State of the Four Year Old

Just a bulleted list of the stuff that is going on right now, in Charlotte-ville.

* Charlotte still loves school, and is seeming to be doing a better job in general of following instructions & schedules.

* We've pretty much decided not to push her into Kindergarten in the fall, and instead red-shirt her.  Her birthday is September 24th, and the cut-off is September 1st in this district.  This deserves its own post some day.

* Matt really decided to get on the ball and prod the school in the PT area.  Charlotte is still doing a ton of toe-walking, and while the rest of her gross motor stuff seems to be working out (fine motor, too), it's still worth another detailed evaluation at school.  Her teacher is totally on-board and was going to bring it up in a meeting yesterday.  So we'll see where that goes.


* TV-wise, Charlotte is still very into naturalist animal shows, both live-action and animated.  She's way into the Wild Kratts, the animated series, and its predecessor, Zoboomafoo.  She also just watched an episode of Dirty Jobs with me that was about an animal ranch, a whole hour long, and usually adult shows just do not hold her interest.


* Charlotte is dipping her toe back into representional art.  They have been talking at school about healthy foods, staying healthy, getting excersize and getting sleep.  So she drew two pictures last week; one about being sick and throwing up on the side of her bed, and one about the sorts of things she sleeps with.  (Tiggy, special blankie.)



* Had a late but awesome Christmas and visit with our friends in CT and went to the Wadsworth Atheneum for their free Second Saturday.  They had crafts set up for the kids, and Charlotte made an awesome "barn owl" mask, complete with eyelashes, mustache & beard.

* Right now Charlotte's main interests are Lalaloopsies toys and fairies and Playmobil people.  She's way into creating these elaborate landscapes and storylines.  They all really center around one tree house that she has carefully set up.

The whole set up. Note the Nutcracker out front. He's there to indicate that is is Christmas, apparently.

This is Scarlet Riding Hood's bedroom. She has the Playmobil boombox for music, and a jewelry box for a bed. Charlotte sets her alarm for her every night.

Two shelves. Storage area. Books on one shelf, paint tube, bug in a jar, and bug catching net on the other.

 

 

* Back in January, Charlotte got to meet her newest cousin, my brother & sister-in-law's baby daughter, R.  Charlotte was surprisingly into it, and did a pretty good (well, okay-ish) job of being gentle and protective of the baby.  At least as well as the dog did, anyway.

* While we were in Central New York meeting the new baby, Charlotte also got to go to her first zoo with Daddy, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.  They had a really great time together, and I'm glad that they got to do something so special just the two of them.

* Valentines Day was awesome, as far as she was concerned.  She helped me make cards that we sent out to family, and we made a heart-shaped icebox cake for dessert on Valentines Day.  We also had heart-shaped homemade pizzas.