Ella-Girl at Seven

It's been awhile since I've written about the kids individually, though I update my Facebook status regularly with all the funny things James says on a daily basis.  I'm depending on Facebook to stay around so I don't lose those quotes, but maybe I should write them down the old-fashioned way, too.  I've been intending to sit down and write about what Ella is like at 7 and James at 4, and last night Ella did something particularly sweet that I wanted to remember.

Ella at seven:  

She's friendly.  She makes friends wherever we go when there are other little girls around, and when the girls she was playing with at the beach left, she made friends with a little boy, too.  She likes to play.

She still dances all over the house, sometimes to music only she can hear.  But these days her dancing is interspersed with lots of cartwheels, forward and back rolls, and doing perfect splits.  She likes music with a good beat, but she also likes to do ballet-like dance moves all over the living room while the keyboard plays classical melodies.

Her little hands are always busy with something.  Drawing, tracing, coloring, bracelet-making, painting, playing with paper dolls.  She likes having Netflix on in the background, but she is always busily occupied doing something imaginative and creative at the same time.  We have folders filled with her drawings.  There are always stacks of paper all over her desk that I try to keep sorted.

She is reading up a storm, tearing through The Magic Treehouse books.  She has a Shelfari account where we keep up with the books she's reading, and she's read 32 books this year.  She's so proud of herself for reading more than me.  She's also been enjoying the American Girl books, Junie B. Jones, and Thea Stilton mysteries.  

Netflix favorites have been Paddington Bear, The Magic School Bus, Wild Kratts, Strawberry Shortcake, and Tinker Bell movies.

She complains about starting school on most mornings, but she's a whiz at her multiplication tables, and I've had the most fun studying ancient history with her.

She likes to dress like me.  Whether we're going out or just putting on lounge clothes before bed she often asks, "Can I match you?"  She still thinks I'm pretty cool so I'm going to hang on to that for awhile.

Ella plays well with James, and she's sensitive toward my feelings.  Last night on the way home from church I started feeling so tired.  Plus, James had gotten his wrist slammed in a door, and the kids had the windows down in the backseat, and there was a lot of traffic, and I was ready to end that day.  Ella, per usual, sensed my feelings, and when we got in the house, and I said, "I'm so tired," she wrapped her arms around me and said, "I know."  Then as I wearily contemplated the bedtime routine she said, "I can brush James' teeth for you." 

She's like me in so many ways, but she's better.