Five Things About Maddie

1.  She's got this new laugh that has recently appeared.  It's just this short burst, but everytime I hear it, it makes me smile.  Really - it's a bit adult sounding.  It goes along with her growing sense of humor.  We've recently shared some more laughs over things that I thought were more "teenager-ish".  How she's reacted to them and laughed along with them makes me think (*hope*) that she's on the right track to manage the coming years.

2.  She currently has a loose tooth.  The hygienist said, "it's ready to fall out yesterday."  That was last week.  She offered to pull it out - during dinner - last night.  Mike vetoed that one and then suggested a change in subject.  This morning she said she's realized she now has two loose teeth.  She doesn't want to chew anything so has been enjoying her smoothies again in the mornings.

3.  She can really play the piano well.  Her recital piece is one of my favorites and I have enjoyed listening to her practice.  I've loved watching her face when she plays a section exactly how we've talked about.  It's one of those, "HOLY COW! I actually did that!?!" moments for her.  I really think she's going to be a much better player than me if she keeps this up.  I briefly considered going the contest route through music associations, but I'm afraid that would suck the fun out of it for her.  She just loves to play - she sits and plays whenever she's bored and it's really nice to just hear. 

4.  She's gotten a lot taller!  We were at the doctor's office yesterday and the nurse asked if she was too old to get stickers.  In that second I looked at her and realized she's gotten really tall!  She was very polite to the nurse and told her she was indeed too old for stickers (she got a free pizza certificate instead!)  But mostly it struck me that she's a lot taller.  We tease Mike's mom because she tells a story of how Mike grew 9 inches in one year (or 11, or 15, or 25...it changes every year, we think).  We aren't calling Kay a liar - what we are saying is that Mike was a freak of nature.  We'll have to see how much she grows this year.  I had heard that if you took your child's height at the age of two and doubled it you would get the height they were going to be full grown.  I did that when she was 2 - results concluded that she should be 5'9".  Time will tell...

5.  We think she's one of the prettiest girls around - inside and out.  I took these pictures of her yesterday and in-camera neither she nor I were impressed (not because of her - it was my photography skills we were looking at).  I downloaded them last night and showed them to Mike.  Gulp.  The theme in these five notes is that she's growing up.  We expected that, but every once in awhile it hits us.  Age 10, I still considered her a "little girl".  Growing up, but still little.  Age 11 - eh.  One year difference.  I saw a few changes, but nothing crazy.  As we approach 12 though...[sigh].  I see big changes in so many ways.  Then I realize she's four years from driving and six years from moving on to college.  There's a lot of laughs, hugs, and "I Love You's" we need to squeeze into that amount of time.