Elizabeth at 6

Elizabeth is 6 today!

Every year, I will probably write about how I can't believe how big my baby is getting!

She's 40.4 pounds now! She's finally big enough to sit in a booster but since she still fits in her carseat, I'll try to keep her in there a little bit longer just for the safety factor.

As far as sleep, I'd say she sleeps about 10 hours a night. She is usually asleep by 8:30 and wakes up about 7:30. She's dry every night too! She finally used her last pullup somewhere in mid-December. No more diapers or pullups in this house!

Healthwise, she's very healthy. She gets colds but has had no other major issues lately. Her eczema is greatly improved this year. Last year, her hands in the winter were just completely scratched and bleeding. This year, they are almost perfectly normal! I'm not sure what changed. It has been a wetter winter and that might be why. She's also just growing. She still scratches at her feet a lot but still not to the point where they are bleeding like she used to.

We have not discovered any new allergies. Still just the peanuts and sunflower seeds and possibly hazelnuts. I'll take her in in June to re-evaluate. She's very good about wearing her epi-pens whenever she's out of my care.

She's still not a great eater however. She goes to bed hungry quite often because she refuses to eat what I cook. If it doesn't involve bread (breads, crackers, noodles, rolls, cereal) or cheese or some kind of processed food, she won't eat. I refuse to cook another special meal for her. She eats huge breakfasts though. I guess that's why.

She's in kindergarten all day this year. It's the first year the district offered all day kindergarten all year. At first, it was a rough adjustment. She couldn't get up in the morning and would be super fussy in the evenings. She's much better now though.

She's doing really well in school. The teacher has no complaints or worries. Mrs. M says Elizabeth has a fantastic attention span for a kindergartner, listens well and works really well with the other kids. She's doing really well learning all her sight words as they come and can read short easy books. She's good at sounding out words too. She can read books like "Gerald and Piggy." I think she's read them all! She's picking up her addition and subtraction facts quicker than I thought too! I love to watch her write little stories and draw little pictures to go with them. Socially she does pretty well too. She seems to play with all the little girls in her class and plays with different girls at recess. She says she does not like to play with the boys as they push and shove.

Playing imaginative games with Nathan is her favorite activity. They'll get home from school, have a snack, and then head outside (if it's decent) or play inside with their games. Their current favorite are Harry Potter games where they pretend they are the characters doing silly thing. They get along so much better than they used to. Often, I will hear Nathan say Elizabeth is his best friend. They still get into fights (especially when things don't go Nathan's way) but they play together really well without reffing most of the time!

Her funny little obsession right now is mustard. She wants to eat it on everything! I even bought her mustard for her birthday. Another little girl did too! She must talk about mustard at school!

I don't have her in any sports right now. Neither she nor Nathan seem to be too interested. They just want to come home and play all afternoon so I'm ok with that! Cheaper and I don't have to haul them around anywhere!

She likes to play with all of her jewelry and dresses up as different characters from the games they play.

We sure love Elizabeth! She's very good and fun to be around. Cute too!