Happy 5th Birthday, Myla James!

This month, MJ turned five!  It's a big one, and we celebrated accordingly.  Myla had cupcakes with her t-ball teammates, again with her class at school, and then a party and outing to the Reds game with all our family in Kentucky.  And on her actual birthday, she chose to have dinner at Ci Ci's before we headed to putt-putt and Ritters.  Good times!

So, what is Myla like at five?  Let's start with the physical.  At her checkup, she was 43 inches and 36 pounds, putting her at 59th percentile for height and 22nd for weight.  It seems like she's really grown lately, and she has (finally!) started eating a lot.  I have the feeling that we're on the verge of a big growth spurt in the next year.  She has decided to start growing her hair out, which has changed her look quite a bit.  I miss her signature bob, but she's making the new style look good too.  She has also gotten a lot more coordinated this year--she's learned to skip, jump rope, ride her bike with training wheels, hit a baseball, and run a little bit faster.  :)

Myla continues to be a smart cookie.  She's so articulate and understands me so well that it's really fun to have conversations with her.  She has started learning to read in the last year, though it's her writing that really amazes me.  She's really mastered her letters and loves to try to write words.  She'll make you a card for nearly any occasion, or none at all.  One day she decided to make a book, complete with illustrations, entitled "Silly Skunk."  Her memory continues to blow my mind.  She's also learned to read numbers and do a little math.  Her teacher was amazed one day when she made a repeating pattern of six colors, unprompted.  She continues to ask lots of questions, and increasingly comes up with good answers all on her own.  I absolutely can't wait to see what she learns in kindergarten.

Myla is also a fantastic big sister.  Now that Luke is a full-fledged playmate, they play together constantly.  Even at school, when they can choose among any number of friends, I always find them playing with each other.  I'm not saying they can't drive me crazy with their fights, but I have to say they fight much less frequently than most siblings I know.  In fact, I find myself separating them because they're getting along too well--making each other scream with laughter, or chasing each other through the kitchen. They just genuinely seem to like one another.  One of my biggest hopes for them is that that continues throughout their lives.

Next, Myla's likes.  In addition to writing, she loves art of any kind.  I can hardly keep her stocked with paper.  This year she has played T-ball, and her favorite parts have been having her dad as her coach and her best friends on the team.  She likes playing too, but at four I think it's still mostly a social event.  She loves Gymnastics Michiana and has really improved in a year.  Her favorite event is the bars, and she can now do the monkey bars on the playground like a pro.  She also did ballet last summer and enjoyed it as well, but we dropped it because we didn't want to over-schedule our four-year old.  :)  She likes brushing my hair, though not as much as I like it.  She likes fun songs on the radio, like "I Love it!" and "Party Rockin' in the House Tonight," and I'll often find her singing a recent pop song that I had no idea she knew.  Recently, she has been seriously into Star Wars, because Matthew started showing her his toys from his childhood.  They're working on watching the movies together, and the shirt she got for her birthday has become her instant favorite (see below).  She likes food-related TV shows, like Man vs. Food, Cupcake Wars, and Chopped.

What else?  Her best friends are still Emily and Hailey, though her social circle has expanded a lot in the last year--new favorites include Megan Sullivan, Violet Kinnucan, and Paetra (last name unknown to me).  Her favorite colors are pink, purple, and yellow.  She loves ice cream and smoothies.  She is helpful, kind, funny, and a great friend.  She's gotten a lot braver this last year, too.  She's still extremely loving, and adores me and Matthew--I fear that school will change that, so I'm enjoying it while I can!

Happy birthday, Myla! Can't wait to see you grow this year!