Viva on Her 4th Birthday

VIVA IS:

ALL GIRL
She likes pink, purple, bows, frills, nail polish, ice cream, etc. She likes princesses. She doesn't much care for boy interests.

CURIOUS
She is very observant. She spends hours looking at books. When she's outside she is on the go from one end of the yard to the other marching along the brick retaining wall, climbing the dirt pile, or checking out the raspberry patch.

TACTILE
She loves to get her hands on and in things. She loves to play at the water table and in the swimming pool. She likes to play with her food at meal time sans utensils. This evening she was eating ice cream with her fingers. Don't ask.

STUBBORN
When she sets her mind to do something--or not do it--she sticks with her plan despite any threats or punishment doled out by parents and grandparents. Viva cooperates when she wants to and only when she wants to. You have to admire such intransigence even when it makes you mad.

ADVENTUROUS
She's always up for a trip. A trip anywhere--the grocery store, the playground, the mall, the campground, the church, the zoo, South Dakota, Idaho. Sign her up. She likes to get out of the house and see new things.

TOUGH
She's not tender-hearted or tender-skinned. She doesn't cry very often. She doesn't ask for hugs very often either. Our Viva is quite self-reliant.

OUR DRESS-UP DOLL
While she prefers to pick her own outfits, she's a good sport about letting us choose her clothes every now and then. She loves to wear dresses and we love to see her in dresses, so it's the perfect match.

QUIET
Not all the time, but a lot of the time. She tends to fly under the radar doing her own thing. She isn't one to ask for assistance. She doesn't generally ask you to play games with her or help her build with blocks or Legos. She prefers to work on projects alone. However, when she throws a temper tantrum she does it at full volume.

A WONDERFUL SLEEPER
We LOVE Viva's sleep ethic. Once she is out, she stays out. She sleeps late. Warning: You do not want to wake her up before she's ready to get up. Not pleasant. Not at all.

CAPABLE
She is often the first of the trio to accomplish basic skills. Sometimes she astounds me. Did you do that yourself?!

PERPLEXING
She does a few things that I find disturbing. She still talks about eating bugs. I haven't challenged her on this issue because I'm afraid she'll follow through.

CREATIVE
She is not as prolific an artist as her brothers, but she has her moments. She'd like to paint more than we allow her to. (Painting is a supervised activity; drawing is not supervised.) I think Viva would love sculpting, but we haven't done much with clay.

INDEPENDENT
I kind of covered this under stubborn, but I wanted to expand on this trait. Viva likes to pick her own path. Kara is worried that she won't make a very willing learning partner. How will we teach her to read or do simple sums? It'll be interesting. Viva loves books, so maybe we won't have to do much more to educate her than keep her supplied with a wide range of reading material.