A letter to my 5 year old daughter, JJ

A letter to my daughter JJ. I hope one day, when JJ is old enough to want to remember, she will enjoy looking back on what she was like as an awesome 5 year old girl.

Dearest JJ,

Five is a big milestone for you. You’ve been waiting for this, I can see it in your eyes. Given that you are young for your school year, I think you feel like you’ve finally caught up.

You are growing into such an awesome person, and I am so proud to be your mum. (Gushy mum alert: I’ve got real tears streaming down my face as I’m typing this, because I love you so very much.)

Here’s a few fun facts about what’s going on in your life right now.

• You like the name Llana (pronounced Leh-larna), or Lana for short, and have asked if we can change your name to that. I’ve suggested that perhaps we could try it out for a while first. And sometimes we do.

• You’ve been on three pony rides in the last few months. You share my love of animals. You want to be a farmer when you grow up, and see these pony rides as the start of learning to ride. So whilst it’s lots of fun, you also take it very seriously.

• You’re also a self proclaimed “science girl”. You want to ask all the ‘how, why and what if’ questions. You want to build and de-construct. You’ve got a fantastic memory for all the little facts and details.

• Your favourite colour is deep blue…. and pink, and purple.

• We just had a ‘rainbow magic’ fairy party for your birthday with all your friends. Melody the Fifth Birthday Party Fairy came. You asked to have breakfast in bed and eat off the special plate for dinner. You said that the best part of your birthday was that everyone wanted to sit next to you, and that you got to go first in all the games. For you, it was more about experiences, and less about presents. We’ve been trying to instil this as one of our family values, and so I especially love to see that you’re believing in this too.

• You’re long-sighted in your right eye, and started wearing glasses towards the end of last year.
• You started kindergarten in February. You love school, you love learning, and you especially love your teacher. You’re so well-behaved in class, that sometimes I wonder where all your naughtiness has gone. (And occasionally, when it’s been too hard being good all day long, your naughtiness appears again when we get home.)

• You’re learning to read. It’s absolutely fascinating to watch it all coming together. But I’m trying not to push you too much. You still love being read to: you could listen to stories for hours on end, and I don’t want to squash this enthusiasm by pushing you too far, too soon.

• After books, we snuggle in bed together, whispering sweet nothings until you fall asleep. This is when you ask all the big questions, like why isn’t ‘hie’ or ‘bie’ a word, or how come we have cars. You’re still a night owl: sleeping has never come easily.
• You’ve got a boyfriend ‘C’, and you profess your dying love to each other on a daily basis. You’re getting married in Brisbane (or maybe Ireland) when you grow up, and even though I’ll apparently be a very, very old woman by then, I’m still invited to the wedding.

• You’ve got ballet one day a week, and Mandarin on another. The rest of the time, we are intentionally trying to do ‘not much’. Lots of walking to and from school. Lots of digging outside in the garden just for the fun of it. Lots of jumping on the trampoline. Lots of dressing up. Lots of building with Lego. Lots of drawing and colouring in. Lots of collecting autumn leaves.

Not everyone gets to see the ‘you’ that I see, but to me, you’re like a ray of sunshine. Sure you squabble with your sister, show off when you have a friend over, and make a huge mess of the loungeroom on a daily basis. But when I look into your big brown eyes, I wish I could snap-freeze you just as you are.

Love you to pieces,
Mummy. xx

(PS: You can find all my letters to my daughters JJ and Bee on my parenting page.)