Throughout the six years, she has maintained some of the same friendships that she built in kindergarten. A couple of those close friends left this school for another and it looks like they will be reunited in middle school. Some friendships have been built, broken down and rebuilt. She has watched friendships form as an outsider sometimes feeling jealous that she wasn't picked. Within a week they would "break up" and another BFF friendship would be formed right in front of her longing eyes. She was part of some of these friendships as well, but in her mind not often enough. She wishes for what she doesn't have like most girls trying to find their way. She wants blonde hair and blue eyes no matter how many people share their adoration for her big, brown eyes and thick, wavy dark hair.
Since third grade she has slowly been loosening her dependence on me to where she now won't even make eye contact when she's with a group of her friends. She's far too cool for that. As much as it's been a battle this year with her up and down emotions and love/hate relationship with me, she has started to confide in me about issues at school with friends, with teachers. Sometimes good stories. Sometimes bad. She seeks my advice often. I really appreciate this and tell her that I hope she can always feel comfortable coming to me with any issue and I will be there to listen at the very least. I feel my parenting is on the line so much more today than it was 6 years ago. The mistakes I make now are so much more noticed and I fear that I may steer her in the wrong direction. Am I saying the right things? I have my doubts most of the time but I hope that just having regular discussions with her and keeping the lines of communication open will help both of us maintain a healthy relationship through these next very tough teenage years.
She has grown so much physically and emotionally since kindergarten. The physical growth is obvious with photographic evidence, but the emotional growth is hard to capture. I wish there were a way. In the meantime with my addiction to photo-journaling, I have managed to document her physical growth over the past six years. If you are so inclined, please check out the video of her Elementary School days.
It was difficult to narrow it down to these images and keep it under the time of a full-length movie. I wanted to include some video as well, but I just had way too much footage and too many photos. From the first day of kindergarten alone I had 77 images from which to choose! I also spent far too much time searching the Internet and my personal music collection for the perfect song. After a few late nights on the computer with no luck, I was on a treadmill at the gym and Rod Stewart was performing his new song "Can't Stop Me Now" on Good Morning America. Nothing could be more perfect! I knew instantly that I was going to use it but four minutes wasn't going to be enough to cover six years of photographs. The next day I read a blog that mentioned the latest Sara Bareilles song "Brave". This seemed like a great fit as well so it made the cut and the slideshow came together.
We celebrate her continuation tomorrow where she will be singing in the choir and I will be crying hysterically in the audience. She will grow up and I have to let her... it's a fact of life. My little girl, show me how big your brave is! You can tackle anything. They can't stop you now!
