Isla 76 and 77 Months

(photo credit to the amazing John Crozier at Crozier Photography)

Ok, now it's Isla's turn! This girl. She is something else! I love the above photo taken just before Christmastime by my brother-in-law. I feel like it captures her personality to a tee: strong, confident, really cute, a commanding presence and sure to leave an impact. 

I would say that about 85% of the time, I have no idea how to handle this little spitfire. But then in those moments when I do parent her well, the way she beams at me makes me (almost) forget the meltdowns that have dominated her first grade year. It's been a pretty rough season but I love this girl to pieces and am determined to help her thrive! 

She is an exceptional big sister. She's constantly coming up with new games or orchestrating creative play amongst her siblings. 99% of the time they involve her as the teacher and the sibs as her (currently) willing pupils. Time will tell when they grow more adept at exerting their own leadership potentials.

If ever there was an award for most generous gift giver, Isla would certain win first prize. She blew us and many of our family members out of the water with her copious number of thoughtful, homemade and hand-wrapped gifts at Christmas. I honestly had no idea she'd made half of them. I think we each received an envelope of coins from her piggy bank as well as personalized drawings and letters. Unbeknownst to either of us, she made Graham a gift certificate good for one morning of sleeping in - a gift she knew he would most certainly appreciate. Her cousin Lilly was the main recipient of her generosity though. She was gifted no less than five presents from Isla which included art, a homemade activity book and a bird cage constructed out of a cardboard box and plastic wrap, complete with cardboard bird, food and water dish and swing.   

Knowing one of Isla's love languages seems to be gift giving (and shopping!), I did allot her a small budget for purchasing gifts for a select number of family members. She did a fabulous job picking out each item and was very thoughtful in her approach. Emma had been asking for a "journal" to write in so Isla picked out the little sticky note pad Emma is holding in the picture above. Emma was elated and I got a real kick out of the fact that the design on each piece of paper reads "Don't panic! It's organic." 

On one of our shopping trips, Isla spotted a frilly white, heart-shaped frame that she KNEW was just right for Daddy's desk at work. She came up with a whole plan to trick Daddy into posing for a picture - just the two of them - so we could send it off for printing (above). It was ALL her idea and it was pretty much the sweetest thing ever and I'm pretty sure Graham would now say all he ever wanted in life was a frilly white heart framing a picture of the two of them.

You guys, I gotta stop right here and celebrate - isn't this kid just fantastic? So often I lose sight of this in the blur of emotions and sensitivity. But this girl is talented, creative and so very very thoughtful. May these traits continues to flourish!

Isla is my funny little eater. She likes things for a little while and then decides she "doesn't care for them anymore." Things that have come and gone: yogurt, string cheese, cheddar cheese, nuts, sandwiches, bean burritos, fruit leather, peanut butter, smoothies. Packing lunches for school has been quite the experience. In her opinion, it seems perfectly reasonable to give her a sandwich "without the peanut butter and jelly" or the crackers without the cheese or the burrito without the beans. So essentially a piece of bread, a handful of crackers and a tortilla would be a perfect lunch in her world. Getting her to eat protein has always been my challenge but I'm celebrating the fact that she at least eats salami and deli meat! At least today she does. Tomorrow could be a totally different story.

She is also remains super particular about her clothing. Despite receiving at least 5 pairs of stretch pants for Christmas, she only has "2 pairs of pants that are comfortable." One of them is stained permanently and has a giant hole in the knee. So, she tries to wear the other one each and every single day. Essentially what I'm saying is that this girl survives in about 5 articles of clothing which her mother washes every couple days. Her signature style also includes intentionally mismatched socks of varying colors.

In Isla's world, there is never enough time for play. School, though she loves it, really cramps her style and cuts into the time she has to get things done. The other day she requested a personal nanny so that she could "do all the projects" she's been wanting to do. I was driving at the time and nearly ran the car off the road. I tried not to take it personally (I didn't do so hot - I mean, I think I of anyone here could use the nanny for projects!!) but I realize the point she is getting at is that she loves doing, creating and making. She's currently in the middle of sewing her own doll (and doing a great job of it!), writing at least 25 books, running her own homemade jewelry business, reading at least 3 chapter books, collecting rocks for a heart-shaped rock Valentine craft, making jump robes for her and her siblings, and acting as a pen pal to a handful of friends and family. And she is always looking for more things she could sell curbside. She never, ever stops. 

One of the best ways to get her to slow down is through the use of books on CD. These have been a LIFE SAVER. She will disappear into her room and get lost in stories of the crazy Mrs. Piggle Wiggle or Ivy and Bean or Clementine. She likes to crank up the volume REAL LOUD and sometimes doesn't come out again for an hour or more. The only trouble is that it can be hard to pull her back into reality after spending the afternoon in storyland. All in all, it's totally worth it though.

We've also discovered reading chapter books right after school to be the SECOND BEST THING EVER. I make a snack for all the kids and we sit together at the kitchen table and they eat while I read. Getting food into the kids immediately (and having them sit still long enough to actually eat enough) while doing a wind down activity (reading) has significantly reduced our post-school meltdowns. And we are getting are 20 minutes of reading done first thing when Isla gets home. #winning

Isla's self-made good-attitude-after-school sticker chart has also been pretty helpful. She was promised a frozen yogurt outing once she had 4 stickers in a row and a trip to the ice skating rink once she had 15 stickers anywhere on the chart. She quickly figured out that she could get 4 days in a row much faster if she included the weekend days when she doesn't have school and doesn't struggle with the post-school-exhaustion meltdowns. It also helped that we had a 3 day long weekend. Tally on 1 school day after the long weekend and voila! She had 4 stickers in a row. ;) Trust me folks, I just went with it. This girl needs to know she's making progress (and she is). 

In other news, Isla got a hair cut! She's loving the eased length for styling and her momma is still working hard to figure out how to manage her curlier curls.

Isla is really excelling in school. She LOVES Writer's Workshop and is very creative with her stories. She just completed a unit on writing "how-to" stories and here is an excerpt: 

The last part had me laughing out loud: "Ask the adult to talk to you for a few minutes. But they might say no." Ha! It's true. Nothing like a little honesty to slap you in the face. Sometimes we do say no. But let me assure you, we say yes too. Maybe we should make time for yeses a little more often...

So yeah. I just love that my little girl is a budding writer! She gets upset every time she hears I'm going to a coffee shop to write and begs to come with. So the other day I invited her to. We took turns working on each of our projects - her project being writing a book about emotions and my project being transferring some favorite quotes over to my notebook. It was pretty much the best thing ever and I hope to do this more often and instill in her the belief that SHE CAN WRITE from a very young age.

Oh. And as if I wasn't proud of her writing enough already...apparently she's a food writer too! Here is part of her "How to Make Veggie Soup" book. I nearly burst when I saw this.

She is also quickly developing her reading skills and has advanced to a "G" reading level at school. I'm told she is excelling at math too and her teacher sent an email of praise last week saying she was so proud her Isla - she applied some of the math concepts she'd already learned to a new type of problem her teacher was introducing.

This Isla girl. She challenges and grows me every single day. And I just love her!