To My Beautiful Natalie on her Sixth Birthday

You are such a pretty little girl, Natalie!  Your mom loves you SO much!  I'm watching my baby girl grow into a young lady right before my very eyes, and it saddens me.  Yet it makes me so happy, seeing the beautiful little lady that you are becoming.  Sometimes I still call you my baby girl, but you are quick to remind me that you are my little girl and not a baby anymore.  How time flies.

You are helpful and kind with your little sister Jane.  You love her to pieces.  You two have such a special, sweet bond already.  You told me recently that you and Jane will always be best friends.  It made my heart glad and brought tears to my eyes.  There is something so amazing about the bond between sisters, and I want for you what I have with my own sisters. You enjoy playing with your brother and can be the best of friends with him lots of times, but also the worst of enemies occasionally, with only a moment's notice, it seems.

You are having a great year of kindergarten.  You love your teacher, Ms. McBride, and have made quite a few really good friends.  You are very well-liked.  You are also very smart!  You amaze me with the things that you can read already.  We completed the "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" last summer before you entered kindergarten, and you have just taken off so quickly since!  I'm sure that you are already reading on a second grade level or higher!  You have fantastic reading comprehension also.  You are also so good at making connections between things that even your mom wouldn't have thought of.  You are so intelligent.

You are still quite easily frustrated when things don't go your way or when you can't do something that you think you should be able to do, even if many children your own age can't do it.  You hold yourself to a very high standard and are competitive, but this will work to your advantage if you channel it in the right ways.

You are learning to do a lot more things for yourself.  Mommy is a doer and love to serve my kids, but I'm realizing that I probably did too much for you for too long.  But you getting much better at being more independent with some nudges (or sometimes pushes) from Mom.

You still love books.  I so enjoy sitting with you and your brother, holding your wiggly baby sister on my lap, and reading great literature.  We have finished many of the Roald Dahl books.  You also just love Fancy Nancy, Skippyjon Jones, and Olivia books.

You are a much better eater for me now....you're still pretty picky, but you're usually willing to try new things, even if you won't eat a full meal of it.  You still love yogurt and pancakes, and you bring a plain peanut butter sandwich in your lunch everyday.

You get so excited for me to come to your school each Thursday for lunch and to watch you play at recess.  I love that my little girl wants to have me around.  I hope that it will always be this way for us.  I love the relationship that we have and cherish our little conversations on the way to and from school every day.

You love playing games with your daddy and brother-specifically Castle Crashers and Little Big Planet.  You've sadly already outgrown the princess phase, and have never been one to play with dolls and Barbies.   But you still enjoy using your imagination and playing pretend with stuffed animals and other toys.

You are so anxious to lose your first tooth, although that may still be a little ways in the future.

I just cherish these growing up years that I get to help raise and mold you into the beautiful, intelligent, faithful and strong woman that you will be all too soon.  You are the one who made me a mommy for the first time and I'm so glad that Heavenly Father sent you to me.

I love you so dearly my sweet, precious "Natalie Girl".

Happy Birthday!

Love,
Your Mommy