Turning 5 today!

Dear Carolyn,
Today you turned 5 years old.  It's hard for me to imagine that it's really been 5 years.  But then it's also hard to remember life before you arrived.  It's amazing to watch you grow and learn new things every day.  You are developing into a wonderful little girl, and I love that you are quickly picking up on the important things in life.

It's been awesome to watch you learn to read in the last couple months.  You already have well over 400 sight words and can spell at least 100 of them.  You can do many math problems and love to do science experiments.  It's fun to read with/to you about the presidents and different science topics.  Your love for learning is contagious and breeds an attitude of love for books within our home.  Your energy when you run around the house, splash in the pool, climb at the park, or swing at gymnastics knows no bounds.  It has been amazing to see you learn so many athletic skills in such a short amount of time.

You have quickly learned what's most important in life - spending time with those you love.  It's a joy to watch you play with your brother and see how close the two of you are.  I hope you maintain that relationship as you grow older and have different interests.  I appreciate that you tolerate his desire to do everything you do.  It's a sign of how much he loves having you as a big sister.  You're doing a great job showing him excellent manners.  Seeing how excited you were about every present yesterday and your eagerness to give each person a giant hug and say thank you immediately was fantastic.  I could tell you really appreciated the time each person put into choosing your gifts.  Seeing you spend time with each person who came yesterday was fun too.  It's fun to have a lot of people share your life and enjoy playing with you.

You bring a lot of joy and energy into our house, and I thank God every day he brought you to me and Dad.  I hope as you go off to school in a couple months that the foundation we've provided you will serve you well.  I will continue to enjoy watching you grow and learn new things.  And I will continue to be here for you, forever.  You'll likely hear many new things once you start school, and I hope you know you can always come home and ask me or Dad questions about what you heard.  Keep doing what you're doing, sweetie, because it's really working.  When you meet some harder obstacles, know we'll always be here to help you out. 

Love always,
Mom