Dear Maggie,
On Wednesday, you turned 6! By my calculations, that’s at least halfway to sullen.
(Occasionally, it's more than halfway.)
My big girl, you are brave and always eager to try new things. New this year: bowling, roller skating, archery, Indian food, Kindergarten, short hair (just last week!), horseback riding (full size and miniature.)
You tried to talk me into letting you try pageants this year, and I demurred, saying that we didn’t have enough time or hairdressing skills. “Besides,” I said, “You’d need a talent."
“Like running really fast?” you responded. Not a surprising question. At first glance, you seem delicate, but you are definitely rough and tumble. It’s hard for you to play in the yard – baseball, Frisbee, fetch with the dog, whatever – without somehow working in a couple of dramatic slides. Grass stains and torn pants are routine. In the pool, you will jump in over and over, not minding a bit the time you spend underwater before surfacing.
On our recent flight to Wisconsin, at one point our plane dropped a bit – as my stomach leaped into my throat I grabbed your thigh on my left and Lily’s on my right with a white-knuckle grip. Lily took my cue and was appropriately alarmed, but you just laughed and laughed at the fun of it.
You have become much more quick to open up to people – particularly people with dogs. You’ve never met a dog you didn’t want to pet! You are still an animal lover, the more prehistoric or creepy-crawly the better. Over Spring Break, you volunteered to keep the class toad, and your other temporary pets have included several bugs, a lizard, a frog and a turtle. You have lobbied for a snake, but haven’t won that battle.
We started an aquarium for you last fall. You have lost interest in the pretty fish; your choices for the fish tank lately have been a snail and several bottom-feeders. This spring, we welcomed Petey. That dog follows you everywhere, always wanting to play.
Kindergarten was a big success. You hated the homework, which was understandable, but you loved learning to read. I can’t believe how much you learned this year, and that you're starting first grade in two weeks. You still want to be a paleontologist, and you weren’t impressed when I told you I studied English in college. You looked so puzzled and said, “So…you…learned words in English?”
First and last day of school - you lost one tooth and gained two knees.
You are more than three years out of the crib, and you still rarely sleep in a bed like a normal person. You won’t commit to one end of the bed or the other, regardless of what end the sheets are tucked into. You often prefer to sleep on the floor, but when you’re in the bed, it usually takes me longer than it should to find you in the morning. Sometimes you have every stuffed animal you own surrounding you as your “guards.” One day, you built a structurally sound wall of pillows, blankets and stuffed animals surrounding one corner of the bed and called it your cave. It even had a door! Since you had used all your linens in its construction, you had no pillows or blankets for a couple of weeks (bears don’t use pillows or blankets, you insisted) and the space was so cramped you had to sleep with your knees tucked up to your chin.
You make friends easily, and though you get along with everyone, you seem happier with one or two close friends than with a whole classful. We have been blessed this year with a new friend who lives just down the street. The two of you are inseparable, zooming up and down the street on your scooters and dashing back and forth between our houses.
You and Lily still have your ups and downs. You play pretty well together, but it’s not unusual for you two to scrap. Pretty much daily. I know we ask you to concede a lot, citing your big-sisterness and Lily’s ear-splitting shrieking ability. I'm so proud when I find you thinking about what you can do to make your sister happy—you even let her open one of your birthday gifts! Let's have more of that, please!
Oh, Maggie. You're not my baby anymore, but you are becoming such an awesome little person. I'm so delighted to be your mom. Happy birthday!
Love,
Mom
