Sophie at 6

 Dear Sofa/Sophie Dophie/Pophins/Sweet Pea,

What a wild and crazy year it's been! You finished your Kindergarten year yesterday with the COVID pandemic slowing down here in New Hampshire, and you've taken it all in your stride. You've been at school all year (apart from those bloody Flex Fridays) and looking through your writing work that you brought home brought a tear to my eye as you're a classic kindergartener in terms of how you write and what you write about. Your big heart is clear to see that even with the ability to remove your mask more at school, you're still concerned about Nana and your classmates to keep it on (you were the only one wearing one in your end of year class photo!).

This big heart extends especially to your brother. He had one last day of school today which gave you a rainy birthday at home with both Momma and Dadda. For most kids, this would be a delight, and while you clearly enjoyed having our undivided attention, you gave your Sophie sigh a few times throughout the day and told us how much you missed your brother. You two have become extremely close this year (in part because you've not seen many other kids outside of school hours!) and with your confidence and incredible language skills you're able to play all sorts of funny and creative games. You still follow his lead most of the time, but you're becoming more able to find your voice and use your negotiation skills to find games to play that both of you feel happy with. While I love that you'll disappear with Jake to go play, there's a little part of me that sees the future where you need me less and less and I'm having to start steeling myself for those days (and making sure that I revel in the times you still want me to play!)

Your other big love is your cousin Henry. The two of you are hilarious and a little crazy when you get together, but you've told us multiple times you're moving to Connecticut to live with Henry. You couldn't be more excited when you found out they are moving to Marblehead, and that Henry is coming to spend the week prior to Allie's wedding here in New Hampshire. He matches your energy levels but the two of you don't get out of control (you rarely do anyway) and you act almost like a big sister to him as well as a close friend.

This year has seen you start to find your voice in terms of your own interests and desires, and there's a clear thought process going on as you work out who you are and who you want to be; yesterday you decided you wanted a full Mc (Mix!) Donald's meal and you kept turning down hot pink swim suits which I was sure that you'd gravitate towards (though you still kept your preference for bright neon colors). You've set your heart on running your own store when you grow up and while you keep changing what this store is going to sell, you've been set on this since last summer. The best insight into your vision is when you invited Momma for lunch at your store and told her she could eat in the cafeteria with the other workers...

A big learning curve for me this year (and most years I think!) is realizing how wicked smart you are. This might be because you still use your baby voice sometimes, or that you're my little sweet pea but I'm learning never to underestimate you. You follow complex story lines in Harry Potter and are able to make accurate guesses as to who might appear in certain dramatic sequences. You've gotten into game playing, and can absolutely hold your own in Ticket to Ride, making complex plans and strategies (as well as learning about the importance of shaking your fist at those who block your plans). You've also got into playing with words and regularly play pun and rhyming games with me (these tend to have a potty themed but they're pretty hilarious nonetheless!) This coming year will only you see get smarter so I need to make sure that my brain is ready for you!

Above all, you're a sweet hearted kid (while you like to tease me and Momma, you always make sure that everyone knows that you're joking and that you love everyone equally) with a lovely goofy side. You're friendly to everyone ('Hi, I'm Sophie!" is now your standard greeting) and you're always in the middle of things with groups of kids, whether it's Custom Pools t-ball or playing with the neighbors. It's another stay home summer and I can't wait to spend the coming weeks and months with you.

Love you

Dadda

Jake at 9

 Dear Jaka,

What a lot has happened since your last birthday! We've survived a year of the COVID pandemic, and life is tentatively getting back to normal - you've been back at school full time for a few months now and you're deep into baseball season (more on that later). You've moved on from Pokemon to Harry Potter, mainly inspired by your mother who started reading the books with you and Sophie back in January (I think?), which has meant that your entire birthday Lego collections have been Harry Potter themed, and your cat, coming next week, will be called Patronus. It's also meant that we've been watching the movies after each book, and you have such a great understanding and recall of how all these complex storylines weave together (and the desire to cast the Avada Kedavra curse on any of the bad characters). 

Looking back, it's been great to see you become more confident in yourself this year. You're much more able to handle disappointment and frustration, and you just seem happier embracing the things that you love and enjoy. You're mastering that golden lesson that life sometimes isn't fair; like today, when we made you go to the plant store (which you HATE), you found the silver lining in bringing your Hogwarts Express train and hanging out with me as we shopped for this year's vegetables. You share just about everything with your sister, and while you and she can sometimes squabble, you most of the time spend your weekends giggling with her and reveling in the fact that she finds potty humor funny with you now. 

You continue your ever inquisitive nature. Every car journey, no matter how long or short, turns into a discussion about whatever's on your mind (or whatever Momma and I are talking about). This means you end up thinking about abortion, adoption, Black Lives Matters, the state of American politics and physics amongst a whole raft of things, and you never seem to run out of questions. You clearly store everything away; the weekend when we found that Nana was really sick and Momma was really sad and spent a lot of time with Papa, you didn't say anything, but when we told you what was going on, you turned round and said "that makes sense, there's been a lot of weird things recently". 

Your approach to sports continues to fascinate me. Deep down, you're still a homebody, so even though you talk to me about wanting to practice more on the drive home from each game or practice, you'll always default to playing Splatoon, Roblox, Legos or with your sister given the choice of how to spend your time. We will always follow your lead on this and will never push you, especially as you report out that you really enjoy playing the games, and you definitely like to watch and commentate (especially with something from the snack shack, which you're trying to sample everything from this year). 

You're developing a good sense of value of the world around you. While you've always been shrewd with your money (and your sister's!), putting you in charge of the spending for your birthday and for Christmas has helped you be more realistic about the value of things. For example, you understood that spending more money on your drone this year would result in less actual things on your birthday, but also a better quality product that would last a long time (as long as we don't lose it in Nana and Papa's woods again or trap it in Sophie's hair!). You do like spending money on Roblox, and it's been interesting watching your desire for money battle against your desire not to do boring chores which we pay you to do.  There's definitely some thinking going about how much effort you need to put in versus how much money you get paid, and long may that critical thinking continue!

I can't promise what this next year will look like. I do know that you'll see more of your friends outside of school (we've already got two big hikes planned with Jack and Judah aka the J brothers), and I do know that we'll spend plenty of time around our house and Nana and Papa's this summer because that's what you love to do, and I do know that we will continue to be your biggest cheerleaders and supporters no matter what.

Love you big kid,

Dada