She's six....

Sophia turned six...three and a half months ago. I know. I've been awful at keeping up with this blog thing. Life just keeps on happening. Anyway, Sophia is six and while I may be terribly late at getting it up, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post my annual ten things I love about my kid list. It seems like Sophia has grown up a lot in the last year. She's losing teeth, has friends I've never met, and no longer likes all of the clothes I pick out for her. And while most of the time she still thinks I'm really cool, every once in a while I get a look from her letting me know just how lame I really am. I am amazed, however, at the person she is growing into. It was too easy to come up with a list of ten things I love about Sophia. I could have written a thousand, but here are ten...

1. Sophia is a learner. She is a girl after my own heart. Sophia loves to learn. She soaks up knowledge, loves to ask questions and share facts. She loves to read and talk about what she has read. Sophia could play the "what if" and "why" game all day. In this respect, she is a teacher's dream, and she makes her teachers look really good.

2. Not only is she a learner, but she makes really interesting connections too. Several months ago when having a conversation about death, Sophia made the comment that everyone should love God so they can live forever.... "And, you know, become vampires." Theology meets pop-culture right there. True, we have some ironing out of our theology to do, but really, that is some good connecting of things she has learned about. She frequently connects life situations to things she has read or learned about in school.

3. Sophia is proud to be a girl. While she has always been drawn to all things pink and sparkly, only recently have I come to understand how her girly-ness is really not as far from my feminist tendencies as one might think. She loves being a girl. She knows what she likes and is confident about expressing it. Being a strong, confident girl, of course she likes glam and glitz...and even tennis shoes once in a while. What more could I ask for than for my girl to be proud of who she is? While it scares me sometimes to see the way that pop culture influences and shapes Sophia's taste, it is fascinating to watch her take in her world and express herself. Her taste in clothes and other things is often different than mine (I know, no surprise) but I admire her boldness and the way her sense of style matches her personality.

4. Sophia is confident. When Sophia was a strong willed two year old, we taught her the mantra, "I am a smart, strong woman" to remind us as parents that who we allow her to be as a child shapes who she will be as an adult. And wow, she is really growing into that! So often I see her walk into what I would imagine to be a scary situation with her head held high and a smile on her face. Sophia enjoys a challenge and rarely backs down.

5. Sophia wants to be a runner! (Yes, I admit that this is a little self-absorbed of me to list this among the things that I love about her, but really, I could get on a soapbox about how good athletics are for girls.) Off and on last summer Sophia talked about wanting to take up running. Last fall one of Sophia's friends ran in the Kansas City Kids' Marathon and got a medal. Well, that sealed the deal. Sophia has decided to be a runner and is actually doing it. She is now working on completing the kids' marathon herself. I'm not sure whether she really enjoys running, really wants that medal, or really enjoys the time with me that keeps her going, but she's doing it.

6. She loves being a sister. Sophia has always been very loving and understanding with Grant, but I have been blown away with the enthusiasm with which she has taken to having a baby sister. Lillian may be the luckiest little girl in the world to have Sophia for a big sister. Sophia cannot get enough of that baby! She talks to her, sings to her, and will do anything to make that kid smile. A while back I was telling Sophia, "Just think, by this time next year Lillian will be walking around, getting into things, and you will be saying 'Lillian, get out of my stuff'." Sophia was taken aback and said very seriously, "Why would I ever say that?!? She is my baby sister, so of course I'll share my things with her." We'll see. I love that she truly believes that right now though. My heart swells when I imagine the relationship that I can envision my girls having years from now.

7. She is gracious. Truth be told, I feel like I've needed a lot of grace as a parent this year. The whole being pregnant, having a baby, and working full time kind of got the best of me this year. Time and time again when I was feeling like far less of a quality parent than I'd like to admit, Sophia wrapped her arms around my neck and told me that I'm "the best mom ever". And it's not that she has been blissfully ignorant either. There have been many, many times this year when Sophia has not gotten her way and she has been patient and understanding with her mom, brother, and sister. She is a gracious and forgiving kid who loves her people. She humbles me sometimes.

8. Quality time is Sophia's love language. I bet if I looked back at Sophia's birthday lists this characteristic would be on each of them. Sophia loves people and will do almost any activity if it means spending time with the people she cares about. More than anything else Sophia wants to spend quality time with people. She is a talker and likes to fill her time with people asking questions (many, many, many questions) and telling stories. I wish I had her gift of being able to slow down and truly be in the moment enough to really enjoy people as much as she does.

9. Sophia remembers and anticipates things. She counts down days until exciting events (right now we are counting down to a Taylor Swift concert!) and later savors the memories of those events by looking at pictures and telling the "remember when" stories. Stories of our experiences are important to her. Sophia still talks regularly about our trip to Disney last year and anticipates when we will go back with Lillian. I think part of this quality goes back to quality time being her love language. She enjoys her time with people and relives those times by telling the stories.

10. She's got a lot of sass and spunk, but deep down has a wise and compassionate heart. Sophia is a firecracker and sometimes the things she says cracks us up. Sometimes she plays the part of a flake and sometimes she truly drives me crazy (like right now, she has asked about 50 times in the last 4 minutes how many more minutes it will be before Lillian wakes up from her nap). But her first name means "wisdom" and and her middle name is Grace, and when I watch interact with her brother and sister or when I hear her talk about her friends at school, or when she hugs my neck and tells me that I'm "the best mom ever", I know that she is growing into her name. She is a special kid, and I am so glad she's mine.