SEVEN YEARS OLD

 Elisabeth Kae, 

You are seven years old and growing into a beautiful young lady. At seven years old, you are friendly, a leader, helpful, thoughtful, passionate and an all around fun girl. You are a gift to be around, and I'm so glad you are ours. 

The biggest character trait I've seen developing in you this year is your helpful and thoughtful spirit. You regularly have a desire to help and serve others. If I'm doing a project- planning a project, decorating, cooking, organizing, you ask if you can help me. I also see you actively looking for ways to be a blessing to others. You write kind notes to others, run to get a hurt friend a band aid, are eager to teach Katherine or any other Little Ones new things, and ask constantly how you can help. You can't wait to be old enough to babysit and crave being given new and bigger responsibilities. I know God is going to continue to use your servant heart as you grow. 

Since you were little, you've always been a social bug, and friendships are very important to you. You have some really sweet friendships that have lasted your whole life and continue to make new friends despite being homeschooled this year. You crave social interaction and friend time and ask all the time to invite a friend over. Your good friends right now are Sarah, Kaydence, Addisyn, Audrey, Ainsley and Makinley and Ilona. What has surprised me lately is how well you get along with friends who are significantly older than you. Several of your friends- Ilona, Aviana (from gymnastics) and Emma are older, but you get along and play perfectly fine with them. You can also happily play with younger kids too. All around, you have a friendly, enthusiastic personality and other kids are always drawn to you. 

You are excelling at school right now, even though you always say you wish you could go back to real school so you could have more time with friends. I've always known you've had strengths in language and verbal things (since you've been talking non stop since you were one, ha!), but I've been impressed with your math skills over the past year. You're working ahead in second grade math this year and whizzing through it. 

You're working hard in reading too, and we've had a some big gains this year. You're working on gaining confidence in reading. I think that's your biggest hang up. We've had some frustrating moments, but I've enjoyed teaching you how to read and seeing your progress. You're a bright girl, and I'm so proud of how well you do academically. 

Your current passion right now is gymnastics. You love it so much and work hard each week during your class. You cartwheel around our house and daily are performing gymnastics shows for us. You've perfected a cartwheel on the high balance beam (without a coach spotting you), a back bend and a back walkover recently. You work hard on your gymnastics and impress us all the time with your new tricks. You're also taking an acrobatic dance class this year, and you told me it's your favorite dance class you've ever taken.

Since we've been homeschooling you, I've noticed huge gains in your ability to play independently which is a skill you've always struggled with. Lately, you've been begging to take a break with school or hurrying to finish, so you can go to your room and play. You've been playing a lot with the Little People and princess figurines and the princess castle. You also like to play with your American Girl dolls. You love listening to audio books too. You listen to them in bed every night and while you're playing, eating, doing chores during the day too.  Your favorite series are the Penderwicks, the Vanderbeekers, Little House on the Prairie, Beverly Cleary books and the Land of Stories. 

While you are happy to play by yourself more often now, you still very much desire interactive play with your siblings or friends. You are always practicing and performing plays and shows and dances with your siblings. Whenever you have friends over, you're usually playing princesses, pretending to go on trips or having sleepovers. 

You've pretty much outgrown bows which hurts my heart a little that you're growing up. You do like headbands, so I get away with some bow wearing if they're attached to a headband. You always ask to wear your hair down or in a simple ponytail if down isn't an option. You wear comfy clothes and are pretty low maintenance but are happy to dress up in a fancy dress for church. You're enjoying having your ears pierced and change your earrings regularly. You're a girly girl who loves pedicures and makeup and dresses, but you'll just as happily wrestle and play with the boys. You're a well rounded girl!

You're still a pretty picky eater. Your favorite foods are spaghetti and meatballs and spaghetti carbonara. Some other of your favorite foods are apples, scrambled eggs, pork tenderloin, pretzels, and popcorn. You're much willing to try new foods these days, but still have a picky palette. You always, always want to help me cook and bake and you're such a big helper to me!

We had the honor of praying with you to receive Christ right before your seventh birthday. Your dad and I are so proud of your decision. You told us you felt like God was calling you to become a Christian after listening to songs at Gospel Night at church. You told us you wanted to be a Christian so that you can tell others about God. I know God will to big things with your others- focused heart. 

Elisabeth Kae, I hope you always know how proud of you I am and how much I love you. You're the surprise baby God knew we needed in our family. You help strengthen and hold our family together. I love you more than you'll ever know, and I'm so very grateful to be your mom and get the privilege of watching you grow up.