its the little memories that make a lifetime: Happy 4th Birthday my first born love

Yesterday, 12th May, my baby girl turned 4. She celebrated the day with many of her favourite things, an early morning bike ride (on a brand new bike), a morning at kindy (with a marshmallow caterpillar to share), a picnic in Botanic Gardens with Nana, Grandad & Auntie Mandi (with the requested giraffe cake), followed by an afternoon at the zoo (where the 2 wombats were the star attraction).

This last year has been a big one for her, she has firstly adjusted to being in childcare full time, followed by being home full time & then having her mum time rudely interrupted by a little brother who seemed to take a while to get the message about who runs the show around this place (dont worry he has learnt that lesson many times over now). The introduction of Xander to this family was initially welcomed but after the honeymoon period of about a week she realised he was here to stay & thats when the "issues" started. Oh not much, just pushing his head into his seat if we were going out, or pushing/hitting him when I was feeding him, or taking stuff away from him so that he didnt have anything to play with. When I think about it, Xanders place in our car is very representative of his place in Olivia's heart. Before he was born we asked her where she wanted the new baby to sit, "next to me" came the reply, once he had been here for a few weeks she demanded that he be moved so that there was space between them, once he had been here for a few months the request came to move him back. The other day I caught them sitting silently holding hands. He is now firmly implanted in her heart & her in his. They do so love each other.

Her speech has come on in leaps and bounds with a long way still to go. Even at the start of this year she would miss a lot of words out of sentences and would only say the main sound in each word (generally the vowel). After a lot of work on her part she now has "d" "p" "f" "l" "t" "th" all down pat, the next thing to do it work on shortening the gaps between that sound & the rest of the word. But progress is progress and I am so proud of her every day.

Kindy is the other big thing this past year. She started in Jan & has been excited to go every day since. Within the first few weeks she was invited to an exclusive party by a girl at kindy & that gave me so much hope for her time there. It took her an entire term to really get comfortable enough to start talking (even to the adults) but now even the kids have told me "she is talking lots more now". Her eyes light up each day when she is has something to show me for time there & her "hard work" is paying off, she can almost write her own name unassisted & she drew an animal for the first time the other day which had a definate head, body, legs, eyes & mouth. It was the day of her birthday so she was also able to show Neil her fantastic drawing & that was her present to us for the day. I am a little anxious at the thought that she may get into a special speech & language kindy program for term 4 and then have to more centres and build brand new relationships only to do it again 3 terms later for school but hopefully the benefits outway the anxiety.

Each day she is a gift to us and can make me laugh or cry at the flip of a coin but I dont ever want to do anything else or be anywhere else other than here with her.

Now for some photos of the day: