I can jump up and down and other goings on...

Well, by my book it is official. Maddie can now read. An actual sentence. She's been learning sight words at pre-K and she tries to sound out bigger words to varying degrees of success. We were playing a game with her list of sight words and I would write up sentences that had her sight words in and she would then read them to us. This was one I made...

I can jump up and down.

She read it and was just so excited!

Ron made one up that got a much less excited response...

It is time to go to bed.

*grin*

Here is a Fashion Friday photo for you. This is what occurs when you tell her to pick out anything she wants to wear. Please note that she decided to stick with pink and white as her fashion palate but chose to mix polka dot capris with a heart embroidered long sleeve T. You'll find that if you pull your white socks up as high as you can go, it helps to keep your legs warm.

The end of November and first two weeks of December were BUSY. We visited with Aunt Amy and Lily and went to 3 (THREE) birthday parties for her friends from school. All while still going to gymnastics, Chinese language lessons and Children's Chinese Folk dance class.

Lily and Maddie having a ball playing dress up while taking a break from making magic wands and candycane crafts =) We had a really good time visiting!

Birthday party #1 was at one of those inflatable bouncy thing places - yes, that is the technical term for it. Maddie had a blast as illustrated here bouncing and jumping and sliding and climbing over everything they threw at her.

Birthday Party #2 was at a fancy hotel themed as a circus. This was the kids table, the adults had their own tables around the room.

There was popcorn, cotton candy, face painting, a juggling act, two buffets (one for the kids, one for the adults) an amazing cake with a carousel between the two layers, and build your own ice cream sundae. It lasted 4 hours. One amazing birthday party for a 5 yr old! No, we're not going to do anything like that for Maddie's 5th - heh.

Of course the hotel was also decorated to the hilt for Christmas which added to the festive atmosphere. You know though...I can see how doing a really big birthday effort for people who have birthdays in December would have some merit to ensure they remain distinct - I speak from experience here... Last year Maddie's friend also had a wonderful tea party birthday at the same location - again it was an amazing experience and the little girl had a blast both times.

Birthday Party #3 was at a Bowling Alley. This was the first time Maddie had ever been at a bowling alley. They first tried rolling the ball down all by themselves until they found this ramp thing that her friend's Dad helped the girls with. Maddie bowled a 72! She even got a spare on her first frame. Is it wrong that she did better than I used to do when I bowled? I mean, she had bumpers up to help her - heh.

Let's see...other odds & ends things - some serious some fun.

• Ron had his own creepy man experience while shopping at Costco with Maddie. I found out about it at dinner one night when Maddie said that we don't buy people. I was quite confused until Ron explained that there was a man at the store who came up to them and asked how much little girls cost. He then kept staring at her and seemed to follow them about! Ron even said that it was weird how he was behaving - they quickly left, but his statements stuck with Maddie which we talked about.

• When Madeline grows up she wants to be an artist, doctor, dentist, and animal feeder. That's what she's been listing. But what rises to the top, all of the time of late is being an artist - specifically a painter.

• Madeline *loves* everything Chinese and I'm glad. She's talking about it nonstop. She points out things and people she associates with being Chinese like her, she practices her Chinese words and writing, loves her dance class & talks about living in China when she was a baby. She's been looking at "her" books more and more lately. The ABCs about Maddie and her toddler lifebook I made. She's definitely been processing things more and asking questions. It was interesting listening to Daddy answer her questions one morning. I was in the office on the computer and he was talking with her about living in China. Whose tummies we all grew in and according to Maddie we all "popped out of a belly button". She asked about living in China and adoption. Why we don't know her China Mommy's name. I'm glad that we've been talking about it for a long time, it also makes it comfortable for her to ask questions as she knows it's ok to talk about. One of the adoptive parents at her chinese school has yet to discuss being adopted with her daughter, who is 4 which is just jaw dropping to me.

• I helped out the teacher at Chinese School one afternoon. Any time I looked over at Maddie she had a HUGE smile waving and giggling that I was there with her.

• She LOVES gymnastics. She's now in the older girls class and is doing really well. She does cartwheels around the family room, tries to do handstands which have been ending up as handstand into a roll. At class she climbs to the tippy top of the rope and touches the ceiling. The first time it freaked Mommy out as I was on the second floor observing platform and she was climbing up higher than me - well, the gym is in a huge warehouse type building. In any case it was WAY up high.