Nine is Divine

Drew turned 9 on January 2, and she had her well-check on Jan 5. The bottom like when talking about Drew is our girl is small but mighty!

Stats:

Height: 4' 1.5" {12%}

Weight: 49.6 pounds {6%}

BMI: 14.23 {11%}

Clothes size: 6/S

Shoe size: 1.5 or 2

Teeth lost: 0

Our big 9 year old!

Drew continues to amaze me with how big of a heart she has. She is so kind, so generous, such a peacemaker, just so genuinely good-hearted. She is a great middle child because of her gentle personality. She is still very snuggly which I love most of the time!

She is kicking school's BUTT. She loves school, is SO happy to go every day, and she is doing fantastic. Montessori schools don't give grades, but they do periodic testing to see how the kids are trending against the standards laid out by the state. She has nailed those every time. This year she will have her first round of standardized testing {the STAAR test}, and based on her testing, she should knock it out of the park.

She has a great group of friends. Zara and Alice are her closest friends - they are in Brownies together and can't get enough of each other. We usually go to the park by our school every Friday, and she and Zara have had some sleepovers. She's even stayed at Zara's house which is HUGE because she has always been scared to stay anywhere else.

This year she has tried volleyball, took piano lessons {we are continuing at home as her teacher's work schedule increased and she couldn't keep teaching lessons}, and just recently got back into horseback riding {technically not in her 9th year ha}. She isn't very competitive but loves playing games.

Drew loves animals and babies! She wants a pet so badly, I hope we can make that happen...eventually. She loves when we get to take care of her class guinea pig. She is always asking to help with our neighbor's 20 month old son, and when she's gotten to, she's been a huge help!

I'm still struggling to adjust to Drew's sense of style. In my head, she should still love pink and sparkles and dresses, but alas, black, navy, olive green, no patterns {except maybe stripes}. She wears leggings or jeans and tennis shoes every day. I love that she's confident in her style, but I miss her colorful outfits!

She is very artistic. She loves to draw {and is really good!}, paint, write stories, anything creative. I could totally see her doing something in this field one day. She's getting more and more into reading and enjoys graphic novels and comics a lot. She loves the Raina Telgemeier books {Guts, Smile, Drama} and especially Baby Blues comics. We are still working out way through Harry Potter, we read books 1-5 in the last year, and we are reading Baby Sitters Club too.

One story I want to remember - we were listening to the Encanto soundtrack and during Surface Pressure she said 'I'm so glad they made the girl have big muscles. Usually they give boys the big muscles, and I like that it's a girl.' That's right, my girl, you can have big muscles and be strong!

Drew is definitely our neatest child - she keeps her room clean and organized and will help Paige clean her room when I ask. She is such a great helper - sometimes I take advantage of her gentle personality because she is so helpful!

We have started giving Drew a little bit of independence and have left her home with Trent a few times for maybe an hour or so, and she's done great.

She continues to be a great eater. She tried being a vegetarian for a few months in the spring - it was hard for me making sure she had enough to eat, but she stuck with it for a while! She is a good eater of fruits and vegetables - she's not super adventurous and doesn't like spicy food but has a good natural palate, love it!

Drew loves having her hair super long and wants to keep growing it. We almost cut bangs, but she chickened out at the last minute. She still 'worries' her hair - I wish we could break that habit but I'm not sure how to!

Drew is also extremely silly. We get onto her sometimes when she gets a little out of control, ha. But it's also fun to see her true personality shine through!

We love this girl SO MUCH. This past year she has continued to bloom and shine and is just one of the best people - not just children - I know.