And so, the girl is six and a half years old! 78 months of Yaya!
[[image:2015-yaya78month-09.jpg:In the sun:center:0]]
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
January turned out to be a crazy busy month! I started a new project at work and had my first solo trip away from Vin and the kids (to California!) so that was exciting, thrilling, scary, dramatic, disturbing and in the end, not as painful as we anticipated! In the end, the kids are getting older and do not need their Mama around 24/7 any more. However, it was quite an adjustment for everyone. But on top of this, we had Adik’s birthday party, and we spent almost 2 weeks in Ocala, Florida for the new project with side trips to Silver Springs and St. Augustine Beach. So it was a very busy month and also a fun month!
Food status – sadly, due to all the running around that we were doing, Yaya did not try too many new foods. Here are the new foods that she did try:
* finger taste of tamarind chutney at an Indian restaurant (thumbs down)
* Perrier water (thanks to Maria for sharing her sparkling water!)
Although it could have been better, at least Yaya did try two new things.
Reading status: The new glasses seem to be working their magic. Yaya is more willing to try to read and has more success. She recognizes more words than she cares to admit but she is still reluctant to try to read when faced with a word that she does not recognize. She does not want to sound out the letters and even try to read the word. However, when prodded, she can usually do it and approximate the word and is pleasantly surprised when she succeeds at the troublesome new word. Let’s hope that we continue progressing in her reading skills. One way that we’ve found to encourage her to read is to have her read instructions of things that she wants to do. She just needs added incentives for her to try to read. We are still reading the last of the Magic Faraway Tree books by Enid Blyton (I confess, it has been a busy month and not much reading has occurred). Once these books are done I have lined up for her some of the original Famous Five books as well as Mr Galliano’s Circus books (some of my favorites when I was Yaya’s age). I’m looking forward to revisiting these old favorites of mine! One day Yaya will prefer to sit and read these by herself without any interference from me and while I will be one proud Mama, I will also be sad that that is another thing that Yaya can do all by herself.
Anyway, let’s get to the photos to see what this 6 1/2-year-old girl did this month! We took the kids to the Boonshoft (Dayton Children’s Museum) as Adik’s birthday trip:
[[image:2015-yaya78month-01.jpg:Yaya is almost mauled by a stuffed bear:center:0]]
[[image:2015-yaya78month-02.jpg:Playing with air and filling stuff with air:center:0]]
[[image:2015-yaya78month-03.jpg:Poking her head out from under the air-filled tent:center:0]]
Yaya has been begging me to teach her how to crochet.
[[image:2015-yaya78month-12.jpg:Learning how to crochet by hand:center:0]]
As it turned out, the crochet hook was still too tricky for Yaya to manipulate but she enjoyed making chains using her hands as the hook.
[[image:2015-yaya78month-04.jpg:Yaya and a chocolatey Adik:center:0]]
And then it was time for me to go to California. I took this shot of Yaya with me to keep me going while I was far from home:
[[image:2015-yaya78month-13.jpg:Love that smile and the slight dimple in her cheek:center:0]]
Some photos that Vin took while I was out of town:
[[image:2015-yaya78month-14.jpg:Yaya drew a cat!:center:0]]
[[image:2015-yaya78month-18.jpg:Snow angel:center:0]]
Some at home photos before our trip to Florida:
[[image:2015-yaya78month-05.jpg:Scientist Yaya pouring water into beakers and test tubes:center:0]]
[[image:2015-yaya78month-06.jpg:Jamming on Adik’s new drums:center:0]]
Finally some photos taken during our almost 2-week road trip:
[[image:2015-yaya78month-07.jpg:Playing games on pbskids.org while Adik looks on:center:0]]
[[image:2015-yaya78month-08.jpg:Adik took this photo of Yaya!:center:0]]
[[image:2015-yaya78month-15.jpg:Both kids do the elevator stance on their way to breakfast:center:0]]
[[image:2015-yaya78month-16.jpg:Swinging at a playground in Ocala:center:0]]
[[image:2015-yaya78month-17.jpg:They loved that playground and it was warm!:center:0]]
[[image:2015-yaya78month-10.jpg:Yaya on St Augustine Beach:center:0]]
It was another fun month! Thank goodness Yaya is a seasoned traveler, and she also did well while Mama was away. In fact she did confess that she almost did not miss Mama since Papa took over baking bread! Go Vin! 🙂
Happy 78-month birthday, baby girl! We love you!!!
[[image:2015-yaya78month-11.jpg:Soapy bearded Yaya, Loving the jacuzzi at St. Augustine Beach:center:0]]
