5 year update

I'm a bit behind in posting the now-yearly kid status update. We've had a very busy few weeks with birthday, Halloween festivities, birthday party, and then trip to Disneyland. It's nice to take a breather.

Anyway, 5. We went for Anya's well-child visit today. She's doing great. Doc says she should drink more milk (I disagree and think her calcium intake is just fine without 3 cups of milk. I didn't feel like an argument, so I smiled and nodded). She took her vaccines very bravely, so we went to Menchie's Yogurt (a recommended source of calcium!) as a treat for being so well-behaved for the visit.

Weight: 38 lbs (25-50%)
Height: 42.25 inches (25-50%)
BMI: 14.97 (25-50%)
BP:93/59, HR:94
Vision 20/25 both eyes; hearing: pass

General Interests
This seems to be the Year of the Dragon (last year was year of Rapunzel, before that Little Mermaid, and before that, Jungle Book). She's really been into dragons ever since she watched How to Train Your Dragon. Imaginative play often involved dragons, she was one for Halloween, has a stuffed one, etc.

Besides dragons, Anya still like cats. That creeps up in imaginative play often as well (Monster vs Cat is still a common game of pretend she makes us play). Faeries are still popular. Any animals, both real and stuffed.

Anya likes science in general. She's mostly into zoology and natural sciences...but really, it all interests her. She just got a kitchen science kit for her birthday this afternoon and went nutso over it.

Not surprisingly, she still has a love for gymnastics. Recently, she was moved to the advanced group. She fits in well skill-wise and is happy. It's something she looks forward to every week. She's fantastic on the balance beam. She's also strong on the bars - such upper body and core strength and can easily do anything the teacher asks of her. Best of all, she's having a blast.

Skills Development
Reading is going well. She's sometimes very interested in it; other times, not at all. We're still trying not to put any pressure on her to read. It has been something extra on her reward chart this year -- 15 words and she can earn a bonus star. Chris and I talked about it and are going to stop doing that...it might still be a form of pressure and we want reading to be enjoyable for her. She can read any short to medium, uncomplicated words. She's also learned a few sight words, just from coming across them enough times. Today I noticed a little developmental jump. We were at a coffee shop and there was a semi-transparent sign facing the parking lot. She noticed it from inside and read the words, even though they were backward.

Anya can count to 100 (has been able to for a little while I think). Yesterday, we were counting cards and, on her own, she started counting them by two's. She also counts by tens. And there's some rudimentary math she gets.

Misc.
Anya's final year of preschool is going well. We just decided to knock her down to 3 mornings at Sweet Pea Cottage instead of 4. 4 seemed like too much. She was acting possibly over-scheduled, plus this is my last year to be at home with her before Kindergarten. I want more Anya-Mom fun days. Besides Sweet Pea, she has been going Monday and Fridays for 2 hours at Roaring Mouse "Artists of the Heart" program. It's a class for kids entering Kindergarten next fall. It focuses on interpersonal readiness for elementary school. She loves it. And it's across the street from our house - bonus!

Anya's current favorite friends: Eva, Eloise, Natalie at school (although they fight often and their friendship is on and off), Ella F., Avi, Max (Carol and Shelly's grandson), Izzy, and Noelle.

A while ago we started giving her an allowance to teach her about money and trade offs etc.  She gets a dollar for every year, so now she gets $5 per week.  We use this when she wants something we don't want to or do think we should buy for her.  "Well you have your allowance honey..." This has made her a. stop bugging us for things b. forced her to make trade offs which will hopefully pay off for her in the future.  She's taken to it very well and seems genuinely please with the sense of empowerment it gives her. 

Still a good eater.  Not much to say here.  She's not as adventurous as she once was, but compared to most of her friends she's very easy to deal with at meal times.

One of the most interesting things about Anya is her well developed sense of reality.  She always seems to know when things are real or imaginary. For example at Disney last week, she didn't even bother meeting any of the characters because, as she put it, "they're just people dressed like the characters".  My favorite moment of realism/fantasy mix was while waiting in line at the Disney haunted house. There was a grave stone with a cat on it. With no previous discussion, she asked "Is there a pretend dead cat buried under there?" Like she new it wasn't real, but that it was a cat's grave, and that pretend cats would likely be buried under pretend grave stones.