Bree at Four Years old

Our Breezy girl is now FOUR years old.

She still loves ponies, horses, seahorses, and unicorns and can play contentedly on her own for hours. She also loves books, puzzles, shapes, wheels, Legos, and watching things spin. If I am loading the girls up in the van and she thinks that a car nearby is about to drive away, she makes me leave her door open and wait so she can watch the “big whee-oh spin.”

She has such an active imagination. I enjoy listening to her play with her ponies and listening to her dialogue with them as she plays. She also sometimes pretends to be a pony herself named “Princess White Pony.”

Bree loves to sing; the first song she started singing (at age 2) was Bach’s “Minuet in G.” She doesn’t sing many words to the songs that she sings, often substituting “may” or “nay” for the words of songs. Musicals seem to hold her attention more than the average movie, probably due to her appreciation for music. The Sound of Music is one she enjoys, especially the “Doe a Deer” song.

Being the middle child, I sometimes wonder if she feels confused as to whether or not she wants to be a big girl or still be a baby. She seems to have a desire for both. She doesn’t have a lot of patience for Cate yet, mostly viewing Cate as a baby who is always wanting to steal her toys. Cate adores Bree though and loves to be with her and maybe does pick on Bree a little bit, even at her young age. Sometimes Bree will ask to be put into the baby pen so that she can play with her toys without Cate interfering.

Bree is also very strong-willed, which has made potty-training extremely difficult. This child will hold it for 24 hours (yes, she has waited 24 hours on several occasions) before she absolutely has to go if it means not peeing in her diaper on long trips in the car or having to go pee in the potty when I make yet another attempt toward potty training. Nothing has worked so far: bribes (candy), a new special toy that she really wants (it sat in its box for months on her shelf), new special My Little Pony panties, making her sit on the potty for hours. Nothing can persuade her to do something she has made up her mind not to do. You can place a child on the potty but you can’t make them pee!

Finally, yesterday at around 3pm when she hadn’t gone pee all day or the previous night yet, I decided to place her on a new little portable potty in the hopes of trying yet again. And there she sat for six hours (with small breaks for dinner or to stretch her legs). Finally, at around 9pm she couldn’t hold it any longer. It’d probably been at least 24 hours since she’d last gone once again and she was crying and panicking and yelling “the pee is coming out” and finally it came. And we cheered and hollered and she got to finally, finally open her brand new computer toy that she’s been wanting for so long. And she also got a nice piece of chocolate.

Today at around 3pm again, I noticed her diaper was still dry from the night and day before so we tried again. This time it only took 2.5 hours before she went. (Though once again, she wasn’t happy about it.) But going from 6 hours to 2.5 hours is progress, right?

I am really concerned about her not peeing more than once or twice a day, but this has been happening prior to this new attempt to toilet train. I really hope she doesn’t get a bladder infection.

We are still on the wait list at Children’s Hospital for an evaluation for her speech and social behavior. She has made so much progress this past year though. Her language has really exploded and she is getting better at expressing herself. Sometimes. She is still very sensitive to loud or abrupt noises and will scream or throw a tantrum if not properly prepared for such. We are working on coping mechanisms for her but some experiences/days are better than others. She is also very sensitive to smells. Anything that does not please her odor-wise she calls, “yucky eeyah food.”

Speaking of Eeyahs, she gives her pink eeyah the blame for a lot of negative behavior or experiences lately. It started out as “Cate’s monkey” (Cate has a stuffed toy monkey) but lately it is more the Eeyah that she blames. She also is very concerned about and reminds us not to “fush eeyah in the potty.” Like we would ever do such a thing! Not sure where that came from.

She still will not touch the vegetables on her plate but she does eat fruit pretty well. She does like some of the store-bought pureed baby food, particularly green beans. She also protests (sometimes loudly) about the yucky eeyah food when she encounters meat in her meal. Yet, as an exception, she loves tacos and sloppy joes. Which are mostly meat. *Shaking my head.* She keeps us guessing!

She is such a sweet child and I am so happy to have this precious and unique little girl in my life.