Family Day for La NIna

Today we celebrated our 4th anniversary of La Nina joining our family. I just read my posts from the last two family days with her and decided tonight, I will just tell you about my four-year-old.

When we met La Nina, she was really sick. She had a terrible case of bronchitis and my first act of parenting was to call another Mom on our trip who happened to be a doctor and ask her what the heck I was supposed to do about a baby who couldn't breathe. Despite the fact her breaths were labored and she was running a fever, La Nina was happy. I think back on that first night and I marvel at how much of her personality was revealed to us. She was physically tough, strong-willed and joyous right from the get-go.

Over the last four years, her Dad and I have had the honor of watching her grow into a beautiful little girl. Because I know lots of waiting families read these blogs, I'll tell you she's doing wonderfully in all areas of development. She's fine on speech, motor skills, emotional and social development.

Physically, she's small. A full two inches shorter than the next shortest kid in her class. She's built like J-lo. I don't know if La Nina will need to insure her 'asset' in the future, but she certainly has one! I know I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: she's freakishly flexible. She's also really strong. She can already do things with her upper body strength that I've never been able to do.

She is a kid who knows what she wants. She loves all things princess and fairies. She is very fond of shoes. She is wonderful with animals. She doesn't like to sweat. In fact, she hates it. She really doesn't like anything scary or loud. We avoid many movies with her because we know she will want to leave.

In school, she's obsessed with learning to read. She's starting to sound out words and has begun to recognize simple words like 'dog'. We don't push her, so this learning is a result of her effort. I suspect one day the world of words will just open up for her, and she'll be off and exploring the magic of books long before I've realized it happened.

Extracirricular wise, she loves dance and gymnastics, and she does very well at both. For the first time today, she was in a gymnastics 'show', and loved performing. Of course, this thrilled her coaches, and my bank account ached at the thought of her pursuing either dance or gymnastics seriously.

So there you have: La Nina in a nut shell. Everyday we feel lucky to be her parents, and we are grateful for her presence in our lives.