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-

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-

As a family, we love to hear you say, "Kung Fu Panda" because it sounds like "Poo Poo Panda" whenever you say it. I let you watch a short YouTube clip whenever I brush your teeth. This started out as a way to distract you.

Brushing teeth was not your favorite. Now it's a routine. The past week or so you tell me that you want to watch "Poo Poo Panda. But not the first one." It's going on at least day seven of you reminding me that you don't want to watch the first one. I asked you today what was so wrong with the first one and you said, "I don't like the first one." More likely, that's the only one you've watched the whole way through!

We're slowly getting out of your wearing-a-million dresses stage. I think me locking you out of Crew's room (where said dresses are) helped. Granted, you still get into the dryer or wherever else clean, unfolded laundry is located.

This new stage is slightly better but far from my favorite. You run around naked. Yep. Naked or in you underwear. Please don't get mad at the obscene number of photos of you in your undies. You have only yourself to blame. Now you only wear three or four dresses a day and this is a massive improvement!

Your dad is out of town but you have been seeing him everywhere! You manage to spot white Toyota Carollas all the time when we're driving. You'll exclaim, "I see Dad!" I indulge you and don't try to talk you out of your belief that Dad is driving around town.

It's funny because I consider myself a very honest parent. I answer tough questions about sex and life to the best of my ability with honesty. Heck, we don't even do Santa! But I'm not perfect. As mentioned above, I tend to indulge childhood beliefs. A couple nights ago was a bad moment for me. I directly lied to you.

Here's the background. I had to put four young children to bed by myself. I was emotionally exhausted as well as sleep deprived. You were my second-to-last kid to put to bed. We had read the stories. I had already said goodnight once before I realized I hadn't brushed your teeth. I went and brushed your teeth. In the middle of saying goodnight a second time, you realized that you didn't have your stuffed animals.

I went downstairs and found your Anna "Barbie" (really it's just a stuffed animal but you love Barbies and you know I'm not going to correct you on something like that) and your stuffed dog, Biscuit. I could not find your baby doll you named "Baby Boy." I gave you your stuffed animals, hoping you wouldn't notice the missing doll. Not a chance.

"Where's Baby Boy?" you asked way too quickly.

This is the lie part. I had already looked downstairs. I didn't want a three year-old meltdown or for me to look more for him. Instead, I told you, "Dad took Baby Boy with him to the hotel! Baby boy is sleeping with Dad."

"Is Daddy giving him a bath?" you inquired.

"Yes! Daddy is taking good care of him. He's feeding him and and bathing him." We talked back and forth a little. You wanted to know where Daddy was and I tried to explain the concept of a hotel to you.

I told Dad about my fib and he stressed that we wouldn't find Baby Boy and that he would get blamed for losing him. I wasn't worried about that at all, sure that Baby Boy would show up. Bria, it's been three days and I still haven't seen Baby Boy! Dad comes home tomorrow and we'll see if you remember that he's supposed to have him.

I love you, Princess,
~Mom