Jessie was creating a craft in another room when she came bounding down the stairs with great pride, feeling extra "pretty."  It was one of those moments as a parent where you wanted to laugh hysterically and document the moment while also feeling the importance of not encouraging the behavior. I'm not sure my response accomplished all those things...

"Jessie, that's not funny," as I tried to hold back my chuckle, "But I'd like to grab my camera and take a picture."

"Okay, mama," she replied, a little deflated.

...However, I love the moments I captured on camera in the process.

Oh, how we love our "Lipstick Lady"!!

Turning four years old proved to be quite an occasion in our home.  I'm not sure I've ever seen so many festivities in one week, along with a girl that soaked it all in joyously.

Besides a newly decorated room and a Strawberry Shortcake party, Jessie enjoyed...

Click here to view a full album of pictures from Jessie's birthday week.

Jessie had some lefover cupcakes from her birthday party and decided that treats are always more fun with friends.  So we walked to some of our favorite nearby locations and she shared cupcakes with a few of her friends...

On the day of Jessie’s birthday party, we went together to purchase a fancy mylar Strawberry Shortcake balloon.  As we were driving home in the car from Party City, Jessie, holding tightly to the pink string attached to her balloon, pondered, “Juddy must have lots of balloons around him in heaven.”

“I think you’re right, Jess.  He sure knows how much you love him!”

“Well, when we’re done with this balloon, I think I’d like to send it up to Isabella’s sister (Isabella is another young girl who lost her sister, Jacque, to Krabbe disease).  She’s a girl.  I think she’d like it.”

“That’s a great idea,” I responded, melting at her thoughtfulness.

The next day Jessie reminded me of her intentions with the Strawberry Shortcake balloon.  So we took a moment to remember Jacque and then our ladybug released the balloon to her with a huge grin on her face.  “Jacque, please give Judson our love,” we said aloud.

Jessie seems to beatuifully equate sending balloons as a means of communicating with those in heaven.  This was confirmed on the morning of her birthday when she asked, “I wonder if Judson will send a balloon down to me today?”

When Jessie visits her Grammy and Papa they have a Strawberry Shortcake book that quickly became her preferred reading material.  She was consequently given a Strawberry Shortcake doll that included a short DVD, and soon the Berry Princess topped her list of favorites.

When we began discussing Jessie’s birthday a few months ago and asking how she might want to celebrate, she had a forthright request for a Strawberry Shortcake party.  We were happy to oblige…

It proved to be a berry, berry wonderful time with family and friends.  After the party, Jessie surmised, “Now you’re going to start calling me Strawberry Shortcake.”

Indeed, I have.

Birthday week for our Ladybug is in full force as Jessie turns four on the 19th.  And with our little girl gaining a year in age, it seemed a fitting time to finally re-decorate her room to match her age and personality (we had planned to do it once before until the bunk bed fiasco).  So, she went away for a couple days to spend time with Grammy and Papa while we went to town painting the dark olive green walls to a cheery yellow, moving furniture, clearing out drawers, and putting up colorful butterfly, dragonfly, ladybug, and floral decorations.  Jessie returned home today to a door adorned with a bow, concealing the big surprise. 

We never quite know how Jessie will respond in such a circumstance.  Will she be enthusiastic?  Will she be apprehensive?  Will it seem like a significant change?  Will she like it?  We weren't quite sure what to anticipate with her reaction.

However, with the unveiling of her new digs, we couldn't have asked for more exuberance and excitement.  Jess began dancing and jumping with delight!  Her "big gir room" is a huge hit!

And here is Jessie's response to her new room...

>
This is the shelf we put up in honor of Judson and as a reminder to Jessie of her brother who loves her deeply.

When I was pointing out other new pictures of Jess that I had put up, she ran over to the photo of Jud with his arm around her and exclaimed,

"This is my favorite picture, mama!"

 

Our family had the blessing of attending the annual Hunter's Hope Krabbe Family Symposium a few weeks ago and Jessie thoroughly enjoyed her time.  A highlight of the experience proved to be the children's talent show.  Jessie had gone back and forth throughout the week about whether or not she wanted to dance at the event, but just before the final performance she confirmed her entry and hopped on "stage" for her first public appearance as a dancer.  Drake and I proved to be the doting parents on the sideline grinning from ear to ear with pride.  Enjoy!!

Jessie is just recently becoming more interested in arts and crafts.  This is one of her recent masterpieces.  Her descriptions of the piece can be found in quotes.

1.  As we were walking out of the building of our local nature center Jessie exclaimed, “I liked the gecko inside.”  “Oh really, I didn’t see the gecko while we were in there.  Where was it?” I responded, perplexed.  “No, mama, I liked the sound of the gecko when I was talking in there!” she retorted.  I began to chuckle, “Oh, you mean you liked the sound of the ECHO?”  Jessie began to laugh too.  “Yeah, the echo.”

2.  Jessie was squirming around on the couch at Starbucks when she suddenly bonked her head on the covered wooden frame of the armrest.  Sitting up and rubbing her head she shouted, “Ouch!  Why does this couch have a bone in it?”

3.  Jessie and I were walking along the sidewalk hand-in-hand, when she randomly inquired, “Can I live with you when I get older?”  “Sure!  How old are you thinking?” I asked curiously.  “When I'm an adult,” she replied.  “But I'll be the cutest adult --the cutest BIG adult.”  Grinning, I thought to myself, “I don't doubt it.”

4.  The other day I was pretending to cry when Jessie wouldn’t give me a hug.  She declared, “If you cry, you definitely won’t get what you want!”

5.  While getting ready for the day, I was putting two small pigtails in my hair to pull them back into a ponytail.  Jessie, observing my unfinished hairdo exclaimed, “Mommy, that is going to look ridiculous!”

Jessie still does nap time.  Most of the time she sleeps for a couple hours, but if she doesn’t feel like sleeping, she can choose to play alone for the duration of her nap.  However, she is not allowed to get out of bed.  So although she usually has a couple toys to enjoy, she oftentimes must find creative ways to occupy herself.

Yesterday, I could hear her at my parents’ home playing during naptime, obviously choosing to forgo her much needed rest.  So when naptime was finally over, I walked into the room and discovered this:

And with the greatest grin, Jessie declared, “I’m a bride!”

She proceeded to explain to me how her yellow blanket was the skirt of her dress and the leggings she had been wearing were now nicely tied on her head to become a veil.

She beamed from ear to ear like every bride…

And I beamed from ear to ear like every proud parent.

At Starbucks the other day, Jessie went to order my refill of iced tea for me (she’s miss independent) and after giving them my cup she came racing back with big, huge eyes and asked, “Can I have a brownie?  Miss Kari (the barista) offered me a brownie.”

“Wow!  What a treat!  Yes, Jessie, you can have a brownie.”

Jessie raced back to the counter and was gone a few moments.  When I looked back over my shoulder to see what she was doing, I saw her strolling back to me double-fisted – she had a brownie in each hand.

“Two, Jessie?  How did you get two?!”

Jessie coyly replied, “Well, Miss Kari told me to grab one for you.   I didn’t tell her that you’re avoiding sugar so that I could have TWO!”

I grinned at the wiles of my little lady with a sweet-tooth.

The sensitivity and innocence of Jessie’s little spirit has been very apparent lately.

Several weeks ago when we watched Benji on movie night, there was a point in the film when I covered Jessie’s eyes, suggesting that she probably would not want to watch what was on the screen because the people were being unkind.  She responded well to the suggestion and even covered her eyes herself a couple more times during the movie.

Since that day, she has been regularly protecting her eyes from things she does not like.  It is not uncommon for Jessie to suddenly declare, “I don’t like that!” and then put her hands over her eyes until the "offender" is no longer in view.  Most often it is a skull and cross bones on someone’s shirt, or a mean face on a sign, or an evil looking tattoo, many of which are actually rather innocuous.  But it was especially precious the other day when, after seeing a cartoon of a dead face on someone’s hat, she covered her eyes and then began to sing…

“Be careful little eyes what you see.  Be careful little hands what you do.  Be careful little feet where you go.  Be careful little ears what you hear…for the Father up above, is looking down in love.  Be careful little eyes what you see.”

She is certainly being careful and I love the purity in her young heart!

Jessie has been learning her capital letters and after conquering the letter ”V,” which seemed to constantly allude her, she finally mastered her visual recognition of the uppercase alphabet this week.  So in celebration of her accomplishment we went to the Disney store to pick out “a little Daisy Duck” at her request.

After making the purchase and getting back in the car, I looked in the rear view mirror and discovered Jessie mothering and cradling Daisy, her new baby.  So I energetically exclaimed, “I am SO proud of you!  I can’t believe you’ve earned Daisy!  Way to go, Jessie-Girl!”

My little lady calmly responded, “Mom, I think you’re being too loud for Daisy.  You might be hurting her ears.  Will you please be more quiet?”

“Okay Jessie, I’ll keep it down,” I replied, clearly noting who is the more mature “mother.”  :-)

1. We have a tennis ball that hangs by a string in our garage to help us know how far in to pull the car.  The other day Jessie was playing in the garage while the car was gone, pushing the ball back and forth when she declared, “Look mom*!  The ball is exercising.”

2. We have decided to start a weekly ritual of pita pizza/movie night on Fridays.  So all week we have been building anticipation for Jessie by telling her, “Pita Pizza Movie Night is coming!”  Yesterday afternoon Jessie and I went to rent the video and she chose Benji.  She asked to call Drake and tell him about her selection exclaiming, “Hey daddy! We got Benji…we didn’t get the pita pizza movie.”

4. The other day Jessie was in a cleaning frenzy going around our house cleaning everything that could possibly be dirty.  I saw her using her foot and a towel to clean the hardwood floors and stated, “That’s a cool way to clean the floor—what a good idea, Jess.”  She replied, “Well, that’s how the people at Starbucks do it!”

4. I was making Jessie a peanut butter sandwich when she requested, “May I have agave on my peanut butter?  I’m avoiding Stevia right now.”

5. We were talking the other evening about marriage and I asked Jessie if she wanted a husband, and if so, who?  Of course she first mentioned her daddy as a good husbandly candidate but then stated, “Actually, I think I’d like Uncle Dean to be my husband?”  “Why do you think he’d make a good husband?” I inquired.  “Well, I think he’s kinda pretty.”

6. Around Christmas time, out of the blue at dinner Jessie asked, “Are there a lot of Santas, mom*?”  Taken back by her question and stumped at how to respond I said, “That’s an interesting question.  Why do you ask?”  Jessie astutely noted, “Well, everywhere we go tthere's a Santa.” 

7. While we were in adjacent rooms Jessie called out, “Where are you, mom*?”  I answered, “Oh, I’m in Timbuktu.”  Jessie chuckled and retorted, “Ha!  No, you’re in Tim-buck-three!”

*Yes, Jessie actually calls me “mom”.  I don’t know where this came from, but I thought my name was supposed to be “mommy” at least until Jr. high.  :)

Jessie was a total champ during her visit to see Santa today.

We were the first in line for an exclusive Costa Mesa MOMS Club Santa event at South Coast Plaza and as Jessie was walking the path toward the man in the red suit and spotted his smile she began blowing him kisses.  He responded in like.

Upon reaching Chris Cringle, my chatterbox immediately struck up conversation with him about her pink dog Donna, decked out in Jessie’s Christmas shirt for her holiday attire, that was being toted around for the festivities.  Santa sensitively interrupted to ask, “Would you like to sit on my lap?”

To which she responded, “Sure!”

He pulled Jessie onto his lap, placed Donna on his other knee, and the two of them had a sweet conversation about reindeer, colors, pretend paints for dolls, umbrellas, and other desirable toys.

When their conversation ended, the candy cane gift that jolly ol’ St. Nick handed to Jessie surely sealed her love for the white-bearded man.

And the hug they later shared was proof!