Quinn is Six

In the days immediately after Quinn turned six (oh so many days ago), she held a live baby chick (of her own volition) and swam to the ladder at the end of the cabin dock without a life jacket … so to say six agrees with her is an understatement.

She spent her day up north with Gma and Gpa - and I'm pretty sure that everyone wants Gma to be in charge of the birthday spoiling. She got to help make her cake, went out to lunch (where they sang to her), went to the Children's Museum and got to play with her cousins, got a special birthday dinner ... and then Mom and Dad showed up in time for cake with her birthday balloon in tow! She said it was a great day - which made us so happy since we felt bad about missing part of it. Let me tell you that Mom and Dad made good time on their trip north to see their birthday girl!

This has been the year of confidence for Quinn. As she headed toward Kindergarten a year ago, we hoped that our shy, hesitant-to-separate child would find some success. She found more success than we could have ever hoped for and is a new, more confident version of herself. Don't get us wrong - she still has an inner circle that is "invitation only" and she doesn't open up to just anyone. But she is more open to new experiences and no longer wants to miss out because she is afraid.

She still can't sit still and I almost weekly tell Mike to build more stuff for her to climb on. She starts gymnastics on Thursday in an actual gym and she cannot wait! She's also super pumped to play floor hockey again year - and is excited that Dec will be joining her. Mike also talked her into trying out a couple sessions of open hockey to see if she has any interest in the "ice" version of the game. At the moment, she's much more interested in gymnastics - but time will tell.

At the beginning of the summer, Quinn asked me to get her a couple pepper plants. She had just started getting into eating bell peppers and wanted to try her hand at growing one. Mike upped the ante and told her that if she kept her peppers alive all summer, he and Gpa V would build her a vegetable garden next spring. The yellow pepper we ate last weekend and the red pepper that I'm planning to throw in our pasta salad this week tell me that Mike and Gpa better start planning.

Quinn is so ready for school to start (one more day, thank the Lord!). Today, I told the girls that they needed to start cleaning up in 20 minutes. Q asked me what time that would be, so I said 2:30. She then grinned at me slyly and informed me that 2:30 was actually 19 minutes away. Which, of course, it was. Math is her sweet spot and she's coming into her own with reading. I think we'll see a big jump in that this year (right now, if she doesn't know a word, she just blazes on through). Once she gets a bit more vocabulary under her belt, I think she'll be off to the races like her sister. We think she'll be our non-fiction reader - and I suspect the math correction of earlier today will not be the last time Quinn and her steel trap of a mind tell me that I'm wrong.

We bought her gym shoes that simply seem WAY too big and that I fear won't last the full year - because they are not too big at all. She and Fiona have converged at the same size in all things (except socks and shoes, where Q is bigger). Sorting their laundry into the correct drawers is how I keep my memory sharp. At her well check this year, she was 44.5" tall (36%) and 41 lbs (28%). She is about a quarter inch taller than her sister ... but we aren't mentioning that yet.

Our biggest hope is that year six continues to bring her confidence and joy as she finds herself and whom she wants to be. Finally, to welcome in year six, here are the answers to her annual birthday questions:

Favorite color: Orange
Favorite friend: Bella
Favorite show: Nature Cat
Favorite book: The Night Before Thanksgiving
Favorite food: Cheese quesadillas
Favorite thing to do: Paint
Be when you grow up: Chef