Hannah 7 Years Old and I'm in Heaven

Dear Hannah, 

You are my adventurous, try everything, nature-loving, strong-willed girl. To tell you the truth, I was actually very worried about you at the start of the school year, but it seems like all my worries stemmed from my own securities and I hope I didn't project any of them onto you. 

I  thought you were indecisive. When asked what kind of doughnut you want, you usually will just say, "I don't know, just get what you think I will like." but then I realized that you liked them all and didn't want to have to pick just 1 or 2. That's what happens with most of your decisions, you want to try it all and so you have a tough time picking just 1. 

I thought that you forgot how to make friends at school. Every day you would come home and tell me about how you played by yourself at recess, or how you just talked to a kid during recess. I would try to coach you on how to join in on a game, but you quickly let me know that you chose to not play with anyone because you didn't want to play what they were playing. I got frustrated, so I ended up telling you that you have 2 choices, play what you want by yourself, or if you want to play with others, sometimes you need to play what they are playing and make compromises. You seemed like you didn't want to compromise, so I just left it alone and let you figure it out. I did suggest that you bring a jump rope to school to play during recess because I didn't want you sitting during recess and according to your teacher, you just jump away happily during recess. (Your jump rope skills have improved drastically, I must say). Well, over time, kids must have started to see how cool of a kid you are and you are now part of a friend group. Sometimes you still like to go off and play by yourself, but you announced to me today that you now have 5 friends in your play group. 

Your teacher has also told me that you, despite being one of the youngest kids in the class, are a leader and academically, you are doing great. 

I thought you were more peaceful, opposite of an adrenaline junkie. But I was proved wrong when you totally had so much fun riding roller coasters at Sea World and was able to ride ones that Nathan was too intimidated to tackle. 

I know you love to create and make things. Just recently you built a house for your American Doll girl. I joke that in the event you became homeless, you would be able to create a pretty comfortable shelter out of cardboard. 

I thought you were done with martial arts, but after giving in-person class another shot, you realized that you still enjoy it. You actually don't like the sparring part, but you like the other aspects of it. You are also doing recreational gymnastics and would like to compete one day. 

I thought you liked vegetables. You were the most willing to eat veggies as a toddler. I never had to coax or let you douse your veggies in some sort of sauce. But now, you really only like certain veggies and will gag if  you eat squash. 

You still love food and love to help out in the kitchen whenever you can. 

Your bestie is still the girl next door. You are both back to being at each others' houses once again and you two even had a sleep over one night. You two play very well together and love to be silly and imaginative. I'm super happy that you have each other to grow up together with. 

You continue to have a good moral compass and I feel like I can trust you with making good decisions. Sometimes I can see you struggling over right thing to do vs. fun thing to do, but I think over the years, you will learn to figure out how to balance those things out. 

Love, 

Mommy