SK: 5.5

Simone is 5 1/2!

She is a lover of Popeye's. I have never seen the girl down so much food in so little time.

She has an interest in science. Here we are finding ingredients in the Garfield Conservatory.

She still enjoys cooking and baking. Here we are trying out an Easy-Bake set that you microwave.

She is into technology; here with Na May.

She enjoys playing games. We've had many Rat-a-Tat Cat-filled hours. She hates to lose.

She is beautiful.

She doesn't like "puffy" dresses anymore. And she now likes wearing leggings. And even asked to change into jeans today - the shock!

She plays with her friends and sister, but rarely things like tea party anymore:

She continues to enjoy ballet and very much enjoyed the local performance we recently attended.

This is the Simone you will almost certainly see in the future (I got glasses in 5th grade).

She continues to enjoy arts and crafts. This is a hobbit house she had made at the library (photo taken in front of her quilt).

She can be tenacious. She wanted to get a special pancake at her school's pancake breakfast and wanted to wait even though it ended up being 50 minutes!

She took her seal to the American Girl Valentine's Tea at the library this year.

She is becoming a great reader. I was so proud when she recently read a whole book to me (Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire). She likes this fairy series of chapter books though that are driving me crazy. They are all the same (the Rainbow Magic series by Daisy Meadows)!

Her dim sum repertoire has oh-so-slightly expanded. It now includes shumai.

She continues to greatly value her friendships. This is with her friend from school at the Park District Easter Egg Hunt this past Saturday. Over the span of spring break she will have had play dates with five friends.

More Simone: - She's into pop music and now even music videos. She and her friends have a Katy Perry/Christina Aguilera club. Her current favorite song is Feel the Moment. - She is good (for the most part) about accepting consequences she knows about ahead of time. - She feels like she needs to "claim" the best first. - She's very good at coming up with alternative explanations i.e. giving many reasons why it could be that Mommy's macaroni and cheese didn't taste as good as the sample at Trader Joe's (bought the sample product). - She quit lunchtime chess club because she didn't like having to play in a particular way (unlike when she plays wiht Ezer) and complained it gave her a stomach ache. We let her stop going. - She feels very unsettled with not knowing what it will be like after she dies. This is her latest stomach-ache giving worry.