Today is Nia’s 5th grade “graduation” ceremony, which has me reflecting on how much she’s changed this year and the fact that we’re about to have a bona fide middle schooler on our hands.
When we started the year, she was still solidly in the “little girl” camp but over the course of the last 10 months her language, her physical body and interactions have pushed her solidly into the “tween” category. She needs less from Mom and Dad, prefers her friends to us, and has gotten very into music. She’s growing like a weed too–she’s a bit over 5 feet now–and I imagine she’ll surpass me in a year or two!
Nia’s constants are books, music, and arts. The Pokemon, Star Wars and Marvel obsessions have now been replaced with Warrior Cats, a book series for Young Adults. She’s also taken an active interest in American History and I’ll often stumble upon her listening or reading about the Revolutionary or Cold War. Two weeks she even asked to go see the place where the Battle of Bull Run was! This new interest is right up her Dad’s alley though, which has been a fun new point of connection for them.
Nia tried a whole host of new things this year including archery…
ice skating,
mountain biking,
pottery,
and roller skating.
Each one was frustrating and hard at the beginning, but she persisted through the difficulties and came to enjoy them all. We were proud of her for sticking with each one, even when she didn’t want to do the activity because it felt too hard.
She was also blessed to find the most wonderful group of friends this year who she’s spent many an hour hanging out with in person and chatting online. Before the move we worried a lot about if she’d be able to develop good relationships with only a year here. All our worrying was for naught though, as these have been some of the closest relationships she’s had yet. Hopefully she’ll be so lucky as to find equally wonderful friends in Kazakhstan.
Nia has a big summer ahead. She’s going to her first overnight camp with two of her good friends at the end of June. Then she’ll enjoy the 4th of July fireworks for the first time in DC. A few days later, she and I will head to Minnesota for a two weeks with my family. Then, in late July, she’ll take her first solo flight from DC to Portland to visit Nick’s parents for 10 days. When she comes back, she’ll have one last mythology-based camp and then it’s off to Kazakhstan in mid-August! Pretty good summer, if you ask me!
