Happy Birthday Danica!

Danica turned 4 on December 12 and we had a fantastic day. It started with a birthday party with 9 little kids who were all well behaved and we had a great time! Danica picked The Little Mermaid as her theme and we made necklaces, painted underwater art, searched for dinglehoppers, and then ate fish shaped jello, chicken nuggets and crackers (and carrots and oranges). At the end we went fishing for prizes to fill the goodie bags, Danica says this was her favorite part.


She spent the afternoon playing with presents and talking to grandparents on the web cam and opening the gifts they sent. In the afternoon we went to our favorite park, appropriately named by us “the slide park.” It was nice going just as a family and spending that time together. It was a really fun day for everyone!



Just as a record I want to share a bit about Danica. Before she turned 3 she was incredibly, painfully shy. Then one day I found her hiding under the table because she was shy about grandma being on the webcam...that was the last straw. I had idea and just started telling her that she wasn’t shy anymore because now she was 3. It worked! Whenever she started acting shy I would just remind her and she would stop. She started talking to people, making eye contact and just having fun! It’s made for a fantastic year with a truly delightful girl. She is quick to smile and if she’s in trouble she’ll just sit there smiling at me in hopes of changing my mind. This works the other way around too, when she is grumpy about something I can just smile at her until she cracks and starts laughing with me. She is a great big sister and loves to play with Alyssa and is quick to help her with anything. She was invaluable when I was potty training Alyssa and thought it was so fun to help! I don’t know what I’d do without her! Alyssa copies everything she does and it’s great because Danica is such a good example!
Danica loves the color green and loves The Little Mermaid. She loves to sing and dance to the song “Celebrate.” She likes making up names for everything and everyone, she’ll ask me someone’s name and if I don’t know she’ll saying something like “I think it’s Inglebog.” Right now I always hear her saying things like “I’m totally serious, really!” Or I see her running around yelling “I’m losing my life!” She loves her gymnastics class and her preschool and always tell me “I had a great day mom!” When she is happy or excited she claps her hands together and scrunches up her shoulders trying to hold in the excitement, it’s really cute! It’s easy to make her happy, sometimes all I have to do is give her a clementine, she loves them!
Before she leaves to go play at our neighbors or goes into preschool or goes to bed she always insists on lots of hugs and kisses. If she walks away without them she'll come running back for a kiss and hug. She loves to play with babies, play hide ‘n seek, or jump on the trampoline. Danica is an amazing little girl and delight to have in our family!