Tweenager!

 

Height: 4' 8.5" (15th percentile)

Weight: 75lb 13.4oz (15th percentile)

Happy birthday to our tweenager!  She is ecstatic to be 12 because she finally got her own phone number - the picture of her with her with new cell phone is the biggest, most genuine smile I've seen!!   Getting the iPhone 14 vs my hand-me-down iPhone 11 was a nice surprise for her (and us!) She had an early birthday celebration with family followed by an outing with a few of her BFFs the next day at Painting with a Twist (was suppose to be Tree Runner but rain was forecasted for the entire day) and then Chipotle for dinner afterwards.  On the day of her actual birthday, she requested to go to K-pot for hotpot.

7th grade has been good although she's not liking her classes very much.  In her words, the teachers either talk too much or are too boring but she is still doing a great job with having 100% in 5 of her 6 classes.

She's still dedicated to her gymnastics journey and will be repeating level 6 again this season due to a hairline fracture on her big toe growth plate which prevented her from competing after only competing in 1.5 meets last season.  She was extremely disappointed but was able to recover enough to compete in the last meet of the season.  She is ok with competing level 6 again this season because she said she would have a better chance of placing 1st! 

Something also new this year was contacts!  She has astigmatism and some other condition that I can't remember the name of but requires some treatment to prevent/slow down the progression of it.  They happen to have contacts that help manage this condition, which worked out great because she's been asking for contacts.  It only took her a couple of tries to get the contacts in and within a week of using them, she was extremely comfortable with using contacts.  The only downside (other than insurance not covering this cost) is that she can't nap with contacts in.....and she still loves her sleep!....and of course her blankie!

I still can't believe she's 12 now and then next year we move into full teenager territory!!  Looking forward to seeing her continue to grow!  We are proud of the young lady you are becoming and love you so much!

11 Years Old!

 Happy 11th Birthday!
Height: 4ft 6in
Weight: 53lbs

 

Sophia had an early joint birthday celebration with Ethan before they headed out for vacation and on her actual birthday, she wanted to head over to Kura Sushi for dinner - with specific instruction that she gets to sit next to the conveyor belt and grab the food!  This year, she invited a few friends over to paint by number, enjoy a taco bar for dinner and just hung out and did whatever 11 year old girls do (there was a lot of chit chat, screeching and running around with other people's phones)

Double Digits!!

Look who's 10!!  

 Height: 4' 4.6" (25th percentile)
Weights: 64lbs 6oz (26th percentile)

We threw her a party at Rising Phoenix Archery where her brother also had his 10th birthday party.  Originally she wanted to go to a ropes course at Troy gymnastics but it wasn't available during the days/times we could have a party (she thinks I'm just saying that because it was more expensive than archery!) but the archery birthday party turned out to be a lot of fun for her and her friends because many of them have never tried archery before.  [I  was secretly glad she chose archery because when I suggested an archery party, she made the comment that all the friends she's inviting are girls - I told her that girls can definitely do archery and a lot of other things that she thinks only boys can do.  I hope she realizes that there's so much out there she will be able to accomplish as long as she doesn't shut her own doors and limit her potential just because she's a girl!]  We weren't sure how the party would turn out because she wanted to invite both school friends and gymnastics friends but she did a great job making sure she introduced both sets of friends to each other and she made an effort to talk to each one of her friends that night.  Looks like turning 10 is making her a little more responsible and considerate of others!  I asked her what the best part of the night was and in the true spirit of childhood, she said "All the presents!!"  

 

  

She is in her final year of elementary school and is really enjoying her time as a 5th grader, doing things like being a safety and very much looking forward to going to 5th grade camp (hopefully!) in the spring.  She was very disappointed a week before school when she found out that she wasn't going to be in the same class as her friends from last year and dwelled over that the entire week before school started but I kept reminding her that she will make new friends.  Fast forward to when she was handing out her birthday invitations where she invited a couple girls from her current class and when I asked her why she invited them, she gave me a smirk and reluctantly said "because I made some new friends" [I wanted to say "I told you so!" but I didn't].  

Over the summer she kept in touch with her friends via Messenger Kids calls/texts/video chats, a few playdates and actually took a cooking class with her BFF Emma.  I thought that would inspire her to cook more but I think her interest lies more with eating the food, at least for now.

For the most part, she's been spending much of her time with gymnastics - 4 days a week, almost 2.5 hours each time she's at the gym.  She's part of the juniors B team right now which doesn't require going to competition yet.  She had the option to move to a level 4 team but she told her coach that she'd rather stick with juniors B so that she can learn more variety of skills rather than just stick to level 4 routines.  I feel like that was a very mature decision of her to make and I'm happy that she knows what she wants to do and can make those decisions on her own.  Hopefully that (good) decision making will continue on throughout her adolescent years and beyond.  But this girl...what she can do in the gym amazes me!  Looking forward to watching her continue to grow as a gymnast!...and as a daughter, sister, friend, student and whatever she choses to pursue!  Love you, Mui! 

  

 

(as a final note, she still loves her sleep and still loves 

her precious "bobee"...which is about to fall apart soon!)

And now some gymnastics videos for fun!

 

Cutest Runner

I know she's almost into double digit age but she looked so darn cute running on the treadmill that I had to post this somewhere! 

Also, the first day back to in person school was picture day but she had absolutely nothing other than hoodies/t-shirts/long sleeves to wear so we had to specifically go out and buy her something nice to wear for pictures.  She hates wearing dresses but that didn't outweigh the fact that she didn't want to dress casually for picture day.  Instead, she brought a change of clothes to wear after pictures were taken!

9 Years Old

Height: 4' 3" (31st percentile)
Weight: 61 lbs (39th percentile)

Happy pandemic birthday to this 9 year old who wanted to make panda (still a favorite animal of hers) cupcakes on her actual birthday.  This year's celebration was a little different since Chrissy Yee Yee was home in October so she had an early combined birthday celebration with Ethan.

This year, she's in a 4th/5th grade split class and loves her teacher Mrs. Freels.  She also loves that she's in a class with her friend Emma.  The school year started off with remote learning and then transitioned to in-person learning with cohorts (she's cohort B because her class split by grade rather than last name) and she's been doing a good job handling the changes.  During her free time/break time when she's remote learning from home, she and Emma call each other via Messenger Kids video and talk.  These two chatter away - sometimes they'll work on homework together, other times they're working on different crafts but can see what each other is doing and when the home office isn't occupied, she'll even go play piano over the video with Emma.

   

Over the summer, despite pandemic times, she got to try a few new things like "surfing" and fishing.  As you can imagine, she wasn't a huge fan of having to hook the worm but she enjoying trying to catch the fish.  She also finally got to make the air-fried donuts she's been asking about.  I've been encouraging her to cook more so that she's more comfortable around the kitchen appliances.  On a related note, she's been more willing to try and actually like foods other than mac n cheese (favorite is still Kraft) and plain, sauceless pasta (although those are still 2 of her favorites!).  When we went Mackinac Island towards the end of September and stayed at the Grand Hotel, she even took advantage of the all inclusive meal plan an ordered off the adult menu!

 

She was also been able to keep up with gymnastics during the pandemic.  It started off with zoom conditioning workouts and then once it got warmer out, she met with her team outdoors to practice and eventually her gym was able to safely get the girls back into the gym for practices.  Because of all the COVID restrictions, parents aren't allowed into the gym at pick up time but her coach has been so wonderful to send videos of what she's been working on.

 

Still, at 9 years old, she's a great sleeper - on the days she doesn't have gymnastics, you will most likely find her napping around 4pm.  One time I found her napping in the basement:

Looking forward to seeing how this girl grows this year and what things she will no doubt accomplish!

(Online) School's Out!

No one would have predicted that this school year would end with remote learning from home March through June.  Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, school was transformed into remote learning composed of daily online i-ready math and reading modules, weekly Zoom meetings with teachers and classmates, google classroom assignments, specials (art, music, Chinese, PE) via Weebly  and anything else I could find to keep the kids busy while trying to work from home.  Sophia was really disappointed that she wasn't able to return to school to see her friends and have the opportunity to stand on the bleachers for the 2nd/3rd grade concert (because 3rd graders get to stand up higher on the bleachers!).  Thankfully she's a pretty good student and required minimal guidance in completing her weekly work assignments which helped ease some of the stress/demands for me while working from home (Covid-19 pretty much shut down the state for a couple of months!).  As usual, her end of year report was outstanding and her teacher had nothing but praise for her.  This comment nice to read: Your kind heart, thoughtful ideas and growth mindset will be put to good use for the rest of your life.  When I think of you, I especially think of your confidence and interest in learning!  So with that....on to 4th grade in the fall!

During this time, however, she learned a few things that would not have been taught if she were at school such as learning to use kitchen appliances (with supervision)!  She cooked eggs on her own for the first time, used the oven on her own to heat up some Brazilian Cheese Bread and refined her knife skills when she cut up fruit for crepes and apples for her own homemade apple pie!  We also attempted making macarons and pretzels!

During this pandemic, she was able to keep up with her piano via virtual lessons, gymnastics via Zoom meetings and rollerblading via roller blades at home.

When asked "what do you enjoy most about this pandemic": Being able to sleep in every single day!!

Yep, she still loves her sleep! 😴🛌