Gosh, so much has happened in the last year. Miss River is so old now! Happy 5th year Earthside!

Things that happened this year:

River started Preschool last summer and then moved into Kindergarten January 2016.
River met Grandpappy Dan and Even-Grander-pappy Michael and all her cuzzies in NJ.
She learned how to blow bubbles with bubble gum.
A few days after her birthday she taught herself how to whistle, which she's been wanting to do since      last year.
She began dance classes at school.


Things I love about River:

River is an amazing little artist. She comes home with the most unique and interesting artwork I've ever seen. Sometimes she works with symmetry, sometimes not. Sometimes she works with patterns, incorporates writing, draws scenes, or simply colors in mandalas from school. I wish I had a bigger refrigerator.

She is also quite the builder. I love watching her build with Legos, plus plus, beads, blocks, and basically anything else she can get her hands on. She has a mind for this kind of stuff and a vivid imagination. Just recently she built a fighter plane and flew it to the mailbox on our walk. It had to stop and refuel a couple of times. It made me want to keep her little like this forever.

She loves telling jokes. She could tell you knock knock jokes all day long. Most of them don't make any sense, but she's always coming up with something funny and creative to say. And she's getting funnier every day. Last night we were eating fruit while she was in the bath. She put a kiwi on her forehead and said, "Look Mom, my third eye is a kiwi," and so I laughed and asked her what she saw with her third eye. "Keys."

She speaks her mind. Obviously this isn't the most fun thing to deal with, but it's important that she never loses the ability to tell us about things that are important to her. If she doesn't want kisses or hugs, if her underwear are too tight, if she had a bad experience with a friend at school, she'll let you know it.

She doesn't let anything stand in her way. When she wants to learn something she'll practice day and night. Right now it's hand stands and cartwheels. I have videos of baby River right around 2 years old trying to teach herself to jump. I want to encourage the kind of behavior that leads to hard work paying off.

She's just the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and I tell her every day. I never ever want her to think that she's alone or unloved. Her dad and I are her biggest fans and she has a whole entourage of people who love her and think she's the bees knees.