Caroline sure is growing up! When she is in a good mood, she is charming and hilarious and cute! She is smart and has a good memory. She is independent and will not let you help her figure something out. She wants to do it herself! She likes to push back on expectations. She is her own person and wants everyone to respect that fact.

This is her silly selfie. One of her quirks actually has to do with underwear. It’s a daily battle and has been ever since she started wearing it. There can’t be any gaping, binding, bunching, tightness, or looseness. When she puts on her undies, she moves around, sucks in her stomach, bends over, and walks around to make sure everything is feeling proper. If it isn’t absolutely perfect, she has a breakdown and there is no consoling.  Every day that she is happy with her underwear is a good day. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch” is a literal things around here. 

She loves to get facepainted, play with makeup, where dresses, and fancy shoes. One of the things I love about this age is the crazy fun outfits that are created. Kitty boots, rabbit slippers, red glitter shoes, minnie mouse headbands, any hat, bright colors, mismatched patterns, you name it. And somehow, on a 4 year old, it just works.

What she doesn’t like to wear are her glasses. She doesn’t necessarily have anything against them, she just prefers to not have them on. I usually get her to wear them for only 10 minutes once or twice a month is all. Hopefully that’ll change soon. 

We have a few friends and family members with a pierced nose and she decided that was cool. One day she found this tiny jewel and asked me to tape it on. She wore it most of the day.

This is one of her many independence declarations. She won’t let anyone help her open the cereal. This is an interesting technique.

Other independence declarations include: buckling her own seatbelt, getting herself anything out of the top cupboards, ziplining, and a number of other things. 

However, one thing she won’t do herself is fix her blanket in the middle of the night. She’ll gladly wake me up and whine that her blanket is twisted and I have to go fix it.

Anything I think she needs help with, she won’t allow help. Anything she should be able to do herself, she demands I do it for her.

She gets along well with her brother and sister. Most of that is due to the fact that she has learned how to manipulate their kindness to her advantage. This girl gets her way much too often. I’ve tried talking to her about this but so far it’s not helped a bit. Why would she want to get her way less often? She’s logical about the situation.

Caroline is quite intrigued by anything gross or bloody or squeamish.  She has always picked all her scabs until the bleed and never heal. She loves hearing stories about danger. Her eyes get big and she listens intently and then repeats the story whenever the opportunity arises. 

She likes risky behavior and pushing her physical boundaries. Climbing, ziplining, jumping off of things, it’s a very rare occasion for her to be too scared. 

The other day we were at the pool and I was watching her go down the kiddie slide. Next thing I know, she purposefully snuck into the deeper lazy river pool without me. Luckily I found her before she let go of the stair bar.

One day I was watching a show and the dr had to perform a tracheotomy. Cara walked in and I told her to close her eyes. She insisted on watching, relishing in it. I asked her if she wanted to be a dr when she grew up and she said, “No. I just like watching people get cut open.”  This type of comment is not at all uncommon with her. Rob and I are actually a little concerned about her fascination.

Here she is with her black eye she got when she and our neighbor crashed. The side of her eye was hit by the handlebar and for the next week her eye got progressively worse. She thought it was pretty darn cool.

She says “last year” or “next year” rather than yesterday and tomorrow. For example, “Mom, can I have more candy next year?”

She still says “human” rather than adult. It’s one of our favorite things to hear when she says something like, “Mom, there are humans outside.”

She loves to sing and has a wonderful voice. Click on the video below to play. When she is pretending, she likes to be the “mean” character. Whether it’s Frozen, Annie, or My Little Pony, she is drawn to the songs that are sung by the “mean girls.” Interesting…

Well, that’s our little Caroline in a nutshell. She is a wonderful little package of life lessons all beautifully wrapped up and given specifically to me and Rob to experience. She is teaching us a LOT and we have a feeling she always will. We thank our Heavenly Father for her, even during the many moments when he and I just look at each other and shake our heads, knowingly of what the other is thinking.