Addy: 5 Years Old!

Dear Addy,

Holy cow, how are you FIVE already???  You are getting so big, and watching you grow and develop is amazingly awesome to watch.  Each new stage is fun and exciting.... and next year you will finally be fulfilling your lifelong dream of taking the "big yellow bus" to school because you will be going to kindergarten!  Again, not sure how that is possible.

This year has been filled with fun, adventure... and of course some drama mixed in there.  It's funny that when I read the letters that I wrote to you as a baby, we called your personality way back then.  We knew you were sharp as a tack and that nothing gets by you.  We knew you didn't like to be alone and that you prefer to be entertained at all times.  We also predicted we'd be in for some epic tantrums... which has unfortunately also come true.  You have a tough time controlling your emotions, and that is still a work in progress.

But during your fifth year you began to learn to control your emotions, so year five was not nearly as crazy as year four.  I would say year four (when you were three years old) was our toughest with you so far.  It was still hard to rationalize with you, and the tantrums were wild and frequent.  Now you do still have tantrums that are still sometimes pretty epic, but they are much less frequent, thank goodness!

You are a perfectionist, classic personality trait of an oldest child.  You want to be born knowing how to do everything, and when you don't know how to do something you get very frustrated.  It is admittedly tough for Daddy and I to teach you things, but once you get it, you get it quickly.  Like riding a bike.  There were many meltdowns along the way, but by age 3.5 you were riding a two-wheeler!

You catch on to things very quickly.  And you are very athletic!  So many people have commented on it with you from an early age.  I can't wait to see what sports you'll get involved with when you get older.  Right now you play soccer, swim, and do gymnastics.  We tried dance last year, but that wasn't for you.  Too boring.  Gymnastics you LOVE, so we now have you taking lessons at the Central PA Academy of Gymnastics.  You play soccer with Soccer Shots and you are good at that too.  Daddy and I would love for you to stick with soccer.  Such a great sport.  And swimming.  You take lessons at the Y, and last summer you really started swimming on your own!  With a life vest you can go for hours, but you take your vest off here and there and you can swim for short distances without it.  You jump in with no fear and you now will wear your goggles and put your entire head under the water.  I'm so excited to watch you really learn how to swim, which I have a feeling is coming soon!

In school you are in the morning 4's class at St. James and you love it!  Ali Slack is your best friend, and I hope you two stay friends for a long time because she is one of the sweetest, kindest kids that I've ever met.  During your school conference Mrs. Michalyszn told me that you are a joy to have in class.  She said that you always follow the rules and that you are kind to everyone and include everyone, which I love to hear.  You are a born leader, and I want you set a great example and be the kind of leader that kids want to follow.  You will set your own path, of that I am sure, and I want to make sure you set a good one;)

You are ready for kindergarten, and I have no doubt that you'll soar.  You know your numbers up to 29, all of your colors, all of the upper case letters, and most lower case letters.  Those are apparently the things they test for kindergarten readiness.  And with coloring, you have come such a long way this year.  From scribbling all over the page in order to "get it done" as you said, to now really focusing on staying in the lines and choosing different colors for different sections.  I'm so proud of the progress you've made!

At your five year well checkup you were such a brave girl and you handled your vaccines like a champ!  You needed three of them and you didn't even cry!  I was so proud of you!  Here are your stats from your checkup:

Weight: 43.5lbs (72nd percentile)
Height: 43.75 inches (73rd percentile)
BMI: 15.98 kg/m2 (71st percentile)
BP: 90/56
HR: 92

You are so very smart and you continue to amaze me with your sense of direction.  You're just like Daddy, and when you've been somewhere once, you know how to get back.  Very unlike your mama, who has to go somewhere about 25 times before remembering how to get there.

You are a great big sister and you love to help both Emma and Izzy with whatever they need.  You are so much more independent now, and you can get yourself dressed, teeth brushed, and hair brushed with almost no assistance.  And then you help Emma get ready, which is such a huge help to me in the morning.  Mornings are our craziest times, and getting you three fed and ready, plus myself.... it is always chaotic.  Always.  And we don't have to be at preschool until 9:30!  I cannot imagine what it will be like when you have to be out the door at 7AM or whatever it is in regular school.  Hopefully by that time you'll be completely independent ;)

Another personality trait of yours is that you like things to go exactly as planned, and you have a hard time adapting when they don't.  We always joke and say Emma is a go-with-the-flow kind of girl, and you are the opposite of go-with-the-flow.  That is where a lot of your meltdowns stem from: a plan that got somehow derailed.  We are trying to teach you to "roll with it", ha ha!  You also like to know exactly what is happening when.  "What are we doing after nap?  What are we doing tomorrow?  What about the next day?" ... and it goes on and on.  You are the type of child that needs a five minute warning before we leave somewhere.  We can't just spring it on you that it's time to go.

In the previous paragraph I referenced nap time.  Yup, you still nap.  You don't always fall asleep, but I'd say that at least 90% of the time you do, so I'll take it.  And we'll see if you are morning or afternoon kindergarten next year.  If you are morning I'm hoping to keep rolling with nap time.  If you are afternoon... Lord help your teachers.  Or more accurately, Lord help us once you get home from school.  On days that you've missed a nap your day almost always ends with uncontrollable tears.  We can tell just by looking at you that you are sooooo tired.  It's because you are so active.  I mean constantly.  Not even just physically, but mentally too.  You are never quiet, always asking questions and engaging.  We joke that you will be a lawyer someday because you argue EVERYTHING that we say.  That may be a slight exaggeration, but not much.  I have no doubt that you are exhausted by the end of the day.  I know I am ;)

How about a few of your favorite things from your fifth year:

-Comfort Items: Baby and Blankie
-Food: Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
-Friend: Alison Slack





-TV Show: PJ Masks
-Movie: Frozen
-Song: Let it Go
-Game: Family (pretending that we are a family... which we are, so I'm not sure how this is so fascinating to you)
-Outfit: Your "Leopard is My Favorite Color" sweatshirt and leopard print leggings
-Toy: The Paw Patrol action figures
-Color: Pink
-Boyfriend (ha ha!): Jack Splawn



And here is your fifth year in photos:

February:

Before Daddy took you skiing.  Oh boy, that was an epic fail ;)


Ah, the purchase of our minivan and the DVD player that went with it...heaven!  And there you are, always focused, always so intent :)


Soccer Shots!


March:



Ali gifted us her old vanity set, and you love having it in your closet just like Aunt Tina!

Nothing like Rita's on a freezing cold first day of Spring!




April:








And so begins the selfie craze....



May:










Last Day of 3 Year Old preschool class

I miss those curls so much!  I'm so sad that when we cut your hair the curls disappeared :(


June:

July:




Your latest dinner to date...9pm at the beach and you were still rocking!






August:

September:



First Day of 4 Year Old preschool class!


Your hair cut... very cute, but I miss those curls!




October:









November:



December:
















January:

And just like that.... you are FIVE!!!

Happy happy birthday Addy Marie!








My darling firstborn, life with you is never dull, never quiet, never boring.  You are full of energy and endless wonder.  Your personality is huge and everyone wants to be your friend.  You love hard and you fight hard.  You are a spitfire one minute and a sweetheart the next.  With you we are always on our toes.  I am so incredibly proud of the bright, fun, kindhearted girl that you are.  You are amazing and so very loved... don't ever forget it!  I love you to the moon Ad!  Happy 5th birthday!!!!!!












Love,

Mommy

Isabelle: 7 Months!

Dear Bellsey,

You are so much fun these days and I love, love, love that gummy grin!  No teeth yet, and we don't see any on the horizon, but that doesn't mean that you aren't shoving anything and everything that you can get your hands on in your mouth.  You especially love my hair.  Yup, when you are tired and I hold you, you grab my hair, shove it in your mouth and then immediately begin sucking your thumb.  My hair is like your comfort.  I'm trying to steer you toward something else like a blankie or a toy, because now my hair is always sticky from being in your mouth, and it hurts when you are constantly pulling on it.  But boy do you get mad when my hair is in a ponytail and you can't get it!

And speaking of putting things in your mouth, you have started eating solids, and you take them like a champ!  I haven't made baby food like I did for your sisters (sorry, things like this happen with a third child), and we have been giving you a lot more of what we are eating, just mashed up.  My thought process is that number one: I spent all of that time making baby food for your sisters and they are still the pickiest eaters ever; and number two: I just do not have the time for making baby purees these days.  So you get what we get, and you love it!  We have yet to find a food that you won't eat.

We started you out with rice cereal mixed with breast milk and you quickly progressed onto many other foods!

You get a mashed banana in the mornings, a container of stage one baby food at lunch, and bits of what we are eating at dinner.  You've come so far in the past month!  At the beginning of the month you would only eat about 1/3 of a container of food at a time, and now you eat a whole one and sometimes it looks like you want more!

Aunt Tina, this one's for you, ha ha!  She hates pictures of babies with food all over their faces :)

You are still essentially immobile, and you seem pretty content to be that way.  You don't sit up yet, but I have a feeling that is coming soon.  You will roll from your belly to your back because you hate to be on your belly, but then you remain planted on your back.  I call it your "dead bug" move.  You just lay on your back and flail around.  We can still put you in the pink bouncy seat with no fear of you trying to get out.  I'll tell you, that $5 seat that I bought when I was pregnant with Addy has been worth it's weight in gold.  One of these days soon enough we'll have to put it away for good, but I'll take these days where you stay where I put you for as long as I can!

Now, you may be a bit "behind" on the physical milestones, but you are a talker already.  All three of my girls were the same.  Late on the rolling and moving, early on the verbal.  You say "Da-da", "Ma-ma", "Na-na" and "Ba-ba".  And you are still a growler and a moaner.  Every morning I know you are awake because you start growling in your crib.  You are actually almost never quiet unless you are asleep.  You are either "talking", growling, moaning, whining, or crying....all day long.  And although you are worlds better than you were as a newborn, you are still not the most content baby on the planet.  You like to be entertained, and luckily your sisters are still happy to take on that job!

That hair!  Izzy, your hair is so long and it is really lightening up.  And now we have to do something with it every day or it's in your eyes.

Baby's first pigtails!

That length is insane to me!!

And here you are, Florida ready!  We took you on your first plane ride and first big trip this month!  That'll be a whole post in itself, but for now I'll just say, you were a total champ!

Sleep-wise you are getting better and better everyday.  You often go all night without eating, although you rarely "sleep through the night".  You almost always wake up between 4-5AM, and I decide whether or not to feed you based on how upset you get.  If you are just moaning a little bit then I let it go, but sometimes you full on wail, in which case I get up and nurse you.  And in Florida I fed you every morning around 4AM when you woke up because I didn't want you waking up the rest of the family with your moaning and groaning.  You usually take three naps a day and nurse 4-5 times a day (and sometimes once at night).  We're going to wean down on the nursing a little bit soon since you are eating more solids.  But you were even a champ with that at Disney, nursing in public on the fly.  That was a new experience for both of us and I think we both handled it very well :)

There's your seventh month in a nutshell!  Here are your 7 month photos, which were so fun to take because it's easy to make you smile, and you aren't trying to crawl away yet.  You did try to eat the 7 month sticker several times, but we managed ;)

Izzy, I love to hold and snuggle your little smooshy self.  I love that I am your biggest comfort.  I love that you smile when you see your sisters, even though you cry when you see me.  When you see me, you better be in my arms within 3 seconds or else!  Hence the tears ;)  I love hearing you say "Ma-ma".  I love that when you are crying, as soon as I pick you up you nuzzle into my chest and take a deep breath of relief.  I love to kiss your soft, smooth, squishy cheeks all day long.  You are my little munchkin and I absolutely adore you!  Happy 7 Month birthday!

Love,

Mommy