6 years old

Wow, Addison Lane Ickler is now 6! She is this fantastic, complex, kind-hearted, intelligent girl. Here are some things that make Addi so special:

• She is convinced that she is going to be a chef someday. Her restaurant will be called "Addison's" and she will cook her parents dinner every single night. She recently made scrambled eggs all on her own -- with some careful supervision from Daddy.
• Her artistic skills are far exceeding her mother's -- she is so creative with her drawings and loves to draw and color. Here is Sid the sloth from Ice Age.

• She is still an extremely logical little person -- she does not appreciate sarcasm. She is fascinated with the human body and recently asked how people are born with all of their organs inside of their bodies. I had to break out one of my anatomy textbooks and figure out how to have a conversation about stem cells that was understandable to a 6 year old.
• She loves to play with everyone at school. There are some girls that "attack" her with squeals of excitement when she walks in the door to morning enrichment. I have been stopped outside of school on my way to get her by a group of girls asking me if I was Addi's mom, and then they all introduced themselves by name as her friends. We were a bit worried when she went through her 3 yr old phase of only talking like an animal and other kids didn't like to play with her, but all seems right now and she is quite social!
• Addi's teacher loves having her in class. She even thanked me recently for sharing Addi with her -- she said that Addi is a complete joy to have in class and she has such a sweet heart.
• Addi is the best big sister. It is as though she was meant to be one. She and Maren truly love each other and have so much fun playing every day (they still fight . . . a lot, but more often they play and love on each other).
  

This year instead of having a party, Addi decided to have a special day with her friend Maggie. We picked Maggie up and first went to pick out movie candy, then we went to Timbuk Toys and the girls (including Maren) got to pick out a toy, then we went to see Arthur Christmas, and we finished with dinner at Addi's favorite fine dining establishment: Red Robin. She got a family party, but it was really low key and fun. Addi wanted a cake with ocean animals on it, so I got her this -
Awesome, right?
Here she is with her sassy new sunglasses on.
We are so lucky that Addi is a part of our lives and that we get to experience life with her everyday. You are so special Ads, and we love you like crazy!