Addison Mae - 6

I can't believe this girl just turned 6. It seems like just yesterday I had a brand new baby girl, and here she is reading, getting her ears pierced and acting like a grown up. 

Addie absolutely loved her year in Kites, with the highlight being her Spring Sing performance in April. She and her friend Wyatt sang I Got You Babe in their 70s attire, and she also had performances in Firework and Any Man of Mine. She was a superstar - so brave and confident even though she was very nervous. She loved doing another musical this summer at church, where she had a small speaking part and again rocked it.

This girl is SO fun to watch on the soccer field and basketball court. Moving to all-girls for both sports has restored so much of her confidence, and she even scored a couple goals in basketball this summer. She's a star on her team, understanding team work and defense. She also scored a couple goals in soccer in the spring and has just started fall soccer practices. She will also start back to piano lessons again this week - we were so impressed with everything she learned last spring. 

Five teeth lost in all, including those two front teeth that I hope never grow in. She picked out "big girl" glasses this summer and got her hair cut much shorter in a long stacked bob. She is reading so well and writing "by sound," which impresses me so much. We've done a lot of crafting this summer and also had some fun science related activities and read several biographies about people like MLK, Maria Tallchief and Amelia Earhart. 

Addie loved the beach - I think she loves it as much or more than I do. She loved our beach house, riding the waves (despite a nurse shark siting) over and over, collecting shells and building sand castles. We went on an awesome boat ride/tour, where we got to see dolphins, including babies, in their native habitats, and she and Grammie even got to jump in the ocean to swim near them. Definitely an experience she will always remember. She also loved our quick trip to Texas last weekend to stay at the Gaylord-Texan. Nevermind the water park, eating at restaurants every meal, amazing hotel, aquarium, etc. - I think her favorite part was getting to lay in bed and watch TV! Another first for her this summer was getting to be a flower girl in Great Uncle Jerry's wedding to our longtime friend Ruth. Although we miss Aunt Jeanne every day, we're so happy for Jerry and Ruth - I was amazed that Addie was able to articulate those exact sentiments to me. She's such an empathetic girl.

She starts kindergarten next week, her last year at Warm World. She's elated to have lots of friends in her class and she already loves her two teachers. I think she's most excited about the garden her class gets to plant and tend together. We've been watching her music teacher's daughter, Darci, on America's Got Talent, and Addie's been practicing her ventriloquism in the mirror. She's convinced she's going to try out next season. 

My girl has had a challenging last week as a friend of her passed away after an illness. It's been a painful time for all of us as we remember him and work together as a family to find ways to honor him. She is anticipating feeling sad as she returns to school without him this year. I'm so blessed by her kind spirit, her willingness to talk about all her feelings with me and her faith in the midst of really hard times. 

Weight: 42 pounds
Length: 45 inches

 New things:

• Scoring her first basket in a basketball game
• Getting fish. Our compromise for the girl, and her brother, who want a cat
• Learning lots of new strokes at swim lessons this summer. She can do freestyle, back stroke and side stroke
• Sounding out words more and more in reading and spelling
• Writing her own thank you notes this year - with almost no help from me
• Getting her ears pierced. She was pretty scared and said she'd feel better if someone else was getting them pierced too ... so I also got two new holes that day
• Getting her hair cut short

• Playing her new piano
• Her new desk, her only request for her birthday. She loves having all her art supplies in her room and playing at her desk during "rest time"
• Spending her own money on any and everything. And then being sad she spent it
• Picking out clothes/shopping for clothes
• Playing outside. Swimming, which she has totally mastered.
• Watching caterpillars change into butterflies and then release them
• Making her own snacks
• Watching AGT, American Ninja Warrior or anything on the Food Network
• Crafting
• Making up games, building forts or doing anything to exercise her imagination
• Sleepovers with brother
• Reading to Weston
• Watching movies, with Trolls and Moana as top choices right now
• Snowcones and ice cream
• Eating outside
• Fireworks - she LOVED the fourth

Dislikes:

• She's a perfectionist. She doesn't like when things don't come easily or she doesn't do things up to her own standards. New and unfamiliar situations often stress her out
• Having to stay in her room for rest time. She often tells me she doesn't want to nap (which is fine) but then I'll find her asleep
• Doing her chores