I have no one to blame but myself.

Last year, for the second year in a row, Jessica broke the plastic zipper on her winter coat. I went out and spent the extra money on a Lands End jacket which not only has a coil zipper which is much less likely to break, but also will repair/replace the jacket if the zipper breaks.

However, I went a bit too far in trying to save money. I bought a lime green jacket, thinking Xander can use it when he's older. Green--gender neutral, right? And it looks GREAT on her. She has gotten so many compliments on that jacket. Plus I got it last year in size 5/6, since size 4 was just a bit too small, thinking she could wear it for 2 winters, and then Xander can wear it for 2 winters.

The problem? In Jessica's girly-girl world, green is a "boy color." So is yellow. In fact, the only colors that are *not* "boy colors" are pink and purple. I think this stems, in part, from when she was 3 years old when pretty much her entire wardrobe (my choosing) was pink and purple. Anyway, I spent half of last winter begging her to wear the jacket. Now it's getting colder again and I'm already getting complaints in anticipation of wearing the green jacket.

I give up. I can't spend the next 2 winters explaining to her that green is not a boy color. So, I just went online, found an overstock deal from Lands End for a winter jacket in deep rose. Problem solved.

Plus I got few pink dresses while I was at it.

Isn't that obvious?

Some time ago, I noticed Jessica had grown a lot in a short period. I told her she was growing like a weed. She thought that was the funniest expression. Recently, we were talking about how much she's grown, and I prompted her "You're growing...."

"Like a seed!" she said. Well, you know, that works too.

Now when I prompt her, I say, "You're growing" and she says, "Like a seed and a weed." She likes to cover all her bases.

Another expression that seems obvious to a 4 year old is the opposite of inside-out. For some reason, I've always said, "Right-side out." I don't even know if anyone but me describes it like that. But Jessica's way of describing it is "Out-side out." I like that better than my way.

Suggestibility

Jessica is very suggestible. We were driving down to the beach last weekend and she was complaining she was hot. Or cold. I forget. She's like Goldilocks that way.

Now, our van has an option where the back seats can either be controlled by the people sitting there or by the person in the front row. The person in the front row gets to decide who does the controlling. So I told Jessica how to manipulate the controls to make it colder/warmer with more/less air. She fiddled with the controls until she decided she was comfortable, and was very satisfied.

I didn't tell her the controls were set so I was the one doing the controlling and whatever she was doing didn't affect the temperature.

Keen observations

Xander was sick for a couple of days. He was very crabby, lots of screaming and screeching. Now that he's better, he's much more of a joy to have around. I was saying how I was glad that the "other baby" was gone, and that Xander must have an evil twin. To which Jessica kept saying, "But Mom, it's the same baby." Then she offered to prove it by annoying him till he screeched again.

Modesty?

Jessica doesn't mind walking around naked. But there are been several times when she's been either in the house or in a semi-public place with her underwear showing. Then she says, "Mom, I'm so embarrassed. People can see my underwear."

Stall tactics

Jessica has become a champion staller. It doesn't matter what it is, she always has a reason not to do something when asked, or to ask for 2 more minutes. This happens every morning when trying to get her dressed, hair combed, teeth brushed. What she frequently says is "Wait a minute, wait a minute, I have something to tell you."

My inevitable reply is a deep sigh, and then, "What?"

This morning, her response was "Well, I don't like to do things I don't like to do."

Alert! Alert!

This is Jessica's new way of informing us something is going on that she thinks shouldn't be. Usually it pertains to Brother, who may, for example, be holding choking hazards, or there may be an insect of some type in the house. I have no idea where she picked it up, but it kind of makes me feel like I'm on Star Trek.