Zoe’s Fifth Birthday Letter

Dear Zoe,

I know this letter is over a month late, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about it since your fifth birthday. Fifth birthday! How is that even possible? For five remarkable years, you have made your impression on our lives. It’s amazing how throughout the past five years all of our individual lives have molded into the life of our family. Our family is the most important part of who we each are, not because it has to be, but because we all, all four of us, want it to be.

This past year has been full of highs and lows. You have handled the highs with laughter, joy, and enthusiasm and the lows with compassion, understanding, and love.

You are about to begin the last semester of your preschool career. You were so anxious for the start of your second year of preschool. You have the same adoring, wonderful teachers as last year in the same comfortable classroom, with many of the same classmates. It was exactly what you needed this year. You were able to put aside anxiety and nervousness and just embraced the school year. You can only be described as a sponge right now, grasping onto any learning opportunity. You love learning. You crave new knowledge. I can’t keep up with all that you want to know right now. You have a crazy fun passion for math, for adding, subtracting, sorting. Your love of letters and words has allowed you to start to read. Putting letters with the correct sounds, sounds to make words. We have so much gratitude for your teachers and the wonderful preschool program you are in. It has been a perfect match for you and the start of your schooling career.

Another passion is your art. You can spend hours a day cutting, gluing, taping, coloring, and painting. We can’t keep a high enough supply of paper in the house to fulfill your love for creating. Many of your works are made with blank paper, organic shapes and three dimensions. However, you find coloring in coloring books to be so relaxing. It’s often how you start your day and also calm down when needed. It amazes us what a perfectionist colorer you are. You can color perfectly in the lines and can get a bit upset with when your crayon wonders beyond the black outlines.

Most everyone we meet comments on the remarkable similarity in our appearances. I think we’ll be hearing it for a long, long time and that thrills me to no end. But way beyond the curly red hair, we have so many similar personality characteristics. We both thrive on routine, plans, and order. Every morning, you and Ellie watch Curious George with a small bowl of dry cheerios and a cup of orange juice while I take a shower and get ready for the day. Every single morning. A few weeks ago you came up to me and said that you eat your cheerios during the part one of the Curious George, and drink your juice during the second part of the show. It didn’t surprise me at all that on your own you created such order to your wake up routine. It’s so Zoe. And I love and totally get it.

Your friends! You love them!! You have your school friends, your co-op friends, the MOMS Club friends and you love them all. You play well with them all. And the ones you don’t really care for, you just walk away and choose someone else with whom to spend your time. Simple as that.  We’ve watched your play with others go from parallel play to total interactive play. You’ll have friends over and you guys can all play for hours, creating imaginative situations, laughing, and keeping one another entertained.

You have a best friend. She’s your best gal pal, your favorite playmate, your go-to confidant, your partner. She’s your sister. Your Ellia. I don’t even know how to begin to describe your relationship. It’s something I can’t relate to, I often long for, yet know that it is so uniquely special between the two of you.  You bug the heck out of each other, just because. You don’t understand her craziness and she can’t comprehend your level-headedness. But yet, you spend nearly all your time together and you still play so well with one another. You trust her. You thrive in the role of big sister, teacher, guiding, loving and watching your little sister. Your best friend.

My Zoe. You know how much I love you. I know how much you love me. We tell each other daily. We are who we are because of the love in our family. I’m excited for this sixth year of your life. Excited to watch you explore, learn, play, and love even more. You fill the life of our family with exactly what it needs. It is my honor to be your mother. Thank you, dear love, for being our Zoe.

Love,

Mommy