It was a busy, hectic weekend dominated by C.’s seventh birthday. Actually, I should say C.’s birthday was the anchor to which the weekend was attached, because we were so busy her big day seemed to pass rather quickly.
It was kind of a reserved birthday in terms of gifts. We just got her a few small things, as she had already received her big present last month: we cleared out our guest room, got some new sheets, moved a few things around, and turned it into C.’s bedroom. Now each of the girls has their own room, which C. loves. I think L. has struggled with it a little, as she’s been appearing in our bed at night more often than she had done for a while. But she’ll get over it. C.’s room is always a mess, when she cleans it up, she is very proud to show it off.
Other than the small gifts we gave her Friday, she still had a solid birthday. She got to take Pop Tarts to school for a class treat. Her buddy next door gave her a BFF pillow that separates so they can both keep half. We had dinner at Dave & Buster’s with the neighbors, so C. was running around the arcade like a maniac, thinking the tickets she won, and turned into a couple pieces of cheap candy, were the greatest thing ever. And on Saturday her grandmother took her to a nail salon to get all of her nails done. M. has done that before, and loved it. But I think C. appreciates it on a whole other level than M. did. Girliest girl and all.
And so for my yearly State of the Daughter post, I will say that C. has made great strides this year. She still has emotional outbursts, which are utterly maddening to us. But they’ve gotten a little better, so the trend line there is good. She’s had a very good first year at St. P’s, making lots of new friends and great progress academically, too. Even with the first year of kindergarten at her old preschool, she struggled a bit with things like sight words and simple math last fall. Some of that is just her personality. She doesn’t have ADHD, but has that high energy, always active, easily distracted quality to her that can make you wonder sometimes. But she settled down, got the sight words down, and a few months ago started reading to us. Now she brings home books from the library and sails through them. We find little notes all over the house with her best guesses at words she hasn’t learned yet, which are utterly charming. I’ve started getting the books where a parent reads one page and the child reads the next and have had great fun working through those with her.
She’s also turned into quite the little artist. She’ll spend hours working on drawings and other art projects. It’s really the only thing that can get her to settle down and focus. Each day after school her folder is full of pages of brand new artwork.
C. is a silly, sweet, sensitive kid who is always bouncing off in different directions, physically and emotionally. Life is never boring with her around.