We’ve hit another milestone in our household. Our eldest daughter turned 4 a few days ago. For awhile I actually already thought she was 4, only cause of how articulate she is. But this past Monday it became official. And because she is now at an age where she really understands what birthdays are, we decided to let her call the shots for her birthday weekend. (But let’s be real, for the most part a 4-year-old calling the shots really means giving them choices to choose from).
What kind of requests does a toddler make when turning 4?
1. To eat her favorite Filipino sweet treat.
Our weekend started on Friday with our birthday girl making one simple request and that was to get “purple bread” a.k.a. ube pandesal. This first request was actually one she thought of all on her own. For those of you who don’t know what pandesal is, it is simply a Filipino bread roll, and ube is purple yam. So when my daughter asks for her “purple bread” she is looking for a bread roll filled with ube jam. We headed to our local Filipino bakery and got exactly what she was looking for.
2. To visit her favorite outdoor play area.
The next day we had plans in the evening to watch my mom’s body-building competition so we knew we had to have dinner right before the show. All day Zayanna had been asking to go to the park so we gave her two options for where she can play. This brought us to the new City Center @ Bishop Ranch. Zayanna loves this outdoor play area for it’s they have these giant lego sets out on their fake grass for kids to enjoy.
3. Spend a day in San Francisco.
If there’s one place I know our girl loves, it’s San Francisco. Every time we visit the city, her face lights up at literally everything around her. When she found out it was almost her birthday, she made one request. “Can we go to San Francisco and sleep in a hotel for one night?” Guys, she’s only four. Not sure where she got this idea from, but two things became obvious to me when she asked this question: 1) She must really love hotels, and 2) I was right that she LOVES San Francisco. She loves it enough to want to stay there overnight too. And again, she’s only 4, so we obviously didn’t honor her request.
Instead I gave her a few options: go to the science museum, go to the botanical garden, or go to the carousel + “pretty stairs”. While my husband and I really thought she was going to choose the garden, our little lady chose the last option so we headed to the carousel in Golden Gate Park + the Moraga Steps. It was her first time at the Koret Playground in Golden Gate Park, and I just loved how exciting the new play structure was for both of my daughters. The weather was a cool 65 degrees, the sun was shining, and our big girl was just happy all day long.
We ended the day with surprising her with a dinner with a few of her aunties and uncles. And coming home she knocked out instantly in the car. Definitely a great sign of a successful day in San Francisco.
4. Go to the pumpkin patch.
Like a true October baby, our big girl LOVES all things Fall. So I definitely wasn’t surprised when she chose to go to the pumpkin patch over Chuck E. Cheese. It was the first time our girls played together at the pumpkin patch. And it was our first time exploring in the corn maze. Something about immobile tractors and a pool of corn kernels that screams fun! A Fall season would be incomplete without a trip to the pumpkin patch so I’m definitely glad she wanted to go there for her birthday.
Safe to say our little lady is not a baby anymore. She is so fun, so smart, so caring, and SO brave. I tell my husband all the time that she is literally everything I wish I was as a child. She’s never afraid to say “hey friend, want to play with me?” and she’s always the first one to climb up to the top of the play structure. And don’t get me started on how much she loves her baby sister. The love in her heart warms my heart each and every day. There are definitely days where I can’t handle her attitude or sass, but in reality, who doesn’t have bad days and emotions they can’t control? She really is a little human. And she’s my amazing little human ❤
Happy 4th Birthday babe<3
Fun fact: she used to tell me only her dad was “babe”, but recently I’ve noticed she’ll call her dad or I “babe” too. I guess she’s finally accepted it 🙂
Zherr-Anne, the Fil-Am Mama 
I knew this pretty baba will grow as smart, loving and caring person. Great job in molding her!
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