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up to four & 1/2 years this quarter - festivals - holidays size - 41 inches - 40 pounds activities - trip to Harpers Ferry - Halloween - festivals - train trip to RI interests - dinosaurs - dinosaurs - trains |
| maddie diary fall 2001 |
| Let me stress what an astounding reader Maddie is. I have ceased to be astonished by the complexity of some of the words she figures out. No, I take that back. I'm still astonished, it's just that I shouldn't be. She routinely handles some amazingly long, not obvious words. To give you an idea, she would have trouble with "complexity" but otherwise could almost certainly read this entire paragraph without help. At four years and 5 months. She does have trouble with some of the other aspects. For example, periods are a minor inconvenience to her, rather than a signal to pause and start a new sentence. She seems to understand what she's reading, but sometimes plot twists are lost on her. And she gets daunted by a ton of sentences on a single page. But these are things much older kids are struggling with. She's a phenom. |
| At Dinosaur Land, near Front Royal, VA. Truly a wondrous place. |
| Overlooking Harper's Ferry, halfway into a 5-mile hike. She was more likely to suffer saddle sores than blisters, as she rode much of the way on Daddy's shoulders. |
| Maddie probably won't remember where she was on September 11, 2001, although I imagine that question will arise in the coming years. The answer: in preschool. Daddy called Mom to tell her not to rush home-- too much traffic, and Arlington may not have been the safest place in the world. Maddie stayed in Mommy's office for a while, then came home and played in the park with countless other children and their stunned parents. That weekend, we drove near the Pentagon to get a look, then had lunch at a McDonalds filled with mourners who had just left a funeral service. The week before the attack, there was a war movie on, and Maddie asked what war was. I spent 10 minutes assuring her that her dad, uncles, and grandfathers would never have to go to war, and that our country probably wouldn't have to go to war for a long time. The next month, at the very least, had us wondering what kind of world Maddie would grow up in. |
| Halloween T-Rex Costume |
| Train Trip We took the train up to RI for Thanksgiving. Not as fun as the Hot Dog Tour, but certainly enjoyable. Played with dinosaurs and read books and listened to tapes all the way up. Still don't understand how anybody travels via Amtrak. Stops at a whole lot of towns withour car rental or cabs. |
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