Four Year Old Birthday

We had a family from the ward over to celebrate Belen's birthday the night before her actual birthday. This is the family that has taken care of us like family for the past few months. We sure have grown to love them a lot. 

Belen has been talking about her Frozen birthday cake for MONTHS now. Ever since her little friend in Ithaca had a Frozen themed birthday party last May. I wasn't quite sure how we would pull it off in Indonesia. Having these little toys, I figured we could stick them on donuts if needed and call it good, but after figuring out that our toaster oven actually reaches high enough temperatures and after finding enough of the ingredients I would need, I figured we may as well try out a cake. The cake pans made for a nice lumpy cake and the powdered sugar made for a super grainy frosting, but still! Feeling pretty proud of this cake given our circumstances. We were pretty excited to find marshmallows at one store so that we could decorate with "snow" and make a little Olaf snowman (which there are two of on this cake since both Shae and Belen made one).

 Birthday eve with the birthday girl. Last pictures with our 3 year old.

 And just like that, she went to sleep and woke up and she was 4.

 She wasn't interested in having her picture taken with her birthday cereal.

  Showing off her little Lego girls.

 Gosh I just love this picture of her so much.

The day of Belen's birthday was really quite chill. The kids and I went swimming (like we do just about every single day :). That evening we got pizza and let her choose a movie for a pizza movie night. She chose Barbie: Princess Power. 

The Saturday before her birthday we let her choose a birthday activity and what she wanted to do more than anything was to go back to the Grand Indonesia and ride the High Sky ride (Shae had ridden it the first time we went, but she chose something else instead and has talked about her missed opportunity ever since). So that's what we did. We let her choose 3 rides. She chose the Merry Go Round.

 The canoe ride.

 And the high sky ride.

 After the rides we went and played in the Lego store for a bit. She easily could have stood at this station changing the Lego people's heads and pants and hair--creating new people--all afternoon.

According to Belen, her 4 year old favorites are:

Favorite Songs: Let It Go (Frozen), I Wanna Be Like Other Girls (Mulan 2), Lesson Number One (Mulan 2)

Favorite Food: Broccoli, Chips, Cookies, and Popcorn

Favorite Movie: Mary Poppins Returns and Cars 1

Favorite Animal: Giraffe (because it can see a lot in a big city)

Second Favorite Animal: Peacock

Favorite Colors: Pink and purple...and black and blue and green

What do you want to be when you grow up: Scientist-Firefighter-Ballerina-Mom-Veterinarian-Space Girl

Favorite Book: Nella the Princess Knight and Everybody Loves Cupcake

 A few things about Belen:

The easiest way to get her to do something is to tell her to do the opposite. As in, "Don't smile for the camera." "Don't clean up the dolls, no, no, don't do it." "Don't you dare eat that zucchini." It's probably THE worst parenting strategy, but sometimes we're desperate.

She has the best little embarrassed smile. I love observing her while watching a movie when something adorable and sappy happens, like a kiss. She just gets this shy little smile on her face and she'll often lean her head (with her cute little sheepish smile) on one of our arms. If she sees us looking at her, giving her an "aaawww how sweet" look during the sweet sappy moment she always gets angry/embarrassed and says, "Stop looking at me!"

She can often be found with some sort of stuffed creature in her shirt, pretending she's pregnant:

She won't let us kiss her. If we sneak one in she always comes back with an angry, "I don't LIKE kisses," and wipes the kiss away. She had previously been saying that we could start kissing her again when she was 4, but now that she is 4, it looks like we won't be kissing her until 9. When we bring it up she always says, "After 8 is 9, when I 9, you can kiss me."

She went through a stage where she was very interested in nipples. She would always point hers out and tell us what they were. Or when Shae didn't have a shirt on she would always announce, "I see your nipples!" When we were in Ithaca (as in, when she had a car seat), she would always buckle herself in and pull the buckle up to her chest and yell out, "Is this at my nipples?!" Like clockwork, every single time. It made us giggle just about every time too.

She draws the best little potato family I ever did see.

She went through a few months stage recently where she always had gum in her mouth. She was always chewing chewing chewing. It was cute when she first started to chew gum without swallowing it because she would spit it in to her hand every so often to give herself a break from chewing without worrying about swallowing it and then pop it back in when she was ready to keep chewing.

Belen quotes:

While looking at herself in the mirror in our elevator one day:

"Why my eyebrows are blind? Your eyebrows not blind mom." 

One day while taking a shower with me after swimming:

"Mom, girls can shower with other girls and see their privacy. Boys can shower with boys and see their privacy." 

While watching Full House:

"Why there laughs? Who laughing? Where is it coming from?"

(I don't know why this one was so funny to me...just the fact that she noticed the recorded laughs that those sitcoms often have)

After a night of keeping her pull up dry:

"I held it on the inside AND held it on the outside." 

(which quite literally she does hold it on the outside some nights--always makes for a funny sight to check on her at night and see she has fallen asleep that way).

While at the zoo, looking at the Tiger:

Me: Come on Belen, he's just sleeping, let's keep going.

Belen (in a whisper): Oh, he's sleeping, that's why he's not talking to me.

Also at the zoo, looking at the black bear:

Me: Is that Merida's mom?

Belen (incredulously): No mom, it not have a crown. And it have a penis. 

One day there was a pretty strong smell of gas in our apartment:
Me: Let's get out of the kitchen, it smells like gas in here.

Belen (nonchalantly): "Oh, it's just my bum." 

Playing doctor with Shae:

Shae: Oh no! He's been electrocuted!

Belen: Just add a little water, then a little sugar, he'll be okay."

Playing "store":

Me: Can I have a receipt?

Belen: Mom, you already sitting on a seat. 

While drinking some chocolate milk with a snack one day:

Me: How do you make chocolate milk?

Belen: Oh, that's easy, just mix white milk and strawberry milk and you get chocolate milk.

"Dad speaks Indonesia words. You speak Paraguay words. I speak Ithaca words."

Oh we just love this girl and the fun stage she is in so much. She makes us giggle and smile all day long.


Shae tried to get a few pics of all three of us. Blurry, but I still love them.