a big accomplishment, part 2

You should have known that the peacemaker in me wants everything to be even for everyone, so while Emma was working on her tower, Samantha's goal was to learn her letter names, her letter sounds and her colors in Asianese.  

Funny thing is, samantha would have finished her train weeks and weeks ago had it not been for the pesky E and M.  Maybe hearing emma's name being spelled so much traumatized her letter recognition, but thanks to all her hard work she's starting to recover and keep them straight.  

Samantha loved adding letters to her train.  She loved having "work" to do (ie -learning her letters) and often in the afternoon, I'd catch her sitting by herself in the corner looking at her ABC flashcards.  I loved watching her dance on tiptoes over to her train to add her new letters and colors.  

Adding the last two items to the train:

aaah! My big girl! I can hardly believe it!

Samantha's special prize couldn't be a bike like Emma's (because we were already planning on getting her a bike for her birthday) but she had expressed TONS of interest in rollerblades.  This was probably more out of admiration for the older boys and girls she sees rollerblading than an actual desire for she herself to have them, but whatever.  

We ordered them off of taobao.com (the local version of ebay - and a very easy and convenient way for me to spend all my money) and the set included knee pads, elbow pads, hand guards, a helmet, a pink bag to store everything in, and of course, the skates. 

What color could everything possibly be in?  Yellow of course!


She loves her skates.  I mean, really loves them.  Even though it's hysterically difficult for her to use them, she still loves them.  She looks so big and grown up...and i think back to when I rollerbladed countless summer evenings away...and I want to hug her a bit tighter and urge her to stop growing up.