She has been waiting for this day. Waiting to be a year older. Waiting to grow up. Even though she doesn't realize she's doing it every day before my very eyes.
She could hardly wait to go downstairs, she was bubbling over with joy, and as she waited with Marvelly to go down she started singing, "today.is the day. You.have.made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." from her favorite children's worship CD. Just about lost it there too.
Sydaleigh has grown so much in every way this year. I have seen a new level of selflessness with her in regards to everyone-us, Marvelly, the world around her. The Lord is really developing that characteristic within her.
And this sweet child has such a heart for the Lord. She understands Him in her own five year old way and she is thirsty to learn more, and dig more, and she's always asking questions, and searching for truth and answers. I just love that.
She is insanely creative. She loves to express herself in any way creatively possible. Singing, dancing, performing, drawing. She loves it all and is really excelling in every way in regards to her creativity. This past year she was really into drawing Ariel, complete with tale, belly button, and bra. Yes, bra. All of her girls wear a bra, which is just adorable to me.
And she has quite the eye for detail.
She likes to draw everything right down to the earrings and fingernails.
Calls her scrapes..."scrips"
still says, "Pally Pockets"
says, "Hangaburger" for hamburger
We've been working this past year on encouraging her to take more responsibility with her behavior and emotions. Talking about consequences of her actions, staying in control, and the reasons why. And this year she has made so much progress with her behavior. I've seen a lot less temper tantrums and outbursts, it still happens, but she has really been working hard and gaining maturity in this area.
But our girl is still as stubborn as ever. She is very teachable, which I love. But still stubborn. You'd think those two traits would contradict the other, and they can I suppose, but with SydaLeigh they are two distinct qualities. She is teachable, yet stubborn. And while the stubbornness can be frustrating at times....it's still something that I love so much about her. I think it will be a strength with her. That's my prayer anyways. I don't like it when parents try to pray away all the seemingly difficult qualities that they see in their children. Because it's my belief that God can mold and sculp any of our rough edges and turn them into a strength, an asset. I love the definition for stubborn: adamant, determined, firm, fixed, hanging tough, hard-nosed, immovable. Those can be either something really great, or something unhealthy. My prayer is that the Lord would harness her stubbornness to be something really great. To be immovable in her faith. Fixed on truth. Determined to fight for justice. Hanging tough to what she knows is rightness.
What a blessing she is to us. She is very tenderhearted. She is goofy and likes to be silly and enjoys spending time with others, but really flourishes with one on one interaction. She still wakes up early, and shuffles into our room and quietly asks me or Isaak to spend time with her coloring, playing quietly, reading, whatever. So long as she gets me or Daddy to herself for a few minutes in the morning it makes her heart fly. She is really enjoying school and learning so much. She still writes her 'S' backwards, but she'll get it eventually. She's also starting to pick up on humor that she sees in movies, laugh hysterically when something actually funny happens, and joke around with us. She likes using big words even though she doesn't understand what they mean. And told me she, "just wants to be Sydaleigh, not Syd."
Put all this together and about a gazillion other things and you get SydaLeigh. Our new, not so little anymore, five year old daughter.
Happy birthday baby. Love you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (until I run out of breath) much.
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