Breathing four in.

She is four and four months.

She believes in fairies and wishes and magic and dragons.
Sometimes, in the morning, she likes to dictate to me a list of adventures and ways to fill our day.
She misses her big sisters so much when they go to school and feels a bit left behind.
She loves to cook and especially to make funny faces out of the bread dough.
She has never had a haircut and swears she never will.
Yesterday she wrote her own name, unassisted, for the very first time ever.
She is desperate to get a puppy.
She lets me dress her in whatever I like. She doesn't notice labels or lengths or trends.
She will play with anybody. She has no concept of coolness or not.
Her boyfriend is a thirty five year old woman.
She climbs, runs, dances, skips and swings along next to me all day long.
Sometimes I feel that she must have the most photographed and documented childhood in the world.
If I ever lose track of her, I only have to listen quietly for a second and I will hear her singing somewhere.
She wants to be a ballet dancer when she grows up.
She loves working on the farm.
She likes to draw a picture of a dog for everyone who walks in the house.
In the late afternoon she gets tired and likes to snuggle and read books and tell stories.
At night she sleeps with the same teddy I slept with as a child.

It's funny, when the other girls were her age we called this time the f$%&en fours.

This time around, compared to the pre-teen demands and eye rolling and hurrumphing, four seems delightful. Unselfconscious. Simple.

I am savouring each second. Breathing it in.

xx

Are there any blogs out there about parenting pre-teens?
Any good books?
Any words of wisdom?