Charlotte Eve: 5 years old

My littlest one is 5! We are well and truly past any baby stage in this house. And this girl is 5 going on 15.

Charlotte is, as always, amazing. She is strong, smart, and witty.  She has a mind like a steel trap, and holds on to memories and information both inside and outside of school.  She is continuing to grow, at her 5 year well-visit she was:
Height: 42.25" (47 %ile)
Weight: 42 lbs (66 %ile)

Charlotte has a zest for life, and an eagerness and excitement around new things and thrilling experiences. She is swimming, diving, and riding a bike with no training wheels. She is strong, brave, and independent. She loves thrill rides at the amusement park (as long as they aren't as thrilling as Guardians of the Galaxy) and will ride them over and over, as long as she is allowed.  She has always tried things earlier than her peers (i.e. walking, makeup), and that continues. She likes to keep up with her brothers- mainly Asher, who shares many of her interests.

She loves to do arts and crafts of any kind. She colors in coloring books, does craft kits, paints, makes jewelry, and enjoys helping out in the kitchen.  She draws adorable pictures, mainly of our family, or cats.  Charlotte loves anything cat-related, and probably half of her clothing has cats on it.  She also carries around a small family of cats everywhere she goes.

Posing at the doctor's office at her 5 year well-visit

 Charlotte is loving her kindergarten class at her preschool.  She knows all her letters and numbers, and has for some time, and is now working on reading. She knows a lot of sight words, and can work with me to sound out many others. If she wanted to read, she would be fully reading, but she gets easily frustrated at the prospect of sounding things out so I don't push, but I do encourage.  Socially, she is quite adept. Just like last year, her friends gather around her to hug her goodbye at the end of every day, and they all beg for play dates.

We have eliminated after school activities for Charlotte this year, mostly because I just didn't get my act together to sign her up for anything, but also because there are fewer hours for activities now that she is in school 5 full days a week. She has asked for dance, gymnastics, and now drama, so hopefully we can narrow it down sometime soon. 

Charlotte also adores watching horrible videos on YouTube. She is partial to "DIY life hacks" or some variation thereof, as well as the strange videos of adults opening and playing with toys (creepy, in my opinion). She has actually offered a few life hacks gathered from YouTube that have been helpful, like using a rubber band on my baking soda box to level off teaspoons while baking. Like I said, mind like a steel trap.

Her eating habits haven't really changed. She is mostly vegetarian in her diet, and prefers fruits over vegetables. She will eat eggs, yogurt, hummus, carbs of all kinds, and desserts of all kinds. We recently moved her into a new room (bigger, with a big bed) and Eric discovered many hidden candy wrappers in Charlotte's room- she is a little sneaky!  Some meals Charlotte will eat nothing at all, and at others she will have several courses. We mostly let her do her thing; she is never lacking for energy and is growing well.

The big girl still loves her stuffed animals. Gray Kitty and Black-and-White Kitty are her favorites, and Gray Kitty is looking even more gray and even more saggy.  She also has an assortment of Beanie Boos and other animals who get arranged around her bed and pillows each night before she goes to sleep.

Charlotte has stopped being a small sociopath and has shown indications that she is capable of empathy!  She has started noticing how other people feel and attending to their tone of voice. She is often sweet and loving, and still allows herself to be snuggled and kissed. She has her moments of being emotional and unreasonable and whiny, but in general she is good-natured and a pleasure to be around. 

I know it has been 5 years, but I continue to be astonished that she is my daughter. She is growing into a friend, a companion whose company I genuinely enjoy. I have, so far, the relationship I always dreamed I would have with a daughter of my own.  How lucky we all are to have her in our lives.