Egbert Family Blog: Ashley

Ashley turned 11 on July 6th. She really is the sweetest girl. She has a very empathetic, tender heart and has a strong sense of right and wrong. She is a great help to me with Liam and is very nurturing. She has grown a ton since she turned 11. She wears a size 7 1/2 shoe, which is excitingly close to my size. I can't wait until I can justify shoe purchases to share with her. She cut all her beautiful hair off towards the end of the summer at a real salon. I gave her free reign and she came out with a short, layered hairstyle. She, of course, looks beautiful, but just too grown up. She also got braces this fall. She has a severe, genetic underbite, thanks to her father and gets to wear rubber bands for 2 years and then do full braces for another 2. She was not interested in surgery, which would have been the quicker route. She is still in swim team and while she claims to hate it is doing pretty well. She isn't very competitive, or rather gives up quickly since she convinces herself she shouldn't try if she might lose. She swims with two friends from church and I love that it gives her context when at church. She gets lost in books. I've made a lot of rules over reading books, but she still spends too much time reading and comes out of a book with a cloud over her head. When she swims she comes home happy. I keep trying to point this out to her, but it's met with sighs and eye rolling. Which makes me sigh. She is a fantastic student. She is happy to have made pre-algebra and is every teachers dream. She is an excellent writer and I've challenged her to write a best selling science fiction series (her favorite...another genetic trait from her father). I've told her to work on it while she's swimming laps since she claims it's super boring. She is diligently working on her Father's Challenge from Hans to get scuba diving lessons in the summer. It requires a lot of diligence on her part, but she still refuses to get the easy points of eating fruits and vegetables daily. She can easily go a month without eating a single one. Which, again, makes me sigh. She is an excellent pianist. We started her with a fantastic teacher during the summer and she is moving quickly into a great pianist. She can accompany, perform, and do scales really fast with the metronome. It really is fun to hear her play. I love waking up to her practicing in the morning. She wakes up every morning at 6:20 to practice before school. She still loves art and sketches with oil pastels in her sketchbook. She is not too social with friends at school, but seems well respected and liked. She just would rather do other things she says. She is as pleasant as a tween can be and I love her immensely. My life is so much better and brighter because she is in it. So grateful she is my firstborn.