Ahhhh...my little girl is five years old! How does that happen? Just yesterday we were bringing our firstborn, 4 pound baby, home from the hospital. Now we are getting ready to send her off to her last year of preschool.
Riley has been super excited to turn five because five is so much older than four. Just ask and she'll tell you that half of what you can do now is because she's five. Here's what she's up to now:
- she is 43 inches tall and 42 pounds. She is a solid little girls. It is deceiving how heavy she really is.
-She had a major growth spurt this summer and is wearing a size 5 (sometimes 6). She is wearing a size 10 shoe.
- we have been battling reoccurring bladder infections this spring summer. The only indication is a fever, wetting the bed, and/or side aches. We just finished another round of antibiotics. If it comes back we will most likely be visiting a urologist for testing. We are really hoping we don't have to go there as the test includes a catheter.
- she still has a bit of a lisp. It is mostly noticeable when she says her L's as wees. She also struggles with the TH sounds.
- her favorite toys are animal figures, stuffed animals, ninja turtle toys. She just started really playing and pretending on her own. She loves to play games like Uno, Chutes and Ladders, Go Fish, and Candy Land.
- She has become a little mommy to her sister and brother. We obviously spend a lot of time together now that I'm home all day. She is willing to watch Cole for a few minutes so I can run to the bathroom or take Harper up for her nap. I notice her telling Harper if she doesn't do something she's going to go to timeout, or she picks her brother up and "carries" him across the room.
- She has become very independent with some things. She likes to pour her cereal, scoop her own seconds, get her own snacks, etc.
- she has begun to help herself to junk food. If I leave the room for two minutes I can be certain that she's pushed a chair over to the pantry and snuck a couple gummy worms, put the chair back, and run back to whatever she was doing. She will always tell me that she took them.
- she has a major sweet tooth now.
- she is goofy and silly!
- she does what we call "sabotaging." If she wants something she knows she can't have she will ask Harper is she wants it. Then Harper will proceed to get it or throw a fit, which is always knock down, drag out. She also chooses the most chaotic times to do this.
- we are constantly talking to her about listening, thinking before acting, and following directions.
- she now seems to find a friend to play with whenever we go to then park or play place. She always asks them their name and runs back to tell me. She forgets the name before we leave, but at least she's asking now. She usually picks girls that are a bit younger, or boys to play with.
- she loves to be outside. She climbs the tree by putting the slide under the lowest branch and climbing the stairs up to it. She now has a pet snail in a flower pot in that backyard. She and Daddy found it at the little pond up the street while they were trying to catch frogs. Somehow it has stayed alive for a couple weeks now.
- she loves to swim, but still doesn't like to put her face in the water.
- she says her favorite color is green, but she still favors blue and sometimes pink.
- she now wants to use big utensils because she's a big girl.
- she loves TV, which is a blessing and a curse. She has learned to turn the TV on, find her favorite recorded shows, fast forward, and use the DVD player. She chooses to watch Max and Ruby, Word World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Tom and Jerry. She is always pausing her shows so she doesn't miss anything. We have had to limit TV because she has terrible behavior when she watches more than a couple shows a day.
- Memorization comes very easily for her. She can memorize random facts about sharks or her favorite jokes, but can never remember if we did something yesterday, last week, or last year.
- she is LAZY. She wants others to do things for her always.
- she starts soccer next week and we are both really excited.
Overall, she is just a great little girl and we love her very much.
