Well, somehow Karis managed to sneak in another birthday this year, and she is now four years old! Time sure does fly when you're having fun... and especially when your fun involves chasing two active little girls around! Here is my run-down of everything Karis at this stage in her life...
First of all, to go along with this introductory picture, Karis still loves to eat! She enjoys fruits, most veggies (not a huge fan of broccoli or cauliflower), most meats (not a fan of roasts), and all desserts. Karis is a fast eater, and she usually asks for more after she cleans her plate. Because she eats fast, we also have to pay pretty close attention to her while she eats because over-stuffing is an issue that can lead to choking.
Karis typically eats all of her meat first (she had grilled chicken on her plate at the beginning of lunch) and then takes a little break before plunging into everything else (cucumber strips & cherry tomatoes made up the other half of this particular lunch). Karis' basic meal schedule still includes two snacks (mid-morning and post-nap) as well as 2-3 cups of milk per day (with her meals) and some water with snacks.
She can also independently feed herself most things with either a spoon or fork. Sometimes if the food is difficult to spear with a fork, she will scoop with her fork, so there is still some room to improve, but it's been fun to watch her fine-tune these skills... and there certainly is incentive when you have a shake from Sonic!
Potty training is still moving forward for both girls. After Zoe joined our family, they both reverted for a few months and wouldn't do anything on the potty, but we've officially been diaper-less since July 21st (except at night and using cloth pull-ups for naps and at therapy). This was a huge step for me (one that I'd been putting off), and I think I'd say it's going well overall. We have little portable potty seats that we tote all over the house (and we even bring them in the van), and on a normal day we only have 4-6 accidents total. Also, Karis has taken the plunge into both peeing and pooping on the potty, which is such a monumental step... Now we're just working on saying "I need to go to the potty!" when it's time. I'll have to do a separate potty training post sometime, but suffice it to say that I do a lot of laundry these days, and we spend a lot of our time sitting on the potty. :)
Big girl underwear
Singing "Twinkle, twinkle little star" while on the potty
When it comes to playing and interacting with other kids, Karis generally loves to be included in the mix. She enjoys playing with her siblings (though there are still some squabbles), and they get along best when they're doing something together like throwing balls, playing dress up, or even cleaning up a room. Speaking of cleaning, Karis is quite the little helper with dusting, laundry, and carrying her dishes from the table. She is also pretty good at listening to instructions, but sometimes the stubborn toddler streak gets the best of her. Karis' strongest love language at this point seems to be physical touch. She enjoys giving kisses and hugs to everyone, and she's always willing to say "bye" and blow kisses, even to random people (unlike my other shy children).
reading at the table
pretending to be a monkey while getting dressed (a random game we play)
dressing up with Enoch
cooking lunch
checking on Zoe during a walk
playing "night, night" with Enoch
telling me about something on our walk
Developmentally, Karis has grown a lot this past year. She's so so close to running, doing better with stepping up and down, learning to watch for obstacles in her path (like water hoses), and falling much less often. Karis has also come a long way with playing intentionally: she loves playing with her baby dolls, "cooking" in her kitchen, reading to her animals, and working puzzles. Shes's still not crazy about coloring, but she is doing a better job holding crayons and making her vertical lines. :) Over the past few months Karis has added on quite a few new sounds, but my absolute favorite one is "mmm" because now she can say "mama" and she can make the "mmm" sound when she gives kisses. She continues to use some sign language along with her words (all done, wait, stop), and she can say each of her siblings names well enough for them to understand ("Ena" is Enoch, "Dayda" is Alaythia, and ). Additionally, I feel like when she is speaking in context, she's pretty understandable overall. What I mean by this is that if she is talking to me about something we are doing (eating, reading, pottying, etc.) I can generally guess what she is asking for or telling me about. But if she comes up to me out of the blue and wants to tell me about how her therapy went (or something else out of context), I have a hard time understanding her. Speaking of therapy, Karis is still doing OT, PT, and ST (two sessions of ST per week). Her therapists are all great about teaching me what they are doing with her and sending me home with ideas of how to continue working on her goals.
One of our neighbors helped me by sewing this onesie for Karis because she no longer fits into most typical onesies (2T is the biggest you can usually find in the stores). The reason we need onesies for Karis is that if she dirties her diaper/pull up during nap, she likes to play in it as soon as she wakes up... which gets pretty gross real quick! So we always put her to bed in a onesie with some bermuda shorts. :)
Karis is also still in AFO braces. I had a hard time finding shoes this time to work with them because they really need to tie (otherwise she just slips them off any chance she gets). Thankfully, I found some at WalMart that I made a few changes to, and they've been working well.
Daddy gave Karis some pig tails a few months ago, and I thought they were too cute! I usually just put her hair in a regular ponytail because Karis really dislikes having her hair brushed and fixed, but every once in awhile we fix it, and then (after she endures it) she likes to get up and spin and show everyone how pretty it is.
And to end, here are a few birthday smiles. We sure do love our Sweet Karis!!
