a real snow day. with snow.

In my last year of school in Texas, five snow days were called. five. all for nothing. Sometimes on the "snow days," the temperatures didn't even drop below 60 but panic would ensue when there was the remotest remote chance of snow.

On Friday, we got a real snow day. with snow.

This is what my mom saw when she got up at 5:00am. And, yes, someone had already been out clearing the sidewalk! What a hero!

Since the snow didn't look that dangerous, my mom went about getting things ready for my school day. My lunch was packed. Then my mom woke me up to tell me about the snow. I faked an illness. Symptoms included a racing heartbeat and difficulty breathing. (That didn't earn quite as much sympathy as I had expected.)

Once I was up and dressed for school, we got the good news that SCHOOL WAS CANCELLED. Bad timing, my mom thought, because there is no possible way to convince a child to go back to bed if there is snow on the ground. (Once school was cancelled, I was able to confess that I had fabricated my sob story about the racing heartbeat and my trouble breathing.)

We decided to walk to the donut shop. The snow continued to fall lightly throughout the morning until it turned to freezing rain, and then plain old boring rain.
I threw hundreds of snowballs.
I built the beginnings of a snow fort.

On our walk, we passed over the path we bike on to school. If you look closely at the photo below, you will see that people were out riding bikes in the snow.

And it might snow again between 4:00 and 9:00 tomorrow morning. We have already decided that I will not be woken up until we know if school is cancelled!

tooth

On Wednesday, I finally lost my first tooth!

When I visited my new dentist in mid-August, she estimated that I had several months left before my first tooth would fall out. This timeline was based on my x-rays. The roots were starting to shorten and my permanent tooth was beginning to come up. However, I am about one year behind with tooth loss.

Then, about two weeks ago, my tooth suddenly got wiggly. I opted not to wiggle it very much, mostly because it felt weird.

On the morning that I lost my tooth, I was in the bath and my wiggly tooth seemed to make a crunch sound/feeling. But it was still not terribly wiggly.

That afternoon, I was talking to a friend in class and my tooth popped out onto the carpet. like it just popped out. without warning. My friend rushed over and got one of the teachers. My tooth was wrapped up and sent home with me.

That evening, I rewrapped my tooth up and put it under my pillow.

The toothfairy brought me a Lego set.

lucky number 7

Weeks and weeks and weeks ago, I turned 7. Weeks and weeks ago, I celebrated my birthday.

There are considerably fewer birthday party options here than there are in Austin. We did extensive birthday party research (we even created a spreadsheet!) and decided that PISE was the best choice for a boy who likes  loves  needs to play sports all day every day.

I invited my dearest friends from school, a boy from soccer, a boy named Atticus, and the sweetest little princess I met in a restaurant months ago.

At my party, we played almost two hours of gym games led by the Physical Literacy Leaders. (They ran us ragged. completely ragged.)

Then they released us, a ravenous bunch, for food.

When I first moved to Victoria, I saw a monster truck cake at the bakery. And that was the cake I had been talking about all year. It exceeded my expectations, though I don't think I ate any of it.

The best part of the cake, aside from the monster truck crushing the three vehicles, was the crumbled up brownies that the baker used for mud.

this is the end

When my dad departs for work tomorrow, he leaves our home empty for the next family to move into by the end of the day. 

I was so very lucky to grow up in a yard that covers nearly an acre and backs up against hundreds and hundreds of acres of undeveloped land owned by friendly neighbors who welcomed us to explore.

The photos below are not in chronological order. But they so perfectly summarize how I spent ages 0-6.

Before I started school, I spent every waking moment outside. Once I started school, I would always retreat to the yard at the end of each day. Sometimes I wouldn't even go inside (except to wash my hands and dash back out). I would be served a snack inside of my climbing cube. I was content for hours. digging. walking. chasing my dog. looking. talking to neighbors who walked by at the same time every day. watching the sun go down. watching the sky fill with stars. 

I can tell by the photo above that it was taken after 4:00pm. My neighbor was a sheriff and he arrived home every day precisely at 4:00pm. Hi Atticus, his voice would boom. 

This is me when I was first learning to walk. At first, I could barely make it off the porch. Then I could bravely venture to all corners of the yard. My yard always had soccer balls, baseballs, footballs, large balls for playing catch. A favorite game: throwing a ball up on the roof and watching it come back down; this was inspired by Grover's song about playing by yourself. 

Do you see the columbine by my ball? Right now (mid-March) is the best time of the year in my yard. The columbine had spread throughout the yard and it starts to bloom, followed by the wildflowers and my mimosa tree. Sadly, my massive lavender that was planted in 2004 was recently slaughtered; to see it in bloom was spectacular. And it tasted good too. 

On my second birthday, I was overjoyed to receive a gift of a bucket of rocks from my dear friend Anne. One of the rocks was almost perfectly round and it fit into a groove in a larger flat rock. I spent hours moving the rocks around my yard. 

and this is why I never ever cared about TV

We know nothing, really, about the new family who will move into our house. We have heard they have a little boy. I hope he loves my yard as much as I do. 

Seattle

We finally made our first trip to Seattle since we have been in Victoria!

Until I was sick last week, I had never ever EVER missed a single day of school. (Right, ZERO absences in three years!) But I was allowed to be absent on Friday so we could leave for Seattle on Thursday afternoon.

We woke up to a sunny and warm morning in Seattle on Friday. I watched some construction (way better than television) while I waited for my breakfast. Apparently, they are building another Hyatt just for me.

Even if I told you, you would not even believe how much I ate for breakfast. I will submit proof of that shortly.

After breakfast, I swam some laps. I am still small enough that it tends to surprise people when I enter the water and proceed to swim lap after lap of front crawl. Or swim underwater from one end of the pool to the other. I wonder what they would think to see me jump off the platform at my diving lesson. Speaking of diving, I can now do a backwards somersault into the water! (Note: I did NOT practice any diving at my hotel pool. It is too shallow. Safety first. Like my diving coach bluntly tells us at every lesson: if you don't follow the rules, you will drown or die.)

After swimming, we went walking. and walking. and walking. and walking. We logged more than five miles. It was during our walk that it became even more apparent that I had eaten too much at breakfast. Around downtown Seattle, where some of my favorite food is, my mom kept offering me snacks. cookies, pastries, drinks, pizza, donuts. Even at Le Panier, I couldn't be coaxed into eating a croissant au beurre; I could barely manage to choke down a glass of milk while my mom enjoyed her caramel macaron. oh the misery.

After our long walk, I used my gift card to buy a Lego set at Barnes and Noble. No trip is complete without a new Lego set.

On Saturday morning, Trinity picked me up early (I won't say bright and early because it was dark) so my mom could go to her race. She participated in the Rainier Tower stair climb. 40 flights!

Saturday was fun. more eating. more walking. more Lego. more talk about how badly I want to move to Seattle. tomorrow.

Our view from the ferry as we left on Sunday morning . . .

D Day

Christmas break finally ended and I returned to school on Monday.

The new year brought new, more exciting and challenging, work in school. I now have spelling homework that is assigned on Monday and a weekly test on Friday. I was placed in the most advanced spelling group with only two other students. I find the words to be a bit easy and I got them all correct in the practice test on Monday. 

On Tuesday, I was introduced to division. 

On Tuesday after school, I started diving lessons. (Yes, those little people on the diving platform . . . that is me with my diving crew.) Since I have been in swimming lessons since I was six months old, there really aren't lessons here that meet my needs perfectly so I am giving diving a try. Twice a week, I will go to diving for 90 minutes. The class includes 30 minutes of tumbling, 30 minutes of diving, and 30 minutes on the trampoline. And I have to wear a speedo!

About my diving program:

Located on Vancouver Island in the city of Victoria, Boardworks trains at Saanich Commonwealth Place which was built for the 1994 Commonwealth Games.  Known as one of the premier diving facilities in Canada and around the world, SCP provides Boardworks athletes with the opportunity to train at a high quality facility whose Commonwealth Games legacy focuses on maintaining an internationally competitive facility in order to assist high performance athletes achieve their international goals.