Our little Lizzie isn’t that little anymore. She woke up sunny and cheerful on her 7th birthday, as she does 99% of the time. She has become quite the little babysitter-in-training this past year, dressing Janie, changing her diapers (wet AND dirty, though the latter was against my inclinations), and cleaning and organizing their room. It is so fun to see how her reading has taken off. We’ve been plugging away at phonics for a year and a half now, and she broke through with blends this fall, grew in confidence over the winter, and started reading any picture book in sight to her little sisters this spring. This semester, she has really liked listening to an audiobook and reading along in her own copy of the book. Just in the past month, she has started reading in her head. Short books with lots of pictures are building her confidence, and she’s been very into the American Girl stories since getting Elizabeth (Felicity’s friend) for Christmas. We got the first Felicity book at the library summer reading program last year, so I thought it would be a good time to give her all the ones for this birthday. She was thrilled! She also found a stash of old Highlights magazines from our old babysitter and has those strewn around the house for reading at any down moment. How timely that Grandma and Grandpa Willett got her a new Highlights subscription for her birthday! We were pretty sure she’d have to be a reader, growing up in this family, but it’s a relief and a joy to see that she loves reading as much as Mommy and Daddy and Tommy do.
Elizabeth’s other main loves are her friends, fashion, and ballet. She love, love, loves spending time with friends, and fortunately, there are a lot of quality girls in the 5-7 range in our homeschool circles. I appreciate that she isn’t cliquey. While she has her best, best, best friends, she loves any girl who wants to play house or Betsy-Tacy or princess. She loves her clothes. Fortunately, we get a ton of adorable hand-me-downs from Peyton and London, so she has plenty to choose from. This girl is way better dressed than her mom! At first, we signed her up for ballet because we thought she would like being with other little girls, but she has an innate talent for it. I love to watch her dance. Her ballet instructor wants us to put her in at least two classes a week in the fall. I don’t know what we’re going to do about that, but I know she would thrive if we did.
She also loves riding her bike with no training wheels, holding her own against the mob of little boys out on the pad, coloring in coloring books, and watching Shirley Temple movies. Her favorite subject in school is history. She is a merry little soul and such a blessing to have in our home!