Sunday, January 01, 2017

2016 - Year End Review

Why hello there, my mature grown-up girl (your words, not mine). You never cease to amaze me with what comes out of your mouth and I've been tickled endlessly these past eight years (well, these past six years - you hardly said a word your first two years. But I think you've more than made up for it.)

Here are your mature, grown-up Top 10 Lists!

10 Things You Love
  1. Gymnastics
  2. Wrestling with Charlie
  3. Being tickled
  4. Singing
  5. Drawing/coloring/painting
  6. Pink and/or purple and/or sparkly clothes
  7. Swimming
  8. Traveling. You love new cities.
  9. Church
  10. Quality time (I do believe I've found your love language)
10 Things You Don't Love
  1. Emptying the dishwasher (I often have to explain to you that in life, we don't only get to do that which we like to do)
  2. Naps (A DNA test may be in order)
  3. Humid weather (A DNA test isn't at all necessary)
  4. Only a few foods (namely beans, cooked carrots, cumin) 
  5. Bees/wasps/yellow jackets
  6. Learning something new (New concepts introduce the opportunity for you to get things wrong! A fate worse than death!)
  7. Automatic flushing toilets
  8. Not being involved in every conversation. It seems to cause you physical pain.
  9. Being corrected. (Ahhh, humility. 'Tis a tough thing to teach a precocious one.)
  10. Disappointing people
10 Things You're Good At
  1. Math
  2. Doing cartwheels and handstands
  3. Making rubber band bracelets
  4. Handwriting (makes my lettering-loving heart so happy)
  5. Following directions
  6. Being encouraging
  7. Being funny. Your wit is razor-sharp.
  8. Making cards for people
  9. Being friendly and an include-r. Please, oh please, keep this up.
  10. Singing. We need to work on your volume control, but you can definitely carry a tune in a bucket.
10 Things You're Not Good At
  1. Sleeping in (you're a great sleeper but you're not a good sleeper-in-er)
  2. Sitting still ... you fidget, you stir, you flip, you flop, you spend so much time trying to get comfortable that I'll be old and gray by the time you find the perfect position.
  3. Focusing while I read to you during school. I'll read out of your history or science book, look over to you, and can practically see the daydreams floating above your head. Rainbow unicorns are fantastic but I'm pretty sure they weren't present while Washington crossed the Delaware or while scientists were naming the parts of the flower.
  4. SPEAKING IN A NORMAL VOLUME.
  5. Acting. Pretending to be asleep, trying to act natural when you're playing a joke on someone, maintaining a poker face when we play a game - none of these are things in which you excel.
  6. Not interrupting. You so want to be included in every conversation - even if the conversation is adult-y and boring and doesn't involve you in the slightest - so you interject any chance you get (or any chance you take) with a question or a comment, related or unrelated. 
  7. Rinsing all the conditioner out of your hair. Granted your hair is impossibly thick, but still. You often come out of the shower with your hair still feeling like a gooey slimeball.
  8. Keeping the dramatic tone to an acceptable level. Lawsy mercy.
  9. Doing a flip on the trampoline. And the fact that Charlie CAN do a flip on the trampoline goes over like a lead balloon. It infuriates you that he can do something that you can't.
  10. Quantum physics. *sigh*
My heart skips a beat or two when I think about how you're halfway to 16. 

You've changed a lot this year. You've lost a few teeth and grew some new ones, so your smile has changed dramatically since you turned seven. Your hair has gotten a lot longer (and, therefore, a lot more tangly) and you've gotten a few inches taller.

You and Charlie have become so close this year. You two still squabble over silly things and I still have to play referee, but my time spent repairing hurt feelings has gotten less and less and you two have gotten better and better at working things out on your own. You and Charlie can spend hours lost in your imaginative world of police officers, unicorns, shipwrecks, and world travel. It's so fun listening to you guys play. It's, um, slightly less fun when both of you come to me with pouty faces because Charlie won't play exactly the way you tell him to, but c'est la vie. 

This has been a pretty emotional year. Lots of things have made you cry, lots of things have made you upset, and lots of things have made you stomp around the house and huff Big Bad Wolf-sized huffs. And on the flip side, lots of things have made you squeal, lots of things have made you jump up and down, and lots of things have made you laugh great big belly laughs.

It ain't easy being a girl, sweet love, and I can't tell you I'll always have the right answer or the wisest advice, but I will tell you this: you are not alone. I understand big feelings because I feel them, too. Big feelings are tough, baffling, and exhausting. Big feelings can also be beautiful. But above all, big feelings can remind us that the Lord is with us. Because when we feel all the things and don't know how to process them, He is there to calm our storm. He is there to carry us through the storm. Feelings aren't reliable as facts, but boy, are they good at pointing to our need to spend some time with our Father. 

I pray that you'll find comfort in praying through these feelings with God. He's the safest One to turn to; He loves you like nobody else in the world ever has or ever will. It's an honor to teach you how to process these big feelings and an even bigger honor to see you building a relationship with Him. 

You are the answer to so many of my prayers, my angel girl. Being a mom is awesome. Being your mom? Well that's a privilege that's beyond compare. I like growing up right alongside you.

Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy

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