Rosie at Five

Rosie finally had her annual physical, which made me realize I should write her "Rosie at Five" entry. She's probably too old to be sharing her height and weight, but the doctor gave us a good report saying she's growing well and is healthy.

Rosie at five is much harder to capture than Sam at two, likely because she is a more fully-formed, complex person.

She continues to be social, happy and eternally optimistic. Gammy Peggy gave her matching pink and purple bathing suits with tutus that she is obsessed with. She recently lost the pink one at camp. I was dreading having to tell her, since I thought she have a major meltdown. But, when I did tell her, she just said, "Well, we still have the purple one."

She definitely knows her own mind and sticks to her guns (wherever did she inherit those traits from?). This can come in handy--she'll pick the first toy or book or activity that she wants without mulling over the endless possibilities. It can also be a royal pain--like when she refuses to go bed before she can clean the dirt out of her toe nails. Along the same lines, she has started to figure out how to push our buttons and what to say if she wants to be mean. After a lovely father/daughter day-trip to Governor's Island last weekend, Jon asked Rosie if she wanted to go with him to Home Depot. She looked straight at him and said, "No! I've already had enough of you today!"And, don't even get Ahme started on the 6-month+ war that began when Ahme had the audacity to make Rosie sit on the toilet before going to bed.

Rosie is very much a girly girl. Her favorite colors are pink, purple, silver, gold and rainbow. She does not wear pants or shorts; only skirts and dresses. She loves things that are "fancy" and "beautiful", especially anything to do with princesses. You can see from her drawings above, that she has come to make very intricate, detailed pictures of girls with tiaras, very long hair, and extensive jewelry.

Her friendships, especially her girlfriends, seem to be increasingly important to her. She talks about her friends all the time, especially during imaginary play. She likes to be one of her friends (usually Penny or Cecilia) and I have to be the other friend (Vivian and Evey) and we will talk on the phone about the play date we're planning for the day. She loves to have play dates and to go on outings around Brooklyn with her friends. A girl from her preschool, Penny, hosted a girls-only, "Frozen" movie-watching, pizza and pajama party one night and I thought Rosie's head was going to explode for happiness.

She makes a girls-only exception for her little brother. While there are moments of sibling rivalry, for the most part, she is a very good big sister. She plays with Sam, helps cheer him up when he's grumpy, tries to show him the ways of the world, and laughs at his ridiculous antics. When we were at the beach two weeks ago, we spent a car ride telling knock-knock jokes. Rosie laughed as hard at Sam's nonsense attempts at humor ("knock knock. Chicken bokbok!) as she did at her own (Knock Knock. Who's there? Pretzel. Pretzel who? Pretzel banana!")

Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches make up approximately 75% of her daily diet. She refuses to try new foods and regularly rejects foods that she does claim to like. Since the doctor gave her a little lecture during her check-up, we've instituted a new policy where she has to take at least one bite of a new food everyday. So far, that consists of her taking the smallest bite known to man and then spitting it out in the garbage.

We're looking forward to the Fall and the start of Kindergarten.