June 5th -  The focus continues on reading and learning about the world. Samantha was given a thick book of animals which she is enjoying plowing through. She's discovering where the animals live as well. Speaking and expression are continuing to improve, with Sam starting to sort out the difference between 'me' and 'you'. Her artwork is starting to produce recognizable objects, such as faces, buildings and animals. As amazing as it sounds, she will be eligible to start school in September, although we may delay that until January. This past week she suddenly started using a straw to drink with, even though none of us have shown her how to use one. Where she picked up the ability is a mystery.

May 6th -  Samantha currently stands at 3ft 10in (117cm) and weighs 46 lbs. (20.8kg). She's expected to be close to 6ft. by age 18. Meanwhile, the verbal explosion continues. her singing is improving, and we suspect she can read much more than she lets on. In the past few weeks, she's learned about what kind of animals live in various environments, such as elephants on the Savannah and tigers in the jungle. From this she's begun to learn the locations of these environments by placing them on the continents of the Earth. And now she's started to learn about the Earth and the other planets of the solar system. So having just turned four, she can name the planets in order from the sun (and recognize them from photos), identify most of the major landmasses of the Earth, and assign various animals to their habitats within the continents. Believe it or not.