June is a month of birthdays around our house. I wrote all about the boys' uneventful second birthday, but I've neglected to write about Sofia's birthday. She is the one who had the legitimate party after all. Which was Frozen themed of course. Frozen everything. I thought she was going to grow out of this Frozen phase by now, but it seems to still be going strong. I'll eventually get around to posting about her party, even though I have all of two photos of it. (Mommy fail)
I just celebrated (if you can call it that) my birthday and even though it's on a major holiday, it's just another day and has been for quite some time. Nothing too special. Just the day I get to add another year to my age. But to Sofia, a birthday is indeed a celebration. All year long she seems to be planning for her birthday. When we are in a store and her request to buy something for her is denied, her automatic reply is, "No, for my birthday!" It's her way of saying Just Kidding. Can I have this tea set? No, sweetie, you have enough toys at home. No! For my BIRTHday!! Oh, sure, yeah, for your birthday....
For my birthday, my mom always bought me an ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins. I absolutely LOVED my birthday ice cream cakes. I was so sad when that tradition died as I got older. Adam got to pick out a fancy tea cup from his step-mom's china to use on birthdays growing up. We have yet to create some sort of tradition for Sofia's birthday. I'm sure that will come naturally eventually. This year we spent the day together and let Sofia do almost whatever she wanted, which I don't think was anything that exciting seeing as I can't even remember what we did. But boy was she happy to finally be five.
Sofia,
Such a little spitfire. You are too old for your own good. Five going on fifteen is what you are. The amount of sass that comes out of you is still surprising to me, even though I see it on a daily basis. I'm glad to see that you are a confident young lady. I can't tell you how proud I am to see you easily blend in with new kids on the playground or how easily you can chat with people. At times you play shy or coy with newer adults, but it's all for show. You love meeting people. You had a whole conversation with a lady at the mall this weekend about the new shoes you just bought. She told you about how excited her own daughter used to get when she was your age and she got new shoes. She was so excited about her new shoes, she'd put them on when they got home and she wouldn't want to take them off so she would sleep with her new shoes on. You thought this was silly and proceeded to tell the lady why sleeping with your shoes on is not a good idea because you'll get your sheets all dirty.
I'm sure you will follow in our footsteps and be a creative person. One of Daddy's favorite things is to see how well your drawing has evolved. Your drawing goes through phases. At first it was everything smiley face. Smiley faces on papers. Smiley faces on receipts at the restaurant. Then you were able to add the stick figure body to your smiley face. Then it was hands and feet, then hair, etc etc. etc. Which brings us to now where your drawings have lots of people with various amounts of prominently displayed teeth. Mostly just one tooth, which you think is hilarious, but sometimes two or more teeth. Lots of times with mustaches just like your favorite baseball player, Rollie Fingers.
Speaking of teeth, you sure have some sweet ones. If it were up to you, you'd just eat cookies all day long. In Sofia's Perfect World every meal would be a sweet one, or at least would have dessert. We'd spend all day at the park before going to a friend's house for a play date. There would always be a TV on to watch a movie. Doesn't matter what movie really. As long as it's not too scary. Preferably a cartoon. Or Jimmy Fallon. Bedtime wouldn't exist. Someone would always be available to play with you, doesn't matter what, as long as they play. And we'd never have to match our clothes. Well, either never match or be totally monochrome. One of those two extremes would have to be the dress code.
You haven't given up on your job as big sister yet. There have been so many times I've asked you to watch over your brothers so I can take the clothes out of the dryer, or go to the restroom, or go get the mail, or whatever, and you hardly ever complain. Okay, Mommy! All I need you to do is just make sure they don't kill themselves or each other, and you do a good job of that. Sometimes it would be nice if you could just take the glass of water away from them instead of shrieking, EEEEEEeeeeeeee! Mommy!! Thomas has a glass of water!! It's funny to hear you try to direct or correct your brothers when they are doing something wrong or about to get in trouble. jayCOB! Don't DO that. JAYcob!! You sound so authoritative and yet they don't listen to you hardly at all. It's okay, don't feel bad. They do the same thing to me.
I think being five is going to be a great age for you. I am a little behind on the whole, learning to swim and ride a bike thing. But you already know how to tie your own shoelaces! Although you hardly ever try. And you are so close to learning how to read. I hope this year will bring you some patience since that is one thing you aren't too great at. Patience with yourself as you can get frustrated easily when tasks you are trying to do aren't going well, and patience with others as you sometimes forget you aren't the only person who needs help or attention. We'll work on it. You'll get there. I mean, you are only five...
