Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Growing Up!

My baby girl is growing up!


Emily started kindergarten last month and absolutely loves it. Her health is doing fairly well except for a recent cold that had her breathing hard all weekend... but hey, we have oxygen, so just turned it up temporarily and she was better after about 2 days. Otherwise, she is more active than ever, her PFT's are up a few more points, and she is doing great.
(Above is first day of Kindergarten)

For homework today, Emily brought home 3 books to read, and when I didn't immediately get to her (I started homework with Ryan), she hand wrote one of the books cover to cover. "I am a rabbit, I am a robot, I am a clown," etc. She is so eager to learn! Too cute! Then she presented me with several other pages of "homework" that she has been working on: her alphabet written over and over, a sheet that said, "I love my mom" about a thousand times, and random other words, letters, and numbers. When she gave that to me, she said, "It says I love my mom because I actually do really love my mom." So sweet! I mentioned that her lower case g needed some work, so little miss perfectionist made another page practicing writing her g's til she got it right. She says she will do "q" tomorrow because it is hard too. She has started trying to spell simple words on her own and has figured out that to make something plural, you can add an s. Doesn't always work out as she planned, but when she gets it right, she will say, "I am so smart!" And she is! I am truly amazed with her progress! She is going to be reading in no time! (Above is an example of one of her homework assignments. She worked on this for days and wanted to be certain hers was the sparkliest. I think she achieved her goal!)

She started basketball last night, and that was just absolutely hilarious! Complete chaos as 4 coaches tried to teach 20 pre-school aged kids and kindergartners how to dribble and pass. The really funny thing was that Emily was far from being the worst player on the team, although she was just as far from being the best. None of the kids had a clue! So adorable and so funny to watch them play at that age!

(Above is Emily's first attempt at defense in basketball.)

As I look at this amazing little girl, I am reminded everyday of how far she has come. When I brought her home from the hospital a little less than six years ago, her doctors made no promises about anything. Her oxygen levels had been so low, we were told that they didn't know how on target she would be developmentally, and I did not think a thing of it that she did not speak more than a few words til she was 3 and a half. I had made my peace with accepting whatever we could get, so I just assumed this was just Emily. But as time goes on, she is really coming into her own more than ever, and as I look at this almost reading, Hello Kitty loving, tomboy basketball playing, bike riding, wrestling, sweetheart of a girl one week before her sixth birthday, I am more certain than ever that she is truly amazing!