I love this… it’s a perfect reflection. This is so developmental and it’s a perfect reflection. As the end of the year comes to a close, all of the cool stuff starts to come home. This is exactly how Maddie saw her name on that day – in that moment. It made sense to her brain. I love it!!! Just think, it took me hours in Driver’s Education class my sophomore year of high school to teach myself how to write backwards for no reason whatsoever and now my daughter can do it without thinking twice!!!
When the sky is blue in Shanghai, you just have to go outside and be outside. So I lather both girls up with sunblock and let the giggles begin. Maddie played hopscotch and Amelia rolled around on the bear blanket just laughing at Maddie jump on one foot from number to number. I guess from Amelia’s point of view, it would be a rather strange sight!
Maddie woke me up this morning by a take-off jump. This is where she gets a huge running start from her room to ours and then throws her body onto our bed as fast as she possibly can… try to picture lets and arms going everywhere. This morning she was super excited because her second tooth was finally loose. Now, yesterday she had a really bad fall at school and fell on her chin so that may have loosened it, but it was technically the next tooth to go so I wasn’t worried… okay, okay, I was a bit worried about a recurrence of the first tooth’s destiny.
By breakfast, the tooth was out and she was giddy with excitement. We decided that it would be a really good idea to make a tooth fairy pillow so that the tooth wouldn’t get lost underneath Maddie’s big pillow. So we put Amelia in her saucer, got the sewing machine out and went through all of our scrap material. Maddie chose the material because it was left over from her baby blanket… she said she would have the baby blanket as a baby and the tooth fairy pillow as a big girl!
Maddie helped me thread the bobbin, stitch her name onto the fabric, sew pieces together and iron the seams before we finally stuffed it. She absolutely loves the pillow.., it hers and it’s like a right of passage for her. After thinking about it for a long while, she decided to write a letter to the tooth fairy. She asked me to start writing it for her which I did, but she quickly took the marker from me and added her own two cents worth.
In case you are curious, I wrote down exactly what she said….
Dear Tooth Fairy,
I like you so much and I like your wings. Do you have a car or not? Do you have a pillow or not? Or do you have money? ~Maddie. Do you like my piloy (pillow). Do you like Maddie.
Will the tooth fairy write her back? Will she take the tooth? Will she leave something for Maddie? It’s May and it feels like Christmas Eve in our house!
It is so cool being a teacher at my daughter’s school. Seriously… even though I work full time, I am able to be there for the important stuff. When there is a class party, I can easily find somebody to cover my class. When visiting authors come to town, I can head down during my plan time. When it’s lunch time and I have a few extra minutes, I can walk out to the playground during Maddie’s recess just to say hello. When she’s sick or when she has fallen down, I can run down to her class to help her feel better at a moment’s notice. I am so lucky.
Today was one of those days with the elementary field day. The PE teachers at our school took it the extra mile this year by organizing an Olympic themed day. Maddie’s class represented Mexico and they participated in the opening ceremonies through the parade and the passing of the torch! This picture just makes me laugh because you have Maddie with her two Korean buddies, Youn Soo and Dae He, waving Mexican flags while shouting “Viva la Mexico!”
Maddie chased bubbles, ran in a relay, passed water sponges, jumped in a bouncy castle… she was so excited for the entire day. She ran the relay at the end of the morning and as you can see, she was TIRED! But she picked herself up and made her way through it not once, but twice! I saw one look in her eye at 3:00 after school and the look of exhaustion proved she had a wonderful day. I did too because I spent my entire plan time down there with her… and of course, Amelia and I still went to see her during my lunch!
Things will sure be different without Daneah and Jeff around. I remember sitting in Daneah’s office at school in Yanbu back in 2002 telling her that Andy and I were going to have a baby. From the moment Maddie was born, Daneah has always been there. Daneah will never have children by choice, but she is such a great “mom” with the children in her life. This is just one of many things that makes her a great counselor.
Maddie and I would stop by Daneah’s office in the mornings on the way out to the nursery even before Maddie could walk just to play with her animal puppets. When Maddie was a bit older, we would stop for a sticker and Daneah knew NOT to put it on Maddie’s skin as it freaked her out…she just knew. We spent many evenings by the pool with Daneah, many moments out at the beach with Daneah, and even moved to Shanghai at the same time.
Maddie really loves her (and Jeff too.
So it was only natural that Maddie would go pick her favorite flowers in the backyard, cut out a heart, color it and then tape the flowers to the back of the heart just to give it to “Miss” Daneah. Maddie, you’ve gotta stop making us tear up so much!!! It’s a good thing… just remember that it’s not over… it will just be different.
I loved it!!! I woke up this morning to a wonderful card from Miss Maddie waiting for me AND a huge present from dad. I honestly did not know what it was… it looked like it could be a carpet bag! Andy and Maddie unwrapped it for me though and set it up. I have my very first massage table!! We each took turns having a massage, but Maddie’s massage was definitely the funniest of them all. She was 100% giggles and the giggles were contagious!
Maddie was remembering when she sat in the same tent as a wee-little one
Saturday’s weather was absolutely perfect in Shanghai. Note the blue sky – you don’t see that very much! It was bit windy, but fortunately, the backyard of our house is sheltered from the sea winds. Can you say “lazy afternoons?” I’ll take every single one of them I can get!
Before the May holiday, I took a day off of work so that I could accompany Maddie on a field trip to the local organic farm. I seriously was expected a small greenhouse for the kids, but what I found was acres and acres of greenhouses full of lots of yummy looking vegetables!
Maddie and her 2nd grade reading buddy teamed up and spent the day taking care of each other. They started the day off getting educated about the gardening process. They gave each child three seeds that they could plant and then showed them what happened after 12 hours, 3 days, 6 days, and then 10 days. Maddie had just planted a bunch of seeds with Andy over the weekend so she was an old pro. We spent the rest of the morning going from greenhouse to greenhouse where Maddie was able to pick lettuce, parsley, broccoli and carrots.
We had so much fun on this absolutely gorgeous day. The farm even prepared a lunch for us made from all of their organic vegetables. And lucky me…. I discovered they actually deliver vegetables to the house!
The next thing we want to do is start our own compost pile. Maddie KNOWS it’s stinky, but she also knows that those banana peels could be used for something special!
Maddie wearing a sundress while investigating the grasslands behind our house, Amelia babbling in the background as she spins in her saucer, Andy grabbing a club and hitting golf balls across the golf course from our backyard. These really are the moments! Enjoy the pics and Happy Spring!
And said that Maddie was required to attend during her May Holiday break so we bought a couple of tickets and headed down to Hong Kong for two full days. When we said we were going to Hong Kong Disneyland, I don’t think she truly grasped what that meant. The magic in her eyes the entire day was priceless. At one point, we were watching the Golden Mickey’s and both Andy and I had tears in our eyes for a brief moment simply because Maddie was being so four. She was in awe and had such a sense of wonder in her eyes. I swear if she had been wearing sparkly, red shoes and clicked her heals then something would have happened!!
We took the subway to Sunny Bay station and transferred to the Micky Line…seriously, the windows were shapped like Mickey on the train and the moment the doors opened, we were drawn into the magic.
I love this… it’s a perfect reflection. This is so developmental and it’s a perfect reflection. As the end of the year comes to a close, all of the cool stuff starts to come home. This is exactly how Maddie saw her name on that day – in that moment. It made sense to her brain. I love it!!! Just think, it took me hours in Driver’s Education class my sophomore year of high school to teach myself how to write backwards for no reason whatsoever and now my daughter can do it without thinking twice!!!
Red 
Yellow 
Green 
Blue 
Maroon 
