ada charlotte {5 years}

 

Dear Ada,

How on earth are you FIVE YEARS OLD?!

I love watching you grow up. It's so fun to see the way that your personality grows and changes. You are so silly, so thoughtful (when you want to be), and so sweet. You have strong opinions about all the things, which I need to remember is a GOOD thing -- you're figuring out exactly who YOU want to be, and that's what I want for you, too.

You're so curious, always wanting to learn about any words or ideas you're unfamiliar with, and I love this! I've always kind of felt like certain things are learned at certain ages, but you're showing me that we really do learn little by little. We've discussed things like how the ocean and space work, how the theory of relatively works, how cameras work, and those are just the things off the top of my head! We always try to answer in an age-appropriate way that we think you'll understand, and as a result I just feel like you're so smart and able. 

You're such a cool kid, and I'm glad you're mine :)

Stats

• 43.8 pounds (about 75%) and 42.6" (about 55%)
• 5T fits the best, but you still have all sorts of sizes in your closet, including some 2T dresses you wear as shirts and a 24m onesie hahaha

Milestones

• Not reading at all and I don't care. You love to be read to, and I think it will come as soon as your teachers start teaching you, but I don't feel the need to push it.
• You do write letters well, though, and sometimes you'll ask for help spelling a word you want to write.

Favorite Things
(I asked, and these were your answers)

• Color: Brown and white (because of Princess Leia)
• Animal: Puppy
• TV show: Daniel Tiger
• Movie: STAR WARS (Episode IV)
• Food: Taquitos
• Book: Star Wars Strikes Back (5-minute Star Wars stories)
• Thing to do: Trampoline park
• Thing to do with
• Mom: snuggle
• Dad: do fun stuff with him before he goes to work, like play Barbies.
• Holly: play with her in morning time
• What you want to be when you grow up: A princess, like Princess Leia

Funny Things You've Said/You Say

• You finally answer "Do you know X?" with "No" or "what is X?" when you don't know what it is! (as opposed to saying yes, and then not knowing, which is what you did for a long time).
• You still say "happenening" or similar things
• You're working on figuring out past tense. There's a lot of "I buyed" or "I goed" going on currently.
• "There's a scratch on my butt! It's not unscratching!"
• Once when I said something like, "You're supposed to be going faster, dude!" while driving, Ada copied me and then said, "I'm trying to be a mom like you because I want to be a mom." Haha because all moms have a little road rage 🤦
• Whenever you see an Amazon delivery truck, you call it "the package man"
• Whenever someone dies, you ask, "Are they going to be resurrected?"
• The flag was at half mast for a mass shooting, and then a few days later they put it all the way up again. You noticed and said, "They must have been resurrected!"
• I decorated the table cute with little pumpkins for a Welcome Fall dinner, but you were having a tough time not touching the pumpkins. At one point, you looked so mischievous so I asked why you looked that way and you said, "I was just looking at the decoration and my body was saying, 'STEAL IT! STEAL IT!'" Ohhhh my gosh it was so funny. It was just such a perfect depiction of how children's brains are constantly battling between curiosity/what they want to do and following rules.

Random Tidbits

• You started forest preschool and you seem to like it! Your teachers always have nice things to say about you.
• You also started a dance class (ballet, tap, jazz, tumbling) and you love it. Pretty sure tap is your favorite :)
• Still a picky eater. Such a bummer haha.
• You got your first major haircut around 4y8m. It's so cute and I love it! I wanted you to cut it because it was always such a chore to get you to let me brush your hair, but I also wanted it to be your choice, so we talked about it for a few days and I showed you some pictures and ultimately you decided you wanted to cut it. We first tried an asymmetrical bob, but it didn't work so well because you wanted two braids sometimes and that just looked silly! So shortly after, we got it cut all the same length. You've never once said anything about missing your long hair, and I don't miss it either! Shortly after the cut though, you did cut your own hair, which was a bummer.

• We went to Hawaii with the whole Petersen family in July. It was the first Petersen gathering where you just seemed so grown up! You don't nap anymore, and you can also handle staying up a little late occasionally, so sleep was easier, but you also didn't have big tantrums and got along with all your cousins (young and old) really well. We went on a big boat ride that kids are supposed to be 5 for, but they let us take all the 4-year-olds, and I was nervous about how you'd handle it because at least when it comes to movies, you're a full blown scaredy cat (basically can't handle new movies). However, you LOVED it, and you just smiled so big the whole time! It was such a great trip :)

• You are OBSESSED with Star Wars and specifically Princess Leia. Not really sure how that happened, given your fear around movies, but one day at G&G P's house, Grandpa was watching Star Wars Episode IV, and you've been obsessed ever since. You want to watch it every time we go there, and you wanted a Leia cake, and Leia dress-up . . . Obsessed.
• You're at this stage where you're trying to figure out what is real and what is not, as far as movies goes. "Is that person real? Are they a character?" etc.
• Sleep: We put you to bed around 7/7:15pm, you take ~20 minutes to fall asleep, and then you wake up between 6:00 & 6:45am. Not sure if it's the darker mornings or what, but you will stay in your bed for so long before coming into our room now, and it's awesome (used to be like 6:30 on the dot, now it's 7 or even later!). You came into our room in the middle of the night for a while there, claiming to have had a bad dream, but you always easily went back to your room after a quick hug. We had to have a chat about it though because I was tired from you continually waking me up at 3am!! So you stopped :)  

Love always,

Mama