With the iPad in the house, and a laptop, and the fact that I’m a computer geek at work, a lot of folks assume Meadow to be highly tech savvy. She is, like most kids her age, but she also has a great love for pencil, paper, and great books.

Not much to say about this one except here ya go, another cute pic of MJ. And yes, I’m biased.

Somebody was so giddy today that she lost a tooth, she just had to Skype me while I was at work to show it off.

I took this snap of Meadow’s notebook today because I’m just so impressed by her writing. Why she writes some of those things, I don’t know:

OK I will admit it. I’ve always wanted a ridiculously oversized stuffed bear. But they’ve always been like hundreds of dollars. So naturally when I saw this one for only $39.99, and with some encouragement from Meadow, I couldn’t resist.

Here’s the bear with MJ on Easter morning, enjoying a delicious breakfast of jellybeans:

As we explore Eaglecrest ski area this year, Meadow enjoys getting to know the names of the chairs and runs. One day I told her that Ptarmigan chair goes all the way to the top. A few visits later she commented that Ptarmigan goes to the “top of the universe” to which I replied, “yea it’s kinda like that, but there’s not really an up or down to the universe.” So then we talked about that for a while.

Nevertheless, as far as she was concerned, the Eaglesnest at the top of Eaglecrest it was basically the top of the universe.

While visiting the big city Meadow and I hit the mall. Malls generally blow her mind, as did the Lloyd Center in Portland didn’t disappoint, especially because, in Meadow’s words: “there’s a frickin ice skating rink… IN the mall!”.

We had fun in the toy store, but it was more difficult for me to get her out of the dress shop.

Our new siamese cat (been with us a few months now) suffers from social anxiety. Part of it is due to breeding, another part to her experience in her past life and at the shelter. But mostly I think it’s due to a well known condition she suffers from called: being a cat.

Meadow has been training Eva (her full now is too long to type) for a while now. Meadow uses a strictly positive reinforcement model for her lessons. When the kitty is sitting down, Meadow says “sit kitty”, then kitty gets a solid “good girl”… just for being who she is.

The cat still runs away from me if I breathe too abruptly, but Meadow’s trainings with her are paying off as the two seem to be developing a sort of relationship.

It’s hard for me to decide what I love most about this pic.

Meadow was very proud of herself for being extra nice to a fellow kindergarten student whose artwork wasn’t as colorful as hers:

“… was sitting next to me at art time and he wasn’t using any colors like pink or orange or yellow and he was only using black and gray and brown and I told him that ‘his was cute’… I appreciate it… But didn’t like it.”

Our Saturdays are filled with fun in the snow these days. Meadow is in WeeSki class first thing in the morning. Sometimes it takes a little encouragement (reverse psychology) to get her engines started but once she’s geared up and on the mountain she loves every minute of it.

Mommy and Daddy spend the time on the adult lifts, which has turned into one of the few moments during the week where we get one-on-one time to just have grown up talk.

Then, after Meadow’s class is over, we hit the green circles as a trio and whoop it up.

For Christmas this year we adopted a 2yr-old cat from the humane society. She’s been hiding out under the bed mostly, but just today warmed up enough to withstand a cuddle on the bed.

Her name is Haleiwa Buttercup.