This has been steady month with few news or blog-worthy events. But under the surface things seem to be happening, something is changing. Ingrid has been more tired than usual and often complains of headache or tummyache. Her reports of aches and pains are unreliable and I think what she is experiencing is more likely to be tension of some sort, rather than an actual ache. What the reason is, I do not know.

Most afternoons after preschool she doesn’t suggest bringing a friend home with us. When we get home, she might snack or she might go straight to watch a movie.

More and more she is also choosing to read. This is her go-to activity when she’s tired of or cannot watch a movie. She reads and re-reads her old Bamse issues. It isn’t effortless but she is a fast enough reader to read an entire story at least. Now she’s learning to make sense of punctuation, for pauses and tone. When is a sentence a question and when is it an exclamation?

The only other thing worth mentioning is her paintings. She regularly brings home paintings from preschool. Mostly she used to paint princesses or girls, or possibly us (her family). And she previously used the paint brush as a pencil, painting line drawings. Now she is painting more broadly and boldly, often filling the entire paper. For example, previously when she painted her girls & princesses she would first outline the dress and then colour it in with a different colour. Now she paints the dress as one whole.

She’s also been making abstract paintings. The dominant one is a starburst pattern, which she’s made in all sorts of colour schemes. She’s also made some that are simply broad bands of colour, all straight and of equal width but in different colours. I’m really curious about the starburst because it has been so persistent but haven’t had an opportunity to ask her about it.