All About Sonoma. . .

Now that Sonoma is FOUR, I wanted to write a blog post all about Sonoma and what she is up to these days.

Sonoma is my strong-willed child.  (I wish I could say I have only one strong-willed child, but nope - I have TWO.  More on the other one later! )  Sonoma has some personality traits that sure will come in handy and be FABULOUS later on in life, but they definitely make for some difficult parenting moments on a day to day basis.  Discipline doesn't work with Sonoma.  She is smart.  Too smart for her own good and she is determined to get her way regardless.  She is much better off on a very strict schedule: knowing what's to come, talking about things before they happen, laying out her clothes the night before, talking about the next day's plans, activities, weather, etc.  She doesn't back down and is very persistent and loves to be a leader.  She loves to lead friends, especially her younger sister.  Sonoma is one of the sweetest people I have ever met.  She notices EVERYTHING.  She notices the smallest details about people, and remembers moments from over year or two ago like they were yesterday.  Her memory is impeccable. She is always saying "remember when we did this or went here or saw this person."  Sonoma is kind.  She doles out compliments all of the time to friends, family and strangers, and she is wonderful with her manners ( she ALWAYS says "my pleasure." ) She loves to help out around the house.  She puts away laundry, helps Cora do anything I need assistance with, she helps make her bed, feed the fish, take the dog out, put away groceries, and so forth.  She's not a big fan of cleaning her room, so we are working on that.  She loves responsibility and is extremely independent and confident.  She can always put a smile on my face and will randomly tell me that I look so beautiful today, or she just loves the way my hair looks.  Or she will tell me out of nowhere that she "loves me to Jesus and outer space and back."  

Sonoma is constantly asking questions.  Really, really good questions.  She is very interested in time and days and weeks and months, which is extremely difficult to teach someone I have come to realize!  We go through calendars and clocks and are really working on figuring out the whole time concept.  She is also intrigued by the radio and always checks to see what station I am listening to, and then confirms if the car in front of us also turns to 96.3 that they will hear the exact same song we are currently listening to.  She ALWAYS asks that every day in the car.  I must admit that explaining the radio to a toddler is one of the hardest things!  She is fascinated by learning about God at church and PDO.  She asks about heaven and meeting Jesus and loves saying a prayer every night at dinner.  Along with her nightly dinner prayer, she leads the table in talking about a.)  what we are grateful for today and b.)  what they best part of our day was.
Sonoma is a wonderful big sister to Cora.  Every night she hugs and kisses Cora goodnight, and every morning, she runs to Cora to give her a big good morning hug.  She reads Cora stories, gets her lovies when she is sad, helps her up and down the stairs, puts bows in her hair and socks and shoes on her feet, pushes her in swings, helps her with puzzles and coloring, and loves to teach Cora how to say new words.  I love when I am driving and Sonoma is in the back seat going "Cora say this, Cora say that, Cora say this."  She carries on conversations with Cora and asks her all the same questions she would ask a friend or anyone her own age.  She includes Cora in playing make believe and dolls and dress-up.  I take pride in knowing that Cora communicates so well because of her helpful big sister.  Watching Sonoma interact with Cora and protect her baby sister absolutely melts my heart.  They definitely have their daily moments of fighting and arguing, but the good outweighs the bad and makes me one proud mama.

Sonoma can't wait to grow up and be big and be a mommy like me.  She is always talking about doing such and such when she is 5, or 13 or 30.  She is SUCH a little Mommy and emulates me all over the house cooking, cleaning, getting ready, etc.  I told her I don't want her to grow up.  She will then respond that she will always be my baby.
Sonoma asks questions about animals, outer-space, cities, states, old people, death, bugs, babies and is learning and challenging herself all the time.  I love our little moments together before bed after we read or in the morning when she first wakes up.

She loves to play Barbies, dolls, dress-up, ponies, and make-believe.  She will spend hours in her room dressing Barbies, dressing her dolls and thinking up the most creative things to do with them.  Her mind fascinates me!  She still has imaginary friends.  And she tells me they are imaginary; just pretend.   Pico and Marin are still around, but she has TONS of other "friends."  She just refers to them as her "friends, " and she will tell me sometimes when we are out running errands that she just got a text and her friends are up from their nap and bawling their eyes out.  When she gets a new toy, she can't wait to show her friends.  It's really cute!  Sometimes we hear a song on the radio and she tells me that it's Marin singing back when she was a young girl.  HA!
Sonoma is very athletic and loves to run and play outside.  I'm really impressed by her gymnastics skills so far and I am anxious to see what her summer gymnastics camp has in store for her. Sonoma is really creative and excellent with coloring, drawing and doing arts and crafts.  I learn from her and am honestly amazed at some of the projects she has crafted!   She is over the moon about attending Pre-school in the fall and I think a strict academic setting will be very good for Sonoma.
Sonoma is a healthy eater.  She doesn't eat a ton at one setting such as a main meal, but throughout the day she asks for healthy snacks such as fruit, vegetables, yogurt, nuts and knows she has to eat  a well-balanced meal to grow strong.  A lot of nights she will tell me she is grateful for the yummy meal I prepared which makes me glad that she appreciates the food on her table.

Sonoma and her friend, Elle, at the Cosley Zoo

I've always wished for my children to be thankful, live lives of gratitude, put others first and rebound from failure.  I am confident in saying that Sonoma is well on her way to embracing all of those important things to focus on in life and I am truly very proud of her.