when she plays with one of mine.
She pretty much learned how to pedal her new bike after a few trips up and down the hallway on the wood floor. At one point we dressed her up in her hat and new pink vest and let her have a few runs down the sidewalk. Unfortunately, this weekend has been the coldest one this winter, so we had to go back inside after a few minutes. We all took video of her riding her bike down the sidewalk which I'll post over the next few days. After watching her ride the bike and dressed in her new clothes, we realized just how big she really is. She's still a little girl, but every once in awhile we see things that make us realize that she is growing up right in front of us.
The thing about Julia is that often she communicates exactly what she's thinking. It's as if she sometimes has no "inner monologue". I don't know if it's just because she's young or if it's because of her advanced verbal skills. After we went inside she played around with a few more toys and then sort of hit the end of things to impulsively play with. Others were talking, so I don't know if anyone else caught this...but she started to walk around the room for a few seconds and then said exactly what she was thinking. In a pondering sort of way she said out loud, "hmm, I wonder what else I can do that is fun?", as if she already knew today was her birthday party and that it MUST be filled with non-stop playing and entertainment.
That's when we broke out one of the play-doh stands. She made ice cream cones and sundaes for about two hours, with company there and after they had all left. She only stopped because it was time for dinner and was hungry. She was super-sweet and so happy to have been the center of attention, been given new things to play with, and to have played the entire day. When I tucked her into bed, I told her that I wanted to sing a song for her instead of a story. I quietly sang the Happy Birthday song one more time, much to her delight.
I can't believe that she is already four years old - time is flying by.
