The Quiggle Family: Hailey at Five!

She did it. Last Tuesday. April 10th. Hailey turned 5!! I can hardly believe it. Well, I can believe it because she acts much older than five but at the same time.....she's my baby. She's not supposed to be 5 yet! Hailey could not be more excited. She's already had her 5 year doctor appointment:

height: 43 3/4 inches (75-90%)
weight: 39 pounds (25-50%)

So over the last year she has grown 2 3/4 inches and gained 5 pounds. Also interesting is that she is within a pound and an inch of Tyler when he was five.

A glimpse back at the past....she's looking so grown up. And very much a side note, the dentist told us we should start putting our pennies away for the orthodontist :(. Those beautiful teeth in that perfect smile are all lined up up so perfect and tight.....no room for the adult teeth. Sigh.

5 years

2 years

1 year

What to say about this five year old girl.

Hailey is a ray of sunshine. She can brighten my day instantly with her smile, belly laughs, big hugs, and I love yous. She is very kind to her friends, family, and animals. She's very bright, loving all of her books and remembering facts about animals that my own mind has already forgotten. She loves her brother who is also her favorite playmate. She's incredibly accommodating to Tyler's busy extracurricular activities, rarely complaining about all the hours she spends sitting through practices and games. She is funny and has always had a great sense of humor. She loves wearing clothes that are bright colors....preferably ones that don't match. She's mostly a rule follower. She's an incredible helper, when she wants to be. She's great at playing independently a little bit every day. Hailey LOVES animals. Real animals are her favorite but she spends a lot of times playing with and caring for her large collection of stuffed animals. She's started to enjoy drawing. She draws the cutest pictures. Most of her pictures include a cat and if there isn't a cat there is some other animal involved. Hailey loves singing and dancing and playing games. When just the two of us are home her favorite thing to play is "tornado". She acts like a cat named tornado and we play basically a game of house. She's never asked to play this when either Tyler or Dave is at home. Hailey has the best curly hair ever.....if only it would grow longer and thicker and still remain curly. She can't wait to start Kindergarten next year. She's a very fast runner when she is inspired to run. Hailey is so capable it's easy to forget she's not Tyler's age. It's hard for me to think of anything she can't do by herself other than tie her shoes and we are working on that. But she can still be unpredictable. Some days she wants to do everything by herself and if you even attempt to help (usually to speed things up a bit) you get scolded. Other days she wants help with everything even though we both know she's more than able to do it on her own. Hailey is riding her bike without training wheels and is so proud.

Hailey is an incredible reader for not having started Kindergraten. I guess is shouldn't be surprising since she knew the alphabet at 18 months and the letter sounds by age two. She is self taught so I can not take any credit. My guess would be she reads at a second grade level. Although she can read pages from a chapter book if you ask her to she much prefers picture books. Rarely do words stump her and she reads with no hesitation in sentences and even adds the right inflection in the right places. She just seems to have the ability to see a word once and remember it. All that being said, we have never pushed her to read. Most evenings we read aloud to her but occasionally she wants to read something to us. Earlier this year she seemed to only look at the pictures in books unless you asked her to read it aloud, then she would read the words no problem. When asked if she was reading the words in her head, she'd look at me like she had no idea what I was talking about and would say she can't read words in her head. Several month later she appeared to look through books and if the picture on a particular page caught her attention she would then look at the words on that page. Now more often she appears to actually read each page (in her head) as she's looking through a book. Still though she spends plenty of time enjoying her books by quietly looking through the pictures. Hailey is also getting into math already, basic addition and subtraction. I guess there are some benefits to being the second child and watching over your older brother and what he is learning in school. I think Hailey still sees herself as Tyler's equal and anything he can do, she should be doing it too. Hailey's sleeping has improved drastically over the last two weeks since we moved her mattress into Tyler's room for a spring break sleepover. She hasn't once come into our room in the middle of the night or called us into her because she is lonely, cold, or doesn't want to be by herself. So the sleepover has continued and may become permanent if the kids can decide whose room should have the beds! She even wakes up happier in the morning.

Hailey still has her hornet side. She can be quick to get frustrated/mad/upset if things don't happen the way she intended or she get embarrassed about something. It can happen so quick and it's not always clear what went wrong. When she is upset she needs to be by herself. She doesn't want anyone around her and she does not want to talk. Then she comes back and everything is back to normal. She is quick to cry, especially lately, when she is frustrated with Tyler or if I look at her or talk to her the wrong way. She is incredibly independent, and stubborn, and a perfectionist. The combination of these three qualities will take her far in life. I know it. But at five years old it can make some things hard, especially when you are learning new things and need help and can't do it perfectly the first few times. Hailey can't talk and put her shoes and coat on or buckle her seat belt at the same time. It never fails that she has a lot to say when she is putting her shoes and coat on and buckling her seat belt. And we are usually in a hurry at these times :). Hailey knows what she wants and doesn't want and has no problem telling you about it. You can not talk her into doing something she doesn't want to do.

Dave suggested I write some of her "phrases" she says all the time but I'm having a hard time thinking of them. The girl is a talker. She has an incredible vocabulary and is daily saying things that make me smile and sometimes do a double take. The way she phrases things is very grown up. One of Dave's favorite phrases is when she says "most certainly". Sadly "little bidit" has mostly disappeared and we now just get "little bit". I still hear it occasionally and smile. Whenever she mispronounces something Tyler is right there correcting her and telling her how it should be said. He's cheated us out of some very cute words.