Magnolia June

 Since we have a little one about ready to turn three in this house, I don't want to overlook this growing five, almost five and half, year old.  Miss Magnolia sure has shot up.  While she remains the smallest in her class, she sure looks big to me!  

 This girl lives, breathes, and dreams horses.  She travels everywhere on "four legs."  And, as a result, we have an injury to the head almost everyday.  I tell her there's a reason why we, as humans, only have two legs and horses are built to walk on four. That doesn't stop her.  I swear it could be the next fad for getting in shape.  She looks like a thoroughbred horse, she's so toned.

 She goes to the library every Tuesday at school and every week she chooses a book about horses, zebras, tigers, or deer.  George has downloaded a horse app on the iPad and I find her watching tutorials on grooming, saddling, and riding a horse.  My favorite is when she watches horses run in fields to music.  Oh, how I love this girl!

While I can't seem to find a horse farm close enough to teach one as young as five, we are hoping we can find a place where she can at least go and visit some horses.  Not to mention that her Papa has told her she'll need to stop sucking her thumb before she rides a horse because after all, she'll need that thumb to hold the reins.  We're hoping that will be enough motivation to get her to stop sucking!

I smile every time I walk past Magnolia's room.  It sums her up perfectly.  Soft, feminine, sweet, with a strong passion for horses.

I love her "collection."  Nani started her off with a lot of Schleich animals for her 5th birthday and she has been adding to it ever since.  I laughed when I took this picture because she put her fox on a skate board.

And animals rather than baby dolls usually sleep in the baby crib.

Here are some other things happening with Magnolia:

*She is starting to read.  We've read some board books together but when she sat down with 10 Apples Up On Top, I couldn't believe she could read it!  

*She loves school, her teachers, her friends but she continued to cry everyday when I dropped her off.  This left us exasperated.  I talked to her teachers.  I talked to my mom and George's mom.  I talked to friends.  I was at my wits end.  Magnolia said over and over again that she just missed me.  Finally, after trying just about everything, I asked her if she wanted to work towards not crying and earn a reward if she could do it (my mom's suggestion, thanks mom, leave it to you to tell me to use bribery!).  Ha!  The magic solution.  No tears, not even an ounce of trying to hold back.  Turns out, it was just a habit and probably some anxiety about knowing she would cry.  The rewards have been fun for us all.  Lunch out, indoor playground at the mall, parks, little toy at the toyshop, and even doughnuts for lunch!  Phew, glad to be over that one.

*Magnolia is starting to have a streak of independence.   I will honestly say it took me by surprise and took me about a week before I knew what was going on.  One aspect of her new found independence is that she definitely has an opinion about her clothing now.  At least I had 5 1/2 yrs of getting to dress her!  Mostly she just looks for the tightest leggings so she fit her cowgirl boots over them!

*Magnolia has a lot of friends but there's one at school that she just loves the most.  They have been best friends since the first day of school.  We've done play dates with other classmates but it's this particular friend she just connects with the most.  I love her friendships.  :)

*We are nearing the end of Chinese school.  Magnolia has done so well and has picked up some basic words.  If I repeat them back when she tells them to me, she corrects me.  I obviously don't hear the different tones they way she does.  I'm so sad it is the last year of this particular school.  I will be looking for an alternative for the years to come.

*I'm starting to read Magnolia chapter books.  This has been fun for us both.  The first book was a Doreen Cronin book that was signed by her at school.  It was beyond her years so I read one of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.  She seemed to like that but I think our next one will be the Wind in the Willows...

I'm sure I'll think of more updates but for now I've got to get back to preparing for a busy weekend.  We have George's 3rd Birthday that we are kicking off by having breakfast with Benjamin Bunny and Jemima Puddle Duck!  Then, of course, Easter!  Lots of family, lots of fun.


Be back soon.

Happy Easter!