Dear Vivian {4.5}

Some things I want to remember about you, halfway between four and five:

Your imagination has blossomed - during your quiet time each day, I hear you create birthday parties, camping trips and doctor/veterinarian visits with Bear, Baby and other stuffed animals.

You love to "dramatize" stories, assigning your stuffed animals and me our roles - we dramatized "Where the Wild Things Are" over and over last week.  This love of dramatization is thanks to your teacher.

Speaking of drama...you have a penchant for it.  Daddy calls you our "walking dramady" - so dramatic (and yet so comedic).  You can go from calm and content to cranky and woeful in the blink of an eye.

You are already planning your fifth birthday - your love for your friends, family and chocolate cake is mammoth.

You fall and bump quite a bit - you get going fast and can't quite slow down or change your course quite quickly enough to avoid it (ah, the life of a busy four year old with a severely impacted vestibular system).  But you either look up at me and say "I'm okay, Mom!" in the most reassuring voice or you ask for a bandaid and then get on with it.  You are a tough cookie.

You ask me to tell you the story of your birth and Luke's birth all the time.

Speaking of Luke (you used to say "Lou" but you now say it with the /k/ - you've made major articulation progress since turning 4) - you two ADORE each other.  Luke looks at you with such a twinkle in his eye - he laughs and smiles with you like no one else.

I love the way you say "Oh, thanks!" and "Oh, I'm sorry!" and "I love you, Mom!".

You really believe you are a mommy to Bear.  You insist on it (with tears in your eyes) if I happen to pull the mommy card ("Vivian, I am the mom. Do what I say." "But, but...I'm a mommy, too!").  I see the way you lovingly mother and nurture Bear and I think I can't be messing up that badly.

A few weeks ago you started saying you want to be a teacher when you grow up.  (I have mixed feelings about that.)  You used to say you wanted to work with Daddy (who can blame you - every time we go there there's chocolate fountains, snack closets and ping pong).  Suffice it to say, I am so looking forward to seeing where this life leads you.

Reading is still your number one, go-to activity.  We go to the library weekly to keep up with your appetite.

Your extroverted and feisty personality is pretty much the opposite of mine.  But you are my favorite kind of person: interested, chatty, warm, enthusiastic, confident.  You are the kind of person that brings out the best in me.  We dream and scheme and wonder together - I love that about us. 

After you're tucked in bed, Daddy and I share little snippets about you from the day and thank our lucky stars you're the girl we get to call ours.