Letter to Nina, 6 years

Dear Nina,

The day you have been anxiously awaiting has finally arrived. You are six today. This last year has been a big one for you - finishing preschool, starting kindergarten, and learning the ins and outs of being an elementary school kid. It is a new world, but you have taken it by storm.

You leap out of bed every morning at least a half hour or hour before anyone else in the family, but you just fend for yourself, playing on the computer, watching TV, or fixing yourself some breakfast. You're very independent, and I think you truly enjoy having the quiet house to yourself each morning. Once Elise is awake, and you can go back in the room you two share, you are usually the first one dressed. As soon as Addie starts making noise, you bound into her room and get her out of the crib by dragging her over the railing. It looks as awkward as it sounds, but Addie doesn't complain. Then you head downstairs where you start packing your own lunch. I rarely make your sandwiches any more. You have taken ownership of that job. You remarked this morning that you couldn't believe how much better than Elise you were at spreading jelly when you are so much younger. Elise is lucky if she is fully awake and dressed before the bus arrives though, so she never has time to make her own lunch. You take pride in doing it all yourself, so you have much more practice in the art of jelly spreading.

School is going well. When I volunteered in your classroom this week, I got to read some of your journal - what a treat! I loved entries like, "My bst frnds are Emily and Riley bcuz tha are nis and buteful." and "I am going on a flit to Teksis." Kindergarten suits you. The 100th day of school was last week, and you had very definite plans on the design for your 100th day T-shirt. You are decisive... always knowing exactly what you want, down to the last detail.

You played soccer this fall and seemed to have a good time. I think you may play again in the spring. You begged for over a year to take ballet. I finally signed you up for a 4 week session to see how you liked it, and that was enough for you! You had fun, but ballet definitely wasn't your thing. Some day I'm sure you'll find a sport or activity that you love, but I have no idea what that will be.

You have joined a Daisy Girl Scout troop this year and love finally being able to do all the Girl Scout activities you've watched your sister do for the past three years. You were so proud the first time you donned the blue Daisy vest. You had high aspirations for your first year of cookie sales with a lofty goal of 900 boxes. You were absolutely determined to win the digital camera; however, you quickly grew weary of cookie sales after about 125 boxes. Hopefully you'll be happy with the highlighter award instead.

Behavior and discipline continue to present the biggest challenges for your dad and me. You are a middle child to the core!

A few weeks ago, I discovered some opened foil pill packets on your bathroom counter with the chewable pills nowhere in sight. I yelled for you and Elise to come talk to me about it. Elise quickly denied having anything to do with the pills while you gave me a sheepish grin and said nothing. Your dad and I launched into a huge lecture about how dangerous it was to take medicine on your own, how you could have ended up in the hospital, how you knew you weren't supposed to take medicine without a grown-up, how if you had gotten sick, we wouldn't have known what was wrong, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??? and on and on. You sat there and smirked as if it was all a big joke. That just got you in trouble, and we started piling on the punishments in an effort to make you realize how serious the situation was. Through all of this, you never said much. You just clammed up and took all that we doled out. Finally, your dad was determined to find out what prompted you to eat the pills. He told you that he promised you would not get in any more trouble than you were already in if you told us why you had done it. You ran to your room, climbed up in the top bunk and started looking for something. We had no idea what you were looking for, but you eventually said you were searching for a small lotion container. We couldn't imagine what that had to do with the pills you had eaten. Did you chase the pills with a bottle of lotion? When you finally found it, the small container of normally white Lubriderm was now a small container of pink and purple swirled Lubriderm. You hadn't actually eaten any of the pills. They had been your dye to decorate the lotion... quite clever, actually. We were still angry that you had played with the pills at all but clearly relieved that you hadn't ingested them. When we asked if there were any that had been dropped or left out anywhere, you exclaimed, "only in the little blue box!" Little blue box... that would be the RAZOR SHARP pill cutter you had used to cut the pills to fit them in the lotion bottle! My five year old plays with razor blades and pills... every mother's dream. What a night that was. Our emotions ran the gamut from being furious that you had taken pills, to scared out of our minds at how serious this could have been, to relieved that you hadn't eaten any, to impressed at your ingenuity, to scared out of our minds again about the years ahead of us. You challenge us in ways we never could have imagined.

When I got my new car, you were the first one to christen it as a mom-mobile. You wrote on one of the seats with lip gloss. Awesome. Thanks.

You and Elise continue to have a love-hate sister relationship. One day you'll spend the entire morning together concocting some elaborate role play with dolls, and the next day, you'll both be screaming at the top of your lungs, "I wish you weren't my sister!!" while kicking each other.

You can always find a way to make Elise cry, and that thrills you to no end. Last night, you accomplished your goal by saying, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit" after refusing to give Elise any ice in her water. You were right there at the ice and water dispenser, but torturing your sister by depriving ice was just too satisfying. The fighting makes me insane, but it also makes me thankful for the good times.

Your fashion sense may send me to an early grave. I try so hard to let you express yourself with your clothing, but there are times I just have to stand my ground. Yesterday, you came out of your room in a really cute skirt outfit - a coral top with a coordinating coral, off-white, and olive green plaid skirt. It was a great set, but you had complemented it with a pair of bubble gum pink tights that clashed horribly. You were insistent about the tights, but I just couldn't let you out the door like that. I finally convinced you to wear off-white tights, but I caved on the matching tall coral fringe boots. I had won the battle of the tights, so I let you win the shoe battle. Off you went to school in your cute, preppy, plaid Gymboree outfit and your psychedelic light-up sneakers designed by some 60's hippy dropping acid. You definitely know how to make a statement.

You keep us on our toes, Nina. I love you, and I can't wait to see what comes along with age six!

Love,

Mama

Comments

Big Happy SIX to Nina!!!

Posted by: Holly S. | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 06:24 PM

Happy Birthday and good luck to the parents! :-)

At first, I thought the photo of her in ballet class was her ice skating! The floor was so shiny it looked like ice and she looked like a graceful figure skater!

btw: I thought of Addie yesterday. The hostess of a restaurant told me they were short handed as the other hostess's daughter had super glued her lips together and the mother had to go home. I suppose the little girl thought she'd apply lip gloss. I then thought of Addie and her Sharpie incident and decided that wasn't as bad as super-glued lips!

Posted by: SMcCoy | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 07:46 PM