An update on Mary

Sorry it's blurry, but here's Mary at her Christmas assembly. She's one of about five white kids in her class of 31--she has friends from all sorts of backgrounds. The first day on the playground it was all I could do to keep her from touching all the little black girls' braids.

Mary has had a runny nose since about September 5th, her first day of school, but despite that is doing pretty well. She has only missed a couple of days, the worst stretch being last week when we all had pink eye. She requires a lot of management when she's at home, either all day or just after school, because she always needs something more to do. Her energy and brain power are set on high all the time, although she goes to sleep very quickly now at 7:30 every night.

Her latest interest is in learning to play the piano. I am teaching just one lesson a week now, but it's with a boy Mary knows well from church and from her old Joy School. So when Taft got to sit down with my undivided attention, with a new book and CD, Mary wanted to try it out as well. Now she sits down almost every day by herself to play along with the CD, and I try to sit down with her a couple times each week.

She's continuing to trend towards "girly" and she now knows the names of all the Disney princesses, only wears dresses except on gym day, and constantly moves in such a way as to shake her hips and her hair. Sometimes it's a little disturbing, especially since she combines all that shaking with some Attitude she's been learning at school. She doesn't spend as much time reading, having replaced it with cutting and pasting and coloring. For Thanksgiving each kid in the class got to choose a Native American name, and Mary is "she who loves to draw pictures." She has taken it very seriously and as a result her drawing and coloring skills have improved dramatically.

I've been spending a lot of extra time in Primary due to Isaac's less-than-smooth adjustment, and Mary always has everyone in stitches. The most common aside I hear is "That girl sure is her own person, isn't she?" She really is one of the least self-conscious people I have ever met. She likes what she likes, knows what she knows, and doesn't seem to care one bit what other people think or say, particularly about her. I hope it is a quality that will serve her well.