Letter to Peyton 5 yrs

Peyton,

You are five years old. I can’t believe how old you are. At the same time it’s really hard to believe you have been in our lives for only five years. I can’t imagine what the would would be like without you in it. You make every day special.

You are such a smart little girl. I’m amazed at how your brain works. You taught yourself to read almost to the day you turned four. Now you can read almost anything we put in front of you. You love learning about new things. Geography, the weather, lots of science related things. You have always been afraid and interested in tornadoes, and lightning but this year, in the world, we had three devastating earthquakes in Chile, Haiti, and China. Suddenly you made the connection to Volcanoes. That has been your new obsession and fear. You made sure you knew where most of the worlds larger volcanoes were and told us we could not go there. Italy was your main concern and Mount Vesuvius. I have no idea where you first learned about it. Grandma Ginger bought you a book about volcanoes and I think you read most of it the first week you had it.

Of course Shortly after that, Grandma and Grandpa Harrington went to Italy got stuck in Europe because a volcano in Iceland decided to erupt and then another in Guatemala shortly after. Grandma and Grandpa were stranded in Europe with your Great-Grandmother for an extra two weeks but you were okay because we told you they were safe.

This summer right before your fifth birthday you graduated from Pre-K. It was very exciting to see all of your classmates and help you celebrate. In the fall you will start kindergarten. Dad and I have been so worried about where to put you in school. We are pretty sure they will want you to skip a grade but we’d rather you advance in a few areas but stay in your grade with kids your own age. We will see where the year takes us I suppose.

You are such a great kid and so smart. Sometimes I worry that we expect too much of you because you don’t act like a normal five year old. Sometimes you are like this little adult. People are always so amazed by you and all that you can do. Your brain works in all these amazing ways. The connections you make are astounding. You are surprisingly pretty good with your little brother. He’s a handful and you can be very patient with him. Sometimes you have to make the big sister sacrifices to make him happy and you are pretty good natured about it. (Most of the time).

You are a really cool kid and I’m so glad you are mine!

Love,

Mom