FIVE

Happy Birthday Avery!!!  (way back on April 2nd, that is)

At 5 years old:

• You still love anything that sparkles, twirls, and is fancy.
• Fancy Nancy books are your favorite.
• You now want to be a doctor when you grow up, instead of an artist.
• You love to draw, mostly pictures of people, and you've graduated from potato head people to stick figures with heads that look like flowers.
• You are very particular about your wardrobe so we let you dress yourself in an effort to champion your independence, and the pattern combinations are wild but oddly delightful.
• You prefer long sleeves on your pajamas, and long pants, with the occasional nightgown thrown in the mix. But we often find you in the morning with just tights on. 
• You love to show off for company. This includes a lot of "watch me" or "watch this" followed by some amazing feat (in your eyes), and you grin wildly when you're done. And then you repeat.
• You are learning to read and surprise us frequently with what you can decipher. You are shy about reading out loud so it's hard to tell your progress sometimes.
• You have decided that it's time to bathe yourself at night, which is great, but we come to the rescue and give your hair a good scrub every couple of days because you forget to wash the top front of it. 
• Your hair, poor child, always looks like we forgot to brush it, which is not true at all. It gets tangled and messy so quickly, and you refuse hair accessories of all kinds. You were on a headband kick for months but that went away this spring.
• You love school and school days are your very favorite.
• You received the highest marks on all areas at school and were generally a kind, generous student, but sometimes you were "a little bossy". Yep! I've seen that at home!
• Eleanor is your best little buddy and your biggest enemy.
• You ask big questions about God on occasion and seem to have a good introductory understanding of the Gospel. I pray that God continues to work in your heart and that you keep asking those good questions.
• You were adamant that the baby be a boy. Your initial reason was that "sisters take stuff" but whenever people would ask you why you wanted a boy, you'd just smile and shrug. I think it's because you adore your boy cousins. You even wanted to name this baby Grayson for awhile, and then Broson-changed to-Brayson, because it rhymed and we said we couldn't use Grayson since it was already taken.
• Your diet is atrocious at times. We are working hard on expanding your palette and cutting back on the sugar.
• Macaroni and cheese is your favorite - either the purple box of Annie's, or the brown box of HEB (as you call them).
• You will eat baby carrots as a snack very happily, and many fruits, but the rest of the time you want bread and cheese in its various forms all.the.time. You hate rice and adore refried beans. Ketchup is your dip of choice for anything (yuck). You frequently go without dinner simply because you refuse to eat what we put in front of you. We require you try everything on your plate, and out of principal you refuse to eat any more of it, even if you liked it. Chocolate toast is still your favorite breakfast, and you request lots of mayo on your sandwiches. 
• You have rest time in your room every day from 1:30-3, and you and Eleanor play happily together for part of it and fight for the rest of it. Most days are good, but occasionally you just get on each other's nerves the whole time. I really should separate you. 
• You have never really played with baby dolls too much, but you like doll stickers that you can dress up or the magnetic dolls. You adore playing dress-up.
• You have collections, mostly of rocks. One day your daddy picked you up from school and you were complaining that your feet hurt. Turns out you and a friend had stolen pebbles from the playground and hidden them in your shoes all morning. We find your collection of rocks all over the house as you rarely keep it together in your treasure box. You also have collections in assorted bags and boxes of your current favorite toys. This drives me nuts.
• You have such a joy for life, sweet girl, and I am so thankful that you are exuberant and confidant and that you are able to delight in the smallest of things. 

enjoying the streamers we put up overnight