Abigail: 4 years old

Eating:
Abigail still is a fairly good eater but she has gotten pickier and more opinionated over the last few months. She is always looking to see how much more dinner she has to eat before she can have fruit or more often a treat.  For breakfast she likes having peanut butter or butter toast, hot or cold, or cereal, including Frosted Mini Wheats or Multigrain Cheerios. For lunches at school she likes to have macaroni and cheese or a peanut butter sandwich, plus fruit and a gogurt (squeezy yogurt).  She used to like peanut butter and jelly but lately decided that she only wants peanut butter, no jelly.  For dinners, her favorite things to have are tortellini, grilled cheese, chicken pesto, and pizza from Papa Murphy's.  She enjoys almost all fruits, especially berries, and decided her favorite kind of apples are Red Delicious after a taste test at school.  Abigail's favorite restaurant is Panera and I am pretty sure it hasn't changed in the past year.

Sleeping:
Sleeping is pretty status quo around here. Abigail does not nap at home unless she is sick but does nap most days at school. There are some periods when she has a hard time staying quiet on her mat while her friends are sleeping but for the most part she is able to wait until her friends fall asleep and then choose a book or quiet toy until it is time to get up.  At home she has "quiet time" in her room during what used to be nap time. This works pretty well as she has time to play with all her toys and the grownups have time to catch up on all their grown up things.  Abigail usually goes to bed around 8 and is up between 6 and 6:30, although sometimes she wakes up earlier.   Sometimes she needs lots of attention after her light is out (I need water, I need to tell you something, etc.) but most of the time she is able to fall asleep by herself.

Playing:
Abigail has an active imagination and loves to use it to play anything Princesses or Frozen. She recently got more interested in My Little Pony and was excited to get several Pony toys for her birthday.  Several of her friends also really enjoy ponies as well.  She also really likes active games like hide and seek and wrestling with daddy. She still likes reading books and is beginning to memorize good chunks of some of her favorite books.  Abigail has enjoyed going to the park and is very active and confident when she is swinging, climbing and running around.

Growth:
Abigail has grown from our banana baby to a banana preschooler, She is long and skinny and on the tall side for her class. At her 4 year check up, she was 41.2 inches and 35 pounds.

She is wearing mostly 5T/5 clothes, especially in pants, but can still fit into most of her 4T stuff from last winter and is holding on to a few favorite tops in 3T and even 2T (the sleeves are getting really short. Abigail prefers to wear dresses and skirts every day, the twirlier the better!

Communication:
Abigail loves telling stories and uses long, complicated sentences. It is great to see how her mind works. She also loves hearing stories, on repeat, preferably ones from when JP and I were little. We have told stories about daddy getting hurt and needing stitches, mommy throwing up on the plane, and mommy getting a sunburn when she didn't put on sunscreen, over and over again.

Abigail often uses a tone imitating us, particularly when talking to Ben, who she is very loving with overall. When she is mad she is getting better about using her words although this is a work in progress.