Catherine Noel, 4 yrs old

On Tuesday August 12th Catherine turned four. I am still blown away that my baby is four!!! I looked back over a year of pictures and was struck by what a big year this was for her. She's definitely grown up a lot in the last 12 months. Get ready for an onslaught of pictures!

This is her at her three year old party. When I look at this picture I just think how young she looks. I had forgotten that crooked grin she used to always do. I thought she'd smile like that forever (or until an orthodontist got a hold of her)!

Crooked grin again...and I just love the expression on her face. She really is such a goof ball. So often people think she is quiet or shy because it might take her awhile to warm up, but she really is quite a ham. I've had her tell a room of people to "be quiet....no talking" and then proceed to sing and dance for us for...oh...maybe 10 minutes!

Catherine truly is the sweetest little thing. She is a little thing, my little peanut, on the shorter side, while her older sister towers over most of the boys in her class! She is very polite, very quick to say thank you, in general she is very easy going. I must stress the in general because there are times when she gets set off over the littlest, seemingly insignificant thing and there is no reasoning with her. Recently I couldn't find the "right" pair of shoes for her to wear to church and I knew, I just knew that it was going to be bad. And it was. But we persevere and she recovers back to sweet agreeable self.

She is still my picky eater and I've let us get into a habit of just letting her eat a separate meal because its just so much easier to make whatever I want and not have to worry about what she would possibly eat...and it makes dinner just that much more enjoyable. But I sense the time has come to really crack down on that...something I'm looking forward to at all!

Catherine is very much like her sister in that certain situations can make her very nervous. When that happens she likes nothing more than to just snuggle up in our arms and close her eyes very tightly, just blocking it all out. I feel bad when she's scared, but it is just so cute and she is just so snuggly....

A few favs from the past year....
sporting a cool hat....

dancing and twirling with her best friend...

showing off an outfit she picked out all on our own (don't the socks make you cringe?)

I think my dad says it best when he describes Catherine as "a hoot." It's not just what she says, but it's also her facial expressions, the tone in her voice and her body language that make her so entertaining. Tonight at the dinner table she asked me in a very adult sounding tone "Is Skippy's knee feeling better?" (Skippy, my dad who she typically refers to him as Pap Pap, is recovering from knee replacement surgery 4 months ago.) I doubt I'm explaining it well but so much of what she does and says is pretty hysterical.

This past week she was complaining that her belly hurt. For about five days straight. We were pretty sure it wasn't a virus because she would eat and play and seem fine but then every so often complain about a hurt belly. I was trying to figure out how it felt so I would try and get her to describe it to me and she said things along the line of "ants crawled into my belly and Santa Claus is in there stomping around." Huh?

Tonight Catherine requested that I sing Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling" for her bedtime song. I said "Catherine that isn't a good night song." She responded with "Yes it is..."and then sang "I gotta feeling, that tonight's gonna be a good night....see mom, it's a good night song." I couldn't argue with her reasoning so I sang it!

Things that Catherine loves; reading books with me, collecting every single Bible in the house and stacking them up and "reading" from them, singing, making up her own songs, coloring pictures, painting, playing with her sister, helping me cook (things she won't eat), playing with her Barbies/Ponies/dollhouse/Polly Pockets, taking care of her "babies", doing mommies hair, she is excited to learn soccer this spring....I'm sure I've left some out, but those are some of the favorites right now.

Of all of those, playing with her sister is truly the thing she loves the most. Catherine adores Ella so much. First words out of her mouth in the morning are "where's Ella?". The two of them can really get into it but they do love each other so much. I NEVER thought I'd have two girls, let alone LOVE having two girls so much. Just a few minutes ago they were taking turns yelling outside to each other from an open upstairs window and I heard Ella yell "I love you Catherine." It goes without saying (because she says it so often) that Catherine loves Ella, so I really enjoy hearing it sent her way!

Catherine is very gentle and sweet spirited and kind. She brings so much joy to our lives and smiles to each day. I am one blessed momma!

I pray that Catherine continues to grow as a child of God and come to have a relationship with Him. I pray that I will be model of Christ-like love as I parent Catherine and Ella and be a wife to their dad, and I thank God that four years ago He gave me the gift of this sweet little girl!