All grown up

Somewhere in the busyness of the past month our beautiful, wild daughter turned six!
She suddenly seems a whole lot more grown up, too. Where she used to spend a good part of everyday hanging around chattering or not doing much at all (with a constant chorus from me to go and do something useful), all of a sudden I notice that she is self-motivated and I never have to direct her to a certain activity to occupy her. Where she has shown little interest in books up till now, all of a sudden she is learning to read by leaps and bounds, and picking up books to read of her own accord, throughout the day. Needless to say, we are very pleased and thankful to see this growth.

Although it's a bad photo, the one below is one of my favourite recent shots of Hannah. She got a sewing basket for her birthday and here she is laying out her fabric so that she can select the right ones for the project. I love that she arranged her workspace just like I do when I am starting a new quilt.
The sewing basket was the best present we could have given her. Of her own accord she has been making all sorts of little stitched items. Every project so far has involved tears because its not as going as neat or as perfect as she would like (she doesn't learn perfection from me!) but to her credit she persists until the project is finished. So far all the projects have been given to favourite people before I have had a chance to take photos.