Vially Mary at four.

our dearest Peanut Vially Girl,
you are four and so proud to be. You never seemed to go through that wacky terrible twos and threes stage (thank you) but four seems to have brought a little sassiness to your soul. You still have enough sweetness to offset it though because it only takes one stern 'momma glance' to get you to apologize and ask how to fix it.

You are such a little cherub Vially with those cheeks that still are so full and precious and that sweet heart so full of joy and playfulness. You are learning to write your name at preschool and can help with chores around the house. You can get your own cup of water & ice from the fridge and clean up your whole room - including making the bed - all by yourself. You are really starting to be a big girl, my va-vi.

You are still my little squishem though and I get asked all the time if you and Rusty are twins, what with you two being nearly the same height and with your white blonde hair. Plus, the two of you run around together wrecking everything like little cannon balls. Everyone refers to you two as 'the babies' and you still don't seem to mind.  You and Rusty have such a sweet relationship in which you care for him because technically you're the big sis - but you also play together and get into mischief. Gemma brings out the girly in you; the two of you playing mommas & girlfriends together toting babydolls and bags stuffed to the brim with who knows what. I swear you girls change your clothes six times a day and make me dizzy with laundry. Grey dials up the silly in you and you will do anything and everything to make him laugh. You get sent to actual timeout for being too silly sometimes, especially when you and Grey are winding each other up into a frenzy of goofiness. I love to see all the different shades your siblings can bring out in you and how you can reflect the personality everyone in our family needs.

You are totally a weak spot for Dad (and you know it) and he could never yell at you. He still says almost daily, "can you even believe something as cute as Violet exists?" oh sheesh, he's in trouble. You are still my 'easiest' kid, you've always just gone along with whatever we need to do with the littlest complaining. You are an expert dishwasher-emptier (gosh, thank you baby girl) and will attempt to do just about any helpful task - you like surprising us by leading us to the area of the house you fixed up with our eyes closed and making a big reveal of it.  You wake up so nicely in the morning and rarely ever need to be told twice -which is such a relief because it feels like I have to repeat myself 700 times to your big bro and sis.

You like reading books, playing babies or barbies, painting/coloring, and putting puzzles together. You never complain about getting your hair fixed and you prefer to have 'panda ears' (two bun pigtails on top of your head) or 'bunny ears' (two high half-up pigtails). You still use lasterday when you talk about things that happened yesterday and you've even expanded to include lasternight, and laster week. This summer you called it bikini (zucchini) and asked if I could make bikini bread for breakfast because you loved it.

Your best friends at school are Grady, Cassidy, and Hunter and you love having worksheets for 'homework.' You call your backpack:  "packpack" you like to know ahead of time what I packed in your lunchbox and you like being the "gaboose" in the line. Your favorite movies include Mamma Mia, The Greatest Showman, the Sandlot, and Tremors (lol). You have a stuffed puppy that you sleep with (you got it from Kuma for your birthday). Every night, you ask, "can you read your book on my floor while I go to sleep?"

You are still an artist in your soul and I am so fascinated by your artwork and creativity in coloring and painting. It is so intentional and abstract, I worry about not supporting your talents enough. You can draw stick figures and people, but you almost never do. Your drawings are always colorful and fantastical. I wish I understood more about art, but I am just an admirer of brilliant minds; and you my darling, have a brilliantly creative and artistic mind. I can't wait to see how you'll give everyone new visions of the world with your pictures.

Greyson asked you to color the other day while he watched so he could see 'how a real artist works' and when he asked you how you know what to do you said, "I don't know, my brain turns off and my hands just do it." I made you an art account on Instagram to share your work and I followed a few artists' pages. Sometimes we scroll through and look at them together and you press the heart button for the pictures you like. I love how it allows you to see other peoples' creations (some of them that remind me so much of your artwork) and how you respond with, "Oh wow! That's a nice one!" like you really know and understand - maybe you do? I don't, but I'm going to keep learning and trying.

My vially girl.
you are so clever and sweet and precious
you have the power to make everyone smile
i am so grateful to get to be your momma
my darling little peanut.
we will be loving and squeezing you forever.
even if you stay a small squishem always
and even if you do end up finally getting big
forever and ever
momma.