Erika turns 5

 

Things we love about Erika at 5:

• She still has a love for milk. She is down from about half a gallon a day to about a fourth a gallon. This girl loves milk! She still loves to have her hair in a “hair thing” when she drinks it.  She plays with her hair rubberband - flicking and snapping it with her finger until she’s done drinking, then pulls it out, throws it on the floor, and then drifts off to sleep. She still prefers to have her milk in a sippy cup as well. I know five is pretty old, but I am weak in this area. I am pretty confident that she will be able to kick the habit before she packs her bags for college though.
• Her long curly blond hair. She lets me brush it more now and actually put bows in it. She likes to do her own hair in the bathroom-usually getting it soaking wet from the sink and placing a clip right in front.
• She chubby little cheeks. Erika has the softest cheeks I have ever felt! They are as soft as newborn skin. I think her secret must be all that milk. She humors us as we all kiss on them everyday.
• Her love of pasta.  She would eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner….and sometimes she does! She likes it with alfredo sauce and parmesan cheese on it. She also likes chicken tenders, milk, fruit snacks, strawberries, pepperoni, bananas, macaroni and cheese, sausage, and toast.
• She loves to practice her reading.
• She LOVES to write. She can write her name and everyone else in the family’s name as well. She can recognize almost all the letters, and does really good at writing if I spell the word for her.
• She loves to play babies with Abby. They spend hours pushing their dolls around in strollers, carrying them, and feeding them with their little kitchen stuff. Their most recent twist involves taking all of their baby stuff into Aaron and my room and dumping it in big piles. I don’t exactly understand the playing part of it, but it keeps them quite occupied for a long time. Definitely worth the mess.
• Abby and her also love to play doggies. They get bowls of water and lick out of them, and throw goldfish crackers to each other to fetch. It usually works well until Scott grabs the goldfish bowl and spills them everywhere. They then bark mean barks at him until he either bites them or just laughs.
• She loves to cuddle with mommy at naptime in mommy’s bed. “It’s just so cozy!” she tells me everyday.
• She loves her brothers! Her and Austin are outside playing buddies everyday! She waits for him to come home from school so they can ride scooters together and climb trees. She loves to try to carry Scott around and tackle him to the ground and hug him.
• She loves to watch home videos.
• She takes ballet once a week, and loves to play ballet class with Abby. They both get on their ballet leotards and then Erika teaches Abby everything she learned from the week before.
• She learned to ride a two wheeler bike this last year, and loves to ride with the big kids on bike rides.
• Her testimony. It has been fun to see her testimony develop throughout this year. On fast Sundays she will bear it at home with us. She now has added that she has a testimony of Joseph Smith and the church.  She is in the CTR 5 class at church and loves to sing.

                         

 

For Erika’s birthday she decided to have a cookie cake. She loved to wear her new “Hootie Hoo shirt” that mommy made for her. It has an owl on it and says, Look HOOOs five. She got “Click, Clack Moo, Cows That Type” for her birthday book, a Barbie scooter, a Leap Frog keyboard game for the TV, a stuffed cow and cute milk card from Aunt Michelle and Uncle Bill, a drawing pad and new pens from Becky,  and lots of cards and love from grandparents and other family members far away. She loved her little cow and it soon had a prominent new spot on her bed right next to her cow birthday book. 

We Love you Erika!