4-year-old Rebekah!

Rebekah is 4-years-old today!! I was going through some of her baby pictures awhile ago, comparing her and Hannah. It seems like just yesterday that she was as small as Hannah is, and now she is such a big girl! Here are some pictures of Rebekah from birth to now...

2 Weeks

6 Months

12 Months

19 Months

Age 2

Age 2 1/2

Age 3

Age 4

This has been a year of constant change for our family, and for a girl who really doesn't like change much at all, Rebekah has handled it very well. It has matured her in many ways, and sometimes I have to remind myself that she is still just a little girl.We went through a stage where she cried every time we left her in a class at church AND every time we picked her up. She would get particularly upset when we picked her up. We finally realized that she was probably getting so upset because she enjoyed her class and didn't know for sure if she would ever be back to that particular class. That broke my heart for her, but at the same time I knew that it was something she was going to have to get used to because it is a part of her life that is not going to go away.
She has adjusted well overall though. Often, when we go to a new place Rebekah will ask, "Where are we going after this?" She loves people and makes friends easily, so she is able to thoroughly enjoy being wherever she is at the moment.
Shortly after turning 3, Rebekah hit a few "big girl" milestones. First of all she stopped sucking thumb, almost cold-turkey. We put up a sticker chart, and every naptime or bedtime when she didn't suck her thumb, she got a sticker. She only missed getting a sticker once, and then was done sucking her thumb forever. Who knew stickers were so important?! About the same time, Rebekah began dressing herself completely and brushing her own teeth. For those of you without kids or with much older kids, that might not seem so noteworthy, but it was for us. =)

Now, almost a year later, Rebekah gets herself ready in the morning and evening completely on her own, and is learning to take baths on her own....she just needs a little help washing her hair. She is quite proud to be becoming so independent!
One especially exciting thing happened in Rebekah's life just a few weeks after she turned three. It was October 31st, and she was supposed to be taking a nap before going to a Fall Festival that evening. My sister and I were in the living room talking when Rebekah appeared. I asked her why she was out of her bed and she said, "Mommy, I asked Jesus to be my Savior." I tried to be careful to take her seriously, but not make too much of it. After all, she was only 3 and I didn't want to give her "false hope" if it was just something she was flippantly talking about after hearing something at church. BUT ever since then Rebekah has talked about "asking Jesus to be her Savior" many times, and seems confident that she will be in heaven with Jesus after she dies. Praise the Lord for childlike faith!
Rebekah's profession of faith has given us more opportunity to talk with her about the things that God wants His children to do and be. As she has struggled with various sin issues (attitude, arguing, etc.), she has learned Bible verses that address those issues, and she is gradually learning to apply them. More recently she is beginning to pray beyond "Dear Jesus, thank you for everyone's food, amen." It is a joy to hear her pray simply but sincerely....and SO honestly! We sometimes hear her talking to God at various times throughout the day...asking Him to help her put her clothes away quickly or asking Him to help her go to sleep at bedtime. May her faith continue to grow!
On a different note, Rebekah has become a very good little helper. She has always loved to help with things, but she is finally getting to the point where she is really a help! She does lots of little chores around the house like setting the table, clearing the table, putting clothes away, making her bed, cleaning up toys, etc. More recently she is also learning to load the dishwasher and fold laundry. She will occasionally take the initiative to do little chores on her own (like folding our family's mountain of laundry). She eats up the praise we give her for being such a big girl and taking the initiative to do things like that.Rebekah is also a big help with her little brother and sister. Daniel is big enough now that they can play together sometimes, and they both enjoy that. Rebekah is big enough to help Daniel do things, find things, or reach things, and that makes Mommy's life easier too - especially during Hannah's feeding times! Sometimes she gets a little bossy, but I understand that (being a big sister myself). Parents generally expect their firstborns to be responsible and helpful without trying to be a parent. Sometimes that can be difficult!Rebekah helps out with Hannah too. She brings me things that I need for Hannah and entertains her when I am busy and Hannah is fussy. Rebekah loves holding Hannah, and is a very sweet big sister to her.As for school, we are letting Rebekah do her learning informally for now. We thought of starting a K-4 curriculum with her this year, but she is already learning pretty much everything that she would learn in K-4 just by the things that we do each day. She can say the alphabet and identify all of the uppercase letters. We're still working on lowercase letters. She knows most of the letter sounds, and can usually list a few words that begin with a given letter. She can almost count to 29, except that for some reason the number 15 always gets left out! Rebekah really loves learning, and has a memory that often amazes us. Sometimes she will talk about situations that happened months ago -things that we had forgotten about, but she will recount it in detail. Oh the things that capture the minds of little ones!
Rebekah is in a stage where she loves doing "tricks." Rebekah is all girl (as you have probably noticed if you've spent any time looking at her pictures!), but her tricks usually involve some sort of gymnastic-type stunt. It often seems that her tricks are a request for attention and approval. She eats up any praise we give her, and seems to be needing a little extra praise these days with the change in our family dynamics.
We love our sweet Rebekah Karunya, and are so thankful for the four years God has blessed us with her. Life would just not be the same without our little bundle of energy and exuberance!