One year ago, Elena sat perched on another year of change. This is not uncommon for her....3rd birthday preparing for the move back to the US, 4th birthday preparing for the birth of her sibling, 5th birthday packing for a move to Kutztown. Each birthday we seem to be anticipating something major happening in life; this year is however different. We have no major news to announce. And I think this is a good thing for our little girl.
Elena is now 6 years old. And for some reason her 6th birthday seems harder than usual. Second only to her first birthday, which following the cake and presents involved us drinking wine and crying over the videos of her first year. Some how this year she seems older. She is reading - I mean really reading. Like she read all of her birthday cards (a few errors, but none the less). When she reads, it still astounds me. I'm amazed that she can do this. I know that we've been reading to her for years and that she's been talking in paragraphs since age 18 months. Sure she has been learning her letters and writing the names of friends....but still it seems like a miracle when she reads books! I'm quite certain that I didn't read in kindergarten. I know Jake didn't because he was blind as a bat, his vision undiagnosed until 1st grade when he was amazed to learn that for all those months the teacher had been writing on the board during class. Elena reads books to Egan. She reads cereal boxes. And sadly now she can also piece together our parental trick of S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G things. In fact we have taken to spelling things to her so we don't have to say them in front of Egan. How did she get so smart? And she does math, too. She likes to sit up stairs and do math problems for fun 'so her brain will grow.' Now I know that Jake and I are dorks of amazing proportion - but I do not recall doing math for fun so early in life. She'll sit at her dry erase board making up math problems for hours.
Kindergarden has been quite the adventure. Mrs. Patton (known informally by Jake and I as General P due to her uncanny ability to keep quiet control of a room of 5 & 6 year olds - I'm pretty sure that if I was a kindergarten teacher there would be screaming, crying, probably some sort of explosion or flood and you'd find me drinking in my car in the teachers lot) has inspired much of Elena's academic growth. For the most part, Elena really likes school. She loves her journals and projects. She likes her science centers, art, music, fitness...and of course recess and lunch! It was hard to 'sit so much' when she first arrived, but she seems to have settled in. We feel very lucky to have such a hands on, inspiring teacher as Mrs. Patton.
In addition to 'real school' there is also 'play school' (as Elena calls it). The Alley Cats (as we call the neighbor kids) play school several times a week for HOURS. The oldest kid (usually Kaylin) is the teacher and then Elena, Zeb, and Kelly are the students. They have fitness, art, spelling and math tests, worksheets...the whole nine yeards. When not playing school they are using the gas power golf cart as an ambulance and taking turns being the injured person, nurse, doctor, and driver (well, not the kindergarteners yet).
Her growth has been amazing. It's like she is in her spring, new growth everywhere. But, to keep the analogy, it has been a hard winter for Elena. This has been a tough year for her. I guess that with everything that we've thrown at her, the move away from Blacksburg was just a little too much. Some how it seemed to hit at a tender time. She grieved the loss of her two best friends, Mia and Xander (and by that I mean cried herself to sleep clutching photos - talk about parental heart break.) The fall was spent mostly just wanting to go back to the place she was. No doubt that the stress of being a 'kindergarten' added to the effect. We all felt the loss of the Maroon room and going to kindergarten in a new town was sort of like learning to swim by running through your sprinkler for practice before jumping into the deep end. We were all better prepared by Alexa, Jen, and Amanda than we thought, but it was still a shock to the system. Over the fall we came to realize that this move caused some true anxiety in our little girl and we are all working hard to help develop new coping techniques for the stress that she feels (and puts on herself).
Elena and Egan maintain a very special relationship. They don't fight nearly as much as I recall fighting with my brother! And so far no one has been stabbed with a pencil or backed over with by a car (events from the Sewall side). Elena loves to read to Egan and they will play games together. She maintains an uncanny ability to translate his needs and select things that he needs and wants. And sometimes she does use this against him by teasing, but mostly she is a very loving, connected, and special big sister. He clearly adores her and pretty much wants to be like her.
Over the last part of this year, Elena has become much more out going in larger groups and with kids. She enjoyed meeting new people and playing at the playground with other kids now. Elena has also been taking swimming classes (we got behind in the Netherlands and never caught up) and she is starting to enjoy the pool (heated and covered for the winter!) and wearing her goggles. She is getting physically braver and taking more risks as she gets older.
Usually these updates end with a hint of what it is to come....the next big stepping stone on the path of life is ready for her to leap on to. This year, kiddo, it's all up to you. What adventures does the next year hold? What big challenge will you tackle? How will you grow? It's all up to you and we know you will do amazing things. We love you so much.
