Dear Mackenzie,

You are a fun-loving, heartfelt, spectacular little girl who we are so blessed to have in our lives…most of the time. You might still scribble on the furniture from time to time, or repeat yourself 100 times just to make sure we heard you (making us truly insane), but you are also thoughtful, creative, oh so funny, a shrewd negotiator and a pure delight to be around. And I should know, since you and I are still spending the majority of our days together as “just us girls.” But hopefully, at some point very soon, we will fill out the 15-page form to get you registered for school and find a new preschool for you that will be just perfect for you.

I can hardly believe that you are going to be 4-years-old in just 3 short months. Well, actually I can believe it, because you are terribly mature and have hit a lot of milestones. But I just don’t know how the time has passed by so quickly. I can still remember feeling you rolling over in my belly and carrying you around for hours on end in the Baby Björn. On the other hand, I also don’t know how 2012 managed to sail by either — but with us spending the last 4 months involved in some way with our move to Berlin, I guess it’s no wonder that this year will be over before we turn around twice.

You are a complete chatterbox and will talk to just about anyone who will listen (and some who don’t listen either.) You like to tell them about all sorts of things you’ve seen or know — or about the things you are carrying around with you. And you gab so much that sometimes not even I know what you’re talking about after a few minutes. Surprisingly enough, you also talk to many people in German (which you’re still perfecting) even though you rarely get a chance to speak it at home. Apparently this is payback for both your daddy and I talking up a storm to anyone who would listen as kids also.

You’re definitely seeming to like the new apartment and surroundings a lot more lately. And you often pay attention well enough that you know where’we going. Of course with a nearly unlimited number of things to see and do around here, many of which are actually quite kid-friendly.

Your imagination and ability to remember and relive certain things is just fantastic. You will often act out things you’ve seen on TV or that we’d done, using your Barbies, stuffed animals and other random things to act out how events played out in real life. It’s really cute to listen to you as you play by yourself. But you definitely like to have things your way most days — and after 5pm, it gets rather iffy as to whether or not you’ll play nicely with us. Hopefully sometime soon, you’ll let us go to the Zoo again without pitching a fit since the day we bought our yearly tickets, you decided to had to do something else entirely different! In a way, it’s a bit like you now wanting to push your babies (which could be anyone from a small pig to a dog to perhaps an actual doll) around in the stroller. It’s something new you started and you’re in fairly good control of the stroller even though you still can’t see over the handle. But you’d most like to saunter along when we actually have places to be. So we’re trying to find a happy mix that you, the tough negotiator, and I, the busy mommy, can work with.

Some days, you become an accessorizing queen. You want to put on a bunch of your necklaces and bracelets (which thankfully manage to stay on all day and not get lost which is huge progress over a few months ago). And although purple is still definitely very high up on your list of favorite colors, I sometimes think that you’d be happy with a package of those paper wristbands for events instead of anything else. You’re also managing to give all the beads I collected at Fantasy Fest so many years ago a new worthwhile purpose!

We were lucky enough to be able to pop over to the Lanternfest this year in our old town in Hessen and you had a blast. We were SO thankful that you were brave enough to ride the carousel by yourself since last year both mommy and daddy nearly got sick from cruising around in circles on that thing. And although you thought that the bumper cars looked like a blast, when your daddy finally agreed to take you on them, you were not amused.

You were so worn out during Laternfest while we were walking the dog (and we didn’t have a stroller with us) that you asked me to carry you. After carrying you for a while, I said, “Ok, you’re going to have to walk on your own soon; my arms are about to fall off.”

You replied, “It’s ok, Momma. I’ll hold on to them for you.” Then you grabbed my upper arms to make sure they stayed put.

Cutest. Moment. Ever. 😉

You’ve always been pretty good with electronics like iPads and touch screen phones — but now you’re also starting to get a lot better with other things. You must be practicing on my trackball mouse at my desk when I’m not looking because you totally took over my computer last week and knew just what you were doing with it (despite it not being all that lefty friendly.) With any luck (and some prayers) you’ll be comfortable with and gentle on electronics instead of accidentally breaking them like I often end up doing.

And speaking of lefties, whenever your daddy is out late for work or traveling, you’ve now decided not to say good night to me either. If you can’t say good night to us both, it’s apparently not even worth it to say good night to one. I can thankfully still give you a kiss on the forehead or cheek, but the usual routine of dibi-dibi-da’s (eskimo nose kisses with a peck on the lips) and the group hugs are totally verboten.

You love to pretend that your stuffed animals are babies and care for them like a mommy or a doctor. I have no doubt that you’d make a great big sister, especially after seeing you play with the son of our friends for a few days in a row. You kept an eye on him constantly even though no one asked you to. And I’m pretty sure if he’d gotten some silly boy idea like trying to climb on the roof of the barn at 2.5-years-old, you would have found a way to stop him. But you’re just going to have to find a way to coddle kids younger than you at preschool or something because it’s highly unlikely that there will be any new Muehli’s coming through the door anytime soon.

Don’t ever stop being the thoughtful, loving, wonderful little girl that you are now!

My love,

Mommy