Four!

It's Penny's birthday today, and she is four! Naomi likes to do everything her sister does, so she has gotten in the habit of telling people, "I'm three!" (It is not true. She's two.) But now she's started holding out one finger and saying, "I'm four!" 

Penny and her watermelon cake

This year Penny's birthday landed on a rather busy weekend. So instead of a large, raucous party, we just had her "favorite friend," Molly, come to dinner at our house with her family. Molly and her sister are just the same ages as Penny and her sister. They love playing ponies together, and it was a special treat for Penny and Molly to be able to play together all afternoon.

It took about four tries to blow out all four candles. We also had cherry cupcakes to match those on her cherry cupcake puzzle.

Penny is very sweet and has learned a lot in her four years. She is very caring of her sister. In fact, if I walk anywhere without Naomi (towards the elevator, towards the car, etc.) Penny will plant her feet right where she is and frantically yell, "Don't leave my sister!!!" Then she'll run back and grab Naomi's arm and drag her in my direction. It is very sweet and illustrates just how loving and sensitive she is. (It also doesn't help us get to the car/elevator very fast. It's hard to adequately explain that if she would just get on the elevator/in the car, her sister would follow her example. But that's a concept we'll be working on while she's four, I guess.)
She and Naomi really care for each other. I mean, don't get me wrong, they fight over toys and squabble a little bit. But they love to play together and generally get along really well! I am surprised, because I remember that Sarah and I didn't get along very well at all. So this is all very new and exciting that my two little girls are best friends! They play "puppy" almost all the time. Naomi is the puppy and follows her sister around the house. And then Penny is the puppy and answers everything with either a nod or shake of the head and, "Ruff!" One time she was crying about something, and I heard her, between sobs, whimper, "Ruff." I then had my doubts as to whether she was real or fake crying.... One day Naomi was the puppy all morning, and Penny was the puppy's mommy. This meant that I was the puppy's grandma, and she insisted on calling me "Grandma" the entire morning. I must have been in a bad mood or something, because this really bothered me after a while. I'm not old enough to be a grandma!!
Penny knows all her letters and numbers, though she gets lost in the mid-teens and tends to repeat half of them. She knows most of the letter sounds, and she understands that letters on the page are words. Reading hasn't clicked yet, but she has memorized half her books and will read them aloud to herself and to Naomi. In fact, it takes her about once through a book to memorize most of it, and then she'll "read" it herself.
We started a reading program at the library called 1000 Books Before Kindergarten. We were at 150 or so when I gave it up, realizing that we're right about at halfway through our time in Virginia, and we were nowhere near halfway through the reading program. But she loves books, and we're very grateful for the library around the corner from us!
When Penny plays with her toys, she'll narrate stories about them the whole time, aloud, in a squeaky little toy voice. Sometimes it's in first person, and other times it's in third person. I mean to write one of them down one of these times. They're kind of hilarious.
Penny doesn't look a thing like me. In China, everyone knew she was my daughter because she is obviously not Chinese, and I am also obviously not Chinese... though more so. Here in America, though, people often ask me if she is my daughter. Usually they say, "So, are these both your girls?" They are, and they're both wonderful. But the only thing (literally the only thing) I've found is that some of Penny's fingernails are shaped like mine. Oh, and her nose (which doesn't look like mine) crinkles when she laughs like mine does.
That's it.
Fortunately, she is a lot like my husband, who is my very favorite man in the world. I think there should be more people in the world like him, and I'm happy to know that Penny is one of them.
Penny is the sweetest little girl I know, and I'm very glad she was sent to our family to set the tone as the oldest child. I love her more and more each day.