My goal was to finish this blog post before I have to start Brooklyn's in less than 2 weeks. Scarlett turned 9 at the end of June. It was a crazy week with the last day of school (as is the norm), but we also had to contend with Isaac's surgery in Edmonton to remove the pellet from his eye socket. Thankfully we managed to be back for her birthday, and no fun was lost.
I had a very specific list of all her plans for her party, her birthday, and ideas for gifts. For her party we had it at our house, with about 8 other squealy 8-9 year olds. We had one plan in place for nice weather, which included water fights, and one plan in place for rain. Well it wasn't really either. It wasn't raining, but it was only about 17 degrees, so not exactly the kind of heat I would want to play in the water with. But the girls were undeterred, and so they water ballooned and water gun fighted, ring tossed, and trampoline jumped. We also did pin the beak on the flamingo and pass the parcel, on top of pavlova and presents.
For her actual birthday her wishes were breakfast crepes, massage, a trip to the cat cafe, lunch out, and get our nails done (besides dinner and pavlova and presents). She was lucky enough to have her grandparents here for her birthday, and spent some time in the afternoon with them at the mall. We completed all of her wishlist items and even still had time for us to do some chalk art together on the driveway.
Scarlett birthday interview
Favourite colour: pink
Favourite animal: kitten
Favourite movie: Wicked
Favourite food: watermelon and peaches
Favourite TV show: Sam and Cat
Favourite book: Judy Moody
Favourite subject in school: gym or English
What do you want to be when you grow up: a singer, or a mom and a nurse
If you could be any animal, what would you be: a cat
What would your superpower be: infinite wishes
What are you scared of: the clown from Poltergeist
What was the best thing about being 8: going to Calaway Park for Charlie's birthday
What are you most excited about this year: getting taller and I get to go to more places
This year Scarlett participated in swimming lessons, gymnastics, and started violin lessons with an incredible teacher. I can't believe the progress she has made in her music lessons and hope it's something she wants to continue for a long time. She participated in two recitals, and although she was quite nervous, performed really well with laser focus. She also did her first race this fall, earning her 3rd place for girls 10 and under, and is thinking about doing the longer distance this year.
She had such an amazing school teacher this year. She helped Scarlett grow in emotional maturity and Scarlett adored her. She hasn't struggled in academics and would often apply things she had learned in everyday life. "Mum that's a secondary consumer, we learned about that. " "Mum that's magic 'e', it means a vowel will say it's name". Her French is also moving along quite nicely, and we're looking forward to seeing what grade 4 will bring. She made a lot of new friends this year and is constantly asking me to arrange playdates for her.
Scarlett is a pretty good eater and loves fruit and chicken. She also has a mega sweet tooth.
She is still very petite, barely over 45lbs, but has definitely grown a bit in height. What she lacks in size, she makes up for in personality. Scarlett is a spitfire of a girl. She knows her mind and knows what she wants, and will basically stop it nothing to get it (for good or for...less good). She tries desperately to be the boss in all things, and is reminded daily that some decisions are for parents to make, and not children.
And when Scarlett does not get to run the show, you can bet she either abandons it in favor of something she can be in charge of, or tries her hand at any number of negotiating tactics. She won't put herself out there in a crowd, but if it's a few people she will set herself up to lead.
Scarlett loves a good red lipstick and will always make sure her earrings match her outfit. Sometimes I forget she's only 9...
She has such a sharp mind. She often makes us laugh with her quick witted remarks and dry humour. You cannot disguise things, distract her, or hope details will go unnoticed. She is observant and calculating and will pick up on almost anything. Once I walked in on her chastising Gordon saying "Dad, I know how babies are made. Why did you do that to mom 5 times?!"
She has a weird fascination with horror movies, and really anything morbid. This winter she wrapped a beheaded barbie in plastic wrap, stuck it in a takeout container, had a funeral for it, and buried it in the snow on the deck. She also marked it's grave.
Another day I came across a barbie hanging from a sleep mask, hooked onto the ceiling, above the top bunk in her room. She caught me staring at it and says non chalantly "Oh that's their death bed."
She loves Halloween movies and was so excited to be Winnifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus.
She also likes to organize things (mom genes there), and one day I found her with all the knives out. I asked what she was doing and she told me "I'm organizing them in order of dangerousness".
This last year she has become quite a voracious reader. She often has a stack of about 6 books beside her bed. We have been working our way through all the Judy Moody books, after finishing all the Ramona and Beezus ones. We're in the middle of number 10 now, but she has plowed through nearly all the available the spinoff books at the library, and has started dipping into Mia's collection for reading material. Their tastes in books, however, do differ quite a bit. Scarlett likes main characters who are a little more complicated- get into mischief, make mistakes, involve a little chaos. At that age Mia preferred books with guaranteed happy endings, princesses, fairies and the like.
Scarlett enjoys being outside, whether it's riding her bike, or playing at the park, jumping on the trampoline, or just inventing some random game for the girls to play. I often don't have to ask her to get off screen time because she's so much more interested in doing other things. She also really enjoys hanging out with her cousins Charlie and Theo.
She has also shown an interest in the kitchen this year, and has made a few recipes out of her cookbook, as well as helped me with chopping, peeling, and even dumpling filling.
Scarlett is quite creative and likes to colour or do any type of arts and crafts. She loves dress up sticker books and her fashion design books, where she gets to sketch and stencil different clothing designs. She got a 3D pen for Christmas and has shown a lot of skill with the steadiness of her hand. She loves to build and engineer, designing block houses or train tracks.
Scarlett still has the most vivid imagination. Right now she is arranging a game with all the barbies and has set the barbie house up to her utmost satisfaction. She can literally play for hours with her little sisters in worlds she has created for them (provided they don't question her authority too much). She gave me quite the tour of today's barbie house set up, and the ways she reinvents little toys to be come nightlights and beds and whatever else she needs kind of makes my head spin.
She keeps us on her toes with the mental gymnastics and too savvy way of seeing the world, but we sure love her.
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