American girls

Maddie is officially hooked on my old American Girl books.

She loves reading chapter after chapter, and if it weren't for the fact that I had so many things to do with either Abrie or Faith, etc, I would sit there and read the entire book in one sitting with Maddie. She is constantly asking for "one more chapter, please!" We've read "Changes for Kirsten" already, and are now working on "Felicity Learns a Lesson." She has already named a stuffed animal 'Felicity' because of the fact that Felicity resembles our Crannie!

Maddie cracks me up at how anxious she always is to learn. Every day lately she comes to me and tells me she wants to do "subtraction lessons." That's her new thing. The other day at the doctor, she was doing "addition lessons" and adding beads in the waiting room. She was talking out loud, and this little boy tried to help her learn multiplication- of course, to no avail... Maddie just kept saying, "it's ok, I just want to add". It was funny. But, besides that, she's also been very interested in trying to spell. We've been practicing with three letter words.

She picked out a book at the library the other day that is all about adjectives. It cracks me up because there's stuff in there that is so cutely described, but that is totally crazy to think that she likes to read it. Dan was laughing because it talks about demonstratives and predicate adjectives and many other things that he said he doesn't even remember what they are! But, both she and Faith love the book and ask for it all the time. 

Chapter Crannie

Cran is obsessed with chapter books these days.

The other day we went to the library and looked for Strawberry Shortcake books in particular (they took a liking to them one day when we happened to find some at the library). They didn't have any of the picture books, but the librarian found a chapter book about Strawberry Shortcake on the shelf. It doesn't have any pictures and is 62 pages long, and Maddie immediately said "No, I don't want that one." I mistakenly took it with me when we took our other books to check out, and brought it home of course.

They have been so busy playing school these days, and I mentioned to them today the idea of sitting and listening to a chapter of the Strawberry Shortcake book. I explained to Maddie when she told me "but, there aren't any pictures" that she and Faith could imagine what was happening, and that is what makes books fun. She and Faith were so into the whole school notion, that they agreed and sat on the couch while I fed Abrie and read them Chapter 1. Well, they ended up loving it. Faith even sat through two chapters. They liked it so much that after I was done with those chapters and feeding Abrie, I asked them if they wanted to make bookmarks since we'd have to read the book chapter by chapter and wouldn't want to lose our place. They loved this idea. They cut their bookmarks out of construction paper and decorated them. 

Faith was reading with Dan after dinner (her Mickey books she checked out from the library) and Maddie asked if I could read another chapter while I fed Breezer. We ended up reading the next 5 chapters which finished the book! All 62 pages. She LOVED it. I would stop every now and then to ask her if she knew what was happening and everything (since she sat there sniffing her blankie without pictures to see), and she always answered all of my questions so excitedly. I've now gotten out my American Girl chapter books- that I always saved in case we'd have girls- and have some other horse chapter books that I saved for them as well that I loved. She's so excited to use her bookmark tomorrow. She kept telling Dan, "I just love chapter books!"

*****

They love the new show "Special Agent Oso" on Disney channel. There is one episode where Oso helps a little boy get ready for Show-and-Tell at school. Maddie was asking me about that one morning, and today I thought they could do that while I fed Abrie. They loved it. Maddie picked a Precious Moment girl that sits on their bookcase that was mine. She told Faith and I as we sat on the couch, "this is my Precious Moment girl. Actually, it is my Momma's. But, she gave it to me because she loves me so much. It is beautiful." It was cute. Faith showed Maddie and I her blankie and described it in her own language which was hilarious. They were already searching for their show-and-tell item for tomorrow morning!