Eveyln is Five!

Evelyn Grace Cracknell:

Enthusiastic
Vibrant
Empathetic
Loving
Youthful
Notable

Gregarious
Romantic
Animated
Capricious
Energetic

Captivating
Robust
Amiable
Cheerful
Kind
Nurturing
Embracing
Lithe
Lively

She celebrated her 5th birthday on Jan 12th. I made a cake to take into her class, and we had a little party there. She loved wearing a ribbon declaring her birthday and she exuberantly shared with everyone "It's my birthday today!".

We plan to have a 'real' party on Sunday. I'll post more pics after that.

So, at 5 years old, Evelyn is 44 1/4 inches (3 ft 8 1/4 inches) tall and weighs 42 lbs. This puts her in the 65th% for weight and 81st% for height. Again, long and lean how you could describe her! She's gained a bit over 33 lbs and has grown about 2 feet since she was born. (This paragraph is written tongue-in-cheek. I am chuckling over how unimportant these details have become when they used to be so vital when she was a baby!)

"Baby" is not a word to describe her any more! Aside from the words I used in the acrostic of her name, I'd also use the words extroverted, sanguine, imaginative, intense, and peaceable. She is very in-tune with the emotions of those around her, and will try to make others feel better. Often, this manifests as a 'joke' that is funny to...well, her! and maybe Ethan! Or, she'll just give you a hug and ask to see your smile. She pays more attention to the expressions on peoples faces than to the words they are saying. She will be more bothered by me having a mad face than by my mad tone of voice. While I am thankful that she is aware of the people around her and how they feel, I can see how this could lead to her behaving a certain way to get the reaction she wants, and not because she genuinely wants to act that way. I've been working with her on using her own feelings to judge a situation, rather than the feelings of others. For example, she'll often ask "Are you proud of me for colouring this picture?" and I'll reply "I do think you put a lot of effort into your colouring. How do you feel about it? Are you proud of your picture?" She usually replies "Yes" and I'll say something like "Then that's all the reason you need to feel happy about it."

During her toddler and pre-school years, her emotions got the best of her frequently. Thankfully, that phase has mostly passed and Evelyn now has pretty good control of herself. She will get hyper and a bit unruly occasionally, but settles after having some quiet time to herself.

She is in kindergarten this year, and is doing well. Her school has full day classes, 4 days a week. I was uneasy about the long weeks in September, but after adjusting, she's managing very well. She has mastered her upper and lower case letters and know almost all of their phonetic sounds. She knows about 8+ words by sight, and is starting to sound out the letters to figure out short words. I suspect that she knows more words than what I've tested her on. Ryan is very impressed with her comprehension level. She can answer most questions you might think to pose to her about a story she's heard. Not all her answers are right, but she can present each answer logically and can usually back up her points.

Evelyn has had a fairly long line of intense fears over her life, but has gotten control of each of them in time. Now, her fears are heights, and having her door closed at night, but they're not as intense - or irrational - as her fear of table fans from 2 years ago!

Her favorite things are little figures. Littlest Pet Shop, Polly Pocket, Playmobile, and (still!) Little People are the things she plays with most. She loves to set up stories with the figures and will work on her stories for hours! They are usually happy stories like birthday parties, or going shopping, or a music concert. I enjoy eavesdropping on her as she seamlessly switches from one character to the other when she verbalizes the story.

She loves puzzles and can do 100 piece ones independently, 150 piece with a bit of help. She will stick with a puzzle for about an hour, and usually completes it at about that time. Colouring and drawing are the other activities that take up the bulk of her time. She is showing definite preference for her right hand now, but can still use her left quite strongly.

She also LOVES animals and would be on cloud 9 if we ever got her a dog. She has a few stuffed dogs and cats that she regularly plays with. She builds them houses, beds, toys, leashes etc and gives them names.

"Lilly" is her favorite name right now. When asked what she would name her child when she becomes a Mommy, she immediately states "Lilly!" When asked for a boy's name, she is stumped. "Cutie" and "Vine" were two of her recent ideas for boy names, and those were reluctantly given. She would rather not think about having a son!

Evelyn loves to sing and make up 'memory verses'. They are usually praise and thanksgiving related. I will try to have her sing some on camera the next time the mood hits her. She has quite a few verses memorized as songs and will sing them to me when I need reminding - as I will sing them to her when she needs to hear them too! I love that she can apply what she's remembered.

Other random bits about Evelyn...she still has not figured out how to ride a bike/tricycle. She loves to dance, she loves the movie 'Barbie and the Three Musketeers'. She still loves Dora the Explorer, though not as much as last year. As extroverted as she is, she doesn't like extended phone conversations (unlike her brother!). She seems to prefer the city to the country and often makes comments about how small Caslan is.

She asked the other day about creation. The conversation went something like this:

Evelyn: "God made the world, right Mom?"
"Yes, he did." I reply
"Then he made the plants and the animals and the people, right?"
"That's right"
"So then the people had to make the buildings."
"Yes, I hadn't thought much about that, but you're right."
"Okay, so the builders must have gotten tired."
"What do you mean?"
"When they built our town. They must have been tired because they only built a little bit and then stopped"
"That's a very logical deduction Evelyn. I'm not sure why our town is so small. Maybe they did get tired!" LOL!

Happy 5th Birthday to my baby girl!