Kyrie at Age 6

My little girl is growing up! So often these days, I look at her and catch glimpses of the teenage girl she will become (and not just in the sass & attitude department). Another big year has passed, filled to the brim with new activities and adventures. It was another year of firsts with lost teeth, surgery (ear tubes) and a pretty pair of eyeglasses. Kyrie continues dance, gymnastics, swimming, art classes, children's choir and piano. This past year she added Girl Scouts, horseback riding, German school, library clubs and zoo school to her busy calendar. She enjoys all of these activities, especially spending time with her friends, old & new.

Kyrie has done really well with her homeschool lessons this year. She has made a lot of progress with addition & subtraction. Her handwriting and French vocabulary has improved, and she is starting to take more care with things like coloring and cutting. Kyrie continues to work on her pre-reading skills and exhibits knowledge of all the letters and their sounds. We have added sight words to our lessons, as well as thematic words that she works to decode phonetically. She is not reading yet (and I do not expect her to be) but I am pleased with her skill level and continued progress. Next year, she will be an official homeschooler!

Kyrie does not like to practice the piano or put away the laundry. She wants to stay up late every night, and she can be quite shy. She is not always the best listener and has also been heard whining, fighting with her brother and frequently telling her parents 'no.' However, she is also optimistic nearly all of the time. She is helpful and has a great laugh. She is a great big sister and loving daughter! I am so proud of the beautiful little girl that my baby has become! We love you, Kyrie Belle Alyce!

Last week (Sunday through Friday), Kyrie had a fever that would not be remedied (the nurse said there was a virus going around that caused a weeklong fever). She slept most of the first day of the illness and napped the rest of the week. She had a runny nose with an occasional cough, but mostly she had the fever. She was tired and weak and ate almost nothing the entire week. Often she would ask for food only to leave it untouched. I canceled all of our activities and tried my best to keep her comfortable. She awoke without a fever on Saturday, and we have started back to our activities, but you can tell that for Kyrie our usual days seem long. Today, she had her annual appointment and the impact of her illness registered in her reserved behavior and on the scale which showed her at the same weight she was a full year ago (about 3 pounds lighter than the last time I weighed her a few weeks ago). All in all, the doctor says that she is healthy and grew nearly 3 inches in the last year. The doctor prescribed her an optional antibiotic because she saw evidence of a probable bacterial infection. It is my hope that her upper-respiratory conditions will improve after several doses.

Height: 3 ft 9 in (50 %-ile)

Weight: 35 lbs (5 %-ile)