During Our Absence

The Day We Moved In

Three Weeks Later

In this last month Selena has grown in so many ways. She has grown taller, began to slender down, and truly mature. She has gone from my being able to just jump her up into the next size clothes with no question as to if they would fit or not, to an awkward in between size, where to buy one size they are too short and barely cover her behind, to the next size being to big. Ever notice that in children’s clothes they do not provide for the 1/2 sizes.

The Tiny Yard She Use To Call Home

The Endless Space She Now Calls Home

She has adjusted very nicely to living in a home where we are not on top of each other. Her bedroom is at the far corner of the house, where she can no longer hear much of anything going on in the main part of the house, compared to our tiny house where her room was right off the living and dining room areas. If you remember in our old home we had to gate off the back of the house for safety reasons, and have safety locks on all the doors. These have all come down in our new home. At first Selena thought it was OK to dart out the door as she pleased, but is now learning that it is better if she ask first. We don’t panic so much if she does run out the door, short of walking up the driveway or getting too close to the horses, there isn’t much she can get into trouble with, but we still want her to ask especially considering I spend a lot of my time trying to figure out just where she is in the house let alone adding to where she might be outside.

Your Body As The Canvas

Give Me More Paper and Felt Pens

To think it wasn’t that long ago that Selena couldn’t be given felt pens without coloring all over her face, legs, arms, and hands. Now she has free access to all of  her art supplies, which I wasn’t sure about at first. She uses them very carefully, always putting them away when she is finished. She can spend hours coloring pictures, cutting, drawing, writing, and decorating her art work with stickers, googlie eyes, or anything else she finds, with much confidence and self control. Many times my dining room table or coffee table looks more like a craft center, filled with books, paper, crayons, and anything else that Selena desires, but you know what, that is perfectly OK with me now that she is so careful with all her supplies. In fact for two days she spent her time with play dough spread all over the coffee table, she baked cookies, made elephants, and much much more.

I think you are beginning to see my point, that not only has Selena grown physically we have truly seen a maturity level to match that growing body. While she is still very independent, and is not afraid to vocalize her wants and desires, she is beginning to understand that no matter how strong her desire, and no matter how hard she vocalizes her wants, that Papa and I still have the final word.

Selena has done all this growing but she has not lost one bit of her laughter, curiosity, desire to learn or her sweetness. It truly has been so much fun just watching her grow, explore and learn this past month.