Hannah has always seemed to act her age or even older, so it feels so natural that she’s five. Her birthday was a couple weeks ago and we had the best time celebrating our tenacious girl.
Hannah’s five year stats:
- Weight: 41 pounds
- Height: 42″
- Clothing size: mostly 4/5 but really starting to outgrow it!
- Shoe size: toddler size 10
- Favorite foods: watermelon, ice cream, blackberries, strawberries, basically anything sweet
- Least favorite foods: beef, chicken, most vegetables, anything I serve for dinner
- Favorite things/activities: playing with her babies or dollhouse, watching her iPad, reading books, playing outside, running, dancing, riding her bike, painting, baking
- Least favorite things/activities: waiting, stopping doing something fun, leaving somewhere, not getting what she wants
Ever since Hannah was about two, maybe even a little younger, she has shown such an innate nurturing side to her. One of her favorite things to play is with her babies – she loves the Wellie Wishers dolls from American Girl Doll. She also loves her doll house, her adorable little mice, and any object or item that she can turn into a character or family.
More recently it has been so special to see Hannah’s imagination and creativity blossom. She’s always been imaginative and creative, but there’s a new maturity to both. We’ve been learning that she loves to create stories in her mind. She also loves to paint and her artistic skills are becoming more refined and a little less abstract.
Hannah’s personality is just so fun. She is so silly, nurturing, sweet, matter-of-fact and genuine. She is so good at playing and imagining and pretending. She tells you how it is and knows what she wants {and doesn’t want!}.
She has so many wonderful qualities that will benefit her tremendously as an adult {many are a liiiittle challenging as a parent!}… she is tenacious, she knows what she wants, she is incredibly persistent and strong-willed, she is brave and curious, she loves to learn, she is a tremendous problem solver and she does things on her own time.
Recently, a teacher suggested she’s quite like an owl – a quiet, thoughtful observer watching in the shadows, waiting to make its move.
Hannah absolutely loves her family, her routine, familiar people and places, and her home. It can take Hannah a while to warm up to new people and she is often very, very quiet until she is ready to jump in. Similarly, in new situations, it typically takes her a while to feel comfortable. During the school year she really appreciates having her Friday “mama-Hannah days” where we relax, recharge and spend the day together.
One of my favorite things about this last year with Hannah is watching so many things click and fall into place. Hannah truly does things when she is ready – good luck to you if you try to push her before that point.
With skiing and swimming this last year she put the pieces together and last winter became a much more independent and absolutely fun, beautiful skier. This summer, just within the last few weeks, she became comfortable enough to put her face in the water and that has now lead to cannonballs, somersaults under water, diving for rings in the deep end and an absolutely gorgeous crawl stroke.
Hannah played “kinderkicks” soccer last summer, just after turning 4, and joined in a little tiny bit, but mostly wasn’t ready. This fall she says she’s ready to get out there and join in on a soccer team, and that she wants to join the Nordic ski team this winter and play t-ball in the spring. Mid-way through the last year Hannah was able to begin ballet class, which she loved probably more than anything. She participated immediately. And she did the recital!
During the last school year Hannah made some lovely friendships. Previously, she was more of an observer at school, and this year she really got into the mix. She has a few very good friends and certainly knows who she likes and who she doesn’t like. In just a few weeks she will start her new school program where she’ll be in a class with mostly new kiddos, but her best friend will be joining her. She is soooo excited for her new program, which will be 100% outdoors, with most of the time spent hiking and exploring down by the river.
It feels like we’re at a really exciting point with Hannah. Five is such a big age and so many things are coming together with her. We’re really looking forward to this next year with Hannah!
