Adelle if 5

Five!  I can’t believe she is five.  In just a few days she starts school.  It is all I can do to keep from crying.  Initially she was really nervous about the idea of school…but lately I think she has started to feel proud about being old enough to attend.   Part of me is a bit excited too.  She is going into French Immersion and I’m excited to hear her coming back home at the end of the day to share the new words she has learned. 

This year we spent her birthday in Fernie visiting with some friends.  Adelle requested cat cupcakes.  She saw them in her Chirp magazine and then gave me very specific instructions.  I think they turned out pretty good…if I do say so myself!  At any rate, my girl liked them and that’s all that matters.

And for her final birthday event…it was pink cupcakes with purple icing and sprinkles for daycare. I love to spoil my girl with birthday parties!

There haven’t been many obvious milestones this year…mostly just a slow and steady progression. Adelle is very interested in writing. She writes her name quite well and will often ask how to spell other things. She learned how to add this year and just a few days before her birthday she figured out how to subtract.

She is really interested in drawing and colouring. Her drawings are really maturing. She draws a lot of animals and ladybugs and has a special love for rainbows. Most of her animals are recognizable which is pretty cool.

She loves to dance, she is always dancing. But her favorite pass time is playing make believe games with Simon.  They can spend a good hour off in some imaginary world.  Usually they are animals, usually dogs, but they do pretend to be cats, mice and occasionally people.   She is also a little obsessed at the moment with Zhu Zhu pets (freaky little hamster toys for people reading this without preschool children).  She also went through a strawberry shortcake phase this year and an obsession with Pet Shop toys.  But make belive is what she has always spent the most time doing.

Sleep
Seems funny to still bother with this heading, but upon reading up from last year there does seem to be a change. When Adelle turned 4 she was still waking up a fair bit in the night. Which meant I still had some nice little snuggles with her last years…this year I hardly ever get those snuggles. It truly is hard to see them grow up. Each step towards independence is both exciting and so sad for me. When Adelle turned 4 she still slept with a diaper on and at least once a week she leaked right through it. No longer! She is 100% diaper free. 

Food
Adelle still has a great appetite and we are so lucky. She goes through fussy periods, but for the most part she’ll eat anything.

Personality
Adelle loves to help out.  She loves to teach her brother new things and she loves to take care of him (for the most part he loves her attention…and other times he does everything in his power to get away from her). 

Adelle would still prefer to be home all day…but she tolerates daycare and has made some great friends.  She has about 3 really good girlfriends and one special boy friend.  Adelle and Brody both adore each other and she is greeted at daycare by him each morning with a huge hug.  At Christmas this year she told us that she was going to split her heart in 4.  One part for me, one for Greg, another for Simon and the last part for Brody.  It was a very cute declaration of her love.

This  year we started to give her an allowance.  At first it burned a hole in her pocket, she made one frivolous purchase, then started saving for a ZhuZhu pet.  But her birthday arrived before her 1$ a week could get her one and now she is happy with what she has.  She hasn`t asked about spending money since.  She still remembers to ask for it each week, and her new focus is on trading in her coins for `paper` money.  Along with the allowance came chores.  She is pretty good at cooperating in that department…but it is a challenge for us to find the time to enforce the chores. 

Adelle officially became a swimmer this year.  She has always struggled with having confidence in the water, but she does love to be in the water.  This year she really excelled and actually started swimming.  She made it to Crocodile swimming level.  She took it a few times, then finally passed it…but we made the mistake of telling her that in the next level they teach you how to do somersaults in the water and she is now terrified of advancing.  So she continues to be enrolled in Crocodile.  We are perfectly happy to keep her in the same lesson as she continues to get more confident and she has lots of fun in her lessons. 

Finally in what Greg would consider the biggest news of the year – Adelle is an official bike rider.  The run bikes were great, but biking is even better.  She doesn`t LOVE to bike, but she does still spend a fair bit of time biking and she`s gotten quite good at it.  Greg and I have our eyes on family bike rides.  I`m not 100% confident in her braking skills, so I prefer to be on foot when she bikes, but soon enough we`ll be there!

Our Beautiful Girl