FIVE

Lily,

You are five now! FIVE! You’ve been looking forward to this birthday for the past several months and now that you’re finally five you’ve already started pining for six. Slow down, girl! I had to remind you that five is going to be awesome!

In the few days that you’ve been five you’ve already shown signs of being so much bigger than I expect. At the grocery store this weekend you proudly pushed your little cart around and helped me get the groceries. You said you had something to tell me later…or maybe you could tell me now as a secret. When I leaned down you confided that sometimes you like being treated like a grown up! It is fun sometimes, huh? You also impressed me by standing up for yourself at the splash pad when a bigger girl tried to take the sprayer you were playing with. SO proud of you for that and it makes me worry less about how you’ll stand up for yourself when you start school in a few weeks.

Speaking of kindergarten…Just a few more weeks until we start the adventure that is school! I’ve been trying not to talk about it too much because I think that clues you in that it’s kind of a Big Deal which can cause some anxiety. You seem to operate better when we don’t make things a Big Deal. A couple of weeks ago you made fast friends with a distant cousin that is your age. That also made me feel better about how well you’ll do with making new friends at school!

You’ve decided that you don’t want to do dance again this fall but have opted for gymnastics. I think you’ll really enjoy it. I think I’ll be a nervous wreck watching you learn to do flips.

We’re still struggling from time to time with getting you to pick up the pace a little bit. Meal time often stretches out upwards of 40 minutes. I’m thinking that the set time on school lunch will help with that little issue. You do seem to get sidetracked by watching yourself in the mirror instead of brushing your teeth and we’re not yet sure how to deal with this!

We’re also working on the issue of respect for grown-ups. You can get a little sassy at times so we’ve been having talks about respect and the right way to talk to people. Which, for the record, does not include sticking out your tongue, poking your nose in the air or calling us silly names. I don’t think this is something you will do to your teachers at school but we’re working on getting you to curb this with us too. All part of growing up!

So far, five has been awesome! You continue to crack us up with your sense of humor and I’m often moved by how sweet you are with your little brother. You guys do so well together and I hope that your relationship only continues to get stronger. I’m really excited to see what else FIVE has to bring!!

Love,

Mom