This is Bella. My curly, blond-headed, blue-eyed 4.5-year-old.
She loves to sing, dance, and twirl.
This was one of those moments I just had to catch. "Mommy, take a picture of me dancing!" There is something incredibly beautiful about it. I look at this picture and I see time flashing before me. When did she get to be a little girl? When was the last time I just watched her, and took in her beauty - and relished every moment of it? When was the last time I just sat there watching, thanking God for the beautiful girl that she is - full of life and expectation, vibrant and passionate? Oh that we all would be so full of life! Jesus said that He came to give us abundant life. I have no doubt that this little girl will live that out.
I've never really known how to encourage Bella in artwork. No matter how old she is, or how much she draws, I really haven't seen much improvement. I have always complimented her, encouraged her, no matter what it looked like. See below: The big green thing is a stable...Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus are in there somewhere...not sure what the green sun looking things are...
But apparently drawing just isn't her forte, and play-dough is more up her ally. It's not like we've never played with play-dough. We have. A lot. But Lately, this girl has been amazing me with her creations. The pictures below are true creations of Bella - with absolutely NO help from anyone. Her thoughts, her hands, her work. She just came and said "Mommy, look what I made!" I looked, and I was amazed. Snapshots soon followed.
Butterfly and Flower. Not that you couldn't tell. I was not expecting this.
She made a person out of her rolling tool. Kinda reminds me of a wooden clothespin person...only instead of fabric, we have play-dough.
This may be a little tricky, but it's a ladybug. Complete with black spots, eyes, and exactly 6 little black legs.
I said "wow, Bella - you even gave the ladybug 6 legs!" Her reply "Of course, mom, that's how many legs ladybugs have!" I guess she learned it from observing ladybugs in nature?
And here's an activity that we did this week. Matching words to pictures. She has to read the word, then find the picture that matches, and place the word underneath the picture. I helped her with the first word, just so that she knew what to do.
The rest she did completely on her own, and she got every single one right. Such a smart girl!
I've noticed that she definitely performs a lot better (and stays on task a lot longer) when she works independently, rather than me hovering over her. So I try to let her do things completely on her own as much as possible. Handwriting, activities like this. With reading that's tough to do though, so she wants to give up quickly. Any thoughts?
Oh, and one more thing about Bella. She is the dress-up QUEEN! Every time I turn around she is wearing something different. (=clothes Everywhere, all day long) She's always so creative - making a way to turn herself into any character. Here is an example. She is Ariel. A red dress for hair, A blue shirt turned upside-down and tied on the side for a fin, and her swimsuit top (tucked under on the bottom) to make a bikini top. I'm always amazed...and yet never quite prepared for what I'm about to see...
She is just so incredibly creative. Imaginative. Love it.
Love her.
