Naptime Blog

I am amazed with how well my daughter reads now. Her writing is pretty good, too.  I am so proud of how she can express her thoughts in writing…  I think writing is a huge tool for helping with your feelings, understanding your thoughts, and keeping memories.  And the intellectual ability of my little girl is really developing!  It is much easier to have a conversation with her now and having her understand it.  Of course there are still things I need to censor for her, and certain topics that I need to cushion.  And there are definitely topics I think she is still too young for. But my little girl is really turning into a young lady.

Juliana recently started second grade.  As Catholics, she will be receiving two sacraments this school year.  In January she will receive First Penance, and in May she will receive First Holy Communion.  She wants to play basketball in the winter (she played intramurals to learn the basics last year), hoping she makes the girls team.  She intends to continue playing softball in the spring as well.  The new thing Juliana wants to try this year is Girl Scouts, and I am all for it.  She is a very well rounded kid, and I am happy that basketball and softball are in separate seasons, so it would only be one sport at a time and a Girl Scout meeting twice a month.  I believe in after-school activities, however, I do not think our kids should be overwhelmed with a different activity a day.  They should be allowed time after school to express their own creativity by doing their own things such as pursuing writing, crafting, using their minds to create things, etc.  That doesn’t mean that in my house it is NOT a constant battle to turn off the television or the video games! 

Last year, Juliana’s bed time was at 8:30.  This year, she is upset because her friends get to stay up until 9:00.  Basically, the way things work out nightly, by the time she is done showering and getting into her pajamas, taking her allergy medication, giving us all her goodnight kisses, it is RARELY 8:30 anyway!  But it is important for her to be up on time each morning to make the bus, or else it is going to be very difficult for my husband or I to drive her in to school.  So I made a deal with her that if she can wake up without any issues on time and get ready without a fight for a week I would consider making her bedtime 9pm.   The first three mornings were GREAT.  Then we got into a little issue on the fourth morning with running late and not wanting to wake up.  But the fifth morning she did well again.  So I am sure I will get called on my end of the deal one night this week and I will have to start the new bed time.  But if it is going to be a problem, back to 8:30 it goes!  Or maybe I should do 8:45 for a month or so and see if that works.  Although I don’t think she would agree to the compromise!

So my seven year old is getting so big so fast.  My first baby is becoming a little lady, and I am thrilled to say that even with all the bumps along the way (she is developing the attitude of a teenager already at times!), she is really becoming a beautiful little lady!

Jennifer
Mom to Juliana (7), Louis (1) and Anthony (1)
Expecting #4 in September!
www.nevaland.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 3:24 am and is filed under Jennifer, School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.