Oliver is a Reader!

He’s known his ABCs for years and had understood the sounds of letters and letter combinations for some time. But until  now, Oliver seems to have lacked patience for sounding out words. Recently something changed. Suddenly every word is a puzzle to solve. Sentences take shape as he says them aloud. He’s gaining confidence as he reads book pages himself.  Last night at a restaurant, he focused for 30 minutes straight on a word search, working out every word himself and taking great pride in finding them all.

Oliver wrote this thank you letter to a classmate. He started it with much to say, and because we were running out of time to deliver it, he had to dictate most of it to Jenny:

Oliver dug out his soccer uniform so he could play soccer in the backyard.

Oliver and I ran a charity 1k last weekend.

Cami gave this large Cinderella doll to Zaeda and they are now inseparable

Here are some pictures from our late-March trip to Bend. We were delayed hours at the Santiam pass due to an avalanche.  We focused on indoor activities because it was still quite cold.  The High Desert Museum was a great way to spend the better part of a day. We did a lot of swimming, some shopping, and visited a couple other kid friendly attractions so they could burn some energy.

Traditions

In my family we have a tradition. When a child turns 2 ½ years old, they have their portrait taken and a photo is placed on The Wall. That child will not grace The Wall again until they graduate from high school and their senior portrait is added. The Wall now resides at my grandmother’s apartment. The Wall has the portraits of her three children, her six grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. As each new member was added to the family, The Wall needed to be rearranged. Zaeda’s portrait was the last one for the 2 ½ year set and her place on The Wall was primed and ready.

OK. Zaeda is closer to 3 than 2 ½ but it took me awhile to find a place that did portraits that I thought would work. I probably made it harder on myself because I wanted her portrait to be similar to mine and my sister’s. Then I wanted a dress similar to the one I wore. My sister and I wore baby doll style dresses with capped sleeves. Who knew that today’s styles were sleeveless—in Portland?!

Anyways, I finally got it done. Below is the portrait that will be in black and white on my grandmother’s wall.

I thought this photo of Zaeda was pretty cute too.

Zaeda’s emotions ran the full gamut the 30 or so minutes we were there. Below is one of my favorite pictures. The studio set was just right, her dress was laid out neatly, her arms gracefully extended at her sides and then that expression.

  

Speaking of Zaeda’s emotions, she gives some good dirty looks. I swear that she doesn’t get them from me but I’m sure she gets them from my side of the family. She gives me a look that I’m sure is from my sister and if I had known them as children, my aunt and grandmother who Zaeda is named after. I’ve only heard that they could be a bit stubborn. I haven’t been able to capture it on film but it involves Zaeda lowering her chin to her chest and then looking, really more of a glare, up at you.

Zaeda's catch phrases

"Okey dokey artichokey!"

"Oh man!"

"That's cool!"

"Why?" as in "Mommy, why did you put the blue shirt in the washing machine?" 

(repeat with everything she sees)

Zaeda is a chatterbox. Ask her about her day and she will relate full conversations that she had with her friends.  Above is a sample of her long and details descriptions of her friends at school and who said what, and the face they made, and how silly it was.