4 1/2---Because some day I'll forget....

*Beatrice loves to pretend she's a puppy.  She crawls around on the floor and has the sweetest ever little bark.  Her canine name is "Chocolate Chip."  She responds to questions with yes (2 barks) and no (1 bark).

*If she thinks she's about to be reprimanded, forgets what she has to say, or can't think of a word, she says "I love you" instead.

*In good Vietnamese fashion, she's changed the order of her name.  If asked, she states "I'm Beatrice Foronda Minh Hanh, but you can just call me Beatrice or Bebe."

*She's over her North Korea phase and talks more about India now.

*She's been dry through the night for a couple of months.

*She's starting to read piano music on the staff.

*B. uses the word "amazing" to describe all things wonderful, except she pronounces it "mazin'...." And her favorite negative word is "horrible."

*She would eat bread and/or breadlike foods at and for every meal if we let her. (she asks for "two toast-iz at breakfast)

*She often refers to me as "Madame."

*At bedtime, we recently offered "doing loving kindness" as an alternative to traditional Catholic prayers. This is a meditation-like "script" we guide her through, during which she wishes everyone in her life- and eventually the world-peace, happiness, and health.  She loves it, chooses it almost every night, and it almost always puts her fast asleep immediately.

*She says she wants my job when she grows up and when I "tire."  She told me I should "just leave the directions on the desk" in my office so she knows what to do.

*She's in a major Daddy phase the past few weeks.

*She can work Daddy's iPad like nobody's business (hence the Daddy phase).

*Bea loves the new PBS show Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, a modern-day Mister Rogers.

*She asks for a "sleepover" in our room whenever there's no school the next day.  She usually convinces us.

*She weighs about 31 lbs. fully dressed, but somehow that feels significantly heavier  than 29 lbs., so her days of being carried are fewer and fewer.

*She's asking often to get some of her own money out of the bank to go buy things at the store.  I think an allowance is in her future.

*She loves to rhyme spontaneously, and does so very well (except sometimes she's swearing, but has no idea she's doing so!)

*She uses the button-pushing phrases "That's no fair!"  and "Blah, blah, blah....".  Oh wait, I don't mind forgetting that!

Meanwhile, here she is today helping bag sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving baskets at the local food pantry.  It is very important to us that Beatrice do community service, and Anthony decided this was the year to start.  She did a terrific job and hopefully this is the first of many, many hours of doing for others in her lifetime..