Rosalie has never looked more "growm up" than the first moment I saw her test drive her new bike. She is a natural on her bike. Within the first 15 minutes of riding her new bicycle, she was riding on a circle painted on the blacktop at the local elementary school. A small circle. I'm talking precision. She also knows how to "pump" (is this what it's called?)--where she gets her behind off the seat and continues to pedal, to work up some speed or to go up an incline. We're still working on stopping, however, but I think she's getting the hang of it. She's only had one spill so far (see the aforementioned about stopping). Anyway, great fun!
Rosalie's literacy skills continue to blossom. She's starting to work on letters--most specifically, the letter R. The letter R in all possible scenarios. Rainbow striped, with its family, at the playground at night, you name it.
She has stopped needing a nap during the daytime as much, so Nicolie at school recommended that she use that time to quietly work in another room on things like her letters or drawing or quiet crafts. This has been awesome. It also helps that she has not been singing/talking/interrupting the other nappers, too.
One afternoon when she was "napping" (i.e. singing) at home, she was singing a song that she had composed herself. I could not tell what she was saying from downstairs, though. It sounded like "You push it and pull it, you push it and pull it...APPA!" So when I went to get her, I asked. "What's APPA! ...?"
She told me, "I'm using Spanish. 'Appa' means 'apple.' I'm using Spanish." Oh. But then she changed her mind. She told me "It's just a silly word." So I asked her how the rest of the song went. It goes, "The trumpets are coming, the trumpets are coming...APPA!" So is APPA! the sound of the trumpets, you may be wondering? Yes. Imagine you're calling out YOO-HOO! That's what APPA! sounds like. Get it? Personally I think it's brilliant that she came up with a word that sounds like trumpets playing. Fabulous.
As you can see, Rosalie is very interested in Spanish. We speak a little bit at home, and her music teacher at school teaches some, too. She likes to ask me what the Spanish words are for different colors, body parts, etc. But last night, when we were doing our usual silly game of coming up with random rhymes, she announed the word, "GIKE!" What's Gike? "Kind of like a Spanish word for pipe." So as you can see, she's a natural when it comes to Spanish. She can even create Spanish where it previously didn't exist.
When Rosalie had a few days off from Berry Patch, she and I had a few adventures (including getting that bike). One other fun thing we did was go to the Space Needle. She's been before with her school, but it was fun to go just the two of us. We bussed it downtown and walked over to the Needle. They took a free pic of us as we were heading toward the elevator to go up. We were clearly excited to get up and check out the city. It's an amazing view up there, I must say.
