NINE

Johanna Maria- my first baby- my precious girl- my NINE year old! I can hardly believe you are 9 already...time has absolutely flown by! You have continually reminded me leading up to your birthday that you are going to be half way to being an adult and it just feels crazy that we are halfway through our years of you being a dependent child. You are still my little girl, but I see so many glimpses of you starting to work for your independence and becoming your own person. You are still the most innocent little thing- you sleep with your blanket in just underwear with your stuffies, when you get hurt you want to make sure I know about it and give you something to help you feel better- a kiss no longer works, but a bandaid often does ;), you love to tell me every single thing on your mind, you wake me up first thing every morning, you spend hours playing Barbie with your sister, etc. But you also now get lost in books for days at a time! You are modest when we change at the gym or when someone comes over. You worry about having a cold sore or how your hair looks. You are super responsible. You are FUNNY- your own little person. We got you an ipad this year for schooll and  you don't even use it for school, but you text with grandma Sandee a lot and I love to read through your texts when you're sleeping at night sometimes- you make us all laugh with your wit! 

You are thriving in school! We had to switch curriculums mid-way through the year because the Critical Thinking Co. curriculum was just not working with you anymore- especially for math. It was frustrating for you to have too many problems on one page and it felt messy and unpredictable. We are loving Teaching Textbooks and I have had fun teaching you songs for skip counting to make multiplication easier- like your 4s to the tune of row row row your boat. We switched to The Good and the Beautiful for language arts and you love it. It is still a bit hands on and a lot of work for you, but it is so comprehensive and flows and the content is so engaging! You are still struggling to enjoy writing a bit when you have writing assignments, but you did tell me just yesterday that you wanted to be a writer when you grow up and told me all about the books you wanted to write- granted you were hoping to write level 1 reader beginner chapter books so not quite the same as a 5 paragraph essay. We will work on cursive and typing next year. I am having a lot of fun teaching you! It took us a while to get here, but I am really enjoying our homeschool rhythm right now and no longer want to send you to a physical school. You have really come a long way with your attitude and work ethic! 

You started gymnastics a few months ago and you are obsessed. It only took you 9 weeks to get through the beginner level and you are really enjoying intermediate now, but still haven't made many friends and tend to be timid without your sister in the class with you (she hasn't moved up yet). You balked right away at how the new skills were way too hard and you just wanted to go back to beginner, but you are gaining confidence and it is amazing to see you realize that you can do it if you put your mind to it and are brave and work hard. Exactly what I was hoping to see you start learning through a sport ;) especially gymnastics- I am so happy to get to see you love gymnastics the same way I did- so fun for me!!! Dad still really wants you to love golf and he just got you some bigger golf clubs so hopefully you can get out on the golf course more too! 

What else... you lost several teeth this year and you were aggressive about getting them out- the second they were wiggly, you wiggled and wiggled until they came out. At one point, you had your top front 4 teeth missing at the same time! and then 2 of them grew back so crooked because they weren't ready to come out yet haha. we are going to be in for some orthodontia! 

You got a cat this year! in July I think.. it has been so fun for the whole family! you named her Starlight Midnight Gonzalez and she is a really great cat. She often catches mice and will leave just the head or some organs by the back door. She got a bird the other day and you were so upset. She came in for a bit and we were deciding how to dispose of the dead bird (give it to the chickens or not? haha) and then she wanted back out and she ate the ENTIRE thing- beak and all in 5 mins. you were just staring at her in disgust. that is one we will remember ;) 

You are still such a wonderful big sister. You love to invite Zeke or Elle into the bath with you and you actually bathe them for me! You are helpful in so many ways. It is so fun  to get to see my big kid helping with my littler kids. I pray you will always be so close and that these sibling relationships are one of the sweetest parts of your life! You are going to be a big sister again in just a few months and you are hoping to attend the birth! It is a little scary inviting you (&June) into that sacred time, but I am also excited that you girls might actually get to have a bit of knowledge about birth before going into it yourselves someday. That you might know how beautiful it can be! You are very excited about it! 

You volunteer in the church nursery every Sunday that we are at church. You love to spend time with the little kiddos and you are so good at it. You still say that you want to have a ton of kids someday and you even drew a little pic with like 12 kids- the cutest! I hope you do have plenty of babies so I can love them all silly! Gosh, I love that my life will be so full getting to invest in you and your kids even after the season of mothering is over. What a gift motherhood is! 

This year has also been a hard year for our family. Just 10 days after your 8th birthday, your Abuelo was shot and passed away. It has been incredibly difficult, especially since we still haven't gotten any sort of justice- trial is coming up in a few weeks here though! You really struggled for a while. At first, you just kept saying that you weren't sad and how fun it was that all your cousins were over all the time. But then you really started acting out- a lot. It was so so hard. It was like you couldn't express your feelings- and I am sure there were a lot- sadness, confusion, anger, fear- and so you would just lash out. We went to counseling for a while, but I didn't really feel like that was too helpful. But you came back to yourself after a few months- our sweet girl! You still won't really talk about your feelings. We are at the 1 year anniversary and I mentioned the date and that night you threw a fit about your dinner and not wanting to eat it and ended up in bed crying huge tears- and I know it wasn't about your dinner- so I just cuddled you until you felt better. and then i made you another dinner because I am a sucker for you. 

You love your grandmas more than almost anyone! You spend a lot of time running errands with your Ita and love to spend evenings up in her room watching tv with her, talking, doing puzzles, playing games. She has had a rough year and I know  you have been so good for her. You would make her little activity packages and spend time doing those things with her- the sweetest! You also enjoy going to church with her on Saturdays even though you don't speak Spanish. and you are excited to work on the farm with her this summer! You have over $500 saved up and your goal is to have $1,000 by the end of the summer! I am so proud of how you are learning to handle your money! 

Your closest friends are the girls from our co-op and Alberta and Alinah. I am so thankful that the Lord led us to start that co-op and for those ladies in our life! That was my prayer above all else with the co-op and the Lord has answered abundantly- I pray those friendships will last a lifetime! You did a Daddy Daughter Dance with them around V-Day and they were your top picks for bday party attendees and it is just so fun. 

You are obsessed with Red Robin- and cheeseburgers in general. You love a good burger with lettuce, tomato, and pickle! You also found a Subway sandwich- just bread with turkey lunch meat, mozzerella cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and olive- literally no sauce hahah- and we recreate that at home a lot for you! You still love rice, tuna, and seaweed. and you love to make your own lunchables! You have also been pretty into tea lately- you discovered my raspberry hibiscus tea  and it is your new fav! It is fun watching you really grow into your own and strongly declare what you love and what you don't! 

I love you so much, Johanna. You are such a gift and a blessing to me! I thank the Lord for your life every day and I pray that the Lord gives me wisdom to help you grow into a young lady who LOVES the Lord above all and who is kind and gracious and generous. I pray that your life will honor the Lord and that you will know deep joy- mostly in relationships! I pray all your beautiful dreams come true. You are such a unique and fun girl. It is so much fun to watch you blossom. Jo, I hope that we can always be friends. I know there will be times when you don't like me much, but I pray that you will always love me more than you can express and that you will always know that I LOVE you unconditionally and that I want to be so close to you forever and always. You are my girl. I just love you. Happy 9th birthday, sweetheart <3 

birthday survey... favorite:
toy: my Barbies!
fruit: raspberries
vegetable: are cucumbers vegetables? 
movie: Encanto

tv show: Rapunzel!
outfit: this new one I bought at my grandma sleepover! purple pants and a blue tshirt with flowers on it
game: any board game
food: Red Robin food! 
animal: cat
song: "What else can I do" from Encanto
season: summer
subject in school: reading
book: Sparkle spa series! Cupcake diaries!
best friend: co-op friends! 
thing to do outside: swings & trampoline! 
drink: water
holiday: my birthday!
thing: my blanket
hobby: drawing
what do you want to be when you grow up: a mommy