Six

Happy Sixth Birthday Maddy! It feels like just yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital, but here you are...becoming a beautiful, funny, curious, young girl right before our eyes.

Five was a good year for you. Five turned you into a real school kid and our mornings will never be the same. Shockingly, my constant nagging "put-your-shoes-on-eat-your-breakfast-brush-your-teeth-hurry-hurry-hurry" doesn't faze you at all. In fact, I suspect it makes you slower. Your sister loves having a front row seat for the craziness!

You LOVE school (though that still doesn't keep you from cheering when the random blizzard-busted pipe-hurricane keeps you home every once in a while!) I'm so proud of your emerging reading and math skills. When we read now, you love to point out sight words as we go. Your math is even more impressive! You love to use numbers to describe your world whenever you can. Luckily, you didn't inherit your dad's mathaphobia!

The best part of last year was watching your friendships develop. There's a certain kind of five-year-old silliness that is pretty infectious.

Even though you probably prefer to hang out with kids your own age, you are still an awesome big sister. You play with Audrey way more than I ever would have expected. Sometimes I'll hear you giggling in your room, playing loud music, and when I check in with you, you'll politely ask me to leave. Of course, sometimes you guys get into trouble. I've learned that whenever I vacuum, I must shut it off intermittently to make sure that, for example, no one has fallen off the bed and is bleeding from the head (that's just a hypothetical situation, of course)

You've become a real movie lover this year too. Dad and I have tried to expose you to a wide variety of movies, including lots of old ones. Godzilla, The Three Stooges, Willy Wonka, Ghostbusters, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation... there's no bad eighties movie we won't force you to watch! I love how open you you to everything we throw at you (including old telephones that come with a curly cord on them!)

We are so proud of everything you accomplished last year and the amazing young lady you are becoming!

Happy Birthday Maddy!