Happy birthday, my darling girl.

It seems impossible. My teeny, tiny 6 pound infant is overflowing with personality and feelings and laughter and jokes and imagination. You are shy and feisty and silly and sweet. You are so excited to be five years old and even more excited that you get to go to kindergarten next year—mostly because you’ll get your own Chromebook at school, but also because there are things that your brother gets to do, like chess club, that you want to do too and you can’t until you’re beyond preschool.

Speaking of preschool, you are half a year in and it is going so much better than the previous year. We moved you from private preschool to public preschool this year with the main goal of making the transition to kindergarten easier. I can say with 100% certainty that it was the right decision. You are still quiet and shy—this is just part of your personality—but you are no longer sad about school or crying in the mornings about going. It may be the better routine (daily now), the location (being in the same building as Henry, even though you don’t see him during your school day), or just that you’re a year older and a year more familiar with playing with other kids (and a year more removed from pandemic precautionary isolation), but there is almost nothing better than seeing you leave in the mornings happy and excited for the day ahead. The only thing that beats it is picking you up and seeing you barrel towards me like a bull with a huge smile on your face, yelling “Mamaaaaa!!!,” slamming into my arms and hugging tightly into my chest.

You continue to prefer your semi-vegetarian diet, but you do like some chicken nuggets (Chick-Fil-A’s and Culver’s, which you call “Clover’s” and I’ll never correct), hotdogs, and fish sticks. Your love of PB&J remains strong as well as “chippies and yogurt” which is just vanilla Greek yogurt with mini chocolate chips in it. You’re pretty adventurous with fruit and vegetables though so I’ve learned to relax. Funny how that happens over time.

You love having books read to you—both picture books and chapter books (we just started Harry Potter as a family!)—and drawing, painting, coloring, etc. If you’re ever bored, a near-guaranteed hit is pulling out the art bin and letting you have a go at it. We got you a dollhouse for Christmas that fits your Calico Critters (and that collection is growing even more today!) and you have been playing and playing with that. It’s so interesting hearing how you act out the different family members, particularly (to me) how you act out the mom. You also love playing with your Barbies and they regularly make an appearance all over your bedroom floor.

Recently, Mario Kart racing has become an obsession of you and Henry and I am honestly highly impressed with how good you are at it. This isn’t necessarily saying much, haha, but you’re better than I am and, on occasion, you’re starting to beat Henry too. Daddy better watch out. His kids are coming for him.

Some of my favorite quotes over the past year are these…

Happy birthday, Queen. I have loved being part of all your four year moments and I’m so very excited to see you grow even more this next year. I love you more than you’ll ever know.

Love,

Mama