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| Pink and Marshmallows were the only requests for her cake. |
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| A small gathering this year, with Joyelle and Silas. Memory was the quietest game we played... |
I'm having trouble believing that our youngest is five years old today. When she was born, Danya was almost five, and I couldn't believe we were starting over again. It seemed like it would be forever until she was at that magical age. And truthfully, her first two years did not fly by. She wanted us to count every minute, I think. But since then, instead of clingy she became affectionate, and instead of demanding, ... well, I guess that hasn't changed.
But we love her sweetness, her unrestrained excitement for everything, and her affection. Ella loves to have 'tickle massages' which means I just trace my fingers as lightly as possible over her tummy, and back, and arms, and armpits, and legs, and feet, and toes. She loves to be held--even when I decide to not be the first to let go, I can't out hug her! She loves to kiss us over and over again. And her favorite game with Eric is, "I love you more than..." in which her usual line goes like this: "I love you all the way to the moon and back and to the sun and all around the universe and to pluto and to detskiy sad and to school and back." Hard to beat that.
She is quite ready for kindergarten. We are planning to do homeschool American kindergarten, and she has loved to get her own books. She loves to write her name, ELLA RAE COE everywhere, or make up words with the letters she knows, or to fill countless pieces of paper with lines of loops. She loves to sing the alphabet song, and find letters that she knows. She can recognize the names of her family, and in Russian, also can read the names of her classmates. And the other day, she insisted on reading me a book--one of the Fancy Nancy books that is her favorite. She has memorized most of it, and we all were amazed.
Four has been a delightful age, and I am truly sad that it's already time for her to move on. For the first time, I understand what my own mom has said, that every year she didn't want us to grow older, because it had been the perfect age. And I'm trusting in her experience that each next year really was even better.
So this is Ella, age five.
