Five!

When I start these posts, I always ask Karl what the kid is up to, so that I don't forget stuff.  I asked Karl what Ingrid is doing these days and he said, "I dunno.  I never see her."  Ingrid has surprised us for the last couple months by going, going, going all day long.  She has always been the kid who needed the most down time and alone time, but lately she's been at school or running around with her buddies from dawn until dusk.

Yesterday she played with the neighbors all morning, rode with them to her soccer game, came home and went to a birthday party down the block (and stayed by herself when Henry got cranky and came home), then played hard for two more hours when we had dinner with friends.  It's been like this every day for almost two months.  She melts down at some point every afternoon, but mostly it's been fun to watch her blossom into this extremely sociable creature.  

It's either twelve kids in our house or none

IDEK.  Mid-afternoon driveway swimming sleepover?  

Ingrid is the hardest of the kids to pin down.  She's the easiest child on her own, because she'll play independently without wreaking havoc, but the most difficult in conjunction with the other kids, because she is least inclined to alter her demands to accommodate everyone.  It's good that she's innately sweet because she's totally oblivious to other people's feelings.  She antagonizes the bejeezus out of Henry but is happy to be helpful with Fritz.  In the right mood, she'll draw Heidi into pretend play for an hour, but won't tolerate Heidi deviating from the plan (or stealing her headbands) whatsoever.  She's super girly with the dresses and accessories but quite vulgar with the poop and pee and privates talk.  She'll ignore everything I say all day long and then slay me at bedtime with an unprompted, "Mama, when I go to school, I'm really going to miss you."

She's shedding the last of her toddler traits.  We're seeing her big-kid face and wondering what the heck we're going to do with a pretty daughter.

We caught some bunnies in our backyard this summer.  Ingrid with a baby bunny . . . lordy, that's a whole new standard for cuteness.  I had basically caved and told Ingrid she could keep them.  It was a good thing Karl came home from work early that day.  In addition to the bunnies, she has also requested a dog with curly hair, a cat, a horse, and a unicorn.

She started ballet and soccer this fall.  It's hard to say which one is cuter.  The ballet class is more structured than the one in DC; the soccer league is suuuuuper informal.  Both of them suit her at this stage.  

She's the blond one.  #minnesota

Kindergarten is going great.  She likes to run off the bus and unload her backpack right there at the bus stop.  We actually hear a little about what she did during the day, which is a pleasant new development, and it sounds like she likes her teacher, enjoys art class, is friends with everyone in the class, and hates P.E.

We had a fun, loosely-planned birthday party at the end of August.  The family and friends came over for our usual party of pizza and snacks.  I took Ingrid to Target for decorations, where she picked out every rainbow and unicorn thing in sight, including a pinata which was probably meant to be a mule but we're going to call a rainbow unicorn.

Best gift: unicorn sleeping bag.

And now that she's five, we can start doing birthday interviews!

What is your favorite color? 

• Pink and purple

What is your favorite food? 

• Carrots

What is your favorite dinner that we cook at home?

• Chicken stew, ribs, pizza, chicken on the bone 

What is your favorite treat? 

• Every kind

What is your favorite subject in school? 

• The [My Little] Ponies at choice time

What is your favorite thing to do on weekends?

• Eat candy.  Play soccer and play with the neighbors.

What is your favorite movie? 

• Moana

What is your favorite tv show? 

• Pokemon videos (sass)

What is your favorite book? 

• Princess books

What is your favorite song? 

• Galway Girl (more sass - this was Henry's song at 5)

What is your favorite restaurant? 

• Taco Bell

What is your favorite vegetable? 

• Carrots

What is your favorite fruit? 

• Apples 'cause that's the only fruit I like

What is your favorite place to visit? 

• Zoo!

Where do you WANT to visit some day? 

• Disney World

Who is your best friend? 

• Ari

What’s your favorite thing to do with Henry? 

• Swim

What’s your favorite thing to do with Heidi? 

• Play the choo-choo game

What's your favorite thing to do with Fritz?

Cuddle him

What’s your favorite thing to do with Dad? 

• Hug him

What’s your favorite thing to do with Mom? 

• Sit and cuddle on the couch

What do you want to be when you grow up? 

• Dentist worker, artist

What is one thing you want to learn how to do? 

• Drive a mini-car 

What are you really good at?

• Soccer, drawing, coloring

What is something that you wish for? 

• A real fairy

What is something you wonder about? 

• I wonder if I might have bad dreams

Who is someone that you miss? 

• Miss Sherry my old teacher.  She's a cuddler too.

What makes you sad? 

• When my brother hurts me

What makes you happy? 

• When my brother doesn't hurt me.  Playing with the neighbors.  Playing outside with my brother - MY BABY BROTHER.

What would your perfect day be like?

• Play in the sun.  Catch raindrops on my tongue.  Eating ice cream all day.  If it was too rainy I would hang out with Fritz.

What age do you look forward to – and why?

• I want to be seven so my brother won't be mean to me.