Admiring

Just noticing and admiring a lot of things about my daughter.  I don't know if it's because she just had birthday--or if she is actually changing before my eyes.   Her face is different and she is so tall, she is inquisitive and stubborn, argumentative and hilarious.  I just wanted to take note of what she is like right now, one month into being four.  

She recently got a bike and she has been going for a ride around the block almost daily, I jog behind her because she goes surprisingly fast.  She sings the entire time, usually about things we are passing, or something I've said.  Non-stop song.  

The girl is crazy about shoes.  She admires high heels--on strangers on television, in magazines.  She will stop and tell passersby how beautiful their shoes are.  Just this morning one of the moms at school admired my shoes and gave me props for wearing heels.  I told her, "Well, I'm only going to be wearing them for an hour, but I do it for Chloe, they make her happy. "

She thinks we look much more beautiful if we are wearing something sleeveless.  "Long sleeves are not beautiful."  

She would eat her weight in parmesan cheese if we let her.  Sour cream too.  And maybe ketchup.  

She is crazy about books and reading and making up her own stories, and pretending she is a teacher.

She can play board games now, card games, too.  We play Candyland, memory, and Cootie.  This toy is one of my favorite ever, she received it as a gift and it is seriously fun for all of us.  Recently she and Geoff have been playing three little pigs with them.  They build houses, then the wolf comes and huffs and puffs and blows the house in.  I listened to them play that while I was making dinner the other night, it was good stuff.  

She has a clever sense of humor and knows when "you are joking."  

She has seen the Wizard of Oz a handful of times now, and apparently it has her thinking.  We were watching the weather report this morning and she was excited, "Kansas?  That's where Dorothy is from!"  I promised I'd show her later on a map where Kansas is.  

On the way to school she asked, "If we go to Kansas, will our clothes be brown?"  

I tried to  explain black and white film, but she still wanted to know if our clothes would be brown if we went there.  Also on her mind, "what color is Auntie Em's dress?"  She decided it must be purple.  

She challenges me daily, and has taught me tons.  So full of admiration.