Bronte 4.5

Putting on EMLA cream before a blood test

Almost-four-&-a-half-year-old Bronte is now registered for kindergarten (eep!) & she's ready to go. Raring to go, really. She's still really interested in reading & writing & has started identifying letters in signs & printed material around the house. I don't doubt she'll love all the activities she'll get to do in school when she starts in September.

Her favourite toys are probably her dollies, but her favourite pastime is watching Mia & Me on Netflix. If she's not watching it, she's drawing unicorns, magic treasure maps, or singing the intro song at the top of her lungs. Actually, scratch, that, I'd say her favourite pastime is stealing my makeup & doing a four-year-old's version of a smoky eye. I forgot to latch the baby lock on the bathroom cabinets properly a couple of times in the past few weeks & we have some funny photos to show for it.

Bronte is very excited about the things we're planning to do this spring, but still doesn't have a good enough concept of time, so she keep asking if we're going on our trip today (it's more than a month away) or if she gets to go to soccer now (it starts in April). She gets bonus points for memory & enthusiasm, at least.

Checking Panda's blood pressure at BCCH

The past month saw two more blood tests & a visit to the pediatrician at BC Children's to follow up on her recovery from the septic arthritis she had just before Christmas. Unfortunately, Bronte developed a fear of needles after having so many procedures in the week she was in the hospital, so there was a lot of numbing cream (aka "snowman poop") before, screaming & fighting during, & then ice cream afterward. She got through it all & I'm hoping she'll work past the fear--we've still got her pre-kindergarten vaccinations to do in the next few months.

Bronte also had to take a three week course of antibiotics after she was discharged. I made a sticker chart to keep track of all the doses (we had to give her 14ml of the stuff 84 times) & help motivate her to take it. Thankfully she seemed to like the flavouring in it, so she didn't protest much.

Bronte has gotten to the point where she won't let us pick out her clothes anymore, which is fine. I find her fashion sense to be very entertaining & she's learning to dress for the weather. If you want to see her crazy multi-coloured pattern clashing outfits, I occasionally post them over on Instagram with the hashtag #PreschoolerFashion.

Today in #PreschoolerFashion: stripes, watermelon print, plaid, & leopard. #ThisIsFour

A post shared by Lisa Corriveau (@spokesmama) on Jan 26, 2018 at 10:46am PST

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Bronte 4.3 & 4.4

Hm, so I think I missed a month of updates on bubs in all the holiday hoo-ha, then got distracted a bit while B was at BC Children's Hospital for eight days. She's just finishing up a course of antibiotics, plus we'll have some followup testing at the hospital but she's fine. So let's combine the past two months into one update, shall we?

Bronte's favourite things:

Drawing on paper, herself, the laptops, furniture, books. She has started copying the black & white line drawing that I have been doing a lot lately & I have to admit, I'm pretty impressed. Shes' also getting better at writing her name in the correct order. Es still look a lot like combs though.

Making anything, especially jewellery or perler bead creations. She was pretty excited to be allowed to use scissors to make paper snowflakes.

Her stuffed animals, though not ever any specific one for long. This was handy in hospital when we needed to launder a couple of them.

Popsicles: many of these were consumed in hospital, despite barfing up the first one due to her post-anaesthesia nausea. She'll eat any flavour, but if given a choice, it needs to be cherry.

Dresses, the more colours & prints she can combine together with her leggings, shirts, & socks, the better. I really should try to document these outfits more often.

Yogurt. This kid would eat at least a litre of the stuff every day if we let her.

Dogs & cats. This is Elvis. He lives a block down the street & just walks into our house sometimes. He barely tolerates Bronte, probably because she loves him so much.

Moving constantly. It is very difficult to get a clear photo of this child because she literally never stops moving. Here she is, about two minutes after a blood test. Bounces back quickly, this one does.

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Bronte 4.2

 This past month has been a busy one for Bronte. She went to the dentist & willingly participated in a checkup & cleaning for the first time. Previous appointments she barely opened her mouth.

She has become a lot more interested in writing & reading, regularly scribbling some of the letters of her name on bits of paper & pointing them out when we see them when we're out. I wonder if she might be reading by kindergarten.

Her drawings are also getting more detailed & funnier, generally featuring people, always with a story of some sort behind them. I find it fascinating the details she uses to signify certain things in her pictures. Female people get eyelashes around their eyes, but not male. It's easy to identify pictures of her papa, as he always has zigzagging lines (wrinkles) across his forehead. Animals very often have many more legs than they would in real life & she carefully draws teeth on people & animals. Fingers are also extremely important.

"I drew a picture of you!" Clearly my daughter sees me as Bozo the Clown. With brow wrinkles.

A post shared by Oliver Kuehn (@oliver_bikes) on Oct 23, 2017 at 12:30pm PDT

Little B is really into dolls, whether babies or her new Barbie & loves her stuffies. It's always an argument trying to convince her not to bring them to preschool, or to the playground, or wherever she's going. She probably spends more time playing with Lego & Duplo at home, however. I keep thinking that the kids are too old for the Duplo, then they start playing with it multiple times a day again...

Halloween was really fun this year. Both kids were quite excited about it & Bronte particularly enjoyed trick or treating. We stayed out for a bit over an hour & they got a mountain of candy, some of which was traded to the "Switch Witch". Bronte was quite pleased with the toys & craft supplies she got in exchange for her treats.

The other milestone we hit this month was having a family board game afternoon, where Bronte, Linnaeus, Oliver & I played a whole game of Monopoly Junior. It is a fairly quick game but both kids were pretty engaged in it for the whole time & Bronte won! I'm hoping we'll be able to play more games soon--I'm super excited to be at this stage already. mile

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Bronte 4.1

Since I've been working so much lately, here are a few photos of Bronte's 49th month for you.

This girl LOVES parties, pinatas, & people but she has not inherited my sweet tooth

B loved Bike the Night & I think she'll be ready to ride it on her own bike next year

She rode 13km on the seawall this day on her 16" Islabike

Always game for a hammy cheese face when I take pictures of our quaxing adventures

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Bronte 4.0

Happy birthday, baby girl!

Knowing little Bronte is now four years old is one thing, but it wasn't until she was riding her own new-to-us bike on the road for the first time with us that it really started to hit me that she's growing up. We managed to find a used 16" Islabike for her. The bike is actually ten pounds lighter than her 12" one. The larger wheels get her farther with each pedal stroke & the longer wheelbase means she weaves around much less as she's riding.

At four, B is an interesting, articulate little kid with an eye for detail, & endless questions about how the world works. She's empathetic & social, you might call her aggressively friendly. Her love of dogs has not dimmed a bit & I know it's only a matter of time before the pestering starts about us getting one.

I struggle with finding a balance between reigning in her rambunctiousness & letting her be assertive, but I think her fierceness will serve her well in life.

Oohing & Aahing at the ducklings in the PNE livestock barns.

"My ice cream has sprinkles, mama!"

"Helping" Viona scrub road grime off her bike with a baby bottle brush.

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