Christmas was wonderful. Overwhelming. But wonderful! The girls were buried in gifts and love, and I think we've finally just begun to dig our way back out and recover!
Because, in addition to digging out from under the Christmas chaos, we had Anna Claire's 6th birthday just a few weeks later (now you see why I plan so far in advance?). 25 kids at a local bounce joint meant lots of friends, jumping, and cake. Good times! The pic in front of the Conestoga Cupboard is kind of becoming a default picture spot, so you can see what a difference a year makes:
Crazy, idn't it?!
She also opted for another milestone with this birthday. After insisting for the longest time, even though her 2 best friends had gotten theirs done, that she did *not* want her ears pierced ("it hurts!") - she had a big change of heart and insisted that she not only wanted it done, but that she'd pay for it herself ("it's like a shot - it only hurts for a second, and then it's over"). So . . .
Note the big exhale ("blowing out the candles") while peircing. She did cry just a bit, but not much and she still insists she's glad she did it. She's taking very good care of them herself and is SO proud of them. It still takes me aback sometimes to see her looking so grown up!
We also had her parent-teacher conference, which went wonderfully. She's got the whack-NCLB-standards-grading-scale equivalent of all A's. She's reading well past grade level, as well as working on math concepts beyond kindergarten. The teacher says she's also very well-adjusted socially, and that the only thing she really needs to work on is containing her enthusiasm (seems she finds it hard sometimes not to blurt out the answer, even if she's already raising/waving her hand). I can live with that.
We're still not sure about acceleration. If I'm honest, I don't necessarily really want her a grade ahead, with older kids, etc. I just want her curriculum to match her ability and keep her challenged. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of allowance for that right now (save one of the wonderful $10K/yr private schools). Her teacher is confident she will place into the gifted program next year ("I'm *very* curious to see her scores on the COGAT test that they take at the beginning of 1st grade, it's essentially an IQ test . . ." says Mrs. F.), and I hope that that will be enough. In the meantime, we're just doing what we've been doing - reading, talking/answering a lot of questions, and finding opportunities where we can (like the Science Fair next week).
Okay, that's all I've got for now (timewise and energy-wise!). But, I promise an update and pics of Caroline soon!
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