Oh my sweet Kenna-girl, how is it that you are already a "whole hand full?" 5. Wow. 5. You are turning into a big girl right before our eyes. You've grown so much and learned so much in the past year, yet you are still our same sweet, polite, chatty, beautiful baby girl. We love you so much!
I feel like you've grown up so much in this past year. Maybe it is the big sister thing, maybe it's the school thing or maybe you just really have grown up so much. Whenever I tell you that you need to stop growing up, you tell me that you will always be my baby girl. Don't worry, I will remind you of that LOTS when you are a teenager.
You are finishing up 4k next week. You love school. Your teacher is Mrs. Schulz. I'm convinced she's a saint. I've volunteered in your class several times this year and each time, I needed a nap when I was done at 11:15am. You kiddos are all so full of energy. She does a great job with her class, though and she sure has taught you a lot this year.
You started the year able to write your letters and numbers - mostly just caps and now you are writing your name in title case (finally-you really didn't want to do this!) and you are starting to write out simple words. Just yesterday you wrote me a song while I was at work. Oma said you kept asking her how to spell certain words while you did it, but it turned out great. We started working on some sight words at home and you are doing great with them. We got some Sophia books from the library and you were excited you could read some of them.
Your favorite part about school is probably playing with your friends. You love center time when you get to choose your activity and you love to play with Darby, Tiffany and Lilly. Though I must admit, you have a love/hate relationship with Darby and I've gotten more than one call home/note about this. I've decided the two of you are frenemies - best of friends and worst enemies all at the same time. I think your personalities are a little too similar and this world can only handle one of you;)
Your least favorite part of school is Y-Care, or so you say. You always dread going on Monday's and Thursdays and are already counting down the days you have left. You always want me to pick you up early but whenever I come to get you, no matter what time it is, you are always having so much fun.
You are doing swim lessons right now and I'm impressed at how far you've come. You used to really get scared in the water, but you are really getting pretty brave and have really developed some confidence, which is awesome to see. You still aren't a very good swimmer, but you at least feel better about being in the water.
This summer we have you signed up for T Ball again, with Daddy and Mr. Phil coaching. This year Maddie and Olivia will be on your team so I'm sure you girls will have a lot of fun.
You are getting more and more active outside and always want to ride a "vehicle" to the bus stop. You love riding your scooter, bike and your "fall-e bike" (your balance bike) and are getting really quite good at it. The first time you rode it you were so awkward and wanted to give up. I kept pushing you and now you love it.
You love playing with the neighbor kids and we are so thankful to have such an awesome neighborhood.
We hang out regularly with the Kochs and Cadas and we all get along so well. We took a trip to the Dells last weekend with the Kochs and you had a blast. You were even so brave to go on the water slides and you loved them!
For the most part, you and Alex really love each other. You will use him to manipulate what you want from time to time......"Mom, Alex is so crabby, I think he wants to watch Paw Patrol." You also get very angry when he ruins the things you are playing with or takes one of your toys, but for the most part you guys get along great. He calls you "sissy" and it was one of the first clear words he said. He has started calling you "kenna" too and even gets out a "makenna" from time to time. You two have such a sweet bond and I'm so thankful you get to be a big sister.
You are a bit of a tattle tale, which I'm sure is normal for this age. You can be pretty sensitive, too, usually when you are in trouble or when someone hurts your feelings. Last week you were playing with the big kids in the neighborhood and they weren't being very nice to you so you came home just sobbing. We had a good talk about it and I reminded you that it doesn't feel good to be picked on so you should make sure you are nice to your friends and then painted toenails and that seemed to make you feel better.
You have a very guilty conscience. When you are put under pressure, you tweet like a bird. As your mom, I love that about you....ha!
You still love playing with your little figurines. You could play in with them in your doll house for hours. You have such an imagination and do great at playing by yourself. The number one thing on your birthday list this year was Shopkins. They may be the stupidest toy I have ever seen - they are tiny little grocery store food, cart, etc. that you play with. Someone from Y Care has them and every since you saw them you have been asking about them. Someone finally got you some (not sure who yet, they came in the mail from Amazon yesterday) and you have been playing with them non stop. You just kept saying - " I can't believe I have shopkins!!"
You also love to color and draw pictures. Your latest craze is rainbows. You never stay in the lines when you color. We asked your teacher if you should be by this age and her response was that this really isn't your personality to color in the lines. I suppose it isn't - ha!
You still hold my hand in parking lots or when we are walking somewhere and I'm hoping you still do that forever.....
You are still not very interested in your "story". You know that you were once frozen and that there were nice people in Texas that shared you with us, but I'm pretty sure you think that's how all babies come to be. In fact, a few months ago you told me that there couldn't be any more babies since we were all out of frozen babies and you thought that meant than noone in the whole world could have any more babies. I had to tell you that not all babies come from Texas;) We read through the life book that I put together for you from time to time but you aren't overly interested in it yet, which is totally fine. I'm sure at some point the questions will start rolling in...
You are obsessed with knowing what city you are in. Whenever we drive somewhere, you constantly ask what city we are in.
You repeat "do you know what?" over and over and over and over when you talk. For awhile I started to try to break you of it by balking like a chicken every time you said it, but that didn't seem to phase you.
You still love to watch TV. Some of your favorite shows include Paw Patrol, My Little Pony, Veggie Tales, Little Charmers and Sophia the First. You love watching TinkerBell movies, too!
You are still looking forward to being a mom when you grow up, though instead of the 5 kids you thought you wanted last year when you turned 4 has been reduced to just 1. I'm pretty sure that is because you figured out that the doctors needed to cut my belly open to get Alex out. You are very concerned about this party of it all.......
You are still a very polite and thankful girl. You are quick to say thank you and will often say it over and over and over again when someone gives you something.
Happy Birthday, Makenna Lee! Mama loves you!!
