It's nearly a month of celebration for Anika - being a Boxing Day baby. Pre christmas birthday party with her antenatal friends as they all have birthdays close to christmas - Christmas Day - the real birthday on Boxing Day - then dribs and drabs of presents arriving after christmas in the mail from those far away.
The name of cake for the Antenatal Party is called a Circle of Friends. It is lovely to see how this group of kids have bonded so well and I hope will be friends for life !
Fabulous 4 - what does that look like for Anika. Yes - friends - very important to her - is this a home day ? Can we have someone to stay ? Play ? Are we going out today ?
It's about believing in things - like Santa and that he is all powerful and is able to organise Mum and Dad to give you a bike for christmas.
It's about loving your goggles so much that you wear them all morning and take them to bed and they are highlight of Christmas Day. A special fashion accessory to go with the new bike !!
It's about being like your friends - having the same stuff, doing the same things - cup, plate, santa sack, bikes etc.
OK - (see below) this is a little extreme but this is not about Anika but about a tradition that 'the' cousins have of receiving the same P.J's from Grandad each Christmas.
But hanging out with her cousins is what being 4 is all about - working out how to relate - compete, control, follow, laugh, dance, dig, share .... it's great to have cousins that are your friends as well !
It's about telling everyone you are that magic number .... 4 !!!!!!!!
And it's about knowing ... knowing that you know how to do everything that is important in your world right now. "I can do that. You do it like this."
Finally it's about learning how to be a big sister with a crawling - grabbing - vocal little sister. It's about playing without being too rough, sharing - some of the time, kissing and cuddling her while having your hair pulled and face grabbed, learning to put your play stuff up high so it won't get wrecked, dragging her away from stuff that you think she shouldn't be into, being an entertainment unit for her, enjoying having someone to play with on the 'at home days' !
