Dear Bria-

You are a talker! You tell me the same thing over and over again. Dad and I did an exercise one day to predict our kids future careers based on their current features. We predicted you would be a fictional writer. You are constantly making up stories about your grandma. She usually tells you things that are contradictory to what Dad and I are telling you. 

I love you, Bria. But I must admit that your incessant prattle gets tiring. You never. stop. talking. I need to film it though. It's equal part annoying and adorable.

You seem to be really enjoying preschool. You are woefully behind compared to Dallin and Akarie. I partly blame it on you. Dallin and Akarie learned their letters from playing games on my phone. You haven't ever much cared for games. 

The rest is my fault. It took me too long to realize that you weren't learning your letters. I've started a regimen this past week. I hope that you learn your letters by January so that I can start to teach you how to read. We'll see how that goes. I'm going to try to be relaxed about this. You're at the easiest age to catch up.  

I don't believe that I wrote to you about your stuffed animal. It's a dog that has gone through several names. You change the names depending on the most recent show you've watched. Your dog has been called, Little Howler, White Fang, Bolt and Toffee. I believe his current name is Little Howler. 

You have reached the stage where you don't wear clothes. I think Dallin and Akarie went through this stage much earlier. It aggravates me. I want you to be dressed for when company comes or when I want to take a picture. I'm not a fan of naked four year olds. I'm always saying, "Bria, you're naked." Technically you're wearing underwear, but still. I've reduced to bribing you. You can't watch Sofia or eat a treat until you're dressed. 

You are OBSESSED with Sophia the First. You've seen all of the episodes a lot of times. There's no more news seasons coming out. I keep waiting for you to tire of it. I love your love of girly things and so I'm okay with this obsession. I just wish you moved on so I could decide Christmas gifts. I can't fathom you not finding something new by Christmas. 

I love you,

Mom

Sunday, November 8, 2020 10:46pm

Dear Bria-

You think everyone in our family's middle name is Megan. You call Crew, Cruiser Megan Lewis. Dallin is the same, Dallin Megan Lewis. I tried to explain that Dallin's middle name is Thomas. To this, you stated, "Dallin Thomas Megan Lewis." I kind of gave up after that because you are too cute.

You're getting so grown up. I can't believe that you're going to preschool. You are very excited about that.

You just turned four. All you wanted for your birthday was an Elena dress, a heart of Tafiti necklace, and a horse. Your gifts were kind of flops. We got you a horse. But the Elena dress was too big. The size was 4+ but it was closer to fitting Akarie than you. Then your heart of Tafiti necklace was late. We still haven't received it! Thankfully, you're four and you weren't too fazed. We told you that your necklace was coming. We pinned your dress up and directly ordered you one your size.

You've become a terrible sleeper. You're scared. On our camping trip, Spencer told you about a girl ghost. Now you're determined that you see her. It's actually a little creepy. Dad and I have to sit with you while you fall asleep. You often wake in the middle of the night crying. Dad has slept in bed with you more times than he would care for.

You like to add letters or change the beginning of words. Our favorites are shmarshmellow, and galloon. You only called Crew, Cruiser. He is never Crew to you.

I've been a slacker mom at teaching you. You don't know your letters and we don't pull out your preschool workbook often enough. To be honest, Dallin and Akarie learned their letters from games on my phone. In the very least, I've been trying to have you spend at least ten minutes playing letter games. So far, the letters don't seem to stick at all. The only one you get consistently correct is the capital B. I wonder why. *sarcasm*

I love you Bria,
~Mom

Dear Bria-

We've been enduring COVID 19 quarantine. It's been great and it's been hard. You had a long stretch there where you were our "easy child." Dad remarked on that several times. A high praise indeed if you know your dad's patience with children!

Then the last two weeks happened. You decided to get emotional. About everything.

We went on a walk/run today. Dallin likes to race you and you insist that you have to win every time. Even though Dallin is years older than you, he doesn't like to lose every time. I found myself refereeing the amount of times Dallin got to win. The funny part is that you knew he was letting you win. Apparently that didn't matter. Winning, irregardless of how, was important to you.

Forever ago, we watched a video about Jesus for FHE. When you heard that we would be watching a video about Jesus, you exclaimed, "Jesus?! I'm so excited!"

You've discovered hairties and want your hair tied back all of the time. I don't blame you there as it's hot. Your hair is such a mess. It's way too short in front and long in the back. I'm not sure how to fix it besides chopping it off. When Akarie's hair grew that length, I just pulled back the sides of her hair. She was much younger though. You don't stand for that. If I'm going to pull it back, it better be the whole thing. You insist. I do worry about ruining your curls if it's pulled back too much. Thus, you look like a curly monster most of the time.

You also have caught on to the naked phase late. You love to run around naked. Late again. I feel like all of your siblings did this much younger.

Some days, we have to beg you to put on underwear. Most days, we at least get underwear. You'll get dressed only to take off your clothes less than an hour later. It takes so much work to convince you put clothes on (usually threatening a late meal) that we let you run around mostly naked much of the time.

You mispronounce lots of words. Here's the two that I can think of at the moment.

You went through a phase where you did not like people copying you. Unfortunately, you were very observant and thought your siblings were copying you when they often weren't. You would shout, "Stop cocking me!" Your siblings loved to tease and would mispronounce "copying" back. Only Dad and I cringed at that one.

This summer in an effort to be healthier, I made popsicles instead of resorting to Otter Pops. I don't know if they're that much healthier and they're definitely not cheaper. REGARDLESS. You call our popsicles, "bicycles." I love the mispronouncement so much that I've made everyone call them bicycles so you're none the wiser. Ha, ha.

Dad did something really sneaky. He taught you that he was the best parent and that I was the best mom. You are naturally a really grateful child. If we do anything sort of nice to nice, you'll gush, "Thanks, mom! You're the best!" It is adorable. Now Dad's trained you to put us on a hierarchy. You have no idea though and it's pretty hilarious.

I love you Bree,
~Mom

Dear Bria-

The other day you were eating cheese balls. You call them "orange things." Apparently they were really delicious because you couldn't stop exclaiming, "These taste perfect!"

A few nights ago you had a teenager moment. Dad was calling you over. He said, "Yo Bria." You responded with, "I didn't do it!" Where did you get that from. Gosh, you're cute.

You're too cute. We spoil you because of your cuteness. Tonight you weren't listening to Dad and he was appropriately stern with you. I listened to you cry in my room for a few minutes before I couldn't take it! You were crying and exclaimed, "He hurt my tenders so bad!" It was pathetic.

I love you girl,
~Mom

Dear Bria-

Whenever there is thunder, you tell me, "I heard the lion!" You came up with this all by yourself. The lion used to scare you. Now, you just observe when you hear her. I love that you came up with this and I will never think about thunder the same way.

You say the word "purple" normal now and I'm a little sad. You used to say "peh pol." You still have a couple of words I love hearing you mispronounce. You ask a fair amount for things to be "fopened." I don't know why you put an "f" in front of that word but I love it. You love to watch "newvies."

We bought you some boots a month or so ago and you immediately started calling them, "booties." I go right along and call them "booties" too. I love it.

I feel like I've written to you about this next topic, but I can't find it and I don't want to forget it! It's an older issue. You can be a hard shopper. You want all of the things. One thing that I had to stop doing was shoe shopping. Shoes are the one thing I really hate to buy online because they rarely work out. Well, you are the WORST to take shoe shopping. Your worst meltdowns have happened looking at shoes. You had two separate meltdowns in particular where I had to check out and walk out of the store with a screaming child. Ugh.

I love you,
~Mom

Dear Bria-

You went to your first day of Primary today! Your nursery teachers assured me you were ready. From my knowledge of you, I think you would be good with nursery for at least another year. Who wants to attend the class that sings and learns lessons when there's a class full of toys?!

You did well. Dad and I both dropped you off and then shamelessly stood by the door staring at you for another thirty seconds. We also checked in to see how you were doing in primary, without your knowledge, of course.

From all reports, you did great. You and your friend, Ava, did a lot of shushing people. At one point, you were informed to be quiet while a movie played. One of your teachers, Sister Rich, leaned over to ask someone a question and was promptly shushed by you and Ava.

It was only after I picked you up from Primary, that you seemed to realize that you hadn't gone to nursery. I think you were expecting to go to nursery after Primary. You started to get a little upset but I distracted you away from it.

All in all, it was a fairly successful day. I failed in that I didn't take a picture. I hope writing the letter makes up for that a little.

I am tired but did want to update you on the dress situation. In mid-December, you started wearing leggings and shirts. That was a real bummer because we got you two princess dresses for Christmas. You've continued this trend of wearing leggings more often. However, you still rock a dress a fair amount. You have too many day-time wardrobe changes for me to provide a precise number!

Also, you've become very screechy lately. You have one loud, high-pitched voice.

I love you Breezy,
~Mom
Sunday, January 5, 2019 11:54pm