Audrey is now officially a preschooler! She was very cautious and quiet at the meet-the-teacher, but on her first day she put on a grin and marched into the school, and has loved it ever since. She sings new songs, and brings home new artwork. It's only 3 hours, two mornings per week, but it's enough that she has her own "thing." I got a newsletter from her teacher saying that they would be starting to learn colors, numbers, and letters, hopefully learning enough that they will be able to identify their own names. I wanted to reply, "... you know that Audrey can read, right?" It ought to be an interesting parent-teacher conference coming up.
When Emily is at school and Clara is napping, Audrey and I have two afternoons each week when it's just the two of us. I usually try to be productive then, but we spend a fair amount of time reading books. She's started reading Dick and Jane books, and is doing an amazing job!! Emily overheard Audrey reading it to me one time, and got a little bit offended that Audrey was actually reading a story, and Audrey's been known to help Emily with her Word Ring. It's pretty weird. I was even doing a math activity with Emily yesterday, following up on some things she was asking me while I got dressed in the morning (Doesn't everyone ask you to count by 11's as you brush your teeth?), and Audrey jumped in and tried to do it too. I was giving my attention to Emily, but when I looked back at Audrey, she had followed along exactly. Her mission in life seems to be to catch up to Emily, and she's doing it with a flare that says, "What? Was that supposed to be hard?" She plays with Emily and Hope and all the other neighborhood kids, and fits right in!
As I type this, Emily is being the teacher in a "really fun game" they're playing, which looks an awful lot like school! Audrey is a willing pupil. I'm glad she has her preschool experience to have to herself so not everything is dominated by Emily's whims!!
Audrey has been singing Taylor Swift's "Trouble" song all day today. She and Emily were singing it in the car together the other night, and it's hilarious. I've tried to capture videos but it doesn't do it justice. Audrey's dead-on on the pitch, and Emily's got more of the words and rhythm. They've sung it so much that Travis even heard Clara humming it today. Crazy girls!!
Emily learned to play "Mary had a little lamb" on the piano, reading the notes out of the piano book. Audrey can play it too, playing it by ear, and even figuring out how to go up to G instead of just C, D, and E like in Emily's book. And she can do it on the black keys. And on the toy keyboard. And singing along with it.
Audrey colored a flower yesterday that is seriously a work of art. She colored with all the markers in the rainbow, making one stripe of each color repeating over and over, with no empty spaces. It's really beautiful, and it took her all day to do, patiently adding one stripe at a time. So we add artistry to the list of amazing things about Audrey!
Her little red and yellow tricycle (big wheel) has gotten a lot of mileage this fall. Emily's bus stop was at the corner with 50th until we got it moved to in front of our house, so for a few weeks we'd have to walk down to the end of the block to meet the bus. Audrey always rode that tricycle!! It'll be fun to see next spring if she'll be able to put pedaling together with balancing. She's been zipping down that hill all summer.
Audrey also has a good time with Amanda. Last week, Audrey and Clara both had some kind of stomach bug, so I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to leave them with Amanda while I went to work. But Audrey managed to puke in the bucket every time and never have an accident, which seriously helps cleanup!! It also meant that it was fine for Amanda to handle, which was good because Audrey would have really been upset at staying home with me all day and missing an Amanda day. It's fun to see how much Amanda enjoys Audrey. They watch YouTube videos about doing make-up and styling hair, they paint nails and go shopping - Amanda said Audrey was really very helpful helping her pick out new boots!! I feel pretty good about heading off to work when they're both so happy to see each other.
It's so funny to realize who Audrey has become as a person, and compare that to who she was as a toddler, when potty training, when watching her learn to walk and talk. If I had known back then who she really IS as a person, man, it would've been so much less stressful for us. :( She's like a little adult in a child's body! If she doesn't have the language skills to protest (either a few years ago due to age or last night due to tiredness) she completely shuts down. The worst thing you can do is offer physical interaction at that point, even if it's a well-meaning hug. She will FREAK. Now that I know who she is, I can totally understand it, but it sure was hard to figure out in a 18-month-old.
I bought her new chapstick because she actually used up her other tube from last winter. I bought a package of 3, which had strawberry, cherry, and mint in it. I gave her the strawberry, thinking that would be enough, but she showed me this morning that she had opened up the mint kind, and declared that to be her "morning chapstick," while the strawberry is her "nighttime chapstick." She really does look good with glossy lips, I'll admit. :)
So yeah, on the verge of turning 4, my kid is sure amazing. She's beautiful, she's carefree and happy, she's got friends, and has fun and is comfortable wherever she is. She's enjoying the luxury of learning because she wants to, and she's happy to go to bed and greet each new day. We should all be so lucky as her!!
No comments:
Post a Comment