Pippa at 4

Here's what Pippa is like at age 4:

• Likes to pretend to be a cat.
• Is a rule follower and often tries to be the rule enforcer for Roxy. (Sometimes this is helpful. Other times not so much.)
• Says "Actually..." quite a bit.
• Likes to play in the dirt in our backyard
• Has quiet time while Roxy and Gemma (and mom) nap. Pippa ends up napping during this time about half the time. 
• Goes to bed around 8 (falls asleep around 8:40) and wakes around 7:20.
• Her favorite color is pink. She reminds us of this all the time.
• Is saving her money for "Happy Hollow, a new car, and visiting Grandma." 
• Is so helpful in the car giving Gemma her binky, holding her hand, and singing to her. (Roxy does this, too. Gemma's carseat is in the middle.)
• Loves going to Primary.
• Likes to wear her sequin crown a lot. People often ask if she's a princess and Pippa replies, "No, I'm better than a princess." People think she means she's a queen, but she really means being Pippa is better than a princess. And it's true! But it is frustrating to her that people don't get it.
• Can buckle and un-buckle her top buckle of her carseat.
• Is proud of her curlies. (Mom is too!)
• Loves to wear skirts and dresses. Especially dresses that poof out when she twirls.
• Is getting slightly sassy - like muttering things under her breath or huffy sighs. 
• Along those same lines Pippa would be a great soccer player. She flops like no other. If Roxy give her a little push to try to get around her Pippa falls to the ground and lies there for several minutes crying and writhing in "pain." Same thing with little trips, nudges, or pats (sometimes even if they are obviously friendly touches!).
• Loves meeting and playing with new kids - older and younger.
• Wants to be an astronaut / mom / engineer when she grows up. Well, I don't think she really has the concept of what a career is (and good for her - why should she even be thinking about that!), but she says things like "When I'm big I can be an astronaut if I want."
• Favorite toys are legos, the marble run, and baby dolls / stuffed animals.
• Is taking a gymnastics class and loves it.
• Wants to help whenever I'm doing anything in the kitchen. I let her do a lot of stuff too, including cutting with her cutter, a butter knife, and sometimes a real sharp knife. (Of course under very close supervision.)
• Still calls ice "icek."
• Took swimming lessons for the first time this summer and had a huge improvement. Pippa went from not wanting to put her face in the water to swimming with swimmer arms about 10 yards. I do think watching Olympic swimmers influenced her (we watched about 30 minutes of Olympics during lunch every day and almost everyday it seemed like swimming was on!)
• Wants to go to school. (We're not doing formal pre-school. Maybe I'll do a post about this later)
• When playing with Roxy they often pretend to be Eloise, Emmy, or Ann. Not quite sure why they picked those names. We do know two girls named Emmy, and our next door neighbor (an adult) is Ann, but I don't know where Pippa even heard the name Eloise.

The outtakes: