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One of the best adjectives for Ila is sweet. Sweet is defined by the internet as pleasant, kind, and gentle toward other people and she is all of those things.

Ila gets along really well with all her siblings. She can’t stand to see any of them upset and will make extra effort to cheer them up. She encourages them all to do well and points out their good qualities.

Ila loves cats. All of her favorite things to wear have cats on them. At recess she plays cat games with her friends. She loves to read books about warrior cats and all her online identities are cat related.

When Zach decided to surprise the children with a kitten, he brought Ila with him. She fell in love with a fluffy orange kitten and since Zach had a different favorite, they brought them both home! Ila’s kitten is named Rillian and she absolutely adores him.

One of her other loves is reading. When she finds a good book, she has a hard time putting it down. She started the Warriors series towards the end of the summer and loved it. Most of the books are 300-400 pages and there’s about 90 of them and she has now read them all.

After all the trips I made to the library for her this year, we were happy to get her an ereader for her birthday that can download books from the free online library service.

She still has a soft spot for babies, but not much access to them. When her twin cousins came to visit for a week, Ila spent the whole week entertaining them and never seemed to tire of them.

Ila’s favorite foods are salmon, chicken strips, and goldfish crackers. She also enjoys sweet things, especially chocolate. She still doesn’t eat a wide variety of foods, I don’t think she’s added anything new to her approved list this year.

Cecily is still Ila’s best friend. They don’t see each other very often, but they’ve had to find creative ways to communicate with each other over the internet. They started off communicating through scratch coding projects, then through the school district gmail hangouts, and now they have to settle for emails. Ila will send Cecily a message and then not want to leave her computer for fear she’ll miss Cecily’s response. Without Cecily to play with at recess, Ila has continued to play with the boys and has developed a stronger friendship with two boys in particular (Isaac and Tim).

The distance required to keep loved ones safe during the current pandemic has been hard on her. She’s always been quick to hug loved ones and it hasn’t been easy to keep them at arm’s length.

She still has a strong drive to do what’s right. She never wants anyone to be unhappy with her and becomes distraught even when others get in trouble.

Other things she loves to do are go on walks, play at the park, swim, explore, play board games, and play on the computer. Here is what I wrote about her last year.