Capturing Hadley

It embarrasses me to realize that it's been a whole year since I sat down and recorded what my dear girl is like. I used to do this exercise every few months. And since my camera now won't take any pictures, I almost put off this post longer. But when we went to JC Penny yesterday for your "school picture" they were having a promotion  where they emailed me all the proofs in low resolution for free. Perfect for blogging. And for the record, Hadley picked the outfit and the hair style. If you  haven't read these portraits in time before, they are always written to the subject. Kassy will come soon.

Yesterday, as I flipped through a catalog I noticed that suddenly all the kids clothing and all the decorations for little girls' bedrooms had models younger than my you. You look like a girl now. There is no preschooler left in you. You are tall and skinny (actually about average height for a second grader). Your hair is still that complement-producing shade of red. And your eyes are hazel.

Sometime last spring you stopped having to wear dresses or skirts everyday. In fact, there have been weeks of all pants. You are suddenly very practical about clothing. It doesn't have to be pink, though it often is. And you wear dresses, not so much for your own pleasure, but to please your sister or your dress-loving friend Alexis. In fact, this fall, the back-to-school outfit you picked out was a pair of khakis and a green shirt with orange flowers! Sometimes you come down the stairs, dressed, and I'll say, "Just so you know, hot pink and orange don't look good together."
"MMMOOOMMM" you reply with disbelief, " God doesn't care if my outfit matches."

After struggling in Kindergarten and first grade with reading, you are now a skilled peruser, eager to learn new things and to find great stories. It gives me so much pleasure to share stories that I have loved with you. You just finished simplified versions of Anne of Green Gables and The Little Princess. Over the summer you were really interested in the Magic Treehouse series. As your reading improves you are becoming more interested in Little House on the Prairie or the American Girl series.

Last November, almost a year ago, you started gymnastics. The sport has captured your heart. Many days your father forbids you from doing any more handstands for the day since fifty or more seems like enough. Sometimes we want to look at you right-side up. You have improved quickly and are very determined to learn each new skill, but we don't have the money or the desire to let you on the team, which is really your dream. It's been breaking my heart to watch you dream of that team and having to say "no." You came out of gymnastics class the other day, frustrated and angry. You started the recreational class able to do back hip circles on the bar and now, since they rarely use the bar, you had forgotten. And it was only at the first class that you got to practice back hand springs, which is a huge goal of yours.

This fall for the first time, you played on a not-so-great soccer team. Your father, the coach, was frustrated but you flourished. For the first time you weren't one of the worst players on the team.  Actually you may have been the best player on the team. While you can still be spacey as a  defensive player, you have excellent ball handling skills and have learned this year to steal the ball and dribble around the defenders with finesse.

You've matured emotionally too. Fights with friends or feelings of exclusion used to make you cry. While those things still bother you, you are able to keep things in perspective a bit. Tears are not as frequent and you seem more confident.

You are still characterized mostly by silly fun. You are a happy kid, quick to make friends, delighted by gifts. You struggle with wanting things and sweets too much, but are slowly becoming more generous. You are a good eater, understanding the value of healthy food. You eat most anything even if you don't like it.  You are affectionate (sometimes too much). You love to learn and to create. You are constantly making connections and asking questions. I was so impressed with your perceptiveness the other day when you said, "Mom, in art class they keep telling how to draw. 'You must have four buildings and trees with two different color leaves.' It looks nice, but it just isn't me."

Currently you are saving your allowance and hoping for an American Girl doll (the one you want changes regularly. You wish Samantha wasn't retired and are now hoping for Felicity).

Most exciting of all though is your faith. It has blossomed. In September you made a decision to accept Christ. I have seen your doubts diminish and your desire to be obedient and kind increase. You are more trustworthy. It our prayer that you will continue to walk down this path.

I love you Hads. Keep growing into a wonderful young lady. 

I'm back: Soccer and Halloween

Silence. I've haven't gone 26 days with a post since I started blogging. Did you miss me?

Sometimes I have adolescent-like fits when I blog. They aren't rational really—I started blogging for me, not because you asked me to. Still, sometimes I resent how much you know about me and my family (unless you are a fellow blogger) and how little you respond to my posts. Like I said, unfair and irrational but reality. Our inner thoughts are never as neat and tidy and selfless as we want them to be and I am bit embarrassed to admit my fit.Add my fit to computer that won't upload every third website and a broken  camera and I wasn't in the mood. Though I have been working on my food blog---check it out if you haven't in a while.

But Halloween came and fall is almost over (so says the weather). There are events to record and my dear friends lent me a camera for the weekend. October was cold. And cloudy. I wonder how long I will need to live in this state before I stop resenting the cloudiness? Darn that lake Huron. It is so close and so amazing, but the only way I remember it exists is from the sea gulls and the fall and winter days of endless gray clouds.

Saturday was the end of a long and tiring soccer season. Tom has classes this semester starting at 8 am and ending at 8 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. He usually leaves on those days before the girls wake up and comes home just in time to give a goodnight kiss. Then on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, there was soccer. And usually the season ends mid-October. But this year, it just kept going and going (same number of games but hard-to-schedule coaches). Anyway the last two games , both on Saturday mornings were miserable. Last Saturday was rainy and cold: winter coats, hats, mittens, blankets and an umbrella. This Saturday was warmer but following a day of rain, high winds had moved in. I watched 50% of the last game from the car where my cheers were muted by the windows. (The soccer pics were emailed to me my another mom. Hadley is white with the pink hat with the pom pom on it.)

But the joy of the season was watching Hadley. Suddenly, she got it. Not being on the champion team she shot to the top of the roster and looked like a pro out there. She could dribble in and out of defenders, her kick gained strength and her feet gained speed. She was one of the players the other coaches told their players to watch out for. And still, after three seasons of soccer I was surprised by my heart: its desire to win, the loud yells that emerged and the instinct to injure any player that pushed my little girl.

And Kassy? She's not the fastest on the field but her ball handling skills are impressive. And of the two girls—she definitely loves soccer the most. She would get sad if Hadley has a game or practice and she didn't. My quiet little girl is tough out there on that field. And nothing is more charming than her big grin after a goal (and I don't think we had a game where she didn't make at least one).

And Tom? Well, there isn't a better coach out there.

Really, Hadley is just dreaming of competitive gymnastics. She even draws pictures of it. And prays about being able to compete every night. Sigh. Not letting a kid have everything she wants is not bad. But it sure is hard.

Halloween. Hadley was Word Girl, from the PBS show of the same name. Word Girl is from the planet Lexicon and fights villains partially by distracting them with big words which she then defines. Kassy was a bunny, again. Our friends, who live in the country, came and enjoyed the evening with us. I think we passed out over 600 pieces of candy to at least 400 kids. Kids from all over the city come to our neighborhood to trick or treat. But neighbors are resentful. They don't like all the kids (and adults) that come for the candy without costumes and with made-up stories about a sick brother in the car which is why they have two pillowcases. So participation is way down—only 30% of the houses turn on their lights. Still, they come. I get the neighbor's frustration but I guess I think , “Hey if once a year kids from this crime-ridden city come peacefully into our safe neighborhood, who am I to deny them the fun?”

The pictures below are from the IB parade at school. It is a huge deal and you have to make a sign that identifies your character and the IB trait (IB is the abbreviation for the International Baccalaureate curriculum their school uses. There 8 or 10 traits that constantly emphasizw as they learn about the world. Words like creative, communicator, open-minded, principled, thinker, risk taker, knowledgeable, balanced, reflective ). Hadley's sign read, "Word Girl is a caring thinker." Kassy's sign read, "The Runaway Bunny is a communicator." Sometimes the IB profiles make me laugh, like when we are making these signs for what is really an attempt to add some thinking to Halloween or when Kassy yells at her sister, "You aren't being principled." But I love it. They have such a great school.