8.5 years old!

Christmas Eve is Nadia's half birthday. My princess will be turning nine in six months. Her days in the single digits will be over before I know it. When she turns nine I will let her start staying up until 9:00 pm, and when she turns ten she will be allowed to get her ears pierced. She's very excited about wearing earrings!

She hasn't changed dramatically in the past six months, but here are a few new experiences:

1. She got her hair cut shorter. It's much shorter now than it was in June. We still have some battles over brushing and washing her hair, but it's definitely better. I like her hair this length.

2. She attended her first full week of camp in July. Last year she had only stayed three nights, but this year she stayed seven nights. I have already signed her up for next summer. She says she wants to go every year and become a counselor when she's old enough.

3. She had her first diving

lessons and did back dives off the diving board for the first time. Ironically she had an easier time with back dives than front dives (which turned into belly flops).

4. She graduated out of her booster seat in the van!

5. She made great progress with the piano and started using the pedal for the first time.

6. She learned her multiplication tables, started multiplying 2 and 3 digit numbers by 1 number, and began working on learning her division tables.

7. She started playing U10 soccer in the fall. They play 7 on 7 including the goalies at that level. She says she won't be playing soccer any more.

8. She began her first year in T&T in AWANA having completed two years of Cubbies and three years of Sparks.

9. She is spending far more time reading these days. She typically reads two chapter books a day. Her favorite author at the

moment for chapter books is Ron Roy, and her favorite author for picture books is Patricia Polacco. Other favorite authors/books include: Froggy books (Jonathan London), Amelia Bedelia books, Little Critter books, Fancy Nancy books, the Littles series (John Peterson), and the Clementine series (Sara Pennypacker).

10. She experienced the death of a relative for the first time when my mom passed away in July, and attended her first funeral.

11. Her favorite tv show is Odd Squad (on PBS).

12. She talks about her cousins almost every day. She named her snowman earlier this month "Jenna" and said that when we get her a guinea pig later this month, she is going to name the guinea pig Jenna Susie (how many guinea pigs have a middle name?) after two of her cousins.

13. She attended a couple of contemporary Christian music concerts with me. All three kids saw Big Daddy Weave. Nadia and I saw Sandi Patty and Veritas. She LOVES her Veritas CD.