5 Years Old

Your last night as a four year old. (I choke up everytime I take one of these pics.)

You woke up as a beautiful FIVE year old.

I know, I am shocked that you are already five too!

Oh Anna,

You are five and I wish I had the time to write down all the special things about you during this age.  I will try to hit some of the highlights.

        

What really stands out to me when I reflect on you is how much you love interacting with people.  You just love being with someone to talk to, sing to, ask questions to or tell stories to.  Even during your daily quiet time, you role play with stuffed animal and dolls talking almost the whole time.  Your still prefer to be whereever I am, following me around the house sometimes doing chores alongside me and talking to me the whole time.  I get teary thinking about not having my little buddy with me between 8 and 3 while you are at school.

On your birthday you requested that we have tea time.

Another thing that immediately comes to mind is how much you love learning.  You enjoyed your little preschool, but you really loved Museum School.  You soaked up every bit of information they taught you those 2 hours each week and retaught it to Haven and I.  You continue to be drawn to animal books and shows.  You tell me things like "I wish I were a female bird so I could watch the pretty male birds dance for me".  God's creation will continue give you a lifetime of learning little one!

Your ability to focus at your age sometimes takes me by surprise.  The other day you wanted to learn to play chess with Daddy and I think you guys played for 2 hours straight!  You have also gotten interested in Legos and will play with them for long stretches at a time.  You definitely like to follow rules and directions, so you follow each page of the Lego directions to a tee.  For your birthday, I took you to Target to pick out a new Lego set.  We started by looking on the aisle with all the pink and purple Princess and My Little Pony sets, but you didn't want any of those and picked a knight castle on the next aisle.

 

Thank you for making me sit down and play legos too!

You are so in love with your brother and sister!  You and Haven have your run-ins for sure and the claws can really come out, BUT you enjoy each others company more times than not.  You pretend play so well together and while most of the time you are coming up with the ideas, we have been working on asking Haven for suggestions on what to play.  You are doing a good job of tying to be intentional about thinking of others first.  She sometimes copies the things you say and do and you are so good about not getting annoyed with her.  You are also pretty good about including her when you are playing with a friend your age and she wants to tag along.  You still tell people "this is my baby sister".  You love Caleb just as much and are constantly going over to him and giving him big hugs or picking him up.  You can make him smile so easily and are helpful with entertaining him if I need time to finish something. 

 

You had what could be considered your first little crush. There was a boy named Benjamin in your preschool class and he was your favorite friend to play with. You talked about him everyday. The funny thing is, this year you played with the boys in your class more than the girls. I think it was because they would play Wildkratz with you. :) Once when I went to pick you up, you were waiting and holding Benjamin's hand. He has a summer birthday so he was the oldest, tallest boy in the class and you always tell me that you like to play with older boys and girls. Since we moved, he is your penpal and you have exchanged a few letters.

You and Benjamin at your school performance.

Perhaps the most special thing about your 5 year old self is your love for the Lord and how your mind is starting to wrap itself what that entails.  Since you love learning, you enjoy hearing stories from the Bible and listen to them every night as you go to sleep.  You are starting to do more than just memorize the facts of the stories and are starting to see themes emerge.  The other day you mentioned that there are lots of different brothers that fight in the Bible which led to an interesting conversation. I love to hear your honest prayers to Jesus about whatever is on your little mind.  Sometimes if we are talking about a sad situation, you just start praying in the middle of the conversation.  I pray you never lose that sensitivity to what the Spirit prompts in you.

Stats:

Weight -  38 lbs. 3 oz. ~ 51%

Height - 42.75 in ~ 37%

This is the third year in a row I have given her the same interview.  It is fun to look back on the old ones and see how some of the answers have stayed the same.