I went to their parent-teacher conferences last week, and Emily's was pretty much as I expected. She's meeting all expectations for Kindergarteners, and in some respects has achieved all that is required of K-ers for the entire year. Her teacher likes to tell her that she's "a reader" now, and it's fun to reinforce that at home, too, because I can see that Emily gets a little kick of pride out of it. Which is nice because Audrey actually has an easier time reading sometimes, and I can see that that deflates Emily just a little when she sees that. (What can I say - Audrey enjoys it more and practices more! that's what happens...) Her teacher also said that Emily is a bit of a leader in the classroom, but not bossy, that everyone likes to play with her and they seek her out for fun ideas and creativity. Awesome! Not only is my kid enjoying school, but school is enjoying her back.
Audrey's was a bit more interesting - not in a negative way, just very surprising. Her teacher told us she thought it was great that Audrey loves books so much, that she'll pick up her favorites and go off in a corner and read them. She said she's really smart (duh) and has great ideas, and the best dimples ever (again, duh!). She likes playing with other kids but she's pretty quiet and keeps to herself most of the time. She said she'd like it if Audrey could open up a little more, participate in circle time and maybe sing with the class, at which point Travis's jaw dropped to the floor, because Audrey wasn't singing?!?!?! When does that happen??? This girl is so funny. She sits quietly with her hands in her lap, won't even do the actions along with the other kids! When confronted with someone unfamiliar, she sits with her head down and won't let that person see her face (which happened at the dentist, and upon re-meeting her uncle Pat, too. We're familiar with that shyness!). I was pleased that the teacher said she's emphasizing free play and socializing for Audrey, since obviously academically she's getting everything she needs. And that she said she doesn't push Audrey to not be shy, but rather just checks on her to make sure she's fine, and knows she's safe, but doesn't tell her to be something she isn't. phew! And then she said she loves art, and showed us her scarecrow up on the wall. Audrey's stood out from all the rest - some of them didn't have faces, some had basic smilies, but Audrey's had full, gorgeously-shaped lips with big round eyes AND eyelashes. Hilarious!! What a funny girl!!
Meanwhile, at home, Emily has absolutely been driving me nuts lately. I know I should be careful to keep my expectations of my kids in check, because they can be SO capable that when they aren't, it's irritating. but really, when you're around anyone, you expect certain things, like, if you're having a reasonable conversation about whether something should or shouldn't happen, and you make your case and the other person is quiet, you'd assume they agreed, right? No, it just means she wanted to do that thing SO MUCH that she went ahead and did it anyway. Too many examples to cite here. It even got to the point where I asked Emily why she bothered asking me if she was just going to ignore me anyway? Probably the wrong question to ask a very literal little girl, because I DO want some way of knowing that she's intending to be up to no good! I don't know what to change, but Travis's thought is that all I can change is my reaction so I might as well just not get angry when she does things like that. My mom thinks I've put too much responsibility onto her as the oldest, and I come down harder on her for failings than I do her sisters because of that responsibility. But I don't think that's the case exactly because i don't WANT to be giving her responsibility! Our biggest arguments are that she wanted to try to do something that i didn't think she should be responsible for, like making breakfast for her sisters or getting out a project involving glue for Audrey to do. Really, just let me do my job... please... *sigh* She just absolutely cannot stop herself, sometimes. It's so frustrating because she is such an amazing girl, and she really does not see that there's any reason to stop. I can't make her want to stop. But the reasons why she doesn't want to stop (she doesn't see any need to please anyone but herself, she is very persistent and she has great ideas that are worth investigating) aren't things I want to beat out of her, either. They are wonderful things that make her unique and amazing! So I guess I get to just fight the daily battles and hope her gifts manifest themselves well in a few years... fingers crossed.
And of course Clara is still not talking. But she gets more and more expressive by the day. She can buckle up her Buckle Pig now, and hold a pencil like you'd teach any child to do, but almost nothing for words. What a stinker. :)
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
An accurate depiction of my life
So there are some details that don't exactly apply, such as just how much I love my job ;) But for the most part, this writer sums it up pretty nicely!!
Favorite moments
Favorite moments throughout a typical day:
- I wake up to the sound of Emily shutting the microwave door, either to heat her butter for 7 seconds or to cook Audrey's oatmeal for 3 minutes. I hear the beeping and the door opening, and I smile and laugh to myself about my independent little Emily
- When Clara wakes up, she squeaks for me to come get her, and on my favorite days, Travis is still in the shower so I get to bring her back to bed with me, and we snuggle in the super-warmness of my covers. She lays on my chest with her little fuzzy head under my chin, with her hands on my arms, scritching her fingers back and forth. She never wants to get up; I'm not sure how long we'd stay there if I didn't have to eventually get up myself. :)
- Audrey is my watchdog throughout the day. As soon as someone arrives (especially Amanda), she's peeking out the garage door, or flat-out running into the garage for a greeting. It's my very favorite thing about coming home from work, is her peeking through the door and then bouncing and smiling at me. She might have rough moments here and there, usually at bedtime, but that girl never has an entire bad DAY. What a ray of sunshine! She always surprises me with something she's learned, something new, each day.
- Clara's bedtime is special because of how much she likes to read books together. She knows her routine and loves it! She especially thinks Goodnight Gorilla is funny because of the hilarious page in the middle with the surprised expression. She turns her little head and looks up at me to see my funny surprised expression too. And then she lets me lay her down in her crib and snuggles off to sleep, usually singing.
- Then I go into the girls' room, and Travis has usually tucked them into their beds and they are waiting for me. Audrey has on her nighttime chapstick and gives me chapsticky kisses and very wiggley, emphatic hugs.
- And then, my very favorite moment, I think, is when I climb the ladder to hug Emily, and she says, "Mom, what are we going to do tomorrow?" Something about it makes me feel like an adequate mother... and there aren't many moments that actively confirm that. there are some moments where I feel inadequate, and most moments where I just keep grooving along with things, but then there's that moment where I get the sense that I'm doing something right. This girl likes her life enough to look forward to the next day, every night. She's content with the day she's had, and ready for another. And I love talking with her about the things we'll do, because there IS so much to look forward to. I don't know when else in our life that it will be so clear that the future holds so many good things for us. It's just a simple little question but I love it.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Clara just gets awesomer!
Finally, a post about the wee one!
In the past few months, Clara has really started becoming her own person. I mean, she always has been, but now she has very strong opinions on things. She knows when it's time for things, she knows she gets string cheese after Emily gets off the bus. She knows we hop in the bathtub after we get upstairs to go to bed (except when we don't, and then it's upsetting!). She climbs into her carseat on her own, and you know, I don't know why people are so anxious to turn their kids around forward-facing, because it's just as easy to leave it rear-facing and she doesn't care one bit! When she cares, it'll probably make sense to turn it around anyway.
One of the most fun things has been Clara learning to sing. She can sing Baby Beluga, and Teddy Bear, and she'll bring me the book, turn around and back herself up and plop into my lap. She's so insistent - you WILL read this to me now, because I'm already singing it and I'm in the right place, so, start singing, lady!! and i just kiss her cheek over and over and over again. :) Her first song was Twinkle Twinkle, of course, and she would sing it back to me at bedtime as I sang to her in the dark. Her sisters are so obsessed with Taylor Swift's "Trouble" that when I laid Clara down the other night, she was humming and ended up mixing the two songs, and I could definitely hear it was more of the latter. *sigh* goofy girls!!
She loves to imitate her sisters, whether it's wearing their shoes and clonking around the house, or sitting at the piano, turning pages, touching the notes on the page and then playing more pretty notes with her fingers. She also LOVES books now. She'll flip by them herself or insist on being read to. I have to be careful not to get board books flung at my head - she's pretty insistent!! And it makes bedtime a bit of a struggle because she wants ALL of her bedtime books read to her. I try to limit it to three! After we left Goodnight Moon at Jenny's house one weekend, she started branching into other books, and she loves it. All three girls have developed an obsession with the printed word since we gave up satellite TV, and hardly ever have it on anymore (not like we ever did much anyway!). It's pretty cool!
And Clara is a total crack-up, too. Amanda asked her this afternoon if she had pooped, cuz she smelled bad, and Clara shook her head back and forth quickly, in her typical adorable little fashion. And Amanda said noooo, you smell bad, did you poop? And her response, whether coincidental or purposeful, was a little shrug and expression of "eh, you got me!" And off she went to the bathroom to get changed. Hilarious!! She actually did poop on the potty one time, which we haven't even tried with her for months but it was AWESOME. it was during Emily's birthday party, while she was opening presents, and I did NOT want to be missing out due to changing a disaster diaper. And I didn't have to! best baby ever!! And of course she hasn't since, but who cares?? that rocked!! And I deserve it, too, cuz her tummy appears to still be sensitive to everything. I gave her two wheat-thins crackers yesterday to see if gluten still gives her trouble, and whammo, this afternoon her system announced that yes, it does. It is such a drag to operate with such a strict diet, but if Audrey outgrew it around 2.5 to 3 years, maybe I can do this for another year? or two?? ugh... Cuz now she really knows if her sisters have something that she can't, so I'm trying hard to not let that happen too often. Like tonight, she got her own gluten-free noodles while the rest of us feasted on the real thing, and no apples or pears or onions or tomatoes for any of us (except me, cuz I MUST have tomatoes this time of year! :) ).
She's getting to be more coordinated now, getting up AND down stairs pretty well, and getting faster and faster. She's had a few major biffs lately, resulting in a skinned-up nose and a hitler-mustache-style abrasion above her mouth. Guess she learned the hard way to practice running on grass instead of concrete! She's a tough cookie, though. Tonight she chipped a tiny bit off her bottom tooth because she slipped while climbing onto a chair at the dining room table. she cried a little, but not nearly as long as I would have if I'd chipped a tooth!
And all this, and her only real words are "Bup" (up) and "ahhdaaa" (all done). And maybe Mom and Dad, but it's hard to know. She is SO expressive and so busy listening to everything that's going on, that she doesn't really need words. Can't even get a "nana" out of her and she LOVES bananas. And I remember Audrey was a lot the same way, so I'm fine letting Clara learn however she likes. She's pretty lucky that I'm finally figuring out some things the third time around.
I sure like her an awful lot, and she likes me too. :) She's a bit less of a mama's girl than she was a few months ago, but I don't mind her clinging to me most of the time. When Amanda came one morning, Travis was holding her, and she wiggled out of his arms and went running through the kitchen, right past me, to greet her! Made me feel so good, that she feels so loved while I'm at work! But in my arms, it's such a good feeling, like she gets aboard and feels right at home, where she should be, with her mom. It's fun to be paired up with such a little beauty!
In the past few months, Clara has really started becoming her own person. I mean, she always has been, but now she has very strong opinions on things. She knows when it's time for things, she knows she gets string cheese after Emily gets off the bus. She knows we hop in the bathtub after we get upstairs to go to bed (except when we don't, and then it's upsetting!). She climbs into her carseat on her own, and you know, I don't know why people are so anxious to turn their kids around forward-facing, because it's just as easy to leave it rear-facing and she doesn't care one bit! When she cares, it'll probably make sense to turn it around anyway.
One of the most fun things has been Clara learning to sing. She can sing Baby Beluga, and Teddy Bear, and she'll bring me the book, turn around and back herself up and plop into my lap. She's so insistent - you WILL read this to me now, because I'm already singing it and I'm in the right place, so, start singing, lady!! and i just kiss her cheek over and over and over again. :) Her first song was Twinkle Twinkle, of course, and she would sing it back to me at bedtime as I sang to her in the dark. Her sisters are so obsessed with Taylor Swift's "Trouble" that when I laid Clara down the other night, she was humming and ended up mixing the two songs, and I could definitely hear it was more of the latter. *sigh* goofy girls!!
She loves to imitate her sisters, whether it's wearing their shoes and clonking around the house, or sitting at the piano, turning pages, touching the notes on the page and then playing more pretty notes with her fingers. She also LOVES books now. She'll flip by them herself or insist on being read to. I have to be careful not to get board books flung at my head - she's pretty insistent!! And it makes bedtime a bit of a struggle because she wants ALL of her bedtime books read to her. I try to limit it to three! After we left Goodnight Moon at Jenny's house one weekend, she started branching into other books, and she loves it. All three girls have developed an obsession with the printed word since we gave up satellite TV, and hardly ever have it on anymore (not like we ever did much anyway!). It's pretty cool!
And Clara is a total crack-up, too. Amanda asked her this afternoon if she had pooped, cuz she smelled bad, and Clara shook her head back and forth quickly, in her typical adorable little fashion. And Amanda said noooo, you smell bad, did you poop? And her response, whether coincidental or purposeful, was a little shrug and expression of "eh, you got me!" And off she went to the bathroom to get changed. Hilarious!! She actually did poop on the potty one time, which we haven't even tried with her for months but it was AWESOME. it was during Emily's birthday party, while she was opening presents, and I did NOT want to be missing out due to changing a disaster diaper. And I didn't have to! best baby ever!! And of course she hasn't since, but who cares?? that rocked!! And I deserve it, too, cuz her tummy appears to still be sensitive to everything. I gave her two wheat-thins crackers yesterday to see if gluten still gives her trouble, and whammo, this afternoon her system announced that yes, it does. It is such a drag to operate with such a strict diet, but if Audrey outgrew it around 2.5 to 3 years, maybe I can do this for another year? or two?? ugh... Cuz now she really knows if her sisters have something that she can't, so I'm trying hard to not let that happen too often. Like tonight, she got her own gluten-free noodles while the rest of us feasted on the real thing, and no apples or pears or onions or tomatoes for any of us (except me, cuz I MUST have tomatoes this time of year! :) ).
She's getting to be more coordinated now, getting up AND down stairs pretty well, and getting faster and faster. She's had a few major biffs lately, resulting in a skinned-up nose and a hitler-mustache-style abrasion above her mouth. Guess she learned the hard way to practice running on grass instead of concrete! She's a tough cookie, though. Tonight she chipped a tiny bit off her bottom tooth because she slipped while climbing onto a chair at the dining room table. she cried a little, but not nearly as long as I would have if I'd chipped a tooth!
And all this, and her only real words are "Bup" (up) and "ahhdaaa" (all done). And maybe Mom and Dad, but it's hard to know. She is SO expressive and so busy listening to everything that's going on, that she doesn't really need words. Can't even get a "nana" out of her and she LOVES bananas. And I remember Audrey was a lot the same way, so I'm fine letting Clara learn however she likes. She's pretty lucky that I'm finally figuring out some things the third time around.
I sure like her an awful lot, and she likes me too. :) She's a bit less of a mama's girl than she was a few months ago, but I don't mind her clinging to me most of the time. When Amanda came one morning, Travis was holding her, and she wiggled out of his arms and went running through the kitchen, right past me, to greet her! Made me feel so good, that she feels so loved while I'm at work! But in my arms, it's such a good feeling, like she gets aboard and feels right at home, where she should be, with her mom. It's fun to be paired up with such a little beauty!
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Audrey starts preschool
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!!
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!!
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Emily starts Kindergarten
I have so much to catch up on that this may end up in several installments. Each of my kids deserves her own post, as does Poppo. I have a lot of things in my heart that I want to write about him, because even though he's gone and really only Emily might remember him, I want my girls to be able to know who he was, and who he was to me. So I'd better get crackin!
I think I will start with Emily, though, as convention says I must begin with my firstborn. :)
The start of school has been interesting, and mostly good, I think. On the first day, Emily identified one boy who had given her trouble on the playground last year during preschool. He wasn't in her class last year but all the classes were mixed together for recess, and she was very disappointed to see Wyatt in her Kindergarten class. I had a chance to ask the teacher about him, and she said he's not a bully, he's just not nearly as mature as most kids in the class, and certainly not at all in Emily's league. He doesn't know what to do so he pushes and fights -- and even requires his own teacher's aid at all times! (There's a good investment of public resources... ugh.) There are a few other kids who annoy her, too, which is disappointing but not a big deal. For now I think she's just appalled that any kid can seriously not figure out how to behave. Also, there are 15 boys and 6 girls in the class!!! Yikes!!! Emily brought home her class book that each kid prepared a page for, so the families can learn about the other classmates. Most of the girls did all their own writing, and Emily did but hers was not the most practiced and legible (but she worked hard and was happy with it - awesome!). She mostly enjoyed cutting and gluing pictures for her own page, and decorating it. A few of the boys did their own writing for some or all of it, but most had the parent's handwriting on all of it, and clearly their scrapbooking mothers did the decorative page. And even at that, there were misspellings ("Curies Goerge"?? really?) and other questions answered incorrectly. I mean, if parents can't even do their kids' kindergarten homework for them, wow... So yeah, my concern about Emily having to deal with other people has been realized, but she seems to be handling it all right. Better than me, probably! I am much more up-beat about it with her, offering suggestions for how she might handle things that bother her, and supporting her for who she is, without all the negativity that I spew forth here! But I think she can tell that most other people suck, too, and just hasn't put words to that inclination yet. She does adore a few other girls in the class, and there's a couple little boys that she said usually get their Happy Points too.
Ahh, Happy Points. Where to begin with the joys of Happy Points??? There are THREE separate behavior-focused programs in her classroom. THREE!!! There is the school-wide system - PBIS - that gives out "Dragon Tracks" for times that teachers notice kids doing something responsible, kind, or safe. There are the Six Pillars of Responsibility that is drilled into the kids all the time, also schoolwide. And the most complicated and confusing, Happy Points. In her classroom, she gets to put her "stick" into the bucket with a "1" on it at the beginning of every day, and if three warnings aren't enough to get her acting right, she has to move her stick to the "2" bucket. Three warnings later, the stick gets moved to the "3" bucket and the parents are contacted, kid sent to principal, all that good stuff. I forget at what point she loses her Happy Point, because it's only happened to Emily once. She was in the lunchline, and I guess another kid was bothering her with his lunchbox and she retaliated by smacking him over the head with hers. (Yeah! Go Emily!!) So she lost her Happy Point for the day and was devastated. They have a sticker chart of their points, so Emmie still got her point that day and, this is the hardest part for Emily, has remained one point ahead. Not only is there a competitive aspect to the Happy Points, with the charting, but after you get so many, then you get a treat out of the treat bucket. Honestly, with all this rewarding going on, and emphasis on being nice and good, when are they doing any learning? Any free play? Any friendly interactions and social problem-solving? These are the reasons I'm sending her to school - my kid has already learned how to behave!!! And if her classroom is full of rowdy boys, why are they trying to get them to sit still and act like girls? The girls are annoyed with the boys, and the boys are getting shortchanged, too! THIS IS SO STUPID.
At Parents' Night, her teacher told us that these kids come in with a huge discrepancy of backgrounds. Some have been to developmental Kindergarten and/or preschool, or years of structured daycare, and then some come from homes without any native English-speakers or have never experienced so much as a story-time at a library. She's gotta get them all to the point where they can just BE in a classroom together, and come to a more consistent level of capabilities. That sounds fine, I guess, except that what I'm hearing is that they've gotta work on catching up the other kids a lot harder than they do on advancing my kid. I mean, mathematically, you can't end up with a less varied result at the end of the year if every data point moves equally. So, my kid is already marking time because these other kids aren't prepared. And with this emphasis on BEHAVIOR starting the school year, my poor kid is sitting in her chair wondering just how good she has to be before they'll get on with it and teach her to read (she actually said that - "They aren't teaching me to read yet" *sigh*). She had a little breakdown one night, and it was just heartbreaking because she was still lamenting being one point behind Emmie in the Happy Point chart. She's trying to be extra good at what matters most - we can chart behavior but we can't chart anything that really matters or someone might feel bad... !!! - and she knows she may never catch up no matter how hard she tries. So I just held her while she cried and told her I didn't care if she ever earned another Happy Point ever again, as long as she was happy herself. I told her I wanted her to make friends and be excited about learning, and to find things she likes at school because there will be things she doesn't like (*ahem* Wyatt!!). I told her that she couldn't be "extra good" and it would rub off on other kids - they're going to do what they want, and she can't make them stop causing trouble, she can only take care of herself. I am so, so disappointed that this has been the defining moment in her education thus far. Travis talked with her too, and he was so kind and encouraging. Things have been better since then, since I think the class has settled down and they've gotten on with actually doing things now. But it was so hard to watch Emily struggle through this, with her good sweet conscience.
One bright spot, or at least potentially bright spot, is the Word Ring. She has a keyring with index-cards strung on it, each one with a lower-case sight word (it, like, the, see, said, etc.) that she is supposed to keep at home until she's ready for more. Then she takes it back to school and the teacher adds 5 more words. After 3 days of this we've got 15 words, and the coolest thing has been that Emily is teaching them to Audrey. It's a great way to incentivize Emily to take more than one look at them (she's generally got them on the first time through), because everyone learns best by teaching!! And Audrey gets the thrill of learning something from Emily, while Emily gets to have the upper hand as the "teacher." It's adorable to see them working together, and for now it's a very happy arrangement. I don't figure that this is what Mrs. Salmon had in mind but it's working great for us!
Our parent/teacher conferences aren't until the second week of November, and even then they are only 15 minutes. I can't imagine it will be sufficient, but oh well. A lot can change between now and then, and I can hope that there is a lot going on in the classroom that Emily doesn't tell me about. She seems to love the extras - music, PE, art, and library - and I would imagine that there's a lot within the classroom that she does and never tells me about, too. That initial behavior hurdle is certainly something, though. Wow.
Outside of school, we have slowed down on the piano lessons because it is hard to find a time to do it when her sisters can be otherwise-occupied, and it's not the very end of the day when her little brain is really too fried to learn much. But she is started to enjoy actually playing songs, not just picking out notes and counting to 4 over and over. A few weeks ago she played something that I recognized as I listened from another room, and she was SO thrilled! it was like she had discovered a way to send a secret message. It was just the little boost she needed to feel like she can sit down and practice without me helping - like ditching the training wheels. So now we can do piano lessons that are actually lessons, and she can actually practice, and play however she likes. I want to be sure that she has that freedom, because that's the very best part about making music, is making it YOURS. I will NOT breathe down her neck. The worst thing I can do is crush something so precious before it's even had time to form!
Emily played a very special role last weekend during Poppo's funeral, without her even realizing it, I think. Travis and I were pallbearers, and we had intended for all 3 girls to stick with his parents while we were exiting the church. But Emily somehow ended up behind the casket but in front of anyone else, and she quietly, soberly walked along in the processional. Mommo noticed and thought it was the sweetest thing to have one lone child in that position, considering how much of Poppo's life he had dedicated to children and just how special the children in his life were to him. And that Emily took her job as "littlest pallbearer" (Mommo's words) so seriously, it really was very meaningful. Who knows, she may have just been in the wrong place and didn't know what to do with so much overwhelming emotion around her so she just kept walking. Either way, it was very, very special to all of us, and Mommo especially.
After we got home that night and Emily was tucked into bed, the finality of everything hit her and she cried and cried. She basically was saying, "that's it? That's all I get to know of Poppo??" And considering her short little 5+ years, it really wasn't much time! I thought we had been visiting them quite often, but in retrospect it wasn't nearly what we could have done. It seemed like they would both live forever... which is just my denial, really, because of course I noticed that Poppo was much slower and more frail, and more likely to fall asleep in his chair. I just thought... same has Emily thought, that there'd be just a little more time. So, I called Mommo that night, and Emily talked to her for just a little bit, just to be reassured that at least we still have her. And then my mom talked to her, and reassured her but also distracted her from the enormous, mature thoughts that were keeping her up. It's been hard to see each generation grieving, and even harder to figure out how I'm handling it all... but that's for another posting.
So, Emily turns 6 next week. What a beautiful little lady she is turning out to be!
I think I will start with Emily, though, as convention says I must begin with my firstborn. :)
The start of school has been interesting, and mostly good, I think. On the first day, Emily identified one boy who had given her trouble on the playground last year during preschool. He wasn't in her class last year but all the classes were mixed together for recess, and she was very disappointed to see Wyatt in her Kindergarten class. I had a chance to ask the teacher about him, and she said he's not a bully, he's just not nearly as mature as most kids in the class, and certainly not at all in Emily's league. He doesn't know what to do so he pushes and fights -- and even requires his own teacher's aid at all times! (There's a good investment of public resources... ugh.) There are a few other kids who annoy her, too, which is disappointing but not a big deal. For now I think she's just appalled that any kid can seriously not figure out how to behave. Also, there are 15 boys and 6 girls in the class!!! Yikes!!! Emily brought home her class book that each kid prepared a page for, so the families can learn about the other classmates. Most of the girls did all their own writing, and Emily did but hers was not the most practiced and legible (but she worked hard and was happy with it - awesome!). She mostly enjoyed cutting and gluing pictures for her own page, and decorating it. A few of the boys did their own writing for some or all of it, but most had the parent's handwriting on all of it, and clearly their scrapbooking mothers did the decorative page. And even at that, there were misspellings ("Curies Goerge"?? really?) and other questions answered incorrectly. I mean, if parents can't even do their kids' kindergarten homework for them, wow... So yeah, my concern about Emily having to deal with other people has been realized, but she seems to be handling it all right. Better than me, probably! I am much more up-beat about it with her, offering suggestions for how she might handle things that bother her, and supporting her for who she is, without all the negativity that I spew forth here! But I think she can tell that most other people suck, too, and just hasn't put words to that inclination yet. She does adore a few other girls in the class, and there's a couple little boys that she said usually get their Happy Points too.
Ahh, Happy Points. Where to begin with the joys of Happy Points??? There are THREE separate behavior-focused programs in her classroom. THREE!!! There is the school-wide system - PBIS - that gives out "Dragon Tracks" for times that teachers notice kids doing something responsible, kind, or safe. There are the Six Pillars of Responsibility that is drilled into the kids all the time, also schoolwide. And the most complicated and confusing, Happy Points. In her classroom, she gets to put her "stick" into the bucket with a "1" on it at the beginning of every day, and if three warnings aren't enough to get her acting right, she has to move her stick to the "2" bucket. Three warnings later, the stick gets moved to the "3" bucket and the parents are contacted, kid sent to principal, all that good stuff. I forget at what point she loses her Happy Point, because it's only happened to Emily once. She was in the lunchline, and I guess another kid was bothering her with his lunchbox and she retaliated by smacking him over the head with hers. (Yeah! Go Emily!!) So she lost her Happy Point for the day and was devastated. They have a sticker chart of their points, so Emmie still got her point that day and, this is the hardest part for Emily, has remained one point ahead. Not only is there a competitive aspect to the Happy Points, with the charting, but after you get so many, then you get a treat out of the treat bucket. Honestly, with all this rewarding going on, and emphasis on being nice and good, when are they doing any learning? Any free play? Any friendly interactions and social problem-solving? These are the reasons I'm sending her to school - my kid has already learned how to behave!!! And if her classroom is full of rowdy boys, why are they trying to get them to sit still and act like girls? The girls are annoyed with the boys, and the boys are getting shortchanged, too! THIS IS SO STUPID.
At Parents' Night, her teacher told us that these kids come in with a huge discrepancy of backgrounds. Some have been to developmental Kindergarten and/or preschool, or years of structured daycare, and then some come from homes without any native English-speakers or have never experienced so much as a story-time at a library. She's gotta get them all to the point where they can just BE in a classroom together, and come to a more consistent level of capabilities. That sounds fine, I guess, except that what I'm hearing is that they've gotta work on catching up the other kids a lot harder than they do on advancing my kid. I mean, mathematically, you can't end up with a less varied result at the end of the year if every data point moves equally. So, my kid is already marking time because these other kids aren't prepared. And with this emphasis on BEHAVIOR starting the school year, my poor kid is sitting in her chair wondering just how good she has to be before they'll get on with it and teach her to read (she actually said that - "They aren't teaching me to read yet" *sigh*). She had a little breakdown one night, and it was just heartbreaking because she was still lamenting being one point behind Emmie in the Happy Point chart. She's trying to be extra good at what matters most - we can chart behavior but we can't chart anything that really matters or someone might feel bad... !!! - and she knows she may never catch up no matter how hard she tries. So I just held her while she cried and told her I didn't care if she ever earned another Happy Point ever again, as long as she was happy herself. I told her I wanted her to make friends and be excited about learning, and to find things she likes at school because there will be things she doesn't like (*ahem* Wyatt!!). I told her that she couldn't be "extra good" and it would rub off on other kids - they're going to do what they want, and she can't make them stop causing trouble, she can only take care of herself. I am so, so disappointed that this has been the defining moment in her education thus far. Travis talked with her too, and he was so kind and encouraging. Things have been better since then, since I think the class has settled down and they've gotten on with actually doing things now. But it was so hard to watch Emily struggle through this, with her good sweet conscience.
One bright spot, or at least potentially bright spot, is the Word Ring. She has a keyring with index-cards strung on it, each one with a lower-case sight word (it, like, the, see, said, etc.) that she is supposed to keep at home until she's ready for more. Then she takes it back to school and the teacher adds 5 more words. After 3 days of this we've got 15 words, and the coolest thing has been that Emily is teaching them to Audrey. It's a great way to incentivize Emily to take more than one look at them (she's generally got them on the first time through), because everyone learns best by teaching!! And Audrey gets the thrill of learning something from Emily, while Emily gets to have the upper hand as the "teacher." It's adorable to see them working together, and for now it's a very happy arrangement. I don't figure that this is what Mrs. Salmon had in mind but it's working great for us!
Our parent/teacher conferences aren't until the second week of November, and even then they are only 15 minutes. I can't imagine it will be sufficient, but oh well. A lot can change between now and then, and I can hope that there is a lot going on in the classroom that Emily doesn't tell me about. She seems to love the extras - music, PE, art, and library - and I would imagine that there's a lot within the classroom that she does and never tells me about, too. That initial behavior hurdle is certainly something, though. Wow.
Outside of school, we have slowed down on the piano lessons because it is hard to find a time to do it when her sisters can be otherwise-occupied, and it's not the very end of the day when her little brain is really too fried to learn much. But she is started to enjoy actually playing songs, not just picking out notes and counting to 4 over and over. A few weeks ago she played something that I recognized as I listened from another room, and she was SO thrilled! it was like she had discovered a way to send a secret message. It was just the little boost she needed to feel like she can sit down and practice without me helping - like ditching the training wheels. So now we can do piano lessons that are actually lessons, and she can actually practice, and play however she likes. I want to be sure that she has that freedom, because that's the very best part about making music, is making it YOURS. I will NOT breathe down her neck. The worst thing I can do is crush something so precious before it's even had time to form!
Emily played a very special role last weekend during Poppo's funeral, without her even realizing it, I think. Travis and I were pallbearers, and we had intended for all 3 girls to stick with his parents while we were exiting the church. But Emily somehow ended up behind the casket but in front of anyone else, and she quietly, soberly walked along in the processional. Mommo noticed and thought it was the sweetest thing to have one lone child in that position, considering how much of Poppo's life he had dedicated to children and just how special the children in his life were to him. And that Emily took her job as "littlest pallbearer" (Mommo's words) so seriously, it really was very meaningful. Who knows, she may have just been in the wrong place and didn't know what to do with so much overwhelming emotion around her so she just kept walking. Either way, it was very, very special to all of us, and Mommo especially.
After we got home that night and Emily was tucked into bed, the finality of everything hit her and she cried and cried. She basically was saying, "that's it? That's all I get to know of Poppo??" And considering her short little 5+ years, it really wasn't much time! I thought we had been visiting them quite often, but in retrospect it wasn't nearly what we could have done. It seemed like they would both live forever... which is just my denial, really, because of course I noticed that Poppo was much slower and more frail, and more likely to fall asleep in his chair. I just thought... same has Emily thought, that there'd be just a little more time. So, I called Mommo that night, and Emily talked to her for just a little bit, just to be reassured that at least we still have her. And then my mom talked to her, and reassured her but also distracted her from the enormous, mature thoughts that were keeping her up. It's been hard to see each generation grieving, and even harder to figure out how I'm handling it all... but that's for another posting.
So, Emily turns 6 next week. What a beautiful little lady she is turning out to be!
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
School Night
Tonight is our family's first school night. Emily starts Kindergarten tomorrow!!
I am apologetic that my only post this summer was about Clara's output, but that has really been a big part of our lives since I've figured it out. For the past month, she's been gluten free, and I've discovered just what she can't have. I've cut out ALL onions, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, apples, grapes, noodles, bread, and bunches of other things that she likes to eat and are easy to just throw at her. I've been cooking largely gluten-free and fructose-free dinners for the whole family, but since that's difficult, and I don't want to cut out vegetables that Emily and Audrey like, then I end up cooking nearly two full meals most nights. It's exhausting and requires a lot of planning, but Clara seems to be digesting her food better. I hope it means she's absorbing iron better, and maybe even growing more!
Emily got to meet her teacher today. Her name is Mrs. Salmon (sounds more like Solomon than the fish), and Emily was quite shy upon meeting her. We assured her that Emily would open up and rule the place once she had her bearings. I think Emily is pretty intimidated, but she'll catch on soon that it's absolutely something she can handle. Travis and I are staying home tomorrow morning until she gets on the bus at 8:20, and then I'm going to work and Travis is taking Audrey out for breakfast - to McDonald's, to get anything she wants! Then he'll bring her back home to Clara and Amanda, and finish the day at work. Then, I pick up Emily at school at 3:35, through the zoo of first-day parent-pick-up (bracing myself for its awfulness), and then Emily will collapse in a heap of exhaustion, I would imagine!
It's crazy to think that I started this blog way back before I even knew who she was. And now she's a schoolkid. She's a great kid, too. I was supposed to write down a few things about her so the teacher could get to know her, and it was hard to know where to start. I mean, this summer has been huge for Emily. She lost her first tooth, and is very close to losing the next one. She learned to ride a bike without training wheels. She gave up sucking her thumb by her own choice! She chose a thumb-guard from several options that I showed her on the computer, and then has worn every night for a month. She started taking piano lessons. She's picking out more and more words that she's obviously reading. So starting school is no big deal, in some respects - she is absolutely ready. But still, it's a matter of doing it, and while I'm not worried in the least bit, I'm a little sad and a little nervous for her. Now I'm sending her off into the big world to be around other people. Other people who don't KNOW her like I do! What if someone picks on her for absent-mindedly putting things in her mouth? What if someone thinks she's a dork for speaking like such an adult? What if a teacher thinks she's a problem when she absolutely cannot stop herself from some compulsion she has to finish what she intends to do? What if she is unhappy? At home, she is perfect in herself. In the world, she gets to be compared to people. And really, what's the point of that?
Audrey gets to meet her teacher on Friday, and I think she hasn't really comprehended yet that she'll get to go to her own school. Next week, Emily goes to school every day, and I think Audrey will then decide that it's time for her own activities. We've signed her up for two days a week, so it's a pretty small exposure, but I want her to have her own school experience that's appropriate for her, just so she doesn't feel left home like a little baby. Honestly, she can pick out words nearly as well as Emily does, and I think she's an even better counter - she can count 12 randomly-arranged objects and never mistake whether she's already counted each thing. I love hearing her perfect speech ("Mom, bring that over here so I can see it closely!"). Of course, many things about her are totally age-appropriate (Emily loves to listen to me read chapter books, but Audrey doesn't have the attention span for that; same with piano). But there are some things that I want to have people with experience in childhood education see first-hand, so they're ready for her as she gets into the school system. I'm blind-siding them with Emily, because she'll blossom in a breadth of ways that I can't even predict yet, but when they get to Audrey, they'd better be ready to have her reading with higher grade-levels, and other things like that. These kids are amazing!
Which brings me to Clara, who is more than just a food processor, of course. :) She is getting SO much personality now!! She's hilarious! She understands everything we say to her, and she's a total mama's girl, still! She knows that when people are putting shoes on, she should go get hers, and she'll deliver shoes to people who don't have theirs on yet - even for guests!! She got my sister's shoes for her the other day! So cute. Travis taught her to sign "more," and it is so sweet to see her slamming her hands together requesting more food. (It is also heartbreaking when she's watching her sisters eat grapes or peaches or something else I can't give her, and she's disappointed with strawberries again...) I suppose I should be working with her to get more words she can say, but it hasn't been her focus this summer. Maybe when it's quieter without Emily around she'll want to say more? She has been taking better naps now, sometimes as long as 3 hours!! And she loves books. She even knows which ones that Audrey knows how to sing (Teddy Bear, Baby Beluga) and will take them over to Audrey for her to sing. We have an easy, fun bedtime routine that we both look forward to and enjoy. I get a little sad every night that I finally put her into her crib, all snuggled and dozing and adorable. She just gets bigger and bigger!! They all do! I picked up Emily to show her the days on the calendar, and she flat-out told me not to pick her up anymore - she's too big!! I was hugging Audrey before bathtime tonight, and she is losing her lanky, bird-like build, in favor of a stronger, more solid frame, that is fortunately more coordinated than she has been before. She's a graceful little runner now, less likely to walk into walls or trip over nothing.
So even though I still vividly remember carrying her into this house for the first time, in the carseat all 9 lbs tiny, tomorrow I'll watch Emily go off on the bus... That went fast...
I am apologetic that my only post this summer was about Clara's output, but that has really been a big part of our lives since I've figured it out. For the past month, she's been gluten free, and I've discovered just what she can't have. I've cut out ALL onions, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, apples, grapes, noodles, bread, and bunches of other things that she likes to eat and are easy to just throw at her. I've been cooking largely gluten-free and fructose-free dinners for the whole family, but since that's difficult, and I don't want to cut out vegetables that Emily and Audrey like, then I end up cooking nearly two full meals most nights. It's exhausting and requires a lot of planning, but Clara seems to be digesting her food better. I hope it means she's absorbing iron better, and maybe even growing more!
Emily got to meet her teacher today. Her name is Mrs. Salmon (sounds more like Solomon than the fish), and Emily was quite shy upon meeting her. We assured her that Emily would open up and rule the place once she had her bearings. I think Emily is pretty intimidated, but she'll catch on soon that it's absolutely something she can handle. Travis and I are staying home tomorrow morning until she gets on the bus at 8:20, and then I'm going to work and Travis is taking Audrey out for breakfast - to McDonald's, to get anything she wants! Then he'll bring her back home to Clara and Amanda, and finish the day at work. Then, I pick up Emily at school at 3:35, through the zoo of first-day parent-pick-up (bracing myself for its awfulness), and then Emily will collapse in a heap of exhaustion, I would imagine!
It's crazy to think that I started this blog way back before I even knew who she was. And now she's a schoolkid. She's a great kid, too. I was supposed to write down a few things about her so the teacher could get to know her, and it was hard to know where to start. I mean, this summer has been huge for Emily. She lost her first tooth, and is very close to losing the next one. She learned to ride a bike without training wheels. She gave up sucking her thumb by her own choice! She chose a thumb-guard from several options that I showed her on the computer, and then has worn every night for a month. She started taking piano lessons. She's picking out more and more words that she's obviously reading. So starting school is no big deal, in some respects - she is absolutely ready. But still, it's a matter of doing it, and while I'm not worried in the least bit, I'm a little sad and a little nervous for her. Now I'm sending her off into the big world to be around other people. Other people who don't KNOW her like I do! What if someone picks on her for absent-mindedly putting things in her mouth? What if someone thinks she's a dork for speaking like such an adult? What if a teacher thinks she's a problem when she absolutely cannot stop herself from some compulsion she has to finish what she intends to do? What if she is unhappy? At home, she is perfect in herself. In the world, she gets to be compared to people. And really, what's the point of that?
Audrey gets to meet her teacher on Friday, and I think she hasn't really comprehended yet that she'll get to go to her own school. Next week, Emily goes to school every day, and I think Audrey will then decide that it's time for her own activities. We've signed her up for two days a week, so it's a pretty small exposure, but I want her to have her own school experience that's appropriate for her, just so she doesn't feel left home like a little baby. Honestly, she can pick out words nearly as well as Emily does, and I think she's an even better counter - she can count 12 randomly-arranged objects and never mistake whether she's already counted each thing. I love hearing her perfect speech ("Mom, bring that over here so I can see it closely!"). Of course, many things about her are totally age-appropriate (Emily loves to listen to me read chapter books, but Audrey doesn't have the attention span for that; same with piano). But there are some things that I want to have people with experience in childhood education see first-hand, so they're ready for her as she gets into the school system. I'm blind-siding them with Emily, because she'll blossom in a breadth of ways that I can't even predict yet, but when they get to Audrey, they'd better be ready to have her reading with higher grade-levels, and other things like that. These kids are amazing!
Which brings me to Clara, who is more than just a food processor, of course. :) She is getting SO much personality now!! She's hilarious! She understands everything we say to her, and she's a total mama's girl, still! She knows that when people are putting shoes on, she should go get hers, and she'll deliver shoes to people who don't have theirs on yet - even for guests!! She got my sister's shoes for her the other day! So cute. Travis taught her to sign "more," and it is so sweet to see her slamming her hands together requesting more food. (It is also heartbreaking when she's watching her sisters eat grapes or peaches or something else I can't give her, and she's disappointed with strawberries again...) I suppose I should be working with her to get more words she can say, but it hasn't been her focus this summer. Maybe when it's quieter without Emily around she'll want to say more? She has been taking better naps now, sometimes as long as 3 hours!! And she loves books. She even knows which ones that Audrey knows how to sing (Teddy Bear, Baby Beluga) and will take them over to Audrey for her to sing. We have an easy, fun bedtime routine that we both look forward to and enjoy. I get a little sad every night that I finally put her into her crib, all snuggled and dozing and adorable. She just gets bigger and bigger!! They all do! I picked up Emily to show her the days on the calendar, and she flat-out told me not to pick her up anymore - she's too big!! I was hugging Audrey before bathtime tonight, and she is losing her lanky, bird-like build, in favor of a stronger, more solid frame, that is fortunately more coordinated than she has been before. She's a graceful little runner now, less likely to walk into walls or trip over nothing.
So even though I still vividly remember carrying her into this house for the first time, in the carseat all 9 lbs tiny, tomorrow I'll watch Emily go off on the bus... That went fast...
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