Authoress

She's not going to be earning any spelling awards any time soon, but Clara is all about putting pencil to paper, creating a story, and illustrating it. I usually find these creations littered all over the kids' art desk, but she brought one home from school the other day that she created during free time. Her teacher loved it so much she had Clara stand up and read it to the class. Does that count as her first live author reading? ;)

Here it is, in all its phonetically spelled glory ... see below for the translation!

 

 

One morning a boy named Joey lost his dog. It was a puppy and it was a white dog with brown spots.

"Wait, there's a hole in the fence! My dog must have went through the hole. But I don't think my dog would do that. But let's see. Wait, I hear something. It is behind that bush. I found him!"

And they lived yappily ever after.

Jumpin' Good Time

There's nothing that super-charges a bunch of six and seven year-olds like a jumpin' good time at an indoor trampoline gym. I've never seen kids with redder cheeks, crazier hair, or sweatier bodies... and wow, I'm glad they all weren't at our house!

 

We celebrated Clara's 7th birthday with a whole bunch of her classmates and a few of her cousins, with pizza and rainbow cake, and with decibel levels approaching insanity.

 

In summary, baths and wine were a requirement when we got home.

 

 

 

(I love this picture, even though it's blurry and you can't even see Clara's face. But you just know what's plastered all over it... joy. How lucky are they?)

 

Seven!

The eternal, amazing fact about motherhood is that our babies just keep on growing, whether we like it or not. They morph from sweet-cheeked angel babies who give you no trouble at all, to spirited, pig-tailed, sassy little toddlers, to independent, determined, still spunky little girls.

 

For our Clara Jane, this year of change between being a six year-old kindergartner and a new seven year-old first grader has been almost shocking. She's finally lost that adorable toddler tummy that I loved so much, she seems to be stretching out and growing taller by the minute, her brand-new big front teeth are giving her a brand-new look, and her new love for jeggings, cowgirl boots and jean jackets are all conspiring to make her look like a teenager.

 

Sigh.

But while we're losing those sweet rounded cheeks of old, we're gaining a new maturity that has us pinching ourselves.

It started during the second week of school when Clara's new first grade teacher walked her to me after school, and couldn't stop gushing over what a wonderful helper she was in class, what an amazing reader she was, and what a good example she was to others.

Some sort of magic was apparently afoot.

She started bringing home multiple "red cards," which despite their scary dangerous-looking color, turned out to be a card that only the most well-behaved child in the class gets to bring home.

Then, one day while I was helping in the library, the teacher's assistant came up to me, and asked, "Are you Clara's mom?" When I nervously said yes, she leaned in and whispered, "Is she your oldest child? She has to be!" When I told her that she was actually a middle child, she almost didn't believe me, and said, "That's so strange! She acts like a classic oldest child. She's so responsible, always follows the rules, and is such a leader in our class!"

Looking over at my angel child, standing quietly in line to check out her library books, glasses perched on her face, and books clutched to her chest, I had to agree that she definitely looked the part.

Now excuse me while I look for some wood to knock on!