Today I stashed a bunch of sentences around the flat, and wrote a one-word clue for each one. The game: Sam would pick a clue at random, then use it to find a sentence. Once she’d found and correctly read aloud the sentence, she would get the next clue. The clue for the sentence above was: Sink. When put in the correct …

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Costume selected (pink, of course) Sam limbers up. The secret ingredient to cute buns? Gel. The last thing to put on is the fake smile. I don’t know why, but Sam just can’t fake a proper smile, which is rather nice because we always know if she means it or not. The Cast of “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.” And now the first 2 …

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Here is Sam in her costume, hair all slicked up, waiting in the changing room before going on stage to perform in “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.” The girls’ performance was, in a word, adorable. And I have to admit that I teared up to see my shy little girl– the same one who was afraid to set foot in the dance studio in the …

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This week the weather gods have decided to remind us that we live in the BRITISH isles, not the French Riviera, and they hired the special duo of Wind and Rain to deliver the message to us. It was so windy last night that for once I didn’t fall asleep to the sound of the gulls scrabbling around on the roof. The only …

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Sam discovered the geoboard today and I spent a good 15 minutes scouring the house for rubber bands.

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In the UK, it’s not a “backpack,” it’s a “rucksack.”

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Today was the last ballet class for this term. I snapped this picture moments before the bevy of ballerinas rushed into the room. At that point Sam hopped off the bench and ran into the room, without so much as a pout or a worried look or two hunched shoulders. After weeks of dreading ballet, now she loves it. Just in …

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