Every year on your birthdays, I mark your and your brothers' heights on this one post in the attic. It's always fun to see how much you each have grown in one year and to compare all of your heights at different ages. When I marked your height today, we could see that you had grown four inches since your last birthday and that you at 6 years old are a smidge taller than GuhGaw was when he was 7! You are probably going to be taller than your big brother in a few years!
Happy 6th birthday, Lilabear! You now need two hands of fingers to show how old you are! This was an eventful year for you: your kindergarten graduation, your first overseas trip, joining the G&T class at a new school. Some parents are nervous about enrolling their kids in the G&T program because the work load is heavier and the pace is accelerated. Even over the summer, your brother didn't have any summer assignments but you had to read the biography of Pablo Picasso and Mary Poppins and complete a report on the latter, which is actually a fifth-grade-level book. Once school began, you already had homework on the first day and you have had quite a bit of homework every night. You have a spelling test every Friday and you don't even get a break on weekends because you have a book report due every Monday. It's a lot for a first grader, especially one like you who is the youngest in the class. But you have impressed me time and time again with your focus and determination. I know you would rather spend your afternoons playing but you are so responsible that you always do all of your homework because you know that is what you are supposed to do. And you don't phone it in, either. If your teacher asks you for "two or three examples" from your reading, you always find three. If the directions say, "Use words, numbers or pictures to explain," you use all three to illustrate the math problem even when I try to save time and tell you to only use one method. You read for more than the requested 20 minutes. You do the optional review sheets. You take pride in doing good work and that attitude will take you so far in life.
I am so proud of how well you are doing in the G&T class. You can handle the work load, you understand the material, you read so beautifully and your handwriting has improved immensely (it is so neat and pretty now, whereas it somewhat resembled a serial killer's at the beginning of the semester). I am also so proud of the person you are. You are so kind, thoughtful and caring. One night, you ran up to DiDi to give him a hug but you were holding a full water bottle so when you threw your arm around DiDi, you whacked him in the face with the water bottle. He started crying and then you started crying. While I was comforting DiDi, I asked you why you were crying and you said it was because you hurt DiDi. It was obviously an accident but his pain was your pain, too, and it was sweet to see how sensitive and empathetic you are.
Now that you are a little older, you have traded in your picture books for, well, more picture books--you love graphic novels, especially the Babysitters Club ones and those by Raina Telgemeier. You also like Disney Channel shows featuring older kids, such as "Bunk'd," but still watch cartoons like Fancy Nancy and Bubble Guppies. You still love princesses and pink and all things sparkly, so it's no surprise that this year, you developed an obsession for two main things:
1) unicorns
2) flippy sequins
You get so excited when you see something with unicorns or something with flippy sequins or *gasp* a unicorn made of flippy sequins (your friend recently gave you a flippy sequin unicorn key chain and your reaction was epic). Your friends (and, well, most little girls all over the world) share your love of unicorns and when we went out for your birthday a couple weeks ago, you all donned unicorn apparel and accessories and chose to paint unicorns at the art studio.
For your actual birthday today, Daddy and I focused on another one of your loves: sugar! We took the subway to Manhattan, where we let you fill up a bag of treats at Dylan's Candy Bar before having lunch and indulging in the famous Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity. Our waiter at Serendipity was great and even asked everyone in the dining room to sing "Happy Birthday" to you when the sundae came out. And you and your brothers guzzled the dessert down to fast, Daddy and I didn't even get any!
After lunch, we went to Grand Central Terminal to check out the holiday train show, so it was a long day but throughout the day, you kept stopping to hug me and say thank you, so I know you were enjoying yourself. I am so happy you had a great birthday. I love you so much, baby girl!
Love,
Mom
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