# 8 and Doing Great!

As of 5:29 PM today, Andrea is celebrating 8 years, or 2,922 days, of life. Thank you Google for providing a "date difference calculator".  She's now 48.75 inches tall and weighs 54.2 pounds, or 24584.71 grams (we've never forgotten the original weight of 450 gm).  Quite an improvement from the beginning!

This past year has been utterly normal. Andrea played softball on the Livingston Penguins Little League team, with Daddy as one of her coaches. She likes fielding better, but she's got a decent swing and was able to connect with a pitched ball (as opposed to using a T)  She had a great year in first grade, and has really made strides in reading and math. She continues to LOVE writing - we are inundated with books that she's written, many including tables of contents and "About the Author" pages.

She spent another summer at Camp Discovery at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She got to spend several weeks in a variety of activities from Science and World Cultures to art and drama.  Every two weeks was the camp show, and it was great to see how her self confidence had grown since the previous year. She was singing and dancing her heart out - and of course Mommy was tearing up the whole time.  They took several fun field trips, finishing out the summer at Aladdin on Broadway.

Andrea loves being in the kitchen with me. We bake a lot together, and she likes to help cook supper. She's started doing some decorating on her own. For Daddy's birthday last March, she decorated a piece of her birthday cake for him.  In the picture below, she's piping the words on the cake.

Below is a writing piece that came home from school in April. I had to share what Andrea wrote: (all spelling, grammar and punctuation are hers)

"I'm lucky because when I was a baby a Dr. saved me from diing. But now I'm 7! and I'm just know I am going to have a great life. I'll tell you about the 1st stuffed animal I got. It was a big bunny but it was not big it was small but I was smaller then it was when I was a baby. Her name is bunny. I will grow up to be a good person!"

More Sanibel beach

On the beach at Sanibel

Last summer, Andrea went on her first plane ride, for our family vacation to Sanibel Island, Florida. Despite the fact that Mommy is a TERRIBLE flier, Andrea was enamored immediately. She loved the experience from beginning to end.  

Once we actually arrived at our home away from home, I think Andrea had the best vacation of her life. She loves the ocean and we were within walking distance of the Gulf of Mexico. There was beach time every day! Andrea also LOVES seashells, and Sanibel is famous for the shelling. I think her luggage was ten pounds heavier on the trip home.  


While on Sanibel, we all went on a fishing trip. (Shout out to Captain Paul! http://www.captainpauls.com/) Everyone caught something, except Andrea, who didn't want to fish.  She DID get to drive the boat though. If you're ever in the vicinity of Cape Coral, FL, call Captain Paul. It's a great time!

Andrea at the wheel of Captain Paul's yacht.

September marked the beginning of second grade. Andrea was excited to be in class with some old friends, and she made some new ones too. She was a bunny for Halloween. Bunnies are her current obsession - her best friend is Spot, a hideaway pet she got for Christmas two years ago.

Pumpkin picking with one of the "brudders"

Andrea with her pumpkin

Halloween Bunny

Andrea and Spot playing Headbanz

At Christmas, Andrea reprised her annual role of "angel" in the St. George's Christmas pageant.  She got glasses in November, which completely changes the way she looks.  She's the second angel from the left, looking the part! She's gotten better about learning the words to the carols and was actually able to sing along this year.

Christmas 2016

Andrea with her gingerbread house

She began taking karate classes in the after school enrichment program, and earned her yellow belt in December and her orange belt in February.

Andrea broke the board with her hand for yellow belt, with her foot for the orange. (No picture of the orange one)

We had a pretty decent snowfall a few weeks ago and Andrea is a LOVER of snow. Kenny George went out in the piles with her, and they built a snow bunny.  She was out for hours and was finally forced inside by the sunset.

Andrea, the "other brudder" and the snow bunny

To end her 7th year, Andrea had her longest-ever sleepover at Grammy and Pa's house. Mommy and Daddy got to enjoy three nights away, and Grammy and Pa are still standing! It was a milestone in a lot of ways - three nights without at least one of us around was a new experience for Andrea.  She loved every minute of it - I'm not sure she missed us much at all. She went on a shopping spree, got to eat out A LOT and spent a few hours at Chuck e Cheese.  When you're the youngest in the family (both our nuclear family and among all the Zimmerman cousins), you don't get a lot of "alone" time. Andrea gets dragged to a plethora of sporting events, concerts and other things, so it was a huge treat for Andrea to have Grammy and Pa all to herself.

Thank you, as always, for taking the time to keep up with Andrea. So far, she doesn't mind that I continue to tell her story. I'm sure sooner or later she'll make me stop, but I'll keep going as long as I can.

As always, I have to end with a quote. I saw this one as a meme on Facebook, but I wasn't able to track down the original source. (Google let me down on this) So, for now, I'm attributing it to Anonymous - if anyone knows the correct citation, let me know and I'll update.

Life is a series of tiny miracles. Notice them. ~ Anonymous