Keely at 10 1/2

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Keely, you are 10 1/2 now. You are 57 inches tall and skinny.  You wear glasses now and are trying to let your hair grow out.  You are easily embarrassed and very concerned with what other people think of you right now.  You are wearing a school uniform right now every day, so we don’t see your fashion flare lately, but occasionally on the weekends you will put together an awesome ensemble.  You also will put on lip gloss and perfume.  You are into reading Percy Jackson books, playing on your kindle (mine craft, right now), listening to your current favorite music on your shuffle, and making rainbow loom style bracelets.

You can not stand school.  It is “the worst place in the whole galaxy” and can’t wait to be a grown up so you can “do whatever you want”. You do not like any of your teachers and homework makes you so angry.  You stay after school sometimes to get extra math help because you do not want to fail and have to go to summer school.  You wake up as early as possible so that you can get to school super early. You  are worried about being late. As soon as we get home we have to sit down and complete all of the homework before anything else can happen.  It is not a fun routine.  You stress out a lot about school.

You are fitting in now more with your classmates.  You get along with most of them and have a circle of friends.  You have a couple of girls that you hang out with the most.  You still are best friends with Isis, from your old school too.  You write each other letters every week and try to get together on the weekends to visit.   You say you want to be like everyone else, so you won’t do anything that you don’t know for sure that your peers are not doing.  It drives me insane.  I hope that passes soon.  You have low self-esteem and it breaks my heart.  No matter what we do to try and build you up, you still think you are not smart, not pretty, not good at anything.  I hope this is just a temporary thing that you are going through.  You have some difficulties learning new skills, practicing, and with anything that requires memorization and that really stresses you out and makes you feel bad.  We are trying to get you some help in those areas right now.

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You are incredibly funny, witty, and creative.  You can write a poem in two seconds.  You can make up the best creative stories with no problem. You can read at a 8th-9th grade level.  You LOVE animals and are super protective of them. You took horse back riding lessons with Grandpa Don this winter and did really well.  You have a natural way with animals.  You also still love being outside. Walking in the ocean, picking flowers, riding your bike -all bring your peace.  You also love to sleep in your sleeping bag and sleep in as late as possible on the weekends.

You like me this year which is nice.  You want to be with me and talk to me and gossip about school. I hope that continues. You’re quite good at imitating your teachers.    You do get really mad at me for not letting you do things that “every other kid gets to do”.  You will bring up the list of current things several times a week and get so mad at me.  Right now your complaints are that: I won’t let you have a cell phone, watch horror movies or The Hunger Games,  or ride your bike alone through the neighborhood.  I’m sticking to my guns on all of those for this year.

Next year you are begging me to home school you and we just can’t decide what is best for you.  I have no idea what we are going to do.  You are really looking forward to summer break though. I hope we can start getting outside more now that the weather is warming up and plan some nice summer activities to unwind from a stressful school year.

I love you my Keely.  I will always be on your side and be here for you.  I hope you just be true to yourself, follow your own path, and look for the good in yourself and the world.  You’re always my baby girl. xoxo

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