Alma as a 6 Year Old

Alma is a sweet, dedicated and sensitive soul.  While strangers may find her to be prickly at times, she is a kid who knows herself and trusts herself well enough to ask for what she needs.  We find her to be a thoughtful joy whose world revolves around our family.

No one can follow instructions and build something like Alma can.  It is phenomenal.  Recently I replaced some run down living room furniture (okay, all of the furniture) and Alma easily assembled a somewhat complicated little side table from Ikea.  She loves Lego building kits, Playmobile fairy sets (which require some thoughtful assembly) and received a K'Nex roller coaster set which is very challenging to assemble.  She simply plugs away at these projects over a number of days, carefully matching the item to the images provided in the instructions.  Her dedication to the task is absolute.  While she may get distracted -- and have five projects in progress in the living room at once (much to my chagrin) -- she is dedicated and persistent.  I'm so proud of these elements in her.

Alma's teachers have noted her strength and interest in mathematics.  She has made huge progress with math this school year and she spends a lot of time thinking about math outside of the classroom.  She is also very talented with artwork and isn't shy to try new techniques.

Alma loves to dress up, pretend to do the hair, nail and makeup of all her Barbie dolls and would love to wear high heel shoes daily.  For Christmas, she received a life-sized Barbie head for styling.  She couldn't be happier.

Alma is also sensitive.  Sensitive to temperatures (food, water for hand washing), sounds (hand dryers in bathrooms, toilets flushing, James's chewing at the table), clothes (too loose, too tight, tags, images) and so many other things.  She is learning to work through these sensitivities and we are continuously learning to help her while also not driving ourselves crazy with trying to take away all possible negative elements.  It's a tough balance at times, but I'm proud of the fact that she attempts to get what she needs to feel comfortable.

Along this same line, Alma is not a snuggler.  She rarely gives hugs to those outside of our immediate family and even for us they come at prescribed times and in set ways.  Her language of love is certainly time and attention.  Any misbehavior is usually remedied with some time playing with paper dolls together or having an attentive snack conversation.  If our mood is off, she is the first to notice and provides fierce hugs when she feels they may be needed.

I can relate to her sensitivity so much.  I used to see it as a weakness in myself; but having Alma demonstrate the balance and strength of feeling comfortable and confident with emoting and how she does not seem to feel boatloads of shame at emoting has been a great lesson to me.  I'm hopeful that we can both keep learning the strength of our sensitivities.

Alma is a terrific older sister to James, enjoying his silliness and doting on him when warranted.  Just yesterday, I heard them in his room, giggling and chatting when Alma suddenly stopped and enthusiastically told James that he is even more fun as a four year old. Alma is also a great friend to those in her school.  Joshua's classroom is intrigued by her and the girls of the class often prod Joshua to "get" Alma to interact with them.

Alma is so wonderfully different from the child I imagined she would be when I was pregnant with her over six years ago.  I couldn't be happier that she is.  She is exactly what our family needs and I'm so proud of the young woman she is becoming.