Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Jocilyn

My sweet Jocilyn.  Where do I begin?


Jocilyn is growing up faster than I imagined she would.  She just started the 1st grade and even with the added freedom having two children in full day school gives me, I miss her being home.  She is a great sister. Most of the time she and Kaden have nothing but fun with each other and she is amazing with her little sister and brother.  She has helped me out countless times when the baby needed someone to play with or Savannah needed help brushing her teeth.


Jocilyn is a great shopping companion.  At the grocery store she loves to help me pick the fruit and vegetables.  She gives me ideas on what to make for dinner, and is overall a lot of fun to shop with.


Not to mention her amazing sense of style!  Jocilyn loves to mix and match her clothes in different ways and usually has at least 3 clothing changes a day.  She's not at all shy about giving her opinion either.  Luckily nothing too embarrassing has resulted from her confidence,  but I ask her regularly if she likes my outfit or how my hair looks in the back.  She almost always gets it right so its kind of fun having another girl's perspective even if the source is 6 years old.


Socially Jo has a lot of fun.  Her best friend lives across the street and the two of them could happily spend every day together if school didn't get in the way.  At school Jo has many friends and is loving building those relationships.  Everyday she has stories to tell me about what they did at recess or the funny thing someone did.


Lately Jo has been taking Gymnastics and dance lessons.  They are so much fun for her and she's so tiny and limber its hard to not imagine she could be really good at it with some practice.  Practice is the tricky part. She is naturally pretty good at a lot of things she's had to learn so far: gymnastics, dance, reading, you name it.  So at the onset she is excited and happy to learn anything new.  Its when the harder stuff comes along and she has to put in real effort and focus that is a struggle.  Still, she is slowly learning how to work hard and why its worth it.  Kimball and I are very proud of her.



She is creative, confident and incredibly sweet.  When I see her she just makes me smile.  Not long after Jocilyn turned 5 I started to realize she was becoming less and less of a little girl and more of a beautiful young girl.  It sounds like an insignificant difference, but trust me, it is there and it matters.  Its been equally painful and wonderful to watch this transition, but I guess that's a part of parenting Kimball and I are just learning about with her and Kaden.