Lizzy: 5 years old

I used to write yearly recap of the girls but fell off the wagon when life got busy. But it is so nice to look back to remember each stage of their life. They change so much and so fast. I know i can’t hold on them forever nor even slow it down, but I can write it down to remember it more the details.

Lizzy really evolved a lot over the last year, which was 100% under the pandemic, distance learning, full of uncertainties, and limited big group interactions. Yet, I’d say she flourished despite the pandemic. She’s still rather shy, but she’s more outspoken to her friends, even leading some dramatic plays according to her teacher. She plays with other girls and she’s very mindful of other kids feelings, and always try to find a compromise that would include everyone in the group for the play. Definitely a nature leader, not coming out from me. hehehe…

Sleeping: she is half waned in afternoon naps since few months ago. Until then, she was napping almost 90% of the time for 1-2 hrs. Now, she still naps on weekends or when i am home, but shorter and not always. She does sleep well at night, usually from 8pm to 6-6:30am. I still remember those nights when she was little that she’d come to our room in the middle of the time, scare me off (but somehow i always wake up just 20 sec before that as if my body knew she was coming) if anything serious happened. Usually it’s nothing, but every time I get very scared. Thankfully she no longer comes to our room at night.

Eating: she loves fruits (except pineapple), fish, shrimp, chicken, pizza, fried food (never at home, maybe once a year at a restaurant), eggs, ice cream. She still doesn’t like vegetables but is okay to have cucumber, broccoli, green beans, pumpkin, sweet potato, cauliflower. With sweets, it depends. Most of the times, she likes the idea of it but if it’s too sweet, she’ll have few bites and stop. She’s not too much of an adventure eater yet unless it’s fish/shrimp/chicken. She doesn’t seem to like meat (beef, pork).

She likes:

Play with her toys (new ones for few weeks and forget about them) when she’s alone. She prefers in person play though. Everyday with Sofia, doing pretend play at home, building fort or roller blading at home. She likes to go swimming too and is very comfortable in deep water by herself. She loves traveling with us, it has been the highlight of our pandemic life, to be able to just to the beach for few days. She’s very into watch TV now with Sofia, their favorite time of the week are weekend evenings. They’d pick their snack and watch few episodes of modern family and always come to my room with a big smile and shares funny stories about the show.

Dislikes

Homework: she doesn’t have much yet but she does do reading and math workbook most of the days. Depending on her mood, it takes her 15 min for each workbook or 40 min. I’d say most of the day she finishes them quickly.

Cleaning up

Finish food that she doesn’t particular like

Sofia playing with friends and “abandon” her

Overall

She’s the sweet, kind, cute “baby” of our family. She’s incredibly smart, in a different way than Sofia. I’m often surprise by her, maybe because I have lower expectation for her. I’d say she has more emotional intelligence than me and Sofia. Also, as she approached 5 years old, she’s more ready to do “academic” work, particularly things that she’s been seeing Sofia does for a long time. She wants to learn piano, now math/reading, and yesterday she even asked me to find her a mandarin teacher. My approach toward her at the current stage is mostly encouragement, reinforcement of good progress and behaviors, and making clear when a behavior is not acceptable (lying for example!). My favorite thing to do with her is to take her on solo walks and listen to her non-stop chat. I also love her foot, the cutest thing in the world and I have it as my phone wallpaper. I still love to hug her as if she’s a baby, it’s like hugging a koala, so squishy and soft.

I want to protect her more than i do with Sofia for some reason. She seems to need more protection/support. Maybe it’s her younger age, or her shy personality, so whenever someone mistreats her (not even real mistreat such as daddy yelling at her for something), I get very angry and want to protect her. I can’t tolerate anyone to not be kind to her.

Baby or toddlerhood is leaving us behind quickly. I keep reminding myself to hug her more each day as if she’d grow overnight and won’t feel the same anymore. 🙂

Motherhood is really the most amazing thing that occurred to me. Remembering what worried me in my 20s seem another person’s life story. I wish I knew something so amazing was waiting for me by then. It could have saved me a lot of energy and tears. 🙂

Q: What’s the most surprising thing you find about motherhood?