The Hatz Family: Happy Birthday Isla Elizabeth ~ 4 Years Old!

Happy Birthday to my girl!! Isla had a very busy birthday weekend!! On Saturday, we went to Iowa City to watch the Hawks Spring game and then bummed around downtown for a bit. It was a beautiful day! Sunday, Isla, my mom, and I headed to Iowa City to watch City High's production of Grease! My cousin's son, Cole, played Kenickie and the entire cast did such a great job! Then it was back to our house to have her My Little Pony party with family. Poor Isla has kind of gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to birthday parties. She still a little young for friend parties so they seem much tamer than Carter's parties. She had a great time and that is all that really matters!

Spring Game...Go Hawks!

I cannot believe Isla is 4!! I am really looking forward to the coming year. I remember 4 being quite enjoyable with Carter and anticipate Isla's fourth year to be the same. Three can be hard but overall I think Miss Isla rocked it!! She can have a certain level of sass but she is mostly super sweet. I went to her school conference and her teachers had such wonderful things to say about her disposition. They said she is very even keeled. She is a very happy little girl but keeps her other emotions in check. She doesn't get too frustrated, too angry, too sad, etc. I have to say that she is similar to that at home. Rarely does she scream/yell when she gets angry but rather gets upset and cries out her frustrations. She is super sweet and we just love her!

Nickname(s): Lizzie Lou, Sissy Lissy, Sassy

Loving: Isla loves her Wolfie. She got Wolfie last year when we went to the Dells and it quickly became her favorite lovey. However, recently Wolfie has had to go EVERYWHERE with us! It reminds me of Carter and Mr. Pig :). Isla also loves riding her scooter. She has upgraded her 3 wheel scooter to a razor scooter, which my mom bought her for her birthday. She has been riding Addison's at my mom's house and has gotten really good at it! People cannot believe how fast she can go. I can't believe it sometimes either. She has great balance but then there are times she runs into walls because she isn't watching where she is walking and seems rather uncoordinated - ha!

Isla is into whatever big brother is into. Right now that is Star Wars. Carter got her a Chewie doll for her birthday and I laugh every time I walk bye her doll house and see Chewie sleeping on the bed :). We eat Star Wars graham crackers and she can name all the characters on the side of the box. My favorite character that she says is Luke Skywalker but she just says Sky Walker like it is two names. We bought her her own PURPLE light saber so she can play Star Wars with Carter.

Star Wars Girl!

Hating: Only thing I can think of that she really hates is cleaning :). We make the kids clean their toy room and she complains about it a lot and tries to get out of it every night. Usually saying, 'I can't my legs are tired.'

Eating: Chicken nuggets and pizza are her favorite foods but she also eats a lot of fruits. She isn't eating much but generally will take the 'required' bites of anything we are eating. She has skipped dinner on occasion due to either falling asleep or refusing. Dinner time/food intake is no longer a battle I fight. I know from experience that children just go through this 'not eating' phase. She is healthy and active and meal time is no longer stressful.

Doing: Isla is still taking ballet and loving it. Her recital is in a couple of weeks and I am really excited to watch her perform. This past fall was a shorter session and she got distracted on stage so she didn't really do most of the moves. But looked absolutely adorable so it was totally worth it. This spring she has been remembering more of her dance and will actually practice it at home.

She enjoys dancing to music at my mom's house. Her favorite CD to dance to is what she calls 'church music.' It is the CD of songs that Carter and Addison song while at Vacation Bible School last summer. The songs are really good and I love that it is one of her favorites. She idolizes Addison and loves to play with her. She follows her around and wants to do whatever she is doing. They play dress up and put on shows. They are too cute together!

Isla likes to paint, draw, play with Play Doh, and work on puzzles. Anything she can sit and do quietly is how she likes to spend her time although she can get crazy with the rest of the kids too. She likes to be a helper unless it is cleaning :). She helps with the babies at my mom's house by getting diapers or wipes when we need them. She also makes sure the babies aren't getting into things they aren't supposed to. She helped Matt spray weeds in the yard the other day pointing where he needed to spray. She always lets me know when Brea is getting into things that she isn't supposed to be.

Working on homework...safely

Singing: She is not much of a singer :(. Hopefully, when she gets more confidence in her speech this will change. We still sing 'Twinkle Twinkle' before bed and she sings 'Let it Go' of course. She has also started singing her ballet song, which is 'Any Dream Will Do' from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.

School: She LOVES going to her school and her teachers. She loves to be at the front of the line when they line up but if she isn't the line leader for the day, she tells me that she likes to stand on the number five. Her teachers say that she moves around and plays with everything in the room. There are times when she wants to spend additional time in housekeeping but no one else wants to play there. There are only 4 girls in the class and I don't think that is a favorite location for most of the boys. She loves to play in the house in the outdoor playground and will make food for Mrs. Whiteman and Mrs. Meyers. She is getting better at counting and identifying her numbers. She needs to work on letter identification but I know that will be part of the curriculum next year so I am not pushing it on her yet. Isla is really smart but does NOT like to be quizzed to show what she knows. Her teachers were telling me that she was playing cars with a few of the boys in her class and they were dividing them up. She counted her cars (10) one to one and they happened to observe her doing this. However, if I had asked her to count the cars for me she would not have done it.

Watching: Her favorite TV show is Paw Patrol and her favorite movie right now is Inside Out. She also likes to watch Tom & Jerry, Max and Ruby, PJ Masks, and Miles from Tomorrowland.

Saying:
From the bathroom, 'mom, you hear that sound? It's poop!'

"I want burgers from Taco Bell."

"Cause my sister crazy."

"Mrs. Whiteman, she helps me with tricky puzzles.'

"Gus you have a booger hanging."

Other Notables.
Isla can fall asleep anywhere. She also falls asleep in the car almost instantly if tired. She could probably take nap everyday but doesn't. Instead she has days where she will fall asleep from my mom's house and not wake up until the next morning. She is the easiest of the kids to get to sleep often telling us she is ready for bed. She still doesn't love to cuddle and likes her space while she sleeps. Occasionally, she will come into our room in the middle of the night but that is rare. A couple of weeks ago, Carter and Matt camped out with the Cub Scouts and I thought Isla might want to have a sleepover with me. Nope! She wanted to sleep in her own bed by herself :).

Isla can buckle herself in a booster seat - hallelujah! It was super annoying to have to crawl all the way in the back to buckle her in. That is only when Carter isn't back there...she generally rides in her 5 point harness, which she stil can't buckle completely independently. But if we are going a short distance i.e. Grandma's house or Papa Dave's she is allowed to sit in the booster in the way back aka Carter's seat. She loves to do this and makes her feel like a really big girl!! :)

Isla LOVES being a big sister! She will get frustrated when Brea gets into her stuff but for the most part she loves her baby sister. She calls her Ba Ba Brea and now notices 'Bs' everywhere. She speaks to Brea like a little mommy and greets her with a high-pitched voice usually saying, "hi beautiful!" She loves when they match clothes and I hope she loves that forever and ever.