Today my Eldest Child is 10 years old. Yesterday she graduated from the swim school (she mastered everything they have to teach) and she’s got four belts left until she graduates from Tae Kwon Do’s child program. She is almost 5′ tall (probably 4’10 or 4’11″ish) and just shy of 100 lbs.

Her favorite books are the Warrior Cat series by Erin Hunter. Her favorite food is sushi (salmon and tuna sushimi). Her favorite sport is swimming, because it is low contact.

I would describe her “style” as awkward hand-me-downs. She likes soft clothing that doesn’t hurt her skin so things “matching” is uhhh not on her radar. Once in a while she is entirely delighted by wearing all black and “being goth”.

She is elated to be a tween. Her favorite thing to do is give a thumbs up and say “Hashtag teenager in training!”

She is still a little behind in math. She’s mid-way through 4th grade math at the very end of 4th grade. At this point she says she is deliberately slowing down because Middle Child is trying hard to catch up so they can just do math together. I… have feelings about this (with a two year gap I’m not that thrilled about EC wanting to just… wait… until her sibling catches up) but I’m not fighting it that hard. MC is using it as an excuse to do lots and lots of extra math so… I hope that when MC catches EC they will be used to going quickly and refuse to slow down and EC will have to catch up.

I hope.

Her reading is excellent. She can read just about anything at this point. Her spelling has progressed significantly this year. At this point you wouldn’t look at her writing and say, “Ahhh obviously dyslexic” but she still clearly is. We do training exercises to help her brain process information and it’s working really well. It’s funny to me that reading being extra hard due to the dyslexia causes her to work harder because she wants it. Other things having just a little bit of resistance… she won’t bother. But she cares about reading.

I blame it on the highly limited screen time + most of her screen time being video games that involve reading. But that’s not it. I can try to assign a reason and I’m just full of shit. She wants it because she wants it. Why? People are a mystery.

She’s such a good big sister. She’s patient and helpful and gentle. It’s not that she’s never rude or annoying or bossy or controlling… ha. She’s a lot like me. She always has A Plan and she will shove you through her plan if you don’t have a plan you volunteer faster.

She’s also a lot like Noah. She’s still seriously interested in cooking and she makes more complicated stuff by the year. At this point she is completely capable of making all the meals in a day and they will be nutritionally complete. She knows how to go through and make a shopping list and she’s good at improvising with items on hand.

I like her a lot. I continue to feel like having children has been hands-down the best thing that has happened to me in this life. My children are the gas in my engine. I have to get better. I have to work harder. I have to be a better person. I made them and I owe them this work. No one else on this planet has ever been able to motivate me like this. These have been the best ten years of my life and the next ten are going to be wonderful too.

She still has an incredibly rounded face. She has a glorious double chin and I love it so much. She’s on the thin side with a few pockets of fat to fuel growth. I didn’t lose the baby fat on my face until my first pregnancy. I sort of wonder if she lost the chub on the sides of her face would she narrow out like I did or is she going to stay solid and square like Noah? I can’t tell yet. MC has a narrow face like me. They have never pudged out. EC…. always has extra in her face and neck.

Walking five miles is no big deal. This year she finally freaking got the training wheels off her bike.

She has this thing. She doesn’t want to be a beginner at most things. She will kick and scream and fight and refuse to try at all until she can walk over and just be competent. This is complicated to manage.

I would say she still prefers drawing with pencils and markers over other art mediums but she’s trying to explore and branch out. Clay is not her thing. I suspect it relates to how fussy she is about things on her skin. The sensory sensitivity is strong with this kid.

She rarely wears dresses. She strongly prefers pants and shirts.

She dislikes onions, eggplant, Brussels Sprouts, red cabbage and mushrooms. This list is way longer than it used to be.

Her favorite singer is Kesha. I win. (Thank goodness it isn’t KENNY LOGGINS. OH MY GOODNESS.)

Her favorite color is purple, but blue is very nice too.

I think that’s enough about her right now. She’s my wonderful daughter and I’m glad to know her.