Trixie turned five at the end of August.
At five years old, she loves to play outside, play with friends, play with her siblings, and play with her parents. She is still snuggly, especially when trying to avoid going to bed or after a volatile outburst.
She basically taught herself to ride a bike, and she loves going on bike rides with anyone who will take her. If no big kids or adults will accompany her around the black trail (a trail by our house), she will ride up and down the sidewalk of our street for long stretches of time. On the Monday after her birthday (Labor Day) she rode eight miles!
Trixie is smart and asks a lot of good questions. Last week her pre-school teacher told me she is ready to start reading and sent Trixie home with some resources to work with. (And yes, that technically happened after her birthday, but with a post nearly six weeks late, I'm talking about it anyway.)
Technically Trixie could have started kindergarten this year, but I had decided quite a while back to hold her back a year so she'd be one of the oldest in her class rather than one of the youngest. I had a lot of reasons for that, and with 2020 being like it's been, I'm confident I made the right choice. Trixie's getting an extra year with her beloved pre-school teacher, and she's doing an online program that is going fine.
Trixie loves animals, especially horses. We still go to Thanksgiving Point to let her ride ponies. I mentioned that when she turns 8 maybe we can some riding lessons, and she has remembered this and brought it up several times. Earlier this year she and Ike pretended to be missionaries for a Family Night activity. As we asked them questions people might ask missionaries, she told us that you can get baptized when you turn 8, and you can also take horse riding lessons.
She got 11 stitches in her chin earlier this year. It went about as well as you would expect. Once the shots numbed everything up, she did okay. But eventually that numbing agent wore off. At the age of 4, she learned to swallow pills because she detested the taste of the liquid pain medicine.
My two girls are absolutely, positively, the very best of friends (when they are not fighting). They have great imaginations and can play together for extended periods of time.
Trixie also loves to play with her brothers. Felix can often be found setting up train tracks for her, and Ike can always be relied upon to rile her up. At Bear Lake this summer, he toted her all around in this borrowed kayak for long periods of time.
Trixie played QuickBall (like tee-ball, but faster-paced and more focused on essential skills), and she did fine. She finally got a hit on her last game, which was thrilling. I was one of her coaches, which was special for us. She agreed to play, in large part, because of the treats she expected after each game, but Covid put the kabosh on that, which was really disappointing. She also excelled in swim lessons this year and thinks she can swim now. (She can't.)
Trixie is brave and always willing to be a daredevil. She told me she wanted to jump off this bridge on a camping trip. Once we were actually up there, it felt quite high, and she really struggled. She finally did it, though! (After the actual experience, she thought she'd try again, but she just stood on the bridge being scared for a long time before I finally went to get her. Ike did that too on the first day he jumped.)
Like a true middle child, Trixie likes to point out the ways in which she is special, generally talking about her "broken" heart or her defective ears and how she's had surgery more than anyone in her family. At one point I'm pretty sure she told somebody she was born without a heart at all.
She actually has a great, big heart, and we are so happy she is ours.
