Dear Lily – You Are Five!

It has been 5 whole years since you made your entrance into our world, half a decade has passed us by already and it only seems like yesterday we brought you home.

The most noticeable change you have had in the last 3 months is your confidence. You talk about your likes and dislikes with a real passion, and you look up to your brother, but no longer follow his lead, instead you make your own choices. Your vocabulary has exploded too, and you love explaining how things work, or what you think. In December you stood up in front of a hall full of adults and sang and danced for your Christmas play, my shy little Lily, bravely stood up in front of all those people. I could see from your smile that you were bursting with pride, but no one could be more proud than us, you are amazing.

You have struggled this term at school. Academically you are thriving, and you are such a friendly, helpful and happy girl and you try to be everyone’s friend. You have struggled at break times when you have been playing with James, and you have seen him hurt or treated unfairly. Just before Christmas – James bumped into a little boy by accident and the boy who was more than 3 years your senior, almost double your age, threatened to hurt your brother. You reacted instinctively and stood in front of your brother to protect him and the boy and his friend hurt you instead. Words can’t describe how upset I was that someone had hurt the shyest, most caring and peaceful member of our little family.  Since then you have been more protective of your older brother, and you have cried a few times at school when he has been hurt or treated unfairly by his peers.

You love school, and love praise and rewards for good work. You are able to write in sentences, and you are picking up spellings really quickly. You have moved up a level for reading and now have ‘red’ books, and you are very proud of yourself. You try to join in with James spelling tests and you are thrilled when you get words right, but cry when you get them wrong, even when we explain that he is a full school year above you and had a week to practice!

You really admire your teachers and they are usually the second people on your list when you have an achievement or story to share. You love playing teachers at home with Amy, your favourite parts are taking the register and delivering it to the office, awarding ‘star of the week’ and giving out stickers. Through play, it’s easy to see how you mimic your school environment. When you play the teacher, you are always very clear, kind and nurturing to your class, although your only student (Amy) is really obedient!

You are 110cm tall now, and have grown a full 2cm in the last three months. You are nimble and quick and incredibly strong for your age. You are the first to the top of any climbing frame, and able to support your own weight for much longer than your siblings. You are very confident with your body, and you pick up anything new in seconds. We tried the wheelbarrow race at your Aunties at Christmas and everyone was shocked at how strong you were, you can dangle from Daddy’s pull-up bar for a long time! You wanted a flicker for your birthday and you picked up the movement in seconds and were whizzing down the path.

You are thoughtful and caring. Its never too much trouble to help your younger siblings, and help without a second thought. You fasten shoes and zip up coats, and open sweets without being asked. You are incredibly generous and love to share with your sisters & friends.

At school, you receive a coin each week for attendance, and at the end of each week, you can choose to exchange your coin for a small prize or save it for a larger prize. In your first term at school, you saved your coins for 5 weeks for a fairy colouring-in book, which you gifted straight to Amy. It was such a kind gesture, and you had saved for so long that it made me cry.

You have a fantastic relationship with James, and you seem to know exactly what to say to make him laugh. You both have each other in fits of giggles, and when Amy joins in too I can hardly get a word in edgeways! You also know exactly how to wind each other up too depending on your moods! You play for hours with Amy making dens, having tea party’s and playing babies, you play so nicely together its a pleasure to watch. You are very good with your youngest sister Ava too, and you make her laugh, pass her toys and you move anything that you feel is dangerous away. Ava loves you too and rewards you with some amazing smiles, and sometimes even cries when you move away from her.

You are a sensitive soul and sometimes take things to heart. You have cried a few times recently because you don’t want me to leave or die. I am not sure where this fear has come from, but you keep mentioning that my Grandma died, (your Great Grandma) and telling me that you want to see her. I know she would have absolutely loved you to pieces, and I really wish she could have met you too.

I am so very proud of the young lady you have become, you are truly beautiful inside and out.

Daddy and I love you to the stars and back again, and we always will.