Your piano recital song was “In a Blues Mood.” If I had to guess, I’m guessing your 4th recital? I wish I knew… I guess I could go back and look). I think your first recital was “Deck the Halls” at Christmas time 18 months ago – again I’m not sure about that.

What I DO know, is that you turned an AWESOME corner while working on “In a Blues Mood.” All of a sudden, the piano was yours. It was not something I had to make you practice (except, of course, for scales). You sat and practiced this song at all hours of the day. When it was time to play it for Ms. M for the first time, you could NOT wait… you played it beautifully (not perfectly, but that didn’t matter), and you were SO PROUD of yourself… smiling like I’ve never seen you smile.

Ms. M smiled and had you play it again. She did not even need to praise you because it was clear you already owned how far you’d come in ways that no one outside of you could give you. What an amazing treat to watch!!

That day, Ms. M offered a challenge to you to play the song more jazzed up, and you took it. Yesterday, at the recital, you played the song perfectly. With so much musicality.

Rock Star.
Love you – Mama

p.s. I looked up your previous recitals – so fun to look at your growth!!

Click here for your December 2014 recital post

And here is a picture from June 28, 2014:

December, 2013:

Your first pimple… You were almost proud of it – really, really too cute.

Wanted to tell me. Pointed it out by saying it hurt to Daddy Jim and Madey.

Later, when you were in the shower, you gave me permission to take a picture of it after telling me not to earlier.

Growing up with you is SO MUCH FUN!!

Hi Baby Girl –

It has been far too long since I’ve written to you, and i really want to talk with you on a regular basis so we can both remember the amazing adventures and accomplishments of yours nearly everyday… Let’s see what I can remember…

* I am calling you “bug” these days. You said tonight, “yeah, I’m your love bug” in a rather matter-of-fact comment.
* Since January, you have been spending Tuesday after school in swim lessons with your “sister” Sibhon, Wednesday’s & Friday’s with Kate and Delilah and Thursday’s with either Barbie or Amy. Here are some pictures to remind us about these days:

* You know all of your letters A-Z, the sound they make and how to write them. You really like to help me make the grocery list each week, and it melts my heart to carry that list around!! You write words by writing each letter but if you run out of room on the page in the middle of a word, sometimes you continue above the word, sometimes below, and sometimes on a different part of the page. : )
* You read your first word a few days ago, and you were so excited. The word was “for.” You were drinking milk out of a glass that said “Milk for Santa.” As I was attending to something else, I could hear you sound out the word – ffffffff….oooo…or… ffor. Mama, does this say “for”?!?!?” You were so excited – as was I.
* You jumped in the deep end during swim lessons last Tuesday. You haven’t passed the swim test yet, but it sounds like you are making awesome progress. You can swim back stroke quite confidently.
* We still rock and lay down in bed together each night. It’s a time I truly treasure. We often giggle alot! Almost every night you say, “Mama, if Daddy Jim snores, you can sleep with me.” Sometimes you get up in the middle of the night (say 2:30am), come into our room, and say “Mama, I have something very important to tell you.”” “What Sweetie?” “If Daddy Jim snores, you can come sleep with me.”
* I left for 3 days for a conference, and by the 3rd day you were getting sort of crabby… definitely not your sweet, wonderful self. You had a hard time listening to Kate, and Barbie said you weren’t yourself in school. The next morning after I got home, I gave you a stern talking-to about listening… letting you know that there would be consequences if you didn’t listen for Amy that day. You listened carefully, and then said most sincerely,
“Mama, what’s a quansiquence?”
“A quansiquence is when you don’t get to do something you like, like maybe you don’t get to watch tv for a week.”
Again, you paused and asked,
“Mama, how long is a week?”
Sigh – In some ways you are growing up soooo quickly, in other ways, you are still so my baby.

* One of your favorite private jokes between us is when I say something like, “You look a lot like my little girl, but she went to school all squeaky clean. You can’t be my little girl because you are so dirty.” And then you show me my favorite birth mark on you to prove that you’re my Sweet daughter, and we both laugh. You often ask me to “play that game.” I am so unbelievably grateful that you are really, truly my kid.
* Last week you rode your bike around the block. You are still using training wheels, and Daddy Jim ran next to you. You did a fantastic job, and you were so proud of yourself!
* You are still totally an outside girl – loving to pick flowers, build habitats for worms and pill bugs, collect rocks and sticks, and jump in puddles.

I’ll add pictures to all of these things very soon.
I love you Sweet Girl.

I can’t possibly keep up!

You are growing like a weed – you can do more and more and more every day. You understand more and more and more every day. It’s all just so crazy… and fun!!

Yesterday, you zipped up your own coat. Just plain crazy.

You get dressed by yourself, you crack the wittiest of jokes, you can spell many words without help… When did this happen? So seems like overnight.

The other day I desperately pleaded, “Baby, do you think when you drink that red juice, that you could maybe get more in your mouth and less on your upper lip?!?!?” You responded quite matter-of-factly, without missing a beat, “Kids do that, Mom.”

Right.

So fun – I love being part of your growing up, Peanut Butter. I just love it!

pictures coming soon –

Love you

Who knows what our past month has held…. I can hardly remember yesterday.

BUT what I DO remember is how much FUN I have had with you. You are growing LEAPS and BOUNDS!!! In language. In athletic ability. In wit. In thoughtfulness. In artistic ability. And just in pure length… your arms, your legs. Actually on the way to school the other day, you said “Mama, look how big I’m getting! Look how long my arms are” (and you put your hands on the top of the car). “Look how long my legs are!” (and you push your feet against the car seat in front of you). “Even my hips, Mama! Look how big my hips are getting.”

You surprise me almost every day. Today, I had the roughest morning ever (long story, details don’t really matter, but boy, was it rough). To top it all off, I knocked into a cup of coffee Daddy Jim had set next to my laptop, and the coffee spilled all over the computer and the counter. I panic… yell a little (at least a big UGH) and frantically and desperately try to clean it all up. You watched the whole thing and after everything had calmed, you quietly said, “I’m sorry that that happened to you Mommi.” Who cares about a stupid computer when I have such a wonderful daughter?!?!?

You LOVE to tell me stories and share what you’re thinking. Almost everything you tell begins with one of these:
“Mama, I am thinking something silly in my head.”
“Mama, I have a funny story.”
“I have a great idea!”
“Want to hear it?”

Last week, Daddy Jim, you and I headed out after dinner to a small park in our old neighborhood to hear our good friend Bill play his saxophone with his band. Our very good friend Dave Lewis was there with his bride Sharon. (Dave, Sharon and Bill are in the Gospel choir with us.) Dave is a photographer, and he snapped these pictures from the night and shared them with us!

Thanks Dave!!

Bill and his band played. You danced. We marveled at both of you!! We are so blessed!!

You dance with me. You dance with your Dad. One day when I picked you up from Cobblestone Camp, you wear dancing a beautiful elegant dance with a long scarf in your hand to classical music. Juliana, the counselor, said you do that regularly… and she, like I, is amazed by your awareness of your fingertips and toes as well as the spirit and rhythm of the music!!

You can go hand over hand over hand across the monkey bars and back and back and back… seemingly forever.

You and Daddy Jim have a new trick (it scares me to death)… You basically use HIM as the jungle gym. You jump, holding his hands, fly up in the air and do a complete circle in the air. It looks like you’re going to tear your arms out of their sockets, but you don’t. And the 2 of you LAUGH and laugh… and you say “AGAIN!”

You can tread water forever, and you are starting to do a real back stroke. You can make your way (doggie paddle) across the pool. It has been so long since you have worn a floaty of any kind, that I don’t even remember. You fearlessly jump into the waves in the wave pool… even the ones higher than your head.

Tomorrow we leave for our family vacation… I’m certain I will have many more stories for you soon. I love you Peanut Butter! To pieces!
*Mommi

okay, well it was just a trim

but it seems like a big deal… so here are some pictures from the event.

Your best friend, Siobhan, Daddy Jim and I took you after we went to see the play, “Stuart Little.” Tanya cut your hair and did a great job – it’s much healthier now.

I love watching you grow Peanut – it is so fun.