up to three years, nine months
this quarter
- Christmas
size
- 40 inches
- 35 pounds
activities
- skating
- snow
- hiking
- ballet class
interests
- reading
- computers
Took her to the Sculpture Garden ice rink yesterday (12/3). She loved it. I held her under he arms, mostly, and she glided along. A bit less successful when I helped less. Double blade skates would probably be great.
Snow!
Snowed on the 17th or so. We went outside that evening, made snow angels, and I dragged her around the neighborhood on her plastic sled. Beautiful.
Florida for Christmas
The pool photo is from Florida, where we visited Aunt Annie, Uncle Chris, and Aunt Marty. Maddie begged to go in the pool the first day, begged a little less insistently the second day.
Computers
She amazed me by figuring out how to use our lousy mouse on the computer, and then being able to handle a lot of the kids' software we have. We got her a few more mostly educational games, and she'll sit there and play by herself for as long as we'll let her.
She's not going to be...well... if I knew the names of any ballerinas, she's not going to be them, based on early performance. But she tries hard, and gets more things right than most of the other kids. That's OK-- outside of standing up straight, ballet skills don't come in handy too frequently.
Madeleine's starting to write on her own. She knows how to make all the letters, and frequently asks us how to spell certain words.
Sometimes she'll break out on her own and start writing, and she'll surprise us with how closely she can come to spelling things correctly.
I love this picture. This is Maddie and Daddy in a house, holding hands. We're obviously very happy.
Reading
A GREAT reader. I should say "she's great at reading". She's not yet "a reader", she just has all the skills. She can read virtually anything but she rarely just picks up a book and starts reading. That part's a shame, too, because she's so good at it that I think she'd be very entertained.
We all went to Luray in February, seeing the Luray Caverns and hiking on Skyline Drive. Maddie really liked the hiking, and did a great job of taking care of herself. Not long ago, a 200-yard walk would be met with "Daddy, pick me up." But she knocked off our one-plus mile hike, over uneven terrain, without a complaint. Look for much more in the spring.
In March, we went to the Calvert Cliffs in Maryland to hunt for fossils on the beach. It's a 4-mile round trip. She probably handled three of those by herself. We got to see a baby snake and some egrets.
