Melinda's last name

Okay, I admit. I slept in on the day that Jesse went back to work between his Christmas vacation and New Year's Day. I wasn't ready to end my vacation!

Anyway, once I finally dragged myself out of bed, I was glad to see that the kids played very nicely together and didn't get into any trouble. Phew! But it was just *too cute* when Melinda showed me something she had written in her little Hello Kitty notebook (from her Christmas stocking!). She had written her full name, Melinda Newson. Only it wasn't Newson. It was Noosin!! I couldn't help the grin I got from that one. She not only wrote something without any prompting, she wrote something phonetically. Boy was I floored! She can be so smart, this girl! Seriously, I've only ever written our last name out for her maybe 2 or 3 times total, and each of those times was at least a couple months ago, if not longer. So she just decided to figure it out on her own, and what a good job she did!

Now if only I could convince her that it's pronounced Newson and not Newsin! :)'

Here's a picture of her writing. It took me a while to decipher the letters, but these are written very small compared to her normal writing, so it's not as clear as it normally would be. There's a W on the top line, followed by MELINDA. Then the second line reads NOOSIN. Not sure exactly what the next couple lines say, but Melinda tells me that it means "I miss you Maarten" (her friend who now lives back in The Netherlands).