My sweet girl,
How is it possible that you are 6 and a half? Your vivacious love for birthdays (and half birthdays) knows no bounds. You make us celebrate. You remind us of the small things and the places to find joy. You are just so excited about everything. And we love you for it. You are sunshine and light and you are sparkles and rainbows.
You are also sass and temperament and I worry almost every day how we will survive the tween years.
Oh, how you make us laugh. Absolutely nothing gets by you and you make connections and find themes like a tiny little private investigator. It blows us away. You don't always try your best; you take the easy way out sometimes (ahem); and you can be so infuriatingly perfectionistic that it's like holding a mirror to my brain. It makes me wonder if others can see what we see. Sometimes you just act like a wild child and other times you are so quiet; both of these seem like covers for the real you. Our first parent-teacher conference will be this week and I'm curious to hear if your new first grade (!!) teacher can see you. The things I imagine we will hear are that you love to read and you are full of life. I hope that she will also say that you are kind. She likely will say some of the things that I just mentioned, especially that you like to gloss over things you don't know and that you sometimes avoid a challenge.
School remains tough for me but seems fine for you. You like your teacher and love to learn. I continue to "turn the mind" that social skills are more important than academics at this age and that I should not focus on test scores and reading levels (which are fine and not even worrisome). You are doing a great job reading and your inventive spelling sure is inventive. Rather than really learning phonics, it seems like you instead just memorize words and make guesses on things that look like those words. This means you have a good vocabulary of words that should be challenging but it also doesn't follow the pattern I was expecting. But again, I am trying not to let academic achievement striving get in my way of your way. You were thrilled to be placed in the same class as a favorite friend, E. Your teacher was smart to keep the two of you separated during class time. I like to think that you are nice to as many kids as possible. I sure hope that is true. You have started coming home somewhat hyper focused on stories about one little girl in your class who you mention as not being very nice to you or to others. Handling that in the "right" (ha, I know...) way has been a challenge. We read a lot of books that focus on kindness and I hope you will always stand up for others and for what is right and just.
The last six months have continued to be somewhat emotional but you do seem to have a stronger sense of self. You no longer seem concerned that you are among the smallest in your cohort. You like what you like without too much worry about what others will think. You are funny and you laugh at your own jokes. You're still sensitive and egocentric but that seems developmentally normal. You love to draw and color, to build legos, and to create stories both on paper and with little figurines and dolls.
You completed ninja classes again this summer and now are back in tumbling, tap, and ballet. None of these are things that you love but you're happy to be involved in activities. Again, you would love running club but I cannot make the day work in our schedule. This summer we also went to Utah and we are leaving for fall break in Michigan later this week. Your asthma has been fairly well controlled and we continue to love your doctors.
The biggest excitement, of course, has been that you lost TWO teeth since your last letter.
Evenings with you remain the most wonderful part of the day, as you unload stories, dreams, fears, and favorites.
Thinking about you turning 7 is another stab to my heart. I am so glad that at 6.5 you are still small enough to carry and that you remain so full of love, cuddles, and kisses. I continue to hold on to that as long as I can.
