How does this sweet baby face change to
this one so quickly?! I know I say it every year, but seven REALLY seems so much older than six. She's grown up so much this year. First grade (and being at school all day) is such a big jump. She's doing the Mandarin immersion program and it's been a great fit for her. One day she took quarters to buy some pencils and came home with the quarters. When I asked her why she brought the quarters back unspent, she said, "well, the machine didn't work and it just took the quarters. So I found Mrs. Pratt and told her and got my quarters back." Sometimes I'm amazed that she's her own independent person all day long.
I don't blog much but I figured if I write some things out on each of my children's birthdays then all will not be forgotten when they are older! Kids change so quickly that I find myself forgetting all the little things they do. Here are some things I want to record/remember about her at this age:
Samara loves to draw and make notes for and about everything and for everyone. The school she attends for the immersion program is not in our boundaries. One day my neighbor, who knows Samara goes there, stopped by and told me how she volunteers at the library to help her friend, who is the school librarian. The librarian proudly showed her a drawing one of the students had given her. The librarian thought it was so clever and sweet. Our neighbor noticed it was signed "Samara B" and said, "that has to be my little neighbor".
I love her creativity and imagination. She's always coming up with something. After we came home from a trip to Bryce Canyon, she made a note for the door that said "Welcome to Bryce Canyon Inn" and put numbers on each of the doors in our house representing a room in the Inn. She ran a hotel for a couple weeks after the trip.
She loves to take the lead and has a good sense of responsibility. She was born wanting to run the show. :) I recently wrote her teacher about some homework because I wasn't sure Samara understood correctly and her teacher wrote back "Samara is a very responsible student. If she tells you something about homework then you can believe her."
She loves being involved whenever she gets to come to YW activities with me and jumps right in to plan things. She helped with an activity recently that was at our house and said, "I'm Sister Bikman Jr. and I'm in charge of …." then proceeded to tell the girls about the activity. She loves having a babysitter--a captive teenage friend!
In primary, I've been told several times, "we can always count on Samara to give an answer." She obviously gets that from her dad and not me! ;) We were talking about that one day when she said something to the effect that it's so hard to know the answer because she feels obligated to respond and then grown ups always think it's so funny/cute.
Samara is a fun friend. Every day when I ask her who she played with at recess, she tells me a different name. "I just play with whoever is around." One of her classmates moved last week and wanted to do his last playdate with Samara. When I dropped her off, I was telling his mom how much Samara enjoyed playing with him. His mom then told me how he struggled finding friends and one day she was at the school helping and feeling sad about it. So, she asked the teacher's aide who she thought could be a playmate for him and Samara piped in. They've been buddies ever since. Proud mama moment!
We sure love our spunky and spirited SEVEN year old.
