Elizabeth and Mary Claire: Age 4

The internet has been killing me at home, but by golly, it's working right now so I'm gonna try to throw a birthday post out there real quick before it cuts out again!

Here's this year's birthday survey:

What's your favorite book: E: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

MC: The Fuzzy Duckling (I don't think either of these are true, but those are the ones they had read most recently...)

What's your favorite song: MC: All Night, All Day

E: Immaculate Mary

What's your favorite game: MC: Chess. (Really?)

E: Candyland

What's your favorite show: MC: Stinky and Dirty

E: Bugs Bunny!

What's your favorite breakfast: MC: Pears

E: Oats and O’s with milk

What's your favorite fruit: MC: Grapes

E: A green apple

What's your favorite lunch: E: Apples and bread. MC: Oats & O’s with plain (which means without milk).

What's your favorite snack: MC: Craisins. E: Craisins and bread.

What's your favorite cereal: MC: Oats & O’s. E: My favorite cereal is Oats & O’s with plain.

What's your favorite drink: MC: Water. E: Water.

What do you want for your birthday dinner: E: Pancakes!

MC: Pancakes! (I made them for breakfast and we went out for Chinese for dinner)

Who's your best friend: MC: Peter!

E: Do you know who my best friend is? Eva. (Cecilia's best friend)

Me: Elizabeth, have you ever met Eva? 

Elizabeth: Yeah, when she came to our house on Halloween.

Later they both told me that they're actually each other's best friends. I thought that sounded more like it...

What's your favorite thing to do: MC: Play. E: Watch TV. MC: Watch TV. (Mother of the year, right here. They watch TV like, twice a week...)

What's your favorite outfit: E: This outfit (flower dress, white cardigan, tulip sunhat) MC: My favorite Mass outfit is this outfit (flower dress)

What's your favorite color: E: Pink. MC: Purple.

What's your favorite place to go: E: To the grocery store. MC: To the pancake breakfast.

What's your favorite animal: MC: Dog. E: A cat, ‘cuz they eat mice.

What's your favorite toy: MC: Stuffed animal. E: My favorite toy is a toy play kitchen tin cup (from their tea set) that we got for our third birthday.

What's your favorite holiday: E: Christmas! MC: Christmas!

What do you take to bed at night: MC: Red bear! E: My hoot (rhymes with book – a stuffed owl that she doesn’t take to bed…).

What's your favorite thing to do outside: E: Play. MC: Play.

What do you want to be when you grow up: MC: A doctor! E: A nun.

What’s the best thing about being 4? MC: That we’ll have Bitty Babies. E: Having Bitty Babies.

I asked them if I could take some 4-year-old pictures of them. Elizabeth immediately started hamming it up, and Mary Claire got very angry and refused. Just like last year. This year, however, bribery worked! I told them I'd show them pictures from last year and Mary Claire was immediately amenable.

We celebrated with an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast (because I accidentally added too much milk to the batter and had to add more pancake mix so we ended up with a LOT too many), presents (their favorites were their new Little House peg dolls and their skirts from Grandma), and cupcakes with friends. Low-key birthdays are the way to go when Mom is a million weeks pregnant!

They have such, such, such fun together, to the point where I wonder what other kids think when they see them - they have all sorts of inside (twin-side?) jokes and elaborate make-believe games that they play with each other all day long, and it's such a blast seeing them grow up together. I find it fascinating watching their intellectual development, as well - Mary Claire is an incredible reader while Elizabeth is still sounding out 3 & 4-letter words. But Elizabeth seems to have a mind for numbers, whereas Mary Claire is fairly certain she has 11 fingers and toes, because she gets confused every time she counts!! It's tricky because they're just beginning to notice these differences as well, so we talk about how everybody learns at different rates and God made us all different and (for the most part) it'll all even out in the long run.

Happy Birthday, sweet girls! We love you!