For Anna on her Sixth

S. I. X.
Well that is just a horse of another color, if you ask me.  When applied to my littlest, my baby, it's just a sort of new bug-eyed reality that causes me to stop for a moment and steady my heart.  Until I grin a big grin at it because, hey, that girl is SOOOOO six.

Her 'tude, her interests, her talent, her presence, her speech, her relationships - they all testify to the fact that this little creature has left the building

and this stunning creature has bloomed in her place.

What is the same from then to now, however, is the degree to which I COULD EAT HER WHOLE.  In case you didn't already know me and my heart well enough, I am in love with my Anna girl, I LOVE getting a front-row seat to her life, and I love getting to spell out all her ways on her birthdays.  So, without further ado...

Stuff I love about Anna at 6:

• She is a scrawny lightweight still - even though she has gained 5 lbs and 2.5 inches since last year.  She comes in at 39 lbs and 45.5 inches tall now.
• She wears size 6 clothes now (which, btw, are wildly smaller than boys size 6) and size 11 toddler shoes.
• She can't hula hoop to save her life and it aggravates the fire out of her.
• She has come a LONG way mastering the art of self-control in the face of disappointment and/or frustration.
• She is an emotional creature, bless her heart.  She is precious to me.  And vexing.  Oh, the emotions.
• She has such a grateful spirit - always thanking me for things, especially spontaneous things like getting to get soaked in her clothes, taking her on a hike, changing my mind in her favor, surprise treats, playing a game, etc.
• She earned herself some freckles across her nose this year. ♥
• Like her momma, she can't stand to trash empty bags, containers, boxes, etc. She wants to save them for some future project or purpose.
• She diagnoses her ailments herself (i.e. - "Mommy, I feel dehydrated.") and she self-prescribes the medicines for them - immodium, cough medicine, tylenol, elderberry syrup, neosporin, etc. 
• She invented some new names for me this year:  Mommy-Not-My-Maid, Mommy Scooch Bottoms,  Momma Bomb.
• She is just smart and suspicious enough to likely be the first of my children to snoop around looking for presents. :S
• She is just so quick and smart.  I always tell her what a smart cookie she is.
• She is so far ahead at school, she doesn't even have a reading group to be a part of.  She is reading on a middle first grade level.  And she does it with such impressive voice and inflection.  Which leads me to my next point...
• She has a flair for words.  They come to her naturally. Some of her recent words that caught my attention were: pizzazz, horizontal, vertical, instinct, strategy, rare, trench, advertisement, arena, interactive, honor, valuable, multiple, particular, fierce, shimmy.
• She is into details.  She wears me out with all the details.  All her ideas and creations and projects have so many details to carry out, attend to, pull off, and complete.  Examples includes tea parties, holiday parties (for just us at home), crafts, letters to people, plans for birthdays, bookmark making AND selling, book making and binding, decorating her room, forts in the living room, etc.
• The flipside of all the details she is alive to is that she is still hopelessly, dreadfully, wildly messy.  She leaves a mess wherever she's been.  She leaves things all over the house.  She can rarely find anything she needs without a dramatic outburst and hunting expedition to recall where she last used it. Especially shoes. :S
• She always draws her bed as a four poster with canopy. Even God's rest on the 7th day was depicted with a 4 poster bed in her artwork.  Truth:  She does not have a four poster bed.
• She always signs her name at school as Anna B. I tell her it is not necessary as she is the only Anna in her room, but she insists that it's "fancier" that way.
• She sleeps with a camo maglite under her pillow and a set of Mommy/Daddy figurines with mine and Josh's photos that she loves to inform people are from when we were only dating.
• She holds her nose in the carpool line at school.  The fumes really bug her.
• She is such a slow eater, often taking a full hour to finish what is on her plate.
• She is on three allergy meds - Singulair, Flonase, Zyrtec,  plus Elderberry for good measure.
• For a Kindergarten survey, I described her as:  helpful, studious, creative, empathetic, forgetful, obedient, friendly, impatient, affectionate, honest, thoughtful, expressive, quick, motivated, smart, observant, curious, detail-oriented.  I know that was probably more information than her teacher wanted, but I couldn't help it.  She is all these things and I have all these words.  She gets her wordiness honest!
• Speaking of her words, she still does that thing where she repeats what she had just said.  She murmurs it back to herself under her breath.  It is so quirky.  I adore this habit of hers.
• She is tight with her daddy.  So tight, HE is the one she calls for when she is sick in the middle of the night.
• She has learned a number of thrilling things in kindergarten so far:  there was a "bandit" plugging up the toilet in the kindergarten hallway for a couple weeks, how to work a ponytail holder all by herself, that the middle finger is a bad thing, and about 9/11. : /
• She is about to master shoe tying as well thanks to a challenge the art teacher issued. And speaking of skills that prove how grown up she is becoming, she's also learning to wash and rinse her own hair at bathtime. 
• AND, drumroll please, there are no more sippy cups in our house!  We cut her off last month, on sheer principle alone, and amazingly she hasn't spilled a single cup of milk yet.  :}
• Her bedtime routine is entirely overseen by her daddy every night and goes like this:  Bath (washing hair every other night), usually gets distracted while dressing and ends up playing in her room naked under her towel, then medicine and teeth brushing, put away her clothes, bible study with Noah and Daddy, and then bedside chats and lights out, no to the nightlight, but a big YES to her sound machine. And door shut.  And don't you dare leave a hallway light on.  Anna will get up and get you for the light the shines in the cracks of her door.  Ha!
• Also, this is her room on any given day of the week.  A total wreck. :}

 

Other ways to offer a snapshot of my sweet and sassy thing at age 6 is to just let her words do the talking.  Here are some sounds bites I have saved over the past months for the keeping....

• While trying to teach me how to make a crazy sound she invented, she dismissed me by saying, "Ummmm, not quite.  If you want some lessons to learn, just come see me."
• When I wouldn't let her take my phone into a dark mine at the pumpkin patch, she was not too dismayed.  She called out to her friends with wide eyes, "We will just have to nocturnalize!"
• She has already drops drama on us like this, "This is the worst day of my life!"  And that quote came after a birthday painting session, lunch out INCLUDING a milkshake, spending time with one of her favorite friends, and getting to have soda and chips at a local fall fest. 
• "When I grow up I am gonna teach my children about God." 
•  "When I am grown up I can do anyfing I want ... but only obey God." 
• Carrying a container of cumin to me, she asked, "Is this pollen?"  
• Josh tells me she often bids him adieu at bedtime to the tune of the following well-wishes, "Goodnight, Love you, See you in the mornin'."
• She knows her audience when she comes to me mid-thought.  She has been known to say, "I hate to interrupt but I wanted to show you..." or "I hate to interrupt, but I need you to..."  
• The kids keep handheld video game systems in the car.  When Anna was done with hers she informed me, "I want to sell my Leapster because I like to wait and just look out the window at all the wonderful things God made."  Also, she wanted cash fast.  Ha!
• When her heart is at its lightest, she makes up songs of her own.  Recently, she sang a song to herself written solely with the word particular. 
• While discussing adoption with her brother, the convo went like this:  A- When we adopt, you will be a great big brother to the baby.  Maybe we will get a girl!  N:  No, I don't want a girl. I wanna be a great big brother to a boy! A:  But you are great big brother to me and I am a girl.  I think you will be a great big brother to another girl."  
• She will often come right out and say, "I need some hugs and kisses." Usually when she is sad and can't snap out of it or when she needs reassurance after getting in trouble for something.
• She doesn't mispronounce much anymore except for a few d's,v's, and f's in place of th's and her precious "twoylet" for toilet.
• Which reminds me, she still takes forever on the toilet.
• She loves her Lord.  She is serious about Him.  And when watching Him crucified on a SuperBook episode, she had to look away and cried out, "I just can't watch!" 
• No joke, she once asked me to put a laundry basket on her wish list.  "I would like a laundry basket just for play."
• Once while we walked at a park, she encouraged my exercise efforts by saying so earnestly, "Mommy, I fink you losten a little weight!"  
• July 21, 2014, an era ended.  She let me down gently, but clearly.  When I asked her if she was interested in a dress up gown I saw for sale, she said, "Ummm, I'm not really into princesses anymore."  
• Out of nowhere, she said in the car one day, "I bet in the bible they didn't have baving suits."
• Another day she declared, "Sometimes I feel like I am dreaming in the daytime." 
• In a sleepy trance during a storm scare when we got the kids out of the bed to go to our safe place downstairs, she murmured in a daze, but in an unwaveringly fearless daze with wide glassy eyes, "I wanna tell you somefin.  God made the storm for his glory.  He made everyfing for this glory."
• She adores Kindergarten.  "I just wish I could stay in that classroom longer."  
• She adores her teacher, too. "I love Mrs. White so much. I am gonna make her a card."
• Like I said, she takes forever to finish dinner.  One particularly trying night, all splotchy and upset, she wailed from the dinner table where she was sitting by herself long after Josh, Noah, and I had finished, "I am the worst eater ever!"And she is.  She so is.
• She loves taking gymnastics.  She wistfully told her teacher after completing a pullover on the bar, "I could stay up there forever."  
• She bragged recently after class, "That hump in my arm is getting bigger!"  (hump=muscle).  

Anna, my sweet, 
Remember when you used to never smile for the camera?  That seems forever ago now.  Once you discovered your silly side, your smiles have come so easily.  They characterize my days. I love that.

Remember when you didn't like art stuff?  Ha, yeah right.  That was never you.  You love to draw and color.  I love to let you.  I love all the details you put in your drawings.  This is one from church last week you did to go along with the verses the pastor was speaking from.

Remember that day you loved and looked forward to and then called the Worst Day of your Life?  Ha!  Worst day, nothing!  You loved creating your masterpiece.  I love how satisfied you are when are you working on a project.

I love your smile.  It's sensational!

I love the times when you and I go places just the two of us.  I love that you love those times, too.

I love watching you work.  (I love the sound of you working, too.  So quiet! SO intense.)

 

I can't even imagine what milestones and masterpieces will come before you get to Seven.  But I love getting to look forward to all your next days with you!  Speaking of projects, here's one I whipped up for you, my littlest muse.

"You're my favorite Anna this year!" I've said for all your ages before.

And I mean it every year, but this year I mean it more.  

Six-year old Anna is my FAVORITE yet.  

You are so much more with it.  There is so much you get!  

You grow smarter and sweeter every day, 

I am always astounded at the things you say. 

You challenge me, amuse me, 

You try me and confuse me. 

You impress me, you stress me,

And oh my word, you bless me!

I am so proud of the creature you are.

You are a stunning, shining star.

You're an armful of joy, my Annabelle! 

I love you, I LOVE YOU, Anna Noelle.

 

Here's to my sweetie pie on her Sweet Sixth!
Tickled to the core to celebrate you,
Mommy