Jiya turned Four ...

.... laughing and hopping and running and jumping at Navy Pier, in the best of her spirits, way too happy in her very fancy dress which many of the passers by stopped to admire and even comment to us and to her much to her delight, making her declare, as a result that this is all she is ever going to wear wherever she goes. She remains to be very interested in dresses and bangles and hair accessories and all things beautiful which include flowers and clouds in different patterns and bright sunny skies and sand castles and sea shells. She exclaims in sheer glee when she sees a bed of flowers that she has never seen something so beautiful before, revels in the warmth of a pleasant sunny day, enjoys the breeze on her face and through her hair when on a boat in the middle of a lake, and sways in perfect rhythm to a good piece of music, language no bar.

At times, I marvel at how easy going she is at this age. Provided she is well fed (which is extremely tough to do, but I'll save that for another post considering this is her birthday post) and well rested, nothing seems to bother her. When alone at home, she is happy playing with anything at all. She can spend hours with paints or crayons or even a simple pen and a piece of paper. She then moves on to looking at books and smiling as she remembers the story we read earlier. Then she takes out games on phonics or sight words or sentences and happily play with those calling me to just tell me gaily of her achievement at having figured out a new word or formed a funny sentence and won't get upset even if at times I don't respond. And all the while she'll just keep humming either a rhyme from school or a tune from a song or just making up her own songs - the other day I heard her humming - I think so, I don't think so :)

While playing with Vansh, she knows that she is the younger one and can get away with a lot of things that he can't or that he'll be told to be more mature if they start fighting and exploits to her advantage many a times. She screams when she wants to get him into trouble making him shout in frustration that he will do the same to get her into trouble. But then basks in the affection he pours on her when she is sulking or pretending to sulk after I get angry with her. Sometimes she quickly takes a thing he really likes and then makes him say please to her a dozen times in a dozen different tones before handing it to him. At other times, she is the best playmate one can ask for. She laughs when Vansh does something to irritate her, telling him how he can say such silly things. Or just starts acting like him and makes him laugh out loud if he gets upset about something.

The thing that will always stand out in my memory about her on this birthday is how many times and how truly and deeply she thanked God for making her day so beautiful. We had friends visiting us from MN over the long weekend when she turned 4 and she enjoyed a lot in their company and got out of her shyness and spoke with them quite a bit much to our delight. She thanked God for their company. She again thanked him for having such a fun day at Navy Pier. "He even organised fireworks for me cos its my birthday" is what she had to say for the scheduled fireworks at night "and they are so beautiful! I have not seen anything so beautiful before! Thank you Sai Baba so much!" May Sai Baba always bless u so so so much my little one :)

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