Autumn // 5 Years

Tum Tum is five, and I can hardly believe it. Truly. She has been looking forward to her birthday for weeks and has been all smiles all day. She changed her mind on her birthday dessert multiple times before finally settling on donuts. (Of course...last night she said she wanted cake instead, but I said it was a bit late to be changing her mind again...so donuts and ice cream it was.)

This girl is quite the character. Let's chat about all things Autumn! (Pictures are forthcoming, as per usual. Austin's are up on his post now, so I'm making progress!)

Autumn at 5 years old:

- Situational Social Butterfly

- Treat Thief (heaven forbid you leave a treat unattended on the kitchen counter)

- Chapstick Addict

- Every time we have a visitor in our home that she likes, she yells "I LOVE YOU!" out the front door as they're leaving. (And if you're lucky she'll say, "I love you so much forever and ever.")

- She has a whole setlist of people that she goes around to during the first hour of church. She'll hop from family to family, settling herself in next to her favorite people for a few minutes before heading off to the next stop on her list. She'll add a new person/family to the list every couple of weeks.

- She still resists going to Primary most Sundays. There were several times in the past year when she would run out of the chapel before the prayer was done and hide somewhere to avoid going to Primary. Her usual hiding spot was up on the stage in the corner by the curtain. Once, Elder's Quorum had already started and she was hiding back there...nobody noticed! She didn't make a peep!

- There have also been a handful of days in the past year where I've had to hand her out the front door of the car at preschool drop-off because she didn't want to go and even once where I had to get out of the car and retrieve her from the back seat. MOST days she gets out of the car happily and willingly, though.

- Very good at Bop It! (her high score is somewhere in the 80s)

- Loves books and has been caught many times using a nightlight to look at books when she's supposed to be in bed (including tonight).

- Regularly sneaks down to her older siblings' rooms to take their stuff (mainly books).

- If her siblings love it, then she also loves it. Monkey see, monkey do.

- Strong-willed

- Still sucks her fingers (We've tried to stop her, but...well...see the previous line.)

- Dairy and beige foods are her favorite foods (breads, crackers, pretzels, cereal)

- Has her own room now that Austin has moved into his own room. She LOVES it.

- Went through a phase where she'd ask about death every few days. More specifically, when she would die. She didn't seem nervous or stressed about it, just curious.

- Loves to swim (but can't swim unassisted yet)

- Enjoys puzzles

- Loves to play a boardgame called "Race to the Treasure" in which the goal is to use path tiles to create a pathway from one end of the board to the other while collecting keys along the way.

- Classic third child. Interpret that as you will.

- Plays so well with her little sister while the older two are at school. They listen/dance to music, play with barbies and Little People, and play make-believe.

- Current music of choice: Descendents; Puss in Boots: The Last Wish; and various video game soundtracks.

- Started regularly refusing to dance during the first 20 minutes of her dance class (during the tap portion), so we just barely switched her to an acro (tumbling) class, and she LOVES it.

- Really wanted to play soccer last spring, and then spent most of each game refusing to play. She'd play a bit towards the end, but only because there were treats and I told her that only kids who play the game get the treats. I'll let you take one wild guess on whether I'll sign her up again this year or not. :P

- Getting tired of preschool, apparently, and just wants to go to the same school as her siblings. I can't even imagine her in kindergarten, she doesn't seem old enough! But that's still half a year away.

She does things completely on her own timetable, loves freely and openly, and keeps us on our toes. She brings a certain chaotic, "wild card" energy into our home, but not because she's hyper or uber-loud; the chaos comes from not knowing what she will do from day to day. Will she eat the chocolates that Doug bought for me? Will she accidentally damage one of her sibling's toys that she wasn't supposed to be playing with? Will she hide under her bed with a crayon and completely coat the wall with bright scribbles? (True story. Yes, she intentionally went under her bed to scribble because she knew it would be hidden from us.) Ah, Tumble Bum. We love you so much.