Happy Birthday, Piper!

How is it possible that my BABY is FOUR?!?!

She has definitely morphed from a toddler to a little kid this year.  She has taken “ornery” to an all new level, honed her sense of humor (said me to ornery Piper: “Piper- are you a turkey???” Piper:  “No, I a ham.”), and perfected her role as bossy, in-charge caring big sister. 

She has learned so much from school this year, too.  Everything from “Ew!” and “gross!” to “I help, peeease???” and “friend!”  Apart from all the “school” stuff she’s learned this year (which is a lot!), she’s learned to make friends, has gotten over a lot of her over-cautious tendencies (especially on the playground!), and that she can do all that away from Mom. 

I still think she’s about the funniest kid on the planet.  She tells jokes routinely- she always cracks herself up, and if we can actually understand what she’s saying amidst all the laughter, she cracks us up, too.  (Case in point: she saw Luke putting on deodorant the other day and decided he looked like a monkey- I think she laughed about “monkey daddy” for about twenty minutes.  So did I.)  But if we can’t understand what she’s saying, we laugh anyway, because she has one of those laughs that just gets everyone going. 

Piper’s Favorite Things:

• Food:  Ice cream (or “kye cream.”)  Bar none. 
• Resturaunt:  Chipotle.  What’s not to like?  Rice, beans, quesadilla.  And chips (“pips”).  Don’t forget the pips.
• Show:  Arthur.  She loves Arthur.
• Mode of transportation:  Gallop.  One of these days I’ll get a video and you can see why it’s my favorite mode, too.  Funniest. thing. ever.
• Friend:  Blake (“Bakey.”)  She has a thing for cute blonde boys.
• Music:  Anything with a good beat.  She figured out the other day that she can set the speakers off on the music aisle of Target- she was beep-bopping right there in the middle of the store.  She doesn’t get that from me!
• Can’t leave home without:  Her backpack (“pack-pack”)

Happy, Happy Birthday, sweet girl!  Four sounds so old, but I think you’ve earned it this year.  You’ve worked so hard and come so far- we couldn’t be more proud of the little girl you’ve become! 

PS- Is it just me, or does she look like a blonde version of Boo from Monster’s Inc. in this picture???