Allyson is 4!

We have a 4 year old, how did that happen? Ally's birthday landed on a Monday this year so she had a weekend full of celebrations. It started on Saturday with a family tailgate party at the Purdue homecoming game for both Ally and Grandma Sharon. Grandpa Joel, Grandma Julie and Grandpa Dew all visited for the weekend and came to the game. Worst game ever but Ally looked super cute in her new Purdue cheerleader outfit. On Sunday we planned a super hero themed party at our house for some of our friends and their kids. We had 10 little ones all together and they enjoyed pizza and cupcakes. I even got crafty and made them their own super hero capes to take home. On Monday Ally got to take in birthday treats to school and wear a special star sticker. She requested breakfast for dinner with chocolate chip pancakes and bacon. Ally got a lot of great gifts. Apparently when you turn 4 you get the big stuff because we now have a trampoline in the basement, a pink dune buggy power wheels and a 2 wheeled bike with training wheels.
Ally hit some great developmental milestones in the last year and it was also our most challenging with her. She has her own attitude and knows exactly what she wants and when she wants it.  Listening and following directions are sometimes very tough and our patience wears thin quickly, especially when we are forced to repeat things over and over.  She is learning about consequences and we try not to give in and let her do what she wants if she cant cooperate. Overall, she is very happy and entertains us with funny things she says and does.
Fun things about Ally:

• Can write her name and a majority of letters and numbers.
• Still loves dress up of all kinds, especially high heels and purses.
• Will pack anything and everything into bags and carry them all over the house. Any kind of stuff in any kind of bag.
• Gets dresses completely on her own.
• Brushes her teeth every day, mostly on her own.
• Knows way too much about sports and loves going to sporting events of all kinds or watching them on TV. Her favorites are gymnastics and volleyball. She can identify most teams by their colors and or mascots.
• Eating a better variety of foods but struggles to focus and get a meal done in less than an hour at times. Favorite foods are pasta, chicken nuggets from Wendys, broccoli, pizza, corn on the cob, applesauce pouches and chocolate milk. She can eat ice cream all day and Orange Leaf frozen yogurt is her absolute favorite treat.
• Can rider her tricycle all the way around the block.
• Swims in the pool with floaties on her own and jumps in to go under water.
• Loves talking to everyone. She is very desperate to find friends in the neighborhood and always wants to know everything about everyone. It is very important to her to feel included by kids her own age.
• Has a boyfriend at school named Nate. We are sure she annoys him to death.
• Is super competitive. She loves to be the leader, be in charge and win everything she does.
• Loves her baby sister and tries her very best to keep her happy.
• Favorite places in town to visit include the zoo, any park, Children's Museum, Buffalo Wild Wings and our neighborhood pool.
• Not great at sitting still to Skype and Facetime but she loves seeing family and telling them about her day or showing off her outfits.

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