Easter Dresses

Eleri is still in the dresses-only-dresses phase, and holidays are a real bonanza if this is your inclination.  This year, my mom gave her not one but TWO Easter dresses, and she wears them every chance she gets.  While Clio has moved on to mostly leggings and t-shirts, she still relishes a super-pretty gown, and I wonder how many years she'll want to wear the full skirts and formal fabrics of little girl Easter dresses.  (Sometimes I think fashion is genetic, and if I am any indication, we've got many years to go--hooray!)

I have to say, I love Clio's glasses, love that she coordinates the different pairs with her outfits, and that we are all used to them now.  But every once in a while, we get a picture like this one.

It makes me miss her face.  Is that strange?  She looks so same-but-different to me like this.  I think, too, she got them at a time when she was just outgrowing the very last vestiges of "toddler"  (5T  to 6 makes sense to me all of a sudden--why 5 is the last "toddler" year).  In a way, it feels like this growing up happened behind her glasses, and when she takes them off like this, it's as if the growing was instant.

The desire to categorize

It happens all the time, and yet I am always charmed by the desire children have to organize their world.
In this case, the toys get lined up by color.

Also, you know I love when Dave picks up the camera.  The photos are always far superior to mine, and I love to see what he sees.

A picture's worth a thousand words

I'm so glad Grandma and Grandpa took some pictures while they were here for Spring Break--I never seem to bother anymore, since this photo expresses Clio's enduring feelings on being photographed.

Clio Grace, reader extraordinaire

At her conferences back in November, Clio's teachers set me up for this big surprise.  At first, the way they were leading into it, I got really nervous, wondered what was wrong, what my girl had done.  In the end, it was good news:  Clio was testing at a 2nd grade reading level.

I think they were disappointed by my lack of surprise and jubilation.  We knew it already: Clio is a really amazingly good reader.  This is likely because she loves stories.  Because we read to her a lot from the very beginning.  Because she has good teachers.  Because she is--has always been--really really verbal.

Lately, though, her reading ability seems to have just shot forward, and whatever reading level she may now be at, I find myself impressed.  I think the turning point came when I found her reading the Gift of the Magi.  She is reading chapter books like Junie B Jones and Ivy and Bean.  I often find her reading in bed.

I was the same way, and I love that this is something passed on from me.