Sofia at 5 years old!!

How did our little girl become a 5 year old? Sofia is a tall, beautiful, happy, outgoing girl who is now 46.5 inches tall and weighs 48 lbs! She is growing so quickly and wears size 6/7 clothes, which is to say dresses, since she almost only wears dresses and occasionally skirts and tops. It's a fight to get her into shorts, but when we go to the park or she does something active, she has to wear shorts. She'll have a favorite dress that she falls in love with and wants to wear it non-stop for days, but luckily she rotates between "favorites" so they do get washed.

Over the past few months she has slowly transitioned away from trains and is very much a horse lover, especially since her horse camps. She still plays with her trains, but now they mainly pull her horses around. She has also gotten into playing with her dolls, especially the little Polly Pockets that she can dress and undress (or rather, ask me to dress and undress). Although the Polly Pocket's clothes get used as fly masks for her horses too. She still loves to swim in our pool and meet up with friends for a play date since she's such a social little girl. Lately she's really taken to meeting our 9-year old neighbor Brandon for a morning scooter trip to the lake, followed by exploring on the "island" next to the lake, and then coming home to swim and play together. Luckily, he is an imaginative, easy-going friend to be with for Sofia. She's been busy this summer with horse camp, gymnastics, acting, nature camp and play dates and loves all of it and is always up for fun.

Today I picked her up from her last nature class at Bob Jones Nature Center, and her instructor Miss Monica, who has seen Sofia pretty regularly for the past 11/2 years, told me that Sofia is one of the most empathetic kids she's met. Whenever another kid is sad or doesn't want to say goodbye to their Mom, Sofia is the one who tries to help out, asks what's wrong and tries to distract them. Ms. Monica continued by telling me that Sofia is her "mother hen" who helps her organize the kids. Sofia will tell kids who continue to play after Ms. Monica has told the class to clean up that it's time to stop playing and clean. She also helps organize the little kids for the bathroom and to wash their hands. It was sweet to hear that Sofia is so helpful and especially that she's so empathetic. We'll miss Ms. Monica and the nature classes so much.

I must confess that I have very mixed emotions about this particular birthday since it signifies our sweet, playful girl going from being my near-constrant companion to heading off into the big world of school, friends, projects and learning. I know she'll love it and make good friends, love her teacher and be a quick study who enjoys learning, but I'll miss her so much. Not just being with her most of the day, but miss her sweet made-up stories about her trains and horses and watching her learn and create. I just hope school and schedules don't change our girl too much.

Our 5 year old (wearing her favorite dress and first candy necklace)

Such a sweet, pretty girl.

She fills up her chair pretty well now

and nearly touches the ground!

Sisters!

At the lake

Her other "favorite" outfit which was a present from her Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Jay this year.