Meredith will be 6 in less than a month, yes, you read it right, 6 years old! That number scares me a little. I guess anything 5 and under still sounds like a little girl, but 6 is the entrance into big kid stuff! She started Kindergarten in August at The Franciscan School, AKA Daddy's school. Chris teaches her PE and it seems to be going pretty well so far. He takes her every morning and I love that they get to share some special time that most parents and children don't get to have. I just turn her over to school every day and don't get to see the little things he does, but it does make me feel better to know that he's there, one parent is better than none! My mom is also just down the hall from her, which makes me feel even more reassured! Meredith is learning so much and is incredibly eager to learn how to read, but that is definitely taking some time. I know she'll get it, but she does seem to be taking a shine to numbers! A child of mine that likes numbers, yes! I think I will take the route of fostering that preference even though it isn't a particular favorite of mine. I told her the other day that Mommy uses math at work all the time and that totally confused her. By her response, I could tell she thought I was counting things and doing worksheets like she does. I guess in a way, that is exactly what I do! Ha!
She has had a bit of a rough time with a few behavioral things. Around Thanksgiving, she started getting frowny faces for being a bit to aggressive with her friends- pushing, hitting etc. We had a couple of rough weeks, even visited the principal's office and had to bring her home one day. Mommy had lots of tears that day :( She tends to be a kid 'herder' in the sense that she wants to bring kids along with her to do whatever the activity she wants to do- sometimes literally pushing or pulling people. She is also one of the tallest kids in her class (boys or girls) and I think it works to her disadvantage sometimes since she is just so much bigger than the other kids and she can 'get her way' more easily. It is never anything malicious or ugly, but I've decided that it's really her leadership coming out, but we definitely have to nurture it in a way that isn't so physical. She really is such a good girl and it makes me sad that we've had to go through some of this stuff, but it's all a learning experience and we're just doing the best we can! Fortunately, she hasn't had any issues since she's been back from Christmas break- it's only been a few days, so hopefully she can keep it up.
She was on a soccer team with the Saint Francis parish league in late summer/early fall. This was her first soccer experience and let's say it may not have been her best performance ever! No really, she has just never played and I'm not sure that the coaches really spent a lot of time on teaching the game. Of course, Chris was overly critical of that and he tried to spend some extra time with her, but that extra time is hard to come by sometimes. It also didn't help that the weather was bad and a lot of games and practices ended up being cancelled, so there wasn't a lot of consistency. She wavers every time you ask her if she wants to play again next season, so we'll see!
She is in ballet this year instead of her tap/ballet combo she has done the past 2 years. We gave her the choice and she picked just ballet. I think she had this vision of being an instant ballerina (hello, I was exactly the same way!), but has been a little underwhelmed with all of the basics you have to learn with ballet. She is such a free spirit, I'm not so sure that ballet is the exact right fit for her, but glad she made the choice and we'll see if she sticks with it again next year. She was ultra excited this week when she found out she'll be a fairy in this year's recital (Sleeping Beauty). Chris takes her after school, so I haven't gotten to peak in the studio to see how she's doing, but she enjoys it and is getting some exercise at the same time, so it's all good!
Now that a lot of her friends are starting to lose teeth, she is dying to have a loose tooth and has me check them on a regular basis to see if they are wiggly yet. I guess that's another right of passage I am not looking forward to. It just changes a kid's appearance so much and that baby face is gone for good when those scraggly big teeth come in.
Meredith is such a good big sister. We have only had very brief, if any evidence of her being jealous of Caroline. If anything, she wants to be in her face ALL the time. She always wants to hold her or play with her or do something with her. It is really very sweet, but at times, it can be difficult since Caroline seems to cry a lot when said things are going on! My new mantra for all of this is that I hope she always loves her this much. I worry sometimes about their age difference since I hear of a lot of people who have siblings that they barely interact with because they are far apart in age. Having such a close relationship with my sisters makes me want the same thing for my girls and I really hope they do always love each other and have a good relationship :)
So, that's my big girl. I'm sure I've missed something, but I'm going to try in this new year to be better about posting! I'll post another time about the holidays and try to get some pictures up too.
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