I had to share this. Lilly is becoming more and more self-directed regarding activities and projects that she does. Above are 2 of my favorite examples of her recent work. Last week we got home from a long day and she asked for a piece of paper. I was cooking dinner and a few minutes later noticed that she had a banana in one hand and yellow and brown crayons in the other – she was drawing a realistic portrait of a banana that turned out to be just that. Not a word from me, she just knew what she wanted to do and went to work.

The second photo is also very characteristic of Lilly. For several days in a row she would come home from school and go immediately to her bedroom for a few minutes. Then one day she brought out this box with random things inside and she told me she had been collecting them on the playground during recess AND STORING THEM IN HER SHOE so she could make a project out of them (flowers, hair tie, rock, sticker, pom pom, sequins, etc). Yes, even the large rock was stored IN HER SHOE the entire school day. She spent 2 or 3 days gluing the objects to paper, then decorating with drawings and watercolors. Yep, these are the things our Lilly does on her own time. And I think they are pretty extraordinary.