Brooklyn: 9 Years Old

Well, I blinked again, and Brooklyn is already 9 years old. Not sure how that happened. We are knocking on the door of double digits, and I’m not sure I’m ready…

Brooklyn will go for her yearly checkup in early April, so I’m not sure how much she’s grown since last year. Update: Brooklyn was 51 7/8 inches tall (35-40th percentile), and she weighed 56.7 lbs (25th percentile). She is still long and lean, and I doubt that will change anytime soon. She has bumped up to wearing mostly size 10 shirts and pants, although some size 10 pants are definitely too big in the waist. For better or worse, she continues to hate anything that doesn’t have a stretchy waistband and refuses to wear jeans. I actually didn’t even bother to buy her a pair of jeans this year because I knew she wouldn’t wear them anyway. Her style is definitely all about comfort…t-shirts, sweatpants or athletic shorts, tennis shoes, and a ponytail every day except Sunday ;) She tends to wear the same few shirts and leave all the others in her drawer untouched if they aren’t her favorites. Her feet have grown a lot since last year, and her latest pair of tennis shoes is a size 4! She has had three separate episodes of torticollis (pretty bad neck pain) over the last year, and we ended up doing a couple of months of PT in the fall. Knock on wood…she hasn’t had a recurrence since then. She also got a bad mouth ulcer recently, and Travis thinks it may be her first canker sore. He has struggled with them since he was a kid, and I’m hoping she isn’t going to follow in his footsteps in that regard too. She also caught molluscum from Savannah sometime over the last year, and her bumps have FINALLY cleared up completely. I hope we are done with that virus for good now. It took forever for all three girls to clear those bumps.

Brooklyn continues to be a great eater, and I can’t think of too many foods that she won’t at least try. I’m hopeful that her good example will rub off on Abigail one of these days ;) She usually eats peach oatmeal or cereal for breakfast. Brooklyn enjoys buying her lunch at school most days. Her favorite foods are probably peach dumplings, pancakes, fruit (especially berries), and most any dessert. Brooklyn generally gets into bed around 8 pm and reads until 8:30 before going to sleep. She wakes up at 6:25 am on school days and will sleep until closer to 7 am on the weekend. She has always been an early riser like me!

Brooklyn is in 3rd grade this year and is enjoying the year so far. This is her first year of getting letter grades on her report cards, and it seems like she is doing pretty well academically. She has learned her multiplication and division facts this year, and her spelling and writing continue to improve. It sounds like she is spending a lot of time on her computer at school doing various assignments, which is a change from previous years. She has really come a long way in her computer skills and is now pretty self-sufficient when we’ve had to do virtual school days at home. She still doesn’t know how to type correctly, but maybe she won’t learn that until middle school? Not sure about that. Her best friend in her class this year is a boy named Dylan, but she has made several other new friends in the class too. It has been interesting to see how each school year since 1st grade she has become good friends with at least one boy in addition to some of the girls. I think it suits her personality since she’s not much of a girly-girl.

Brooklyn is still a big bookworm, and I will often catch her reading in the corner of her room with her head resting on her beanbag. Her favorite series are Boxcar Children, Puppy Place, and Last Dogs, and most American Girl books. Basically, anything that involves animals or adventure is sure to be a hit. She doesn’t draw or color as much as she used to, but occasionally she will still sketch with a pen or pencil. She really enjoyed playing soccer in the fall, and she is signed up to play again this spring. She is also thinking about trying tennis at some point (maybe during a tennis camp this summer?). She also enjoys shooting hoops on her over-the-door basketball goal that she got for Christmas. She has become more and more interested in computer time as she’s gotten older, and she would spend all day playing computer games (or watching tv) if I let her. She and some neighborhood friends started their own newspaper club about a year ago, and she enjoys writing articles for the Millstone News too. She also loves swimming, rollercoasters, playing outside, and organizing her room.

It has been interesting to see Brooklyn transition from little kid to big kid over the last couple of years. She still enjoys playing with her sisters, but depending on the day, she will sometimes get bored with whatever they are playing after a few minutes and choose to read a book or hang out in her room by herself instead. She gets along well with Savannah most of the time, but she and Abigail tend to have more trouble getting along. (I think it’s because they are both alpha dogs). This was the first year that Brooklyn didn’t want to make homemade valentines for her school friends and chose to just give them a piece of candy instead. Stuff like that makes me a little sad, but then other things will remind me that the little girl in her is still there. She asked me to sing her a song at bedtime a few weeks ago for the first time in forever, and she still loves to snuggle and cuddle on the couch with me. When I give her a compliment or praise her for doing something well, she will give this audible sigh of satisfaction/happiness that’s so sweet. (I’ve noticed her sisters doing the same thing now too). Brooklyn really eats up words of affirmation and loves to sit super close to me at church and rest her head on my shoulder. I am trying to soak up the little things like that and appreciate each stage because I know they are all good in different ways.

We love you so much, Brooklyn! You make us proud!!