Monthly Updates

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are 5-and-a-quarter years old.  Today you also met your twin baby cousins for the first time.  You were so excited to meet them!  You kept whispering to the girls how cute they were and how soon they would be big girls like you and you’d play with them and teach them how to do everything.  You were especially thrilled when you were allowed to hold each baby – although Abby was much happier with that arrangement than Emma was!

Baby, five years ago, this was you:

And now look at my big girl!

I can hardly believe that 5 years (and a few weeks) have gone by since you were the baby in that little flowered sleeper!  And now you’re promising to take your little baby cousins under your wing and teach them all you’ve learned in your big five years.  It takes my breath away.

Love,
Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

I’ve been debating for a while now about whether to continue writing monthly letters to you.  On the one hand, I’d like to think that when you’re older you’ll love to go back and read them.  On the other hand, I think that in between now and then you’re going to be really embarrassed that I took the time to document your life on the internet.  Although, rest assured, you are certainly not the only child who has a “mommy blogger” for a mom.

I don’t know what to do.  I love writing the letters to you, and I think it would be really strange to just stop.  Maybe I should write them a bit less often – your birthday and half-birthday?  Or maybe I should write them on good old-fashioned paper…or not.

See, today you are 5 years and 1 month old.  And I thought to myself that I should stop writing you letters on my blog.  And I was really going to stop.  But then I thought that you’d be looking through someday and get to the last one, when you turned 5, and wonder why I just suddenly stopped.  So, I started writing to tell you that I was going to stop, and now there’s a whole letter full of angst about whether I should be writing you letters.

What will I do next month?  I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are five.  Five seems so old, doesn’t it?  Last year I was worried about you turning four, because it seemed like I was losing my baby.  But this year I was excited for you to turn five.  You’ve been excited too!

Since your birthday party is tomorrow, we spent the day doing other things.  We started out with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast – your favorite.  After that, you had a friend’s birthday party to go to.  Then you and I ran some errands to get ready for your party tomorrow and for Uncle Dan and Aunt Genevra’s wedding next weekend.  After our errands, we hung out at home for a bit and opened your presents, and then you picked the local Mexican restaurant for dinner.  They brought you your own fried ice cream for dessert!

We had an exhausting but good day, and we’re just about ready for the invasion party tomorrow.  I still can’t believe my little girl is five!  There are so many things you can do all by yourself now, and so many things you know.  But you’re still my sweet baby, and always will be!

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

Yesterday you turned 4 years and 11 months old.  Just one more month until you turn 5!  You have changed and grown so much in the past month it’s amazing.  You’ve only been in school for less than three weeks, but you’re already a bit more confident, a bit more…grown up, I guess.

You went from a complete TV addict over the summer, to insisting on playing outside from the minute you step off the bus.  I imagine you do a lot of sitting all day at school, even with daily recess and P.E. three out of six days, so it shouldn’t be surprising that you want to kick around the soccer ball and play with chalk for a bit.  Then you have a snack (which usually involves you finishing whatever was left of your lunch and then eating another meals’ worth of food after) and play with Anna a bit.  This is working out pretty well for me, because the playing with your sister bit happens right around when I need to start dinner, and the two of you miss each other so much that you play nicely long enough for me to cook!

Your writing and drawing skills have improved considerably this month as well – from even before school started.  You wrote get well notes to both me and Anna when we were sick, and you have been drawing pictures of yourself playing on the playground and riding your tricycle that are quite good.  I’m happy to hear you ask me how to spell words, and I love reading your own attempts at spelling things!

As far as I’m concerned, your transition into full-time schooling has gone incredibly smoothly.  For the most part, you’ve been able to go right to sleep at a reasonable hour and get up and ready for the day without too much angst.  You’re a little tired and crabby right after getting off the bus, but after a bit of outside time and a snack you happily tell me about things you did at school.  I’m impressed with your ability to go with the flow.  I hope someday I can learn how to do that from you!

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

This is the last letter I’m going to write to you before you become a great big Kindergartner.  I can’t even imagine how that happened…I swear just a moment ago you were my teeny tiny little munchkin, just learning how to smile.

We’ve had a busy, and I think wonderful, summer.  You’ve taken classes for gymnastics and swimming, and you just started soccer today.  We’ve gone to library story times, you’ve read to therapy dogs, and we’ve frequented the farmer’s market.  We’ve visited the children’s museum, played on playgrounds, drawn with chalk, blown bubbles and ridden tricycles…well, you did that last one, not me!  We’ve managed to fit a few playdates and playgroups in there.  I’ll admit you’ve also watched plenty of TV.  But you’ve read dozens and dozens of books and colored and played with your dollhouse and ponies and Barbies.  We’ve really probably squeezed every last drop of fun out of this summer that we could have!

It’s going to be hard watching you get on that bus in a couple of weeks.  I can’t promise I won’t cry, because for the past 4 years and 10 months, my life has revolved mainly around you (and for the past year, your sister too).  You’re my little sunshine, and I’m going to miss you all day long!  But I know in my heart that you’re ready – academically, socially and emotionally – to take this step, even if I’m not.  Maybe by the time you’re headed off to college I’ll have learned to let you go a little more easily.

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are four-and-three-quarters.  See?  I’m teaching you fractions and you’re not even in kindergarten yet!

It’s been an incredibly busy month.  We’ve had two parties for your sister, one of which included seeing all of your cousins from our of town.  You’ve had several little mini camps and started swimming lessons this past week – every day for two weeks!  We’ve been going to the library for story times and their “Paws for Reading” program every week, and the farmer’s market to pick out fruits and veggies and to see if the clown is there making balloon animals.  It’s kind of crazy to compare it to what last month felt like, when it seemed like we were doing pretty much nothing all day.  And you know what?  Amidst all this busy-ness, you’ve turned back into my perfect little angel.  I think you get bored too easily with staying home and relaxing!

You alternate between brimming with excitement over kindergarten and being terrified about it.  You regularly come out with statements about how you don’t want to go to kindergarten because “everyone will laugh at me because I’m so small” or “I’m scared to sit next to kindergartners on the bus because they’ll be 5 and I’m only 4.”  Part of this is Daddy’s and my fault for talking in front of you about how you’re going to be among the youngest in your class.  Part of it is because people always seem to be commenting on how petite you are.  And part of it is because you’re related to me and worry is just part of our genetic makeup.

What I can tell you, what I’ve been telling you, is that you’ve always been the smallest and the youngest so far in school.  And despite that, you’ve always been able to make friends easily because you are kind, and honest, and funny, and charming.  You are good at sharing and at helping, and are always concerned about how other people feel.  And those are the things that make you ready for kindergarten, not how old you are or how tall you are.  If you just be yourself, people can’t help but like you.  I know I certainly can’t!

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

You’ve been out of school for nearly a month – this summer is already flying by!  I’m afraid I’m going to blink and you’ll be on the bus for kindergarten!

So far we’re having a pretty low-key summer.  I’m almost embarrassed to admit that our daily morning argument typically centers around whether you can watch TV before breakfast.  I think you’ve figured out that if you ask before I have my coffee, the answer will almost always be “yes”.  One of our biggest issues right now is just exactly how independent you are with the TV.  You’d gladly watch TV all day long if I didn’t hide the remotes away after a while!  In case you were wondering, your current favorites are Dragon Tales, Word Girl, Handy Manny and Go Diego, Go.

I figured something out the other day.  You’re shy.  You do your best to act as though you’re not, but that completely out-of-control crazy act you do when you meet new people or encounter strangers?  That’s really your way of covering up the fact that you’re not sure how to act.  Unfortunately, I’ve figured it out, but I’m not quite sure how to fix it.  Because, it’s OK to be silly sometimes, but it’s not so great when you look (and typically act) so much older than you are…and then turn into a crazy monkey when someone you don’t know pays attention to you.  So this month I’m going to try to help you figure out what to do in these situations (even if it’s to tug on my pant leg and whisper “Mommy, I’m nervous”) so you’ll have an easier time making new friends in the fall.

We’ve been cooped up a lot this month – it’s rained a lot more than usual, practically every day, so we haven’t been outside so much.  We’re all a little tired of being in the house.  But hopefully nicer weather is on the way, and we’ll be able to enjoy some summer before you head off to your first year of school!

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are 4 years and 7 months old.  This is the last time I will write to you while you are in preschool – school is out next week, and then in a few short months you’ll be getting on a school bus every morning.

You are so excited for school.  But you’re also worried – you don’t want to go to kindergarten until you’re five, no matter how often I try to explain that you only have to be five before December 1st, not before school starts.  You apparently got this notion from your Ramona the Pest book, that you have to be five before kindergarten.  After your bus ride last week, though, you’re very eager to get to go on the bus every day.  (Trust me, kiddo, it wears kind of thin by high school…)

We’re going to have to practice eating lunch this summer.  Because you definitely prefer to enjoy your lunch for as long as you possibly can, and that is so not going to work when you only have a half an hour for lunch!  I can just picture you getting in line to get your lunch, bringing it back to the table, waiting for it to cool to just the right temperature, and then…the teacher asking everyone to line up to go back to the classroom before you’ve even taken a single bite.  I’ll definitely be packing your lunch to try to help with this, but you still are going to need to learn to eat a little faster, and among many distractions.

When I look back at how much you’ve changed since you started preschool almost two years ago, it’s amazing.  You went from being very sad to leave me to barely wanting to stop for a kiss before joining circle time.  You’ve learned to read, have gone from barely being able to draw a circle to starting to be able to write legibly, you’ve learned how to make fast friends, and how to play together with them instead of just in the same room.

And when I look forward to all that you will experience from now until you graduate from high school…I can’t wait to see your science fair projects, what instruments and sports you choose to try, the essays you write.  And underneath it all, I will always remember my precious, precocious little preschooler skipping off to join her friends.

Love, Mommy