Ivy's party was the weekend before her actual birthday so we held off on family gifts and a couple activities until her actual birthday. She started the day with a donut breakfast, and getting to wear a crown at school! Then after school, we did presents, dinner, then went and played mini golf near our house (so glad that place is so cheap! $4 a person, 3 and under are free! ha!). I think this girl will be busy for a while with all of her new fun stuff! She is one lucky chickadee, thats for sure!
Feel free to skip this last part but just wanted to include some memories about Ivy for journaling purposes:
I honestly cannot believe how much this girl has grown in the past year. She is in full-fledged, all-day preschool learning about her letters and numbers and science and math. She certainly has a mind of her own and it is a smart one! Her teachers tell me she is very good at math for her age so she must get that gene from her dad! ha!
She loves to talk and sing ALLL day long. I'm not sure being quiet is in her thoughts at all, ever. From Ariel to Sleeping Beauty to Frozen and then a number of different songs from the radio, she always has something to be singing. And she always wants to have (long!) conversations with me, dad, or anyone she comes in contact with. She is probably one of the most extroverted kids I've ever met and thrives on any attention from those around her. If she had her way, she would never ever be alone but always near someone to talk to.
Her favorite toys lately are barbies and dress-ups. Most days, she comes home from school and changes straight into a big dress. Cracks me up how girly she is. She enjoys trains and dinosaurs too on occasion but anything girly, and she is all over it--new dresses, shoes, clothes, jewelry, MAKEUP? and she's in heaven. Her favorite thing to do when getting ready to go somewhere is put on her lipgloss. Except she has to put on all 7 colors before she is satisfied. lol. Other than dressing up, she really does enjoy playing barbies. AND with her plush Ariel, Rapunzel, and Merina (her mermaid). She says those three are her "babies" and she drags them all over the house.
The stuffies she sleeps with are her glow seahorse, Pascal the lizard, and her unicorn. Those are the necessities for a good night's sleep. I just love the little things kids get attached too. I feel like it says so much about their personalities and preferences. Hehe! She also sleeps with her door open and on most nights, a nightlight and her little lamp on. It took me a good 4 years of her life to realize leaving her door open at night eliminates so much stress during the nighttime for her. She really does hate to be alone!
Ivy enjoys coloring and is starting to draw stick figure pictures of everyone in our family. She also really likes to do worksheets from school and workbooks that I have in my cabinet. I can tell she wishes she knew how to read and write already and that it's only a matter of time before she's there! She also loves to play games. Her absolute favorite game is Sorry and begs to play it every day since her cousins taught her to play it over Christmas! Her other favorite game is Uno. I can usually use those as leverage for good behavior. I think it's clear that "quality time" is most definitely one of her love languages. haha.
I wouldn't say that Ivy is stubborn as much as she is super smart and really does believe her way is the correct or right way to be thinking! She definitely tries to reason through things and reason with me to get her way. If I say no to something her response is usually along the lines of "well but this is the reason i wanted you to say yes, sooo you need to say yes..." or "if you say no, then we'll have to do this instead...!" She really thinks she has things figured out. Sometimes I'm not even sure she knows she is a little kid. More often than not, I'm pretty sure she believes she is on the same playing field as adults. Especially with me and her dad. Presents problems in behavior sometimes but most of the time, it really gets a big giggle out of us. Oh to be little! And oh so 5 years old!
