Adventure Bytes: The Peanut is Four!

Our sweet gal is four which means she gets her own update!

Nicknames: she calls herself Sera or Serie so we go along with it -- at school she goes by Serafina but most of her friends call her Sera.

Looks: still blond(ish) hair and curly but getting straighter on top (and finally growing!) -- her hair lightens up a lot in the summer so now it is darker than usual since she isn't at the beach everyday. She is still tall and loves wearing dresses and leggings so we often have to size up for the length.

Eating: still a really good eater! I do miss the insanely balanced and diverse meal/lunch she would get at her preschool but for the most part we have lucked out in the eating department. She is four so she gets picky and decides one day she likes something but the next she doesn't but that is all normal! She struggles to sit and eat (not because she isn't hungry but because she would rather play) and this is very difficult when traveling -- but we make it work and she eats a lot of french fries when we travel :) At home she is a great eater and loves most fruits (strawberries especially), most veggies (particularly peas), chicken (any meat is called chicken), rice -- she will eat rice all day every day if we let her, yogurt, pasta... I could go on! Overall she eats great and we have no complaints!

Sleeping: still not great but it is what it is. On a good night I am only up once with her for a nightmare or night terror, most nights it is at least twice and rarely do we get a night of no wake ups. We have tried everything and we just have a kiddo who has trouble with sleep. We switched her to a full-size bed in the fall and that actually helped a lot. Night terrors are becoming more rare but they do still happen. She still naps most days and on nap days, she typically sleeps better at night so we aren't about to fully give up naps just yet.

Health: I feel like we finally turned a corner with the illnesses and ear infections this year -- they seemed less and less and more spread out. She most definitely gets the normal colds and sicknesses but that is all part of being a kid and going to school. She took a nasty fall in November and sliced her chin open, resulting in her first stitches (3 to be exact) but she was so strong and so brave (way better than her parents) and it didn't seem to bother her one bit! She also got her first black eye after falling on the concrete playground at school!

Saying: talking all the time, seriously, she never stops talking -- ever! Her imagination is just incredible and I love hearing the games and situations and such that she comes up with. My favorite is first thing in the morning when she wakes up and tells me all about her insanely vivid dreams or right after school when she talks nonstop in English just getting it out! Her Spanish is still progressing each day -- we find it amazing that she can switch back and forth so effortlessly. I often have to write down words to then learn myself (I swear each week I walk into my own Spanish class with a list of words I have learned from Serafina)!

Likes: lots of things --
- mermaids: but said "marmaid" and she is obsessed! She has mermaid sheets for her bed and a few mermaid dolls and goes almost everywhere with her Barbie mermaid, pretty sure she would turn into a mermaid if she could!
- cooking and baking: every single day she asks what we are making for dinner and if we can "mix" (aka bake something), she prefers to eat the dough rather than the finished project but it sure is fun (and messy) cooking together
I should note that she is a leftie and it has been a real eye opener for both myself and Trevor teaching her to cut, stir, peel, etc. with her left hand since he and I are right-handed. But we have all adapted and she is really quite talented in the kitchen!
- swimming: still taking swimming lessons and still loving it, she offically swims without her floaties and was the first in her class to do so (we are so proud)!

- dancing: she started flamenco (she calls it "flamengo") lessons this year and she LOVES it, not sure if she actually dances in class as parents aren't allowed to watch but she loves her shoes, her skirt and the music

- princesses: still loves all things princess (she loved going to Sintra, Portugal to see all the castles)
- PlayMobil: she loves her PlayMobil toys -- we have quite a bit and she loves everything about them (we have a barn with so many horses and a lot of faires and she loves both equally), she sets them all up and creates little scenes and has imaginary play :)
- animals: still loves animals, doesn't care what it is, she loves it -- she thought the guinea pigs in Gorlitz, Germany were the coolest thing ever, but she also had a blast petting a snake in Grazalema, Spain.

- baby dolls/Barbies/any doll: she loves her dolls and has added a few Barbies to her collection, she has fun changing them and taking care of them (feeding, rocking to sleep, etc.)

- building: still loves building things, especially with our magnatiles (or whatever the cheaper version is called)

What Else: the transition to the big public school was rough on all of us (we seriously had the best preschool and teachers ever) but we are slowly getting used to the bigger school and the new way of doing things -- Sera is the only American in her class and that has been a challenge for all of us: the language, the cultural differences and more, but we are finding our way and making it work! She loves playing with her American friends on the weekends (we are so lucky to have such an amazing group of friends here) and loves going on adventures/travels. Shockingly traveling is harder in some ways at this age because she has her own opnions about what she wants to do, but we still take her everywhere with us and love showing her the world! She is a snuggle bug and would snuggle all day, everyday if we let her. When hurt she wants mommy but otherwise she is a daddy's girl through and through!