On June 4, 2014 at 6:30pm, our sweet baby girl, Isla Milijana Petrovic, was born. Four years later, we have a hilarious, kind-hearted, cautious, imaginative little girl who loves to color, ride her bike, play with Play-doh, escape from “pirates” at the park, read her favorite books over-and-over again, FaceTime her favorite people, go to school, hang out with the friends, play with her little plastic characters, swim in the pool (and ocean – she talks about Florida all of the time!), spend time in Colorado, watch Paw Patrol, and most importantly: be the ‘real’ princess that she is!
Below I’m sharing some details on Isla at this fun age. It totally feels to us like she is 14, but that’s only until I’m around anyone older than four – ha. I wanted to share some updates on ‘Isla at 4,’ as I love reading back on these as time goes on and you begin to forget the details.
Isla is very emotional – she cares greatly about how others feel. If she thinks she has done something wrong or disappointed anyone, she immediately breaks down in tears (we’re working on this!). She is a great question asker, which shows her interest in others. She will ask my friends, “What is your mom’s name?”, “How old are you?”, “What is your favorite color?” etc. and is great about reciprocating questions asked to her. When Barbara Bush passed away a few months ago, she was very concerned, even though we hadn’t talked about her much before. She asked me how old she was, did she go to heaven, did she have any kids or grandkids, etc. And then she brought her up for weeks on end. When our elderly neighbor passed away as well earlier this year, Isla would tell me, “It’s okay because Ms. Jerry is in heaven now!” When I was putting her to sleep the other night, she said, “How old was Mother Mary when she went to heaven? And what color was her front door? Was it pink?” Ha. Can you tell we’re building a house right now?
Isla is extremely cautious. Especially when drinking from any cup in our house. She asks, “Is that mommy juice?” Which is hilarious but also makes me sound like I drink more than the one glass of prosecco I have once a week! She comes across as very shy when she first meets people, but after five minutes, that is gone, and she’s bugging them with questions and asking them to come see this, that or the other. Sasha always compares Isla to a cat – she comes across as timid, then warms up to you and will be rubbing on your leg for hours on end.
Isla loves sleepovers. She loves spending the night at all her grandparent’s, cousin’s and Auntie Karine’s houses. She really enjoys going to school, but is always so sweet when she sees us at pickup.
Isla is a better big sister than I could have ever, ever dreamed. She wants to play with Emi constantly. As soon as Emi stirs from a nap, Isla bolts across the house to be the first one in the room to greet her. She does everything in her power to always be making her laugh. Isla shares her toys (95% of the time), brings Emi her baby doll whenever she starts to get sleepy, asks for snacks on behalf of Emi (and herself, of course) and requests to be matching Emi almost every single day.
Isla is the girliest girl I’ve ever met. Ask her to put on shorts and a t-shirt and expect a rebellion! Except this morning for yoga camp, fortunately, she was excited to do that! She is growing like a weed (size 11 shoe, size 5 clothing), so I can’t complain about all of the dresses, as it’s easier to keep them in rotation with all of the growth spurts. She currently wants to wear princess costumes everyday, so when Esther of cuteheads made her this ‘everyday’ Sleeping Beauty dress, she FREAKED out because I (happily!) said she can wear it outside of the house.
Isla loves to eat Goldfish, hummus, cream cheese and gluten free crackers, salmon, blueberry yogurt, ham (yuck!), black bean burgers (yay!), all types of cheeses, apples, all berries, crepes, donuts, zucchini, pasta, macaroni and cheese, and cheesy quinoa. For breakfast, she eats the same Special K Berry and Protein Plus mix that she’s eaten for years.
Isla can count to twenty in English, Serbian and Spanish. She can write her name, spell her favorite color “P-I-N-K!,”and cut around the most detailed edges (loves practicing with scissors!). She really, really enjoyed going to school this past year and got into all of the different curriculum. She would come home on the first day and say, “Today we learned about B! That is what bees, bottles, babies, Baron and bubbles start with!” Her memory is better than mine, for sure. We will pull into a strip center we haven’t been to in six months, and she’ll say, “Did we meet Mimicita here to take the pictures with the balloons?” WHAT. I’m always floored by this!
We are so proud of the sweet person that she is today. She truly has a heart of gold, and I hope that she has the best Golden Birthday of all time! Thank you for all of the sweet birthday texts and calls already. xo
