The Journey of Parenthood…

Tess’s 6th Birthday Letter {From Mommy}

Tess’s 6th Birthday Letter {From Mommy}

Dear Tessie,

I know you have said you don’t want to turn six and, instead, you want to keep on pretending that you’re still five. I totally get how hard this transition is for you because I felt the EXACT same way when I was five. It may be over 30 years ago but I remember telling people “I’m five and I’m going to stay five forever!”

Five is the age where I realized someday we grow up and growing up means someday we no longer live on Earth. Realizing life is precious is a tough thing to comprehend and understand and I see that struggle within you too. You are excited for the joys of growing up but also scared about what that means. You want to meet God and Jesus one day but also don’t ever want to stop living.

You are my deep feeler and you feel these feelings and grapple with them and I wish I could freeze time a bit at this age of five, the “before” in your life from when you didn’t think such deep thoughts or feel such deep things.

However, your feelings are also a GIFT and one of my goals as your mother is to raise you to appreciate that gift and to see the way your feelings are an asset to the relationships you will form around you!

It’s great that you have big feelings. It’s a blessing that you are so intuitive to other’s emotions and so aware of your own. You do a excellent job in being there for people when they are hurting and in communicating your own needs when you are having an emotional moment.

Each stage of life with you is better than the one before and I promise sweet girl that six will be an AMAZING year in your life! Before long you’ll be begging to stay six forever and will have totally forgotten why you ever wanted to keep being five 😉

This year was a big year for you with many milestones. You struggled a good bit with entering kindergarten. Leaving Mommy to go to school everyday wasn’t easy for you and it took time (and patience) to help you make that adjustment.

Of course, you ended up LOVING kindergarten and thriving in the all-day classroom setting…and then…bam! school got canceled in March for the remainder of the school year due to Covid-19. You were ZERO percent sad to see the school year come to an end early and, in fact, you shed tears that day in concern over having to start first grade!

You love being at home. You love being with our family. You’re a lot like Kye in that you enjoy time to yourself and are very content to do things on your own and don’t have a need for as much interaction with other people like Britt does.

You are the peacekeeper among your siblings. The running joke is that you’re everyone’s favorite sibling. You’re Britt’s BFF and I don’t think you and Kye have ever had a single argument. Even Spear adores you and asks for “Tess kisses” when tucking him in at night.

Your ability to interpret other people’s emotions really is that gift that helps you in your relationships. You love to make people happy and it truly brings YOU joy to see them joyful. You’re quick to give up your treat if someone else is wishing they had it. You’re quick to share you toys, even if you were still playing with them.

While these are wonderful traits, and putting others before yourself is something that pleases the Lord so much, I do worry about you not speaking up for yourself and not knowing what TESS wants and what TESS likes. So much of your identity seems to be wrapped up in others, especially Britt. What she loves you love. What she enjoys you enjoy. I LOVE that yall are so close but one of my big goals as your mama in this coming year is to make sure I’m focusing on YOU as an INDIVIDUAL.

I want you to know who YOU are and want to make sure I’m giving you individualized attention to explore the things YOU enjoy – just for yourself! It’s so important to have a true sense of self and I want to make sure I do my part to help you develop that while still encouraging you to continue to be the sweet, thoughtful sister and friend that you are too!

I have said it since you were born – you are pure joy!

Those words continue to be just as true to you now as they were on that special day of your birth.

You are a gift in my life and a joy in our family. You always make sure to get your mama snuggles and still ask to be carried and held on a regular basis. Oh it’ll break my heart when the day comes that I can no longer carry you in my arms! I often think of that book “I’ll Love You Forever” – I will totally be an old grandma still trying to hold you if you ask me to! I never want to let you go my baby girl!

I keep waiting for people to stop saying you’re my mini-me. I keep waiting for you to grow out of looking and acting like you mama but so far it’s all still true. You are a mini-Emily through and through and I LOVE IT.

It is such a huge compliment to me when people say you look like me and it’s something I truly cherish. Most of all though I always want it to be a compliment to YOU. I want to be the type of mom that you WANT to be considered similar to. I want to set a Godly example in your life for you to follow and be a role model you do look up to. I want to make you proud to have me as your mom.

I look forward to our relationship only continuing to grow closer the older you get. The three of us talk all the time about all the fun girl’s trips we’ll have as you both enter adulthood and so many of those fun traditions we’re already starting together. Getting our nails done, going shopping, taking trips, being silly together. I love all of our moments and memories and love that someday we’ll all three be BFFS 😉

This year has been so fun together! As you’re getting older you are growing more and more into your own and it’s so neat to see your personality blossom and to watch you discover things you love and enjoy doing.

You are a thrill-seeker (which is NOT like your mom AT ALL) and are so excited to be growing taller (you for sure had a MEGA Corona-Growth-Spurt) so you can ride ALLLL the rides with the bigger kids and not have to sit on the sidelines with Mommy and Spear anymore 😉

You are so funny and have the best cometic timing. You have a more adult sense of humor and say just the right thing at the right time to get a laugh but you are also humble about it. You’re not what I’d call “silly” and get embarrassed when people tell you how funny you are. You like to be understated in your humor which only makes it even funnier.

You’re SO smart and you’re really doing awesome with reading. Our time spent at home during Corona was great in your development of this skill and I know you will ROCK IT in first grade!

You’ve discovered a love for Barbies this year and it’s your favorite thing to do with Mommy. It brings back so many memories from my own childhood, even if most of our time playing with them together is spent with you “setting it up” and dividing out “who gets to be which Barbie.”

You have your own unique style and went from Miss Watermelon bathing suit to the Star Fleece Jacket non-stop which cracks me up and is adorable at the same time. You’ve always rocked the top knot and want to keep your hair long “like Rapunzel” but as you’re getting older you’re starting to ask to wear it down more often and are less interested in the top knots and bows which I’m not quite ready to let go of yet!

I think one of my all-time favorite Tess sayings was when we did the House President campaign and in your speech you said if people don’t follow your rules that you will “fight them on the concrete.” It’s one of those phrases that will be in our family forever and I crack up every time I say it.

I also love the way you say “ointmeal” instead of “oatmeal” and “gogurt” instead of “yogurt.” The cute little kid phrases are getting less and less the older you get and I know your ADORABLE baby teeth are on their way out here soon too and I might cry real tears when you’re precious baby smile goes through that big adult teeth transition stage. It’s hard for me to see you growing up because you’re everyone’s BABY GIRL!

While there are many parts of “Little Tessie” I want to cling to, I also am so excited for the future and to watch you continue to SHINE! You currently say you never want to get married but do want lots of kids so I’m interested to see how all that pans out.

When it comes to a career you still love animals but are not interested in working with them anymore and when asked you simply say you want to be a mommy. Which I, too, always dreamed of being and let me be the first to tell you – there is NO greater job in the world sweet girl! Do not EVER let anyone demean you if motherhood continues to be your primary dream job!

You will be an incredible mother someday and I cannot wait for little mini-Tessie’s running around as the MIMI too 😉

This has been such a crazy year this year and my hope for the coming year is that normalcy returns. You’ve been the EASIEST one in our family to accept the masks and social distancing and all these weird “current norms” and while it’s awesome that you’ve done so well with it all, it makes me more sad that it’s all so normal to you too. I am eager for REAL LIFE to be back so this can be a phase of memory rather than present day.

I’m excited for more Disney trips, Universal trips, Beach trips, and whatever other trips we can come up with 😉 You make exploring new things so fun and you are SO appreciative of each new experience. Your favorites have been Great Wolf Lodge and LEGOLAND for sure!

I’m excited for first grade for you and for the friendships you’ll make! I’m excited that you’ve decided to sign up for gymnastics and can’t wait to see you develop those skills.

You make me proud every single day. And you ALWAYS will. NO MATTER WHAT.

I am your mom. I will love you forever, like you for always and as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be!!! I promise you that. I cannot promise you the world but I can promise you with 100% certainty that you can ALWAYS count on me. I am always in your corner. I always have your back. I will always be praying for you, praying with you, and be here for you.

I love you so, so much and am so thankful that God blessed me with the gift of being your mama!

Happy 6th Birthday Tessie!

Love, Mommy

You can read Tess’s past birthday letters from me here:

Emily Parker
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