a list of firsts first... first baseball game {giants verses athletics}

first movie theater

first wedding {shane and savannah}

putt-putt {she thought it would never end}

first trip as a family of 6 {san diego}

first pair of jeans {she had a belt and needed some loops}

first presentation {at apple no less}

first time at church {how did it go?  just like it would for any young child having to sit still for 40 minutes, minus the fun thought that it was her dad on stage}

chapter 22 {imagination unlocked}

she would do the same routine with her dolls as she did for herself.

brush hair. change clothes. sit. stand up. take a bath. go to bed.

no doll conversations or cradling the doll.

given a piece of paper she would write her numbers and letters.

no clouds or rainbows or flowers.

the imagination was locked.

but with playdates with other young girls and discoveries at parks and playgrounds and around our city,

with playtime with brothers and art with me and silliness with dad,

the key was turning and the mind was processing and the memories were being stored

and the imagination wheels were beginning to budge.

with charades and simple english, she and i revisited each day. what we did. who we met.

all in hopes she could dream at night.

all in hopes she could begin to paint pictures of a childhood. her childhood.

after days of doing school work, we pretended to do "school" with baby dolls.

i gave her a few ideas and left her alone on purpose.

i occupied myself with precious minutes on the phone with my mom and was so happy with what happened next.

she had taken some paper and made small workbooks for the dolls.

all. on. her. own.

with her imagination.

with a spark from her new friend, belle, she knew we could gather the resources to build her own dollhouse. for belle had done one and she could too!

so we've been saving boxes and using nana's cloth napkins. but she's dreaming of a 3 story house, we've got some work to do!

i know i could just go and buy her one, but another part of her new life was receiving so much in the first week.

a suitcase full of clothes, a doll, jewelry, hair accessories, colors and nail polish, and shoes. and that was trying to keep it to the basics.

but for a girl who had nothing, this was a gold mine.

we now have to teach and model how to be resourceful with what she has.

this only helps with the imagination.

so we've gathered kitchen tools for the sandbox toys at the park and turn our artwork into thank you cards.

sam has made her an apple computer out of a binder and printer paper.

she uses it to type out her new words she is learning.

she loves brochures. too much. and we're not far from having to call a dumpster! not really.

but we're making our own brochures from the memories we've made at such places in a short amount of time.

and we're making another list. a birthday wish list! that's a first for her!

and yes, a dollhouse is on that list!