Anika is Four!

Somehow we have a four year-old in the house. Four going on eight.  "I KNOW that already!" she is constantly telling me, and she rolls her eyes and sighs when I try to sing and tells me to "stop it, mama!" just like I remember telling my own mom. She has yet to tell me to stop dancing, but her natural talent is way beyond mine (those Venezuelan genes) so it's only a matter of time before my moves are deemed too embarrassing for the living room audience.

Constantly on the move, she will dance and prance and perform a ballet recital just about anywhere. She still runs everywhere on the tips of her toes - no walking here - and seems to float about and never ever sit still. I'm planning on our first mommy-daughter date to the movies, but worried that she can't sit through an entire film, albeit a Disney one, just yet.

She's a builder. A do-er. A try-er and a never-ever-give-up-er. Don't try to help her with anything, because she will get mad and frustrated and insulted that you even asked or insinuated that she wouldn't be capable of doing it herself.

She's becoming quite the little helper - she will assist with just about any task you ask of her, save that of cleaning her room, when she flops on the couch and says, "I'm just too tired to pick up." She will eat her dinner if you tell her that it makes her grow big and strong, and we have been doing daily checks on her growth chart to mark the broccoli's progress in her system.

Moody and sassy, like most four year-olds, she can sometimes be quite trying on the nerves. On Tuesday she will be bounding into school happy as a clam, and Thursday she will be telling you that she doesn't like her teachers and doesn't like ANYTHING about school. I imagine this irrationality is a precursor to the teenage years, and I try not to laugh but to listen to her concerns and help her assuage them or remedy them or surmount them. She is equally Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde when it comes to her brother, as one minute they are playing happily and chatting away like best friends and suddenly it's World War III.

She is a good friend, always cheerful (except when she's moody and eye-rolling and says 'get away,' which has happened on occasion) and exuberantly excited about whatever activity she and her friends are going to do. She is authoritative and persuasive; it's usually her games and her imagination that her friends and brother follow, but she proposes things in a way that make them sound exciting and fun and likes to add a what's-in-it-for-you element, as in, "Danica, let's play Doc McStuffins. I will be the doctor, and you can be sick. You can also bring your dog and your princess and they can be sick, too. Here is how they will cough - {achoo} - see? You will love it! It's going to be so much fun! And then it will be YOUR turn to use the stethoscope." She is so often in charge that when Danica and Kat, two friends who usually hang out with Anika, get together without her, apparently they spend the first 30 minutes or so just staring at each other and wondering what to do.

She LOVES parties - she is constantly setting them up in various rooms throughout the house - and clubhouses - ditto - and is happiest with a stick and a suitcase and wearing her princess dress and crown while digging around in the backyard.

She makes funny faces for the camera, and even if you can catch her sitting still (good luck) it is almost impossible to capture her real smile. Her fake smile is teeth and wrinkly nose and a jaw not unlike that of a bulldog. Her real smile? Pure joy.

We love you so much, Anika. Happy 4th birthday, princess superhero.