You are FIVE today! A whole handful! Five years ago this morning, at 8:46am you entered this world and we've never been the same. You are growing into such a precious young lady and we love you so much. Your beautiful head full of curls and your sweet smile bring joy to everyone around you. You have had quite a full and fun year and I wish I could keep you at this age forever! But at the same time, I am excited to see what another year will bring.
~We still call you "Bears" as much as we call you "Caroline"! You also go by Bearoline, Caresy, and Liney Bear.
~ You played your first organized sports this year after two long years of sitting on the bleachers watching Anna Kate. You played t-ball in the spring and did very well at bat, but excelled at fielding the ball at the pitchers' mound! You just finished your soccer season last night and had a blast. Your team name was the "Bears" and you loved hearing everyone cheer, "Go Bears!" You did a great job at goalie and even scored a few goals throughout the season!
~ Your reading has taken off in the past few months! Actually, last year during our homeschool days you weren't extremely interested in working on learning to read, so I didn't push you much. Then, over the summer you suddenly started to sound out everything you were seeing! We opened up Alpha-Phonics again and you started sailing through it. You now love to get your own library books and read them on your own!
~ You also love to write in your journal and do copywork. You find favorite picture books and just copy out every word in your notebook. You also have started leaving sweet little post-it note messages around the house for me and Daddy.
~ You had a bit of a rough spring health-wise. After a couple of middle of the night ER scares and several pediatric pulmonology appointments, you were officially diagnosed with chronic persistent asthma. Words like flowmeter, inhaler, and nebulizer became a part of your everyday vocabulary. However, you have handled it all like such a big girl and we now have it completely under control. Just one little puff morning and night and we haven't had any issues in months! Your pulmonologist is thrilled with how you're doing and we are too! We are very glad that it seems like your asthma is only triggered by outside illnesses (viruses, colds, etc.) and not exercise. So you can run and play to your heart's content and never have a problem!
~ You absolutely LOVE babies - tiny babies all the way up to toddlers who aren't much smaller than you are! You have an extremely nurturing personality and always want to make sure the little ones are ok. You also like to boss them around a little bit :)
~ You have really started to play your violin more this year! You performed your first fingers-down song (I'm a Little Monkey) at our Spring recital and you are now working on your Twinkles!
~ You have really been enjoying our read-aloud times going through the Little House on the Prairie series. We are now into The Long Winter and you take in every word. You and your sisters still love to play Laura and Mary and act out their prairie life.
~ You hit two major milestones of childhood this year - riding a two-wheel bicycle and learning to do cartwheels! You love to do both for hours on end in the backyard.
~ You tend to be pretty bashful in big groups and never want to be the center of attention. However, in smaller groups where you are comfortable around everyone, you are very outgoing and make friends very easily!
~ It's hard to be a middle child, but you are a good one. Whereas Anna Kate and Eleanor are a little too far apart in age to ever argue about anything, you have plenty of opportunities to work on your peacemaking skills with both of them! Most of the time, though, you play really well with Anna Kate doing big girl things, but you also love to play little girl things with Eleanor.
~ You do your best thinking at night. You take a little while to go to sleep each night and become quite a little philosopher. You often will call us back up to talk to us about whatever is on your heart.
~ You are NOT a morning person, but you say that when Anna Kate wakes up at 7am, she wakes you up and you can't go back to sleep. So you come down the stairs with your eyes barely peeking open and snuggle under blankets on the couch for the first 15 minutes of your day. After that, you're finally ready to start Bible Time.
~ During our morning times, you are memorizing Scripture and poetry right alongside your big sister. It is amazing how much you can remember!
~ After our memory time each morning, we pull out the IMB prayer app on my iPad and you find the Kids on Mission section. It's always your job to read out loud the prayer requests from IMB missionary kids from around the world. You take this job very seriously and love to pray for their needs and for them to tell lots of people about Jesus.
~ You have an extremely compassionate heart. Just over the past couple of weeks as we experienced some of the effects of Hurricane Matthew, your heart was absolutely broken for the people who were not as fortunate. You kept wanting to pray for "the people on all the islands." In fact, one day at lunch as you were praying you just started sobbing and could hardly stop. Sweet Caroline, I know that Jesus has given you that compassion and we pray that he will use you to be his hands and feet to many people.
Caroline, you are such a joy to our family and these past five years have been some of the sweetest of our lives. While it's bittersweet to watch your baby and toddler days come to an end, we are loving this newstage of childhood that you are entering. You are coming into your own and you are so precious to us. We love you forever and always.
Love,
Mommy, Daddy, Anna Kate, and Eleanor.
And here is a picture from EACH of your birthdays!
October 18, 2011
First Birthday
Second Birthday
Third Birthday
Fourth Birthday
Fifth Birthday!!!!!
