Happy 6th Birthday Sassy!

Oh my little Sassy,

This letter is months and months late, that's pretty much how our life works these days, so let's just call say Happy half birthday!

Trying out the new dryer. 

Oh my Sass, you have had a BIG year! You started kindergarten this year and you have done AWESOME! I have to admit I was a little bit nervous about you and kindergarten. You love to sleep and I knew this would prevent you from getting all the sleep your little body needed. Kindergarten also required you to listen to another adult all day every day. Given how much you like listening to me, I thought this had the potential to be a trainwreck. But... you have Ms. McDevitt for a teacher and  you LOVED her. You blossomed in kindergarten. We always knew you were so smart, but boy howdy are you a little smarty pants!


You have loved everything about going to school all the time. You loved the bus, the lunchroom, the kids, and most especially your sweet teacher. When coronavirus hit you were pretty devastated that school wasn't happening any more, but then we got some great news that Ms. McDevitt would be moving up to 1st grade and things got better. I really hope (for all our sakes) that school starts back as planned in August.

Grace needed a dance partner and you came through. 

We moved from Texas to Georgia just a few months after you turned 5 and I was pretty nervous about you. I knew Mike and Grace would be fine, but you are a homebody and don't like change. You left your old school on Thursday and started your new school on Monday and loved every minute of it. you fit right into the class with Ms. Kerri and Mr. Scott at Parkway. I think the move would have been harder without school, but school started right away. I love that school and learning is your sanctuary.

You tell us at least weekly that when you grow up you are going to be president, an "asthma doctor for kids", a lawyer, and an author. I don't doubt it one single bit. If there was one person out there who was going to be all of those things and make them all a smashing success, it would be you my feisty child.

You were so thrilled to join Mike at Mashburn!

You do not like to listen to me. This is both aggravating and reassuring. I know that you won't listen to me, or really anyone else for that matter. And there is something oddly reassuring about knowing that you dance to the beat of your own drum and your drum alone. I hope you're able to carry this independent thinking with you throughout your life.

You still love Halloween and all things spooky. 

You learned to read this year. You were determined that you would leave kindergarten knowing how to read, and while kindergarten was cut short (stupid coronavirus), you learned to read! You have all the "power words" taped to your ceiling so you can practice and move up reading levels. I love this enthusiasm and how you push yourself to do better. This is a great trait, this is how you're going to end up a doctor, lawyer, author, and president some day.

You do not enjoy helping. This aspect of your personality reminds me so much of Uncle Brandon. You find a way to get out of any chore someone assigns you. We're going to work on this one my friend. This is the year that you have stopped being neat. I cannot fathom how you enjoy living in chaos, but you'd rather do that than clean.

You learned to love electronics this year, especially minecraft. Getting you off the iPad or Ninetendo is not great. As much as I don't like prying the iPad out of your hands (literally) I love how much you like to create your own world.

You decided that "ball sports" are not for you. There was a time this past spring when you decided you were done with baseball and refused to play. Luckily this was in the middle of a game when you were playing first base. You sat down on first base and faced the outfield, there was nothing anyone could do to get you to cooperate so the coach put another kid on first and he tried to play around you. You love gymnastics and I'm so glad you got a few sessions in before COVID-19. You played another season of basketball and much preferred hanging out on the bench to actually playing.

We celebrated your half birthday during Mikey's baptism. 

You love to play with weapons. It's a tad bit frightening, but you love pretending to be a boxer, ninja, assassin, all the things. You can spend hours in the backyard playing ninjas with Michael and Grace.

You LOVE mike. He drives you crazy, but you love to be with him. You still love Grace, but you are easily annoyed by her whining, and she's decided this is the year to whine a LOT.

You're still a mama's boy. You freely admit this to anyone that asks. I think this is hilarious. You still love pup pup and froggy, I really love this. I love that pup pup has stuck around so long.

You did not make our trip to DC easy! 

You've decided that most food is the worst, but the things you do decide to eat always surprise me. You love shrimp, gnocchi, teriyaki chicken, spaghetti, and nachos. I think it's the food textures that are off putting to you. Its so hard to get you to eat something more than once. Everything has to be perfect for you to eat it, I think you're going to drive me nuts.

Oh sweet Zach I hope you never lose your independent streak, give in and eat SOMETHING, continue to embrace life will the same level of enthusiasm! Life would be so boring without you, I'm glad you're ours.

Still sleep with pup pup and froggy. 

Halloween 2019