Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Tuesday, Jan. 16 We had an exciting event occur today--Elisabeth wrote her first word. Now, please don't judge me. I wasn't pushing her or leaning over her, correcting her every move. Nor had I said anything about wanting her to write. Well, I guess a little. On Saturday she was doing chalk drawings on the driveway and I asked if she wanted me to label them (pig, spider, cow, goose etc.) So I did. Then she kept drawing, and I was labeling, and I asked if she wanted to write an A. So I showed her an A and she wrote a sort of A. This continued until we did the whole alphabet. Her attention span was longer than mine--I was ready to go inside, but she wanted to do more letters. That brings us to today, when she was coloring and she said she wanted to write something on the calendar. I said I'd rather she didn't (I could just picture a big scribble all over January). Then I said, "What do you want to write?" She changed her tactic and said, "You write Happy Bi...

In December we took Elisabeth to her first ballet, a local production of The Nutcracker. She was very excited about it—getting to wear her purple dress, getting to see the dancers. She loved the first half and watched intently from her father’s lap. The second half, however, had a back drop with a picture of a great big ice cream sundae on it. John whispered to me, “How do they keep the ice cream from melting?” and from then on Elisabeth was asking, “When are we getting ice cream?” (never mind that the day was more on the order of hot cocoa weather). I tried to quiet her down, but she wasn’t as into the dance of the Snow Queen etc etc. as I was. Eventually in her wiggling she hit her head on the arm rest and cried. We were able to reach the exit just as the second wail came, and that was it. A sad ending to a fun performance, but Elisabeth has happy memories. She is forever asking when she can be in the Nutcracker. Douwe is Elisabeth’s best friend. We go to the same church a...