Capturing H

Capturing H has been harder for me. She is older, and more complex, or so I feel. It's taken me a while. But here's what I've written so far.

H you are 6 1/2. Always moving. Talkative. Emotional. And lovely. You have thin strawberry blond hair that you allowed me to get cut to chin length. You love dresses, skirts, sequins, shiny fabrics, faux fur, embroidered flowers and butterflies on jeans, and sparkly shoes. You will wear other colors happily, especially green and blue, but you still usually pick out pink. You think more about your clothing than I thought any six-year-old daughter of mine could. Picking out an outfit at the store this past weekend took you well over 30 minutes as you struggled with which shirt to buy. You understand modesty and make certain your outfits are modest.

You love your friends, screeching and squealing, upon their arrival. You hug and kiss them when they arrive and when they leave. Sometimes they tell you to stop with the physical signs of affection, usually you go one notch past funny. You especially love your friend Lily, often play with Anna from down the street and a third grader from the other side of the block named Noelle. With friends you usually play some kind of pretend game: kitties, princesses, house.

You love your things. All things are reusable in your mind, even the clear plastic seals around a tub of cottage cheese. You are certain you can use it for something. It doesn't matter if you haven't played with a toy in months, you can't possibly part from it. I think you associate things with memories--Lily gave you a pair or sparkly shoes that look terrible because all the sparkles on the toe have worn off but you still wear them and love them because Lily gave them to you. Your treasure box is filled to overflowing since you can't get rid of things and your bed is hard to move in because you store/hide so many things in it. You get angry with your sister when she gives things away to people and generally, sharing things, especially new things, is very difficult for you unless you can work out an advantageous trade for yourself.

You love to be tickled. You love to have band-aids on any little paper cut. You love to play games: cards or board games, tag or fuse ball. You love to eat sugary things. You are a good eater in general, almost always clearing your plate of everything I put on it. You eat vegetables and fruits happily, though bread and crackers would be your favorite choice, if sweets are off limits.

You wake up to an alarm now, dress yourself, put your pjs away, put your shoes on, brush your teeth, clean out the sink, etc. Last weekend you chopped the potatoes and celery for dinner and worked hard raking and bagging leaves in the backyard. There is still a lot to learn but I am pleased with how hard you work and how, usually, you don't complain much.

You are such a happy little girl: always smiling, laughing, and teasing. You are a little short on patience and often speak in an angry tone of impatience to your sister (I know where you learned this tone from). When someone does something for you or gets you a gift, you express your gratitude so many times it exhausts the gift giver.

You love to do things and to try things and take part in any sort of lessons. You just love people and activity. Reading has come more slowly to you than to your classmates, but you often sit in your bed at night and read to yourself. You have made a lot of progress in reading this year. Your writing, coloring, drawing, and paintings are nice but unless you are being unusually careful, are generally messy and scribbled. You do like to create things: books, 3-D art, real-life things made out of paper( a table, a cat, a paper necklace). You frequently raid the recycling bin for your creations. Right now you love to sing, and sing and sing. You make up long, loud songs and perform them, fishing for compliments on your voice (which to my untrained ear is ....rather average..sorry but average is better than mine!). You are high energy only stopping for a movie or an occasional hurt feeling.

Like most big sisters, you are carefully attuned to fairness. You notice if I compliment K but not you. You demand equal treatment and equal gifts. You can be quick to anger and sometimes forget to remain respectful to your parents. You've mastered the evil eye. We are working on this. You love God as much as you can though many times you say you don't know how to trust him, how to believe in him. I love your honesty--these aren't easy things. Mostly though, you are happy and playful. I love you H. I am so glad I get to be your mom.