It always takes me so long to write these yearly posts because I want to document everything about you at this age, it goes by way too fast. Of course that's impossible, but here's my best attempt :) As you get older, I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I do. We just love you to pieces, Ashley, you bring such joy to our lives and we appreciate the positive influence you have on your brother and everyone who meets you. You're respectful, curious, kind, thoughtful, and so sweet. Isaiah looks up to you so much and wants to do the all the things you're doing. Your patience and eagerness to teach him is much appreciated. You look forward to going to Kindergarten every day and come home excited to share what you've learned. You enjoy sitting down at the counter to do your homework while we cook dinner. While it takes some kids the whole week to complete, you're done in one sitting and Isaiah is right by your side curious as to what you're learning. He has his crayons and "homework" to do too. If given free time at school or home your choice is to draw or color, you also love puzzles. I often wonder if you'll be an artist some day, I always wanted to be one. You're learning to read very well this year and have a lot of patience with it. When you come across a word you don't know you use the pictures to help you guess, but when that doesn't work you sound it out and don't get frustrated. I think this personality trait is a huge advantage for you. We started your first chapter book (one of the American girl books) and when we ask you what the story is about you impress me with your memory and the amount of detail you recall. You've learned to jump rope in school and love to run. I have a feeling you'll get into track when you're older. You tried a soccer class at the community center, but it wasn't really your thing, especially when we told you it's normally an outdoor sport and most likely will have to play in the rain. So, we're going back to dance and you'll start a tap class in January and maybe start ballet again. Your good friends from school are Olivia, Makenna, Abby, and Elizabeth. You still have a very unique sense of style and love to plan your outfit every day. You're ideal outfit is something cozy, pink or purple, sparkly, layered, and two or more pairs of socks. You have narrow feet just like GG, so I think the extra layer helps fill in the gaps. You still love to pack things in bags. I often have to go through them to find something that's been missing for a while. I can't blame you, though, I did that when I was younger too. In fact, I still do and it kind of makes me smile that I can see a little of me in you! This year you re-joined the TEDDY study. We left the decision to you and you did it on your own time. You wanted to help diabetes research, but needed time to be more brave. You weren't up for the blood draw yet, but you did ok with the finger prick test after many weeks of talking and explaining how it was all going to work. The promise of gifts in the mail helped a little. You were also compensated a small amount for participating, so with that and your birthday money you opened up your own checking account with Papa. You haven't lost any teeth, but kids at school have, so there has been a lot of talk about the "Tooth Fairy". We took you to the orthodontist a few months ago to see how best to correct your underbite. Preparing for the worst, we talked to you a lot about braces and how cool they were because you get to pick your own color rubber bands. When they told you all you might need is a retainer in a few years, you were a little disappointed. With the pain you've been having waiting for your 6 year molars to come in, I'm not sure you were ready to handle braces anyways. Pain is one thing you don't do very well with. I'm sure you'll remember how often we tell you to be tough so when the time comes when you're really hurt, we won't just brush it off. You're growing up so much, I'm hesitant and excited to see what the next year brings. If it were up to me, I would keep you little forever!
