Harlo has been waiting all summer long for the first day of school.
My girl loves school! I’m so glad about that.  I hope she loves it all the years through.
She’ll have a new teacher this year, but she talks about her old teacher, Miss Manda often!
She wants Miss Manda to be her teacher again this year “because she’s just so beautiful!”
I know she’ll love Miss Rin this year, though and she’s already taken a quick liking to her since our “welcome day” at her preschool.
She asked me yesterday if Miss Manda went to jail? I quickly answered, “No! What? Miss Manda went to college.” She said, “Oh yeah, college.. that’s what I meant.” I’m not sure how she got the two mixed up, but I quickly straightened her out. ha!
Harlo is such a special little four-year-old.
She is caring and sensitive and almost always willing to lend a helping hand.
I couldn’t have asked for a better first child.
Even though the thought of a 3rd baby makes me nervous (being outnumbered by the little ones now) I know I can make it through because I have Harlo to help.
I can often ask her to look after things while I am busy in another room.
I know things wont go astray with Harlo in charge.
She is so excited about having a new baby in our house.
We have a little strip of photos from our first ultrasound that hangs on the fridge.  I kept noticing it off the fridge and I’d find Harlo with it.  After a few times, I told her it was a super important picture and we need to keep it on the fridge so it doesn’t get ruined.  She said, “but mom, I just love looking at it.”  I’ve since seen her almost every day grabbing it off the fridge just so she can admire it.  And as an 8 week along ultrasound, there’s really not much to look at.  It melted my heart though, and I’ve let her do what she pleases with it ever since.
She would love a baby sister “so she can wear bows and stuff,” but I keep telling her if we get a boy, she’ll love him just the same.
She is always asking us what our baby will do when he/she gets here, (Will our baby laugh at me?  Will our baby like tubbies?  Will our baby be ticklish? etc.)
Her favorite color has switched from purple to pink.. but purple is a close second.
The other night for her water sippy, I gave her a pink cup with a purple lid.  When I handed it to her, she said “wow mom, this is beautiful.”
She is so observant!  She always notices a new shirt or earrings or jewelry on me.  She’ll even notice a new lotion or perfume.
She’s very complimentary!  Sometimes randomly she’ll say “mom, you’re so cute.” or “mom, you look beautiful!”
She’s the picky eater of the family.  Some people live to eat and others eat to live.. Harlo definitely eats to live.
Breakfast is usually our easiest meal.. she likes oatmeal or porridge or greek yogurt or scrambled eggs.. that’s our usual list.  Lunch is almost painful to have her eat.  She’ll eat turkey roll-ups, but no bread of any sort.  Dinner she will have a few bites of what we have, but it’s always a bargaining game.  (“mom, can I be done after the next bite?” “can I have dessert if I eat two more bites?”) It drives me batty, but she is improving slightly as the years roll by.
She’s more of a snacker and LOVES almonds.  She’ll eat almonds all day long.  I always try to keep healthy snack-type foods in the house for this very purpose.  I can feel okay about her eating almost nothing at meals if she’s been eating cheese, almonds, granola and fruit all day.
She’s also a huge fan of watermelon.  My girls will eat an entire watermelon in a day if I let them.
She never wants to get in the tub, but also never wants to get out of the tub once she’s in.
I’m counting down the days until I can put her on a debate team because she is the best arguer.
She will argue about anything and everything.  She can wager and bargain like I’ve never seen any salesman do.
It’s one of those things that make me want to pull my hair out by the end of the day, but I know this skill will be valuable someday in her life.
Her hair preference these days is a “straight pony” with these hair-ties.  She’s always very particular about her hair and clothes.
She would wear tights and church dresses every day if she could. She loves dressing fancy for any occasion.  She’s my real-life fancy nancy.
She is drawn to accents!  She loves watching Peppa Pig and Charlie and Lola for this very reason.  She’ll talk in an english accent every time after watching.
She’s been dying to wear her new school clothes.  She’s talked about what she’s wearing on the first day for a week and a half (since we went school shopping..).
This morning afters he got dressed, she was asking me “mom, do you like my backpack like this, on my back?  Or down like this just holding it in my hand?”
When I was doing her hair (in a straight pony, per her request) she was saying “Everyone is going to love my hair like this.  They’ll say, ‘Harlo! Your hair looks beautiful!'”
She was buckled in the car a half hour before we needed to go.  She was so excited about her first day.  I can’t wait to pick her up and hear all about it!
Harlo is the best little leader of our family.  I have enjoyed her at every age.  I look forward to each coming year with her.  I’ve so enjoyed having a 4 year old in my home.
I am the luckiest mother in the world!