6!! Alexandria is 6! I wrote last year that it felt surreal that she was 5. I think it’s interesting that this year 6 feels just right for her. And it wasn’t that 5 didn’t seem right for the way she acted at that age, but that I’ve always seen her as my baby. I guess it’s mostly because this year she has grown a lot in independence. She doesn’t need me for anything basic anymore. Clothes, bathroom, opening snacks, getting water, shoes, car seat. She does it all no problem on her own. She grew up a lot in that way this year. She’s always been vocally and socially more mature than most her age, but now her independence is catching up so she is feeling like a big kid! Being the middle of middle kids she is now getting lumped in with the big three way more often than the little three. Getting to stay up some, going to monster jam, a play, skating and the fair are all things she could do this year, but wouldn’t have been ready for last year. I love each age for different reasons. Although, there is something special about this age. I really love this 6-8 year range where they are gaining confidence and separating from me a little to find themselves more. It means I can take little breaks from “mothering” her to foster a friendship type relationship with her. So yeah, I do really enjoy this age of discovery. <3
Xan had been asking to do school since she turned 4, but I told her I don’t start formal school with anyone until they are 5 years old. She finally got her wish last fall to start school! And she loved it!! … until about a month ago. Now, here at the end of the year and she is ready for a break! I can understand that. I'm ready for a break myself. ;) Of the big three kids she has had to do more school at this age than anyone else because we have a good amount more school work we do all together now than when the oldest 2 were in Kindergarten. That said she is a great student! She is forming letters well with little complaining and speeding through her math lessons with no trouble at all. She is good with her sight words, but sounding out words is a little more work than she would like. She’ll get there!! Jane and Atlas did! She regularly brings a toy or stuffie to the school table to have that toy either help her with her work or for her to teach the toy how to do school. I love it!
It is so sweet to see Alexandria with her girl besties!! Xan, Esther and Olivia all love hanging out together! They played Just Dance on Xan's birthday together and had a blast! I love their sweet friendship. Xan used to hang out more with boys when she was younger. Last year she found her first good girl friend and now she hangs out with girls way more than boys. She is still good friends with some of the boys that come to park day, but if the choice is there she will always choose playing with the girls. Now what the girls are playing isn't necessarily girly though! They are often hunting for caterpillars, lizards, frogs or other creatures they can find around the park. I'm sort of glad she has finally developed some natural stranger danger because she used to trust everyone and it would make me so nervous! The good thing is although she is now cautious about who she approaches, Xan still makes friends very quickly and is a sweet and compassionate friend.
Alexandria loves her siblings! She can get along with everyone on pretty much any given day. Some days she plays more with Atlas, others it's Flynn and even some days she will play with Jane the most despite their differences. She will happily play with Piper if I ask her to entertain her for a while, but Piper is still a bit to young to be as fun a playmate as the rest of the siblings. That said, Xan LOVES Piper and gives her hugs constantly and really does enjoy playing with her as long as Piper isn't too grumpy. Jane and Alexandria have become better friends this year! They like to play mothers a lot and Xan even dressed up as Anna and acted out Frozen with Jane as Elsa much to Jane's delight! I'm glad to see their bond as sisters grow. Atlas and Xan have that middle kid bond and have the most similar personality in how they play with others and probably fight the least. Flynn and Alexandria have really grown in their relationship this year! Mostly because Flynn has gotten better at sharing and relating to others. They have the most similar interest in toys of all the kids. Xan has improved in sharing with Flynn as well and sharing toys they both love has done wonders for their relationship. I love how well Alexandria can play with everyone! I look at her and I see how she can be the glue between the big kids and the little kids and even between the girls and the boys. I try to make sure she doesn't get lost in the middle and gets a good amount of my attention to herself. So grateful for the cohesion she brings to the sibling crew!
Weight
Birth: 9lbs 2oz
1 Year: 23lbs 9oz
2 Years: 29lbs
3 Years: 32lbs
4 Years: 37lbs
5 Years: 42lbs
6 Years: 44lbs
I haven't taken her for her 6 year check up yet. I'm trying to do one big appointment for all 5 kids once a year now. So I won't have exact percentiles for their ages anymore because of that. What do I care how they measure up to everyone else's growth in America anyway. I just want to make sure they are healthy! She has thinned out and lengthened a little more this year and her face lost it's toddler look for sure! She is definitely a healthy weight for her!
Height
Birth: 22 1/4 Inches
1 Year: 30 1/4 Inches
2 Years: 33 3/4 Inches
3 Years: 36 1/4 Inches
4 Years: 40 Inches, 3' 4"
5 Years: 3’ 6”
6 Years: 3' 8"
I really thought she would be tall for her age when she was little because she busted into 24 month clothes when she was just 9-12 months old! But she leveled out around 2-3 years old and has stayed at the middle ground of height for a while. I think she might even be a little shorter than most of the other kids her age now. Whether she ends up tall or short, she is and will be beautiful either way!
Last year I mentioned some teeth troubles that Alexandria was in the middle of and a dentist saying she needed to have all 4 of her top front teeth pulled because those teeth were in distress from previous baby crowns having to be put on them. Well, obviously that didn't happen! The next dentist we went to said we could just keep an eye on them and look for outer signs of distress, any swelling, redness or pain and hope they just fall out at the natural time. So far so good! Hoping it stays that way, I don't want to mess with that beautiful smile if we don't have to!
A Year in Pictures: Firsts and Favorite Moments
I started a "firsts" section as part of a birthday blog post back when Jane turned 1 and I've told myself ever since that I could still find a "first" for every month of the year at least for the first few years of their life. The firsts I found grew more and more unconventional through the years. And at some point I had to add in favorite moments to the firsts with a birthday blog post. I realize now, sure, I do love finding the new experiences that they had through the previous year, but I think I like watching them grow and change more. It has become less about finding "firsts" and more about finding a picture from each month of the year. So I'm renaming this section again as A Year in Pictures! It never gets old looking back through pictures of the previous year to see how my kids grow and what they got to experience! I do believe, as unconventional as they are, the vast majority of these pictures are still indeed firsts. We definitely had a cluster of firsts in September and February.
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| Strawberry picking with friends - April 2023 |
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| First Explode the Code book done! - May 2023 |
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| First Foam Machine Experience - May 2023 |
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| First balloon animal from Los Cuccos - June 2023 |
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| Pig tail braid cuteness - June 2023 |
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| Realizing her favorite character in Smash Bros. is her middle name! - July 2023 |
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| First Day of Kindergarten! - August 2023 |
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| Zelda Themed costumes! - October 2023 |
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| First time having her cousin at park day! - November 2023 |
First Christmas at Tejas experience - December 2023
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| Dressing up with her friend at the park - January 2024 |
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| First GoKart Ride - February 2024 |
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| First time at the Skating rink - February 2024 |
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| First Play (Matilda) - February 2024 |
First time at Monster Jam - February 2024
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| First bike of her own - March 2024 |
Favorites
Alexandria likes and dislikes and disposition seems to have solidified over the last year or two because the description in the favorites section I have for her in her 5 year old blog defines her pretty well. This sentence in particular sticks out to me, " It almost seems like her mind is a battle ground of sweet and cute vs strong and dangerous and whichever wins the battle for that day is what she focuses on for that one day." It's such a truth for her. Some days she so full of sweetness and kindness and the next she is yelling and complaining and scratching one of her siblings. We're still working on the violent outbursts against her siblings. Thankfully she is usually very receptive to my corrections and guidance and is open to growth.
Xan has become a little more picky on foods lately. She will still try some foods, but is less willing than last year. She still has most of the same favorite foods from last year. The favorites she came up with are watermelon sherbet, ice cream, captain crunch all berries, jelly rolls, deli turkey, peaches, raspberries, chick fil a, my cheesy bread, Digorno cheesy crust pizza and Nutrigrain bars. She also likes grilled hot dogs, ketchup hamburgers, Ravioli, iced donuts, breakfast sausage, pancakes, chicken nuggets/tenders, any fruity candy and fruit snacks, and Hershey's cookies and cream drops.
The favorite toys she came up with were almost all things she got for her birthday and they are blue siren head, big spinosaurus, worm squishy and Thunder the dragon. The only one she already had that she said was her favorite was lizzy the lizard. She still seems to rotate through toys that she likes the most, but Bunny is still bedtime buddy! Other favorites she always goes back to are Mosasaurus, the shark attack game, Burrito dragon, stretchy bat, Toothless stuffy and big Octopus.
Look at those sweet girls!! I snapped this pic while they were watching some morning shows. Alexandria said her favorite shows and movies are: Rumble, Angry Birds shows and movie, teenage kraken, every show and movie related to how to train your dragon, Brain Child, Octopus documentary and Karate Sheep.
After Atlas, Alexandria is my biggest gamer. Granted she still plays way less than Atlas. She asks if she can play with him all the time though! So it can be a little hard to tell what her favorite games are since she usually just joins Atlas in whatever he was playing. In the picture above they are playing an old WarioWare game. Her favorite video games are What the Golf, Just Dance, Dragons Legend of the Nine Realms, Wrestledunk, Super Smash bros., and the untitled goose game.
Alexandria is starting to read!! But we are at the point that reading books herself are still pretty bland so all of her favorite books are books I read to her or audiobooks. She said her favorite books are The Enormous Crocodile, The Night Fury and The Light Fury, The Very Hungry Caterpillar or any book about caterpillars or dragons. She enjoyed the Audiobooks Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and George's Marvelous Medicine. We've been going though Roald Dahl's works.
Xan's favorite activities haven't changed much since last year. She still loves to swim and jump on the trampoline and swing. She enjoys coloring a lot! Imagining with stuffies or other animal toys is probably her very favorite thing to do. That or searching for bugs or other creatures. She absolutely loved keeping a caterpillar and watching it change from a caterpillar to chrysalis to a beautiful Giant Swallowtail butterfly. If she is playing anything with friends it is her favorite.
The first question I hear out of Alexandria's mouth in the morning is "Are we going anywhere today?" or the night before, "what's tomorrow?" She loves anything exciting and is disappointed if we don't have anything on the calendar that she is looking forward to in the next few days! So almost anywhere has become her favorite place to go. But I think her favorite this year was going to the Montgomery County Fair for her birthday! Followed by going to Camp Tejas. She also loves the Beach, Marmee and Pappaw's house, The library, The park (as long as she has a friend there), Zero Gravity, the theater and the skating rink.
Finish
At this point, out of all 5 kids, Alexandria reminds me the most of myself. Not in the way she looks but in the way she acts. (the good and the bad) We definitely have some differences, but soooo many similarities. She adores animals and bugs, as do I. Especially reptiles, her favorite are dragons and mine happen to be turtles. She has a big heart for all living things and would love to pet every creature possible. I wanted to be a vet when I was little until I realized I would pretty much see hurting or scared animals all day. So she has said she would be a zoo keeper which seems like a great goal to me! She loves her family dearly, but also can be the most violent with them as well. The only person I would hit was my brother. Also like me at that age, she can be a little shy at first but when you get to know her she won't barely stop talking. Unfortunately, she got her fiery temper from me as well. I can see the same anger I felt boiling over in me as a child in her as well at times. I'm doing my best to help guide her through it like Marmee in Little Women guides Jo. Xan has a more tomboy like nature, but still likes girly things form time to time(me too!). She even inherited her car sickness from me! Sorry, girly! I could go on, but as I see it so far, Atlas is Sam's clone and Xan is looking like mine. It's interesting to parent myself sometimes! ;) Being her mom is such a joy and I love watching her learn and grow. Keep being uniquely you Alexandria!!
Happy 6th Birthday Baby girl! We love you so much!
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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