SEVEN years old!

Today my girl is SEVEN years old. Here are seven pictures, a description of seven of her attributes, and a list of some of the things she's learned how to do over the past year.

May 2009

1. FRIENDLY - Since she was a toddler she has been labeled a "social butterfly." She loves it when we get to the playground and discover there are other children there for her to play with. It doesn't matter how old they are. She plays with kids who are younger than her or older than her. No one is a stranger. She talks to adults just as easily as she talks to children. In one of her basketball games she started chatting with the referee, ha ha!

2. OBEDIENT - She has always been a pretty compliant child. When she was a toddler we had some battles with her over eating vegetables and such, but these days she has learned to like a wider variety of foods and she's learned to just get it over with when I ask her to eat something she doesn't like (ex. she can't stand peas). I'm by no means saying she's perfect, but I will say she is a good kid and definitely the easiest of our three to parent thus far.

3. HELPFUL - It's rare that Nadia complains when I ask her to help me in some way and many times she volunteers to help. She is very good about doing her chores (although sometimes she forgets to make her bed and put away her pajamas in the morning). She helps by reading to her brothers, emptying the upstairs trash cans once a week, putting away her clean laundry after I've folded it, vacuuming, and putting away toys. This spring she did many extra chores because she was working to earn an Elsa Lego set. Every week she cleaned the bathroom sinks, counters, and toilets, and some weeks she did other things like cleaning windows, dusting the piano, dusting blinds, or dusting the banister. She also enjoys helping me make cookies and gets a kick out of making my bed.

4. BRAVE - She will ride any ride that an amusement park says she is tall enough to ride, and if they will allow her to ride it by herself she will do so (even roller coasters!). She doesn't show any fear when singing a solo in church, even when there are hundreds of people in the congregation. She can jump off the diving board without wearing any flotation device and without any adult in the deep end waiting there to help her out. When she took horse back riding lessons she didn't want to ride a pony but wanted to ride a BIG horse. She had no fear with staying overnight at camp for three days. She loves to be given a speaking part in a play (she's Pepper in the Annie production).

August 2011

5. LOVING - She loves hugs, kisses, and snuggles. She writes me many love notes, which melt my heart. On Sundays she takes notes by filling in the blanks on the sermon outline in the bulletin, but she also writes me little love notes on that outline. She loves her immediate and extended family and her Savior very much.

6. ENJOYS A WIDE VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES: She wants to do just about every extracurricular activity out there! She enjoys being on a soccer and a basketball team, wishes she could take ballet and tap again, and she enjoys taking gymnastics, swimming lessons, ice skating lessons, tennis lessons, and horseback riding lessons. She loves singing in the kids' choir at church, going to theatre camp, being in a Spanish class, going to VBS, being in a Sunday School class, etc. Every time I ask her if she wants to try some new activity or class, the answer is always "YES!".

June 2012

7. LOVES BOOKS, DOLLS, and the iPAD: Although she plays with a variety of toys including costumes, stuffed animals, play food, Lincoln logs, Legos, etc. If I had to pick the three things she spends the most time with they would be books, dolls, and the iPad. She reads chapter books and picture books, and she also loves it when I read her picture books or chapter books. She plays with dolls of all sizes - tiny little figurines, 12 inch Barbie size dolls, and 18 inch dolls. At the moment her four most prized possessions are a plush Elsa, plush Anna, her dragon pillow Paul got her in Poland in 2010), and a purple cat (stuffed animal she named Sparkle).

June 2013 (tap recital)

Over the past year Nadia has learned how to:

1. Tie her shoes, shower and shampoo her hair independently, stop sucking her thumb, and clip her own fingernails

2. Play chess and connect four

3. Ice skate, ride a bike without training wheels, make her first baskets during basketball practice, play a little tennis, and swim well enough to jump off the diving board independently

June 2015

4. Vacuum, dust, and clean the bathroom sinks, counters, and toilets

5. Play the piano (up to three notes at one time) and read a little bit of music

6. Read well enough to complete a fourth grade reading curriculum, speak and comprehend a little bit of Spanish, and use some basic keyboarding skills

7. Fill in the blanks in the sermon outline during the sermon on Sunday mornings

June 2014 with her cousin, Rachel