What a 7 year old she is! Sloane has been learning and growing so much this year. She is measuring just under 48 inches. She will ride her bike with Adam on his runs and can easily go up to 6.5 miles. It makes Adam have to run faster down the hills and occasionally work harder to give her boost up hills.
Sloane loves listening to podcasts while she is playing, eating, bathing, and even reading. Her favorites right now are Wow in the World, Melon’s House Party, and What if World. Her favorite book series include Star Friends (a birthday present this year), Dory Fantasmagory (a Christmas gift this year), My Furry Foster Family, and Dragon Masters. Sloane has read Dory Fantasmogory to herself a couple times and I haven’t read it yet. It is a strange shift to not read a book to her. She has also remarked that it is good she can read well now so she can point out the mistakes I make when I read.
Sloane loves first grade and is doing really well. Her teacher told us during the Zoom conference that Sloane could probably be the substitute teacher if the teacher was out. Sloane remembers the schedule and reminds her teacher when she forgets to do an activity. Sloane has also been asked to help a classmate who joins them for PE and music. At first, I was concerned that Sloane would be missing out on things, but it became clear during her conference that Sloane can hear the instructions once and understand them. She is there to help her classmate who struggles to understand the instructions at times. Sloane produces massive quantities of art work and drawings, including the one below with all the characters from Doc McStuffins and writing out numbers and equations. She drew the self portrait below with things she loves in each quadrant- nature, family, animals, and friends.
Sloane loves to act out books/stories and sing; ultimately she is a performer. She has even writes musical notes and lyrics down as well. I’ve mentioned it before and it continues to be true-she narrates our life in song. She will make us all tickets and have us sit to watch her movie, play, or music performance. This fall she took a theater class. It was a two hour class for 4 weeks. She missed one when she was sick, but on that day one of the instructors turned out to have COVID, so it was a lucky miss for us. Sloane went right into the class on the first day without any tears or fears. There was no performance at the end- it was just a class to do acting practice and games. The best part I heard was that they asked everyone to introduce themselves the first day including telling everyone their pronouns!
Sloane was very excited to be fully vaccinated. We talked about the two doses and the time between them. After her first dose, she set up a clinic at our house to vaccinate her dolls. She made them vaccine cards with their names, date of birth, and lot number for the vaccine. The vaccine clinic took quite some time because of all the dolls to vaccinate.
We went to the Nutcracker the day after Sloane’s birthday. And it was when she was officially fully vaccinated. We brought our vaccine cards, masked up, and enjoyed the show. Our friends Andrea, Moria, and Elyan came too. We were in the first row and the kids needed booster seats to see over the lip of the stage. Sloane still struggled to see, so I sat in the booster and Sloane sat in my lap! I highly recommend the booster for anyone under 5’5″.
Sloane and Soren fight quite well, but also play very well. They are very loving with each other. They show generosity and caring to each other mixed in with the grabbing and screaming. Sloane lets Soren share her nightgowns and Soren shares his airdough clay. Sloane can convince Soren to share bites of his dessert when she has finished hers first.
Sloane is working on her cartwheel skills. She struggles to land on her feet instead of her knees. Mia’s glare in the background is pretty typical. With almost 2 years of pandemic struggles, we are lucky to have her entertaining us, making us laugh, and keeping us on our toes (such as not skipping words in books!).
