Delaney Rose turns 4

Delaney has been looking forward to turning four for several months.  During her last few months being three, she learned to write her name and count to 39.  When I would lament the fact that I soon wouldn't have a three year old anymore (one of my favorite ages since I was a teenage babysitter), she'd  say, "Don't worry, momma.  You can pretend my dolls are 3." :) In late summer/early Fall, she started showing interest in writing the letters of her name.  She started with "D" and then after a week or two added the "L" consonant, but in the initial position, so it looked like this "LD".  Next was Y, and she switched the D to initial position like this "DLY" By late November, she added the N and the vowels, and voila, she could write the whole thing!  One funny thing is that last year at some point Owen told her her last name was "Robert" instead of Richard, so now when you ask her whole name, she insists it is "Delaney Rose Richard Robert". so cute.  We have slowly switched from calling her Laney to Delaney (at least I have) over the past several months, because it seems to be what she prefers right now. So, around Halloween, I ventured into the Disney store at the mall. I had successfully avoided it completely during my first five and a half years of parenthood. (smile) I ended up with a complete Rapunzel outfit (including the blond flower crown of hair with detachable Rapunzel braid) and a second costume for our sweet neighbor Olivia's birthday gift.  I may or may not have purchased a dozen small/sale items for Christmas gifts as well. In any case, we had recently watched Tangled, the kids only Disney movie other than Cars, Planes, Rescue Planes, Toy Story and Frozen. Delaney was enthralled, so I hoped she might choose Rapunzel as a Halloween costume instead of Sky from Paw Patrol. (The Sky costume involved a pink helicopter prop. Hmmm.) Well, on Halloween morning before Owen and I left for school I asked Laney what she was going to be for Halloween.  "A Rainbow Fairy" she answered matter of factly. Uh-oh.  On my first break at school I dialed my mom's cell.  Mom said- "Yes she's been talking about that for months," I panicked. "I thought she was talking about a rainbow fairy birthday party!" So Rapunzel was shelved (the dress was too long anyway) and Gramma went to Party City (on Halloween) and bought the entire Rainbow Fairy costume.  She did have a Rainbow Fairy birthday party as well, on her actual birthday.  She invited four girls, since she was turning 4, and they made fairy gardens with tiny mushrooms and pixie dust, had their faces glitter painted by Miss Petal, an actual faerie, and feasted on teensy fairy bread with rainbow sprinkles, berry wands and a six layer rainbow ice cream cake made by my mother! I decorated the chairs with wings and made a pastel rainbow of tissue flowers to hang above the table. We hung a pink flowery curtain on the front door and placed an orange glass jar of rainbow wands outside for the guests.  It was magical and fun, just like being 4!  Delaney's gifts included unicorn puzzles, a rainbow in my room lamp, a tie dye rainbow swimsuit in big girl size, a fairy jewelry box, and a big girl bed! Our sweet girl!