Serena's 5th Birthday Letter

My precious girl,

At the beginning of this month, we changed over your calendar.  The look of wonder on your face when you realized you would get to put the "My Birthday" magnet on July 31st told what a monumental moment it was for you.  For the rest of the month, you were "a big four-year-old with her birthday on the calendar."  It was amazing how many things that "a big four-year-old with her birthday on the calendar" was excited to do, or that "a big four-year-old with her birthday on the calendar" would never be upset about, or that "a big four-year-old with her birthday on the calendar" could be counted on for, etc.  ;)  We have thoroughly enjoyed having "a big four-year-old with her birthday on the calendar" this month!!!

At the beginning of this week, we finally settled on cupcakes for your birthday.  This was after an entire year of debating whether to have a "fresh fruit" cake, or a pie, or a chocolate cake, or candy, or ice cream....  You told me you were especially excited to turn 5 because Heidi was 5.  "It will be just like real!!!" when you play "Heidi" now!  (If only it was a little easier to pass Bret off as an 11-year-old goat-boy named Peter.  Hmmmm....)

I really do feel a little shell-shocked that we're already done with your 4-year-old year, but it was very sweet to think back on all the things that made this past year special.

First of all, there was Caya.  Your very own doggie.  Right away, Daddy gave you the responsibility of feeding her, which included teaching her to come to you, hup, and wait until you had put her bowl of food down and given her the command that it was okay to start eating.  You definitely rose to the challenge!  Daddy loved how you would go over and physically drag Caya to where you wanted her when she wouldn't listen to you.  You paid attention to the things Daddy told you, and now Caya definitely knows you're her girl, and she is quick to come when you call!  One thing that you really didn't like was being jumped on by Caya, so Daddy helped you teach her not to do that; and now Caya always runs to you and immediately sits as close to you as possible, wagging her tail and hoping you'll pet her.  You love to train the dogs with Daddy.  He never has to ask twice if you want to go out and help him train, but sometimes you're a little disappointed when the plan is to train a dog other than Caya.  ;)  One of your favorite things to do is to go to dog-training events with Daddy.  You are such a trooper and spend the whole day outside, reading to the dogs, and tramping through tall grass with Daddy.  You've had so many neat adventures with him, and it's because you act like such a big girl and never complain when you're out there.  We're so proud of you for that!

Earlier this year, you became God's child, and it's one of your favorite topics of conversation!  You read your Bible faithfully every day (usually in bed at night before the sun goes down, and again in the morning before it's time to get out of bed), and you love to talk about heaven and how you're going there someday!  You're quick to pray about problems that you face or that you hear about other people going through.

This year has been characterized by lots of pretend play, especially revolving around your "real" toys...Tottie Lottie (the little turtle), Olie the doll (who became Carrie about half-way through the year when you started reading the Little House on the Prairie books), Jack (the dog), and Gus (the horse).  You first realized that Tottie Lottie was real when he kept moving to different places when you weren't looking (he may or may not have been helped by Grammie and I, haha!).  You spent a lot of time caring for Tottie Lottie last summer until you finally decided that he should be living with Grandma's turtle in Iowa (where he has lived for the last 9 months or so now).  Of course, Olie has always been real, but she seemed all the more so when you were "Ma" earlier this year and you changed Olie's name to Carrie.  Now, sometimes she's Grace and sometimes she's Rose; but she is always lovingly cared for and all her needs carefully met.  You still love to take her along in your doll stroller to the mall or on a walk across the bridge to "show her off."  People always smile sweetly as you pass by, and you are convinced they are admiring your beautiful baby.  Most mornings you put your baby in her little highchair next to your place at the table, and place one O on her tray.  Macy knows this, and she also knows you don't want her to eat the O, so she waits until you're not looking and then sneaks over and eats the O.  I think you know what really happened, but you like to exclaim over how your baby gobbled her O up already!  ;D  Your stuffed animal dog became Jack this past winter when you were first getting into the Little House on the Prairie books.  In the books, Jack would sleep under the covered wagon at night, so you would have your Jack sleep under you pillow.  I didn't think that would be very comfortable for either of you, but you insisted that it had to be that way!  ;)  Up until Bret got a mattress, you kids spent many happy days pretending that the empty bottom bunk was your covered wagon.  I would tuck a sheet into the mattress above and let it drape over the exposed side of the bed, and then you would fill the bed with all the "necessary" items that you needed to take to the prairie.  And I mean FILL the bed, hahaha!  After your sweet "big girl" friend gave you one of her horses, you named it Gus, and Gus is always a big part of your play.  You have to stake Gus out on a picket line, or make some hay for Gus, or put Gus in the barn that you made.  Now Gus has a colt named Trixie, and it's almost a full-time job caring for the two of them.

Each changing season and holiday this past year brought with it such wonder and discovery.  All the things you had read about them would come true (whether real or manufactured in your mind), and you took such delight in each moment.  We have all enjoyed our days a little more because of your sweet "bookish" spirit!

As far as being a big sister, you're pretty awesome at it, and a true help to me.  Sometimes your "mothering" can get a little out of hand; but the boys don't tolerate that too well, and so they keep you in check.  ;)  You love to "take care of" your brothers and try your best to keep them out of trouble.  Bret can thank you for teaching him how to pump on a swing this summer!  And we are indebted to you for helping Cody transition from sleeping with Mommy & Daddy to sleeping in the kids' room.  Your encouragement helped Bret to get stickers on his bedtime chart and teach him to stop calling for Mommy every few minutes at night.  THANK YOU!!!!  ;)

We've enjoyed your developing sense of humor quite a bit!  You're starting to "dish it" back to Daddy, and he loves when you have a good come-back for him!  Daddy taught you the meaning of a wink, and now you think it's really fun to be "in on" a joke via a wink.  You and Bret have gotten a little obsessed with finding "slug-bugs" when we're out and about, and what started out as a little slugging back-and-forth mostly between you two has escalated into keeping score and tallying up "slugs" throughout the day to dole out to (usually) Daddy.  ;)  Daddy likes to say you're on "his team," but if he teases you too hard, you jump ship to "my team."  Of course, that amuses Daddy immensely.  :D  He always knows how to get you back on his team, though.  After you've sworn to stay away from him, or leave his team, or whatever, he'll say something like, "Don't come over here, Serena.  Stay away from me."  This reverse psychology almost always works to bring you back to him.  The other day, you were being particularly obstinate and vowed to stay away from him for the rest of the day, so he had to bribe you with a "secret" he'd only tell you if you came to him.  Finally, you gave an exasperated sigh and said, "I guess I'll have to forget my promise," and went to Daddy.  You were pretty happy to go with him to the park to train dogs after that!  :)

Faults?  Do you have any?  Oh, yes, and some days they are much more obvious than others.  You are surprisingly stubborn.  I mean, really, really stubborn.  I suppose I can see where that may serve you well in some areas of life.  But it has also gotten you in plenty of trouble over the silliest little things...simply because you refuse to wave the white flag of surrender until you're absolutely sure you have no other option left.

Your future plans have changed a little since last year.  You've now decided to marry Bret and, depending on the day, he is amenable to this plan.  ;)  Since reading about Laura Ingalls being a teacher, you've become enamored with the idea of being a teacher.  And since falling in love with Uncle Luke's girlfriend, Lulu, you've decided to be a teacher in Mexico until you have babies.  When I mention how I'll miss you, you assure me you'll come visit with Lulu.  :)

Your 4-year-old year was greatly impacted by your learning to read.  You started with the "Dick and Jane" readers, and quickly progressed to reading Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and On the Banks of Plum Creek.  After reading those three books each 4 times through, you begged me to let you finish the series.  I really thought you'd get burned out if you read the other books, since the girls grow up and begin to deal with grown-up problems, etc., but you proved me wrong!  You read the series through from start to finish twice!  You would certainly have read it again, but Daddy & I thought it would be good for you to branch out a little.  So, we've put away the Little House books for now, and you've fallen in love with All-of-a-Kind Family.  As you read, you are quick to recognize unfamiliar words and ask their meaning if anyone is available.  If no one is around, you are pretty good at figuring it out based on context, and you'll often tell me later what a word means and how you came to know it.  One of my favorite things about your reading has been your plans to be an author someday.  You love coming up with chapter titles for the stories you'll write someday about the things we do!

You obviously have a drive to learn things, but you mostly like to teach yourself.  The other day, you were trying to write a letter and getting frustrated with how crooked it was turning out.  All the letters were capital, and you suddenly broke down (I think you may have been a little "hangry," too, as it was right before lunchtime, heehee!) because you wished you knew how to write the lower case letters.  "Why didn't you teach me to write the small letters when you taught me how to write the big letters?" you wailed!  It didn't seem like the right moment then, but I'd just like to point out that I did NOT teach you how to write your letters.  I showed you a few, but you just wanted to trace them on your own, so I quit.  I figured there was no point in pushing you since you were only barely 4.  Of course, you were soon writing them without any help.  Just sayin'.

There are just so many things you've learned/started to do this year!  One other big accomplishment was learning to ride a bike!  Your stubbornness has definitely served you well in this area!  You'd have to be pretty tenacious to refuse to give up when your 3-year-old brother is zipping around you on his bike while you struggle to ride yours!  (Sorry we didn't start you on a balance bike, Sweetie!)

You are a delight to us.  Your smile is beauty in its purest form.  Your laugh is unhindered pleasure.  Your eyes, so full of wonder and thought, are enchantingly deep.  As we leave this year behind, and greet the 5-year-old Serena today, we are filled with gratitude for the blessing of your presence in our home.  God did a beautiful thing when He gave us you!  We love you always!

Love, Mommy