"You look so old lately, Mia", I will say to you. To which you always respond, "that is because my legs are so long". :) Although your stats are still impressive (81st percentile for both weight-43 lbs and height- 43 inches), one day you will realize that getting older is not all about height but about your growing need for privacy, how you don't want to be kissed anymore, the way your lego-building skills are evolving, the way you ask what all my "big words" mean, the way you talk more and more about what you want to be when you grow up , how you plan out what you want to do for the day in such intricate detail.
You have always said you want to be a mommy but when I insist that moms can also have other jobs this other job has evolved from "baby doctor" to "scientist", which was replaced with "drummer" and most recently a "writer". Recently, you even came up with the idea to write your own book. I thought it would be like the song you wrote, which was a bunch of letters on paper I needed you to decipher but this was different. Daddy helped you staple a bunch of construction paper together in a book format and every page had words sounded out that (although spelled phonetically) I could read and the title, which daddy says you came up with all on your own was "Nature's Daughter". Though your morbid nature shined through in the last page where the girl sniffed a rose and got poked in the eye by a thorn. On that note, you love for me to tell you scary stories and to pretend to hide from bad guys. You still continue to LOVE books and we let you read yourself to sleep if you aren't tired. I am amazed that you have NEVER forgotten to turn off your light when you're done reading. You are starting to read and I must admit I was skeptical at first and thought you were just repeating books you had memorized. But when I re-wrote a random line from the book on a plain piece of paper you were slower but still able to read it. Your handwriting is lovely and I cherish your sounded out spelling "
""DE OT LBE LOV MIA" (Dear Aunt Libby Love Mia)
Recently I treated you to a couple of shopping trips in preparation for Pre-K at the big girl school. This is quite a special thing for you because most of our clothes have been hand-me-down until this point and so you were able to, for the first time, pick out what YOU wanted to wear. Not that I ever doubted but you are such a girly girl because you looked at me at one point with a glow in your face and said, "Mom, I just LOVE shopping". It was so cute! You also said this exact same thing but about nail polish when I recently gave you a rare mani/pedi treatment.
a picture you took of me, the manicurist
you lining up all of the bottles we used
"I just LOVE nail polish"
closeup
In addition to your girlish ways you are getting very skilled on your bike. You can now start, stop, turn and even honk your horn quickly while biking all on your own! I promise to get you a bike of your choosing next summer (right now you have been learning on your cousin's rusty blue/silver bike but you are such a good sport and have never complained about it). You are even getting the hang of pumping your legs on your own in a swing, though you much prefer to be pushed.
Mia, my sweet girl, I love your morning hugs and how you snuggle in so tight for a book. I love how you are such a great big sister and give your brother 10x the number of good night hugs/kisses I get, how you read to him and play with just the right amount of gentle spunk and how you encourage his attempts to do something new. I am so proud of how smart you are, how eager and ambitious you are, how easy you are (given the right ratio of food and sleep), how observant you are and how much love you have to give. I am enjoying watching you blossom into a lovely young lady.
Love,
Mom
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