Shayna is 7!

Feb 20th: Birthday party fun.

and 1 month, 2 weeks and 3 days. We celebrated with frozen yogurt in the morning and International Night songs with Elijah's school in the evening. And a pool party the weekend before as a party for both kids. They wanted an event so agreed to a joint party at the local pool. It was a splashing success.

 

Feb 20: Elijah with his other fierce wrestling pal Izzy. (The first is Shayna of course.)

Feb 27th: Getting ready for singing at International Night.

Seven seems old to me but appropriate. I don't get the feeling that she, or either of the other two, are growing up "too fast". It all feels just as it should be. Shayna reads well and handles number intuitively but gets easily frustrated when she has to work on things. She's the best big sister Maya or Elijah could have asked for with Maya getting extra special care as the little sister Shayna longed for and is still smitten with. Elijah is a playmate that she can insight to misbehave or beat in running races. She's enjoying more neighborhood autonomy as I let her walk, or ride her bike, to friends' houses in the neighborhood or just explore our "block" with her brother. She enjoys first grade, shows an affinity to creative art work but claims to love PE and music the most. (Kipps has an amazing music teacher.)  She still loves the bus where she can socialize with older and younger kids. She and Elijah enjoy Crossfit Kids twice a week at Crossfit460. (I like that strong is a compliment to not only my boy but both my girls.)

Shayna has been working with a kids' counselor since January to work through the trauma that can come from being a transplant baby. It's had an interesting effect on her emotional outbursts. First of all, they're less frequent but even in the midst of them she can state "I feel _____ when you do _____," or "I feel _____ when ______ happens". I was unable to get through to her thinking brain before but she is now able open the gate to it on her own and let me in. I love when we're able to hug and talk through things now and hope to learn from her example more.

This post is brought to you by a followup liver biopsy and Savta Judy taking the other two for the day so I can just be here for Shayna. All is well; it's just routine followup because of the rejection last year. Shayna is watching A Little Princess as the anesthesia wears off. We have a clinic visit tomorrow then will go to the zoo. We'll go home Friday after the biopsy results are in and enjoy the dinosaur skeletons at the Natural History Museum before we leave town.

March 16th: Shayna had been begging me for spaghetti and meatballs so when I finally got it together she helped by rolling all meat balls.