Denis left very early this morning for a business trip. He’ll be back in the wee hours of next Sunday morning. Now I get to play single mom to two kids and two dogs. Wish me luck!
Month: May 2009
Graduation
Today was Carolyn’s last day of preschool:
They had a little graduation ceremony for the kids. It was so cute! I was worried I would cry, but the only thing that made me even tear up a little was watching Carrie and her close friends walking up to receive their “diplomas” and picturing how they would walk across the stage 13 years from now. One of them I can just picture skipping across the stage in her cap and gown, just like she did this morning. And poor Carrie nearly fell on the little stairs they had, because – as she put it – “The stairs are a little big, and so are my new white dressy shoes!”
I don’t know about Carrie, but I’m going to miss preschool:
I loved her teachers, both years. The teachers at this school are all excellent, and I’m looking forward to seeing them all again when Anna’s a bit older. And this year I really looked forward to drop-off and pick-up, as I made friends with several other moms. Even though I’m sure we’ll be getting the kids (and ourselves!) together this summer, I’ll miss seeing them every other day!
Next stop: kindergarten!
4.7 Years Old!
Dear Carolyn,
Today you are 4 years and 7 months old. This is the last time I will write to you while you are in preschool – school is out next week, and then in a few short months you’ll be getting on a school bus every morning.
You are so excited for school. But you’re also worried – you don’t want to go to kindergarten until you’re five, no matter how often I try to explain that you only have to be five before December 1st, not before school starts. You apparently got this notion from your Ramona the Pest book, that you have to be five before kindergarten. After your bus ride last week, though, you’re very eager to get to go on the bus every day. (Trust me, kiddo, it wears kind of thin by high school…)
We’re going to have to practice eating lunch this summer. Because you definitely prefer to enjoy your lunch for as long as you possibly can, and that is so not going to work when you only have a half an hour for lunch! I can just picture you getting in line to get your lunch, bringing it back to the table, waiting for it to cool to just the right temperature, and then…the teacher asking everyone to line up to go back to the classroom before you’ve even taken a single bite. I’ll definitely be packing your lunch to try to help with this, but you still are going to need to learn to eat a little faster, and among many distractions.
When I look back at how much you’ve changed since you started preschool almost two years ago, it’s amazing. You went from being very sad to leave me to barely wanting to stop for a kiss before joining circle time. You’ve learned to read, have gone from barely being able to draw a circle to starting to be able to write legibly, you’ve learned how to make fast friends, and how to play together with them instead of just in the same room.
And when I look forward to all that you will experience from now until you graduate from high school…I can’t wait to see your science fair projects, what instruments and sports you choose to try, the essays you write. And underneath it all, I will always remember my precious, precocious little preschooler skipping off to join her friends.
Love, Mommy
Beach Day
Carrie got all dolled up in her new “tankini” swim suit for beach day at school today. I feel like a bad mom, though, all the other little girls had modest little cover-ups over their suits. Since our pool is right in the backyard, I’ve never understood the need for one. Oops!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Anna and her BFF Nicole had a blast playing piano.
Kindergarten Orientation
So after sitting in the auditorium for two hours this evening, Denis and I are pretty firmly convinced that it’s not the bus that worries us, or the lunchroom, or which teacher she’ll get. No, we’re actually scared of the other kindergarten parents… Oh, and the cafeteria lady, who when asked about nutrition in the school lunches, declared that they don’t use whole wheat bread because “we don’t know of any children who eat whole wheat bread”. Uh. I actually know more children who exclusively eat whole wheat bread – including my own – than don’t, but whatever.
We’re definitely going to try to get Carrie into the multiage program. It seems like it would be a really ideal placement for her. But we won’t know until August, when they notify everyone of the teachers they have, whether she’ll be in it. Either way, though, I think she’ll really enjoy school.
In other news, Miss Screamsalot did *not* like being left with my parents this evening and screamed non-stop unless my dad held her. The kicker was, he couldn’t sit down while holding her. So my poor dad walked Anna around the house for over two hours…and she finally fell asleep on his shoulder five minutes before we pulled into the driveway. I’m going to guess that we won’t be getting any more babysitting out of my parents for quite a while! (So much for that new Star Trek movie…)
Big Girl Eyes and Baby Girl Toes
Carrie woke up with her eyes “glued” shut with gunk this morning. The pediatrician thankfully has walk-in hours, and she has a mild case of conjunctivitis…aka pink eye. Sigh. We skipped dance this afternoon, even though the pediatrician thought it would probably be fine, because I’d feel terrible if any of the other kids came down with it any closer to the recital. But since we got four doses of drops in her eyes today, she should be good to go for school tomorrow.
Anyway, we spent the afternoon playing outside instead – well, Carrie played, Anna hung out in her stroller, and I played with camera lenses again. Baby toes look really adorable in the sun!
And big girls look adorable in the green, green grass!
I really wish I could take photos this good on purpose, but luckily since I have a digital camera I can take as many as I want to increase the chances that I’ll get a few winners!
The Wheels on the Bus…
The school district here runs a program for all the local preschools where they bus the incoming kindergarteners in from their preschool, let them tour the kindergarten building and watch a video about bus safety, and then bus them back to their preschool. So that’s what Carrie’s class did today:
She was all excited about riding the bus this morning, but then told me she was scared. When I asked her what she was scared about, it turned out that she was scared that the bus would not be pink.
Um. Well, as a matter of fact, there are no pink school buses in our district as far as I’m aware. It turned out that the excitement of getting to ride a bus for the first time helped her get over the fact that the school bus was yellow.
Oh, and one of the preschool teachers mentioned to the parents that we have to sign a waiver if we want our child to wear a seat belt on the bus – something about how the bus driver can’t go back and undo all the kids’ seat belts in an emergency. But they brought a couple dozen 4 year olds on the bus and every last one of them immediately tried to put their seat belt on. So how do you tell your child, who has been indoctrinated from birth to never go anywhere in a moving vehicle without some sort of restraint, to not put their seat belt on?!? Crazy.
I imagine we’ll get more information on this next week at the parent kindergarten meeting.
You know, kindergarten is a scary word to type. My baby can’t seriously be old enough to be going to kindergarten and riding a bus, can she?
Ten Months Old!
Dear Anna,
Today you are 10 months old. Now it is most definitely time to start planning that birthday party of yours. As far as you’re concerned, as long as it involves chocolate cake you’ll be happy – we went to another baby’s birthday party last week and you were desperately trying to get that cake off my plate!
Big news this month: you have two brand new teeth! And now you’re fascinated with all teeth, especially mine. You’re starting to figure out body parts a little bit – at least noses. And you like to play the “eyes, nose, mouth, kiss!” game just like your sister used to.
You play “how big is Anna?” and peek-a-boo a lot. And you’ve learned to wave bye-bye. You have signs now for “all done” and “water” – that one looks nothing like the ASL sign, instead you clap your hands together and then clasp them and rock them back and forth. No idea where you came up with that, but we all know what it means now. You don’t really have any words yet, but you say “Ma!” a lot when you’ve run out of food on your high chair tray – I’m not sure if it’s suppose to mean “Mommy!”, “More!” or “Yo, lady who dispenses the food! You’re not doing your job very well here!”
You’ve tried lots and lots of new foods this month: strawberries, cauliflower, mandarin oranges, Lima beans, kamut (a grain in puffed cereal form), tomatoes (in salsa!), corn, ice cream (of the mint chocolate chip variety), eggs (whole, scrambled), Brussels sprouts, watermelon, ground beef, honeydew melon, red peppers and pea butter. Phew! That’s almost as many foods as the hungry, hungry caterpillar ate! You’re still nursing 5 or 6 times a day, but you do love your solid food. I can’t eat anything without you wanting to share it with me.
Naps. Baby, we have to have a little talk about naps. You’re supposed to take them. At least every now and then. If for no other reason than that Mommy gets tired and needs a little break. You know, to do things like, oh, fold laundry. Or use the bathroom. So, could we maybe work on that this next month? I’d settle for one nap, and it doesn’t even need to be a terribly long one…
It’s hard to keep up with you, my little monkey. You have become danger-baby to the extreme. I’m not sure what compels babies your age to try to kill themselves several times a day, but really, trying to climb head first over the changing table? Not the best idea you’ve ever had. Neither is trying to fling yourself backwards out of my arms, or, in fact, pulling up on any object in the house that has wheels, like your sister’s doll stroller.
So this month, do Mommy a favor and try and get a few naps in and keep the gray-hair-inducing danger-baby exploits to a minimum, okay?
Love, Mommy
Happy Mother’s Day!
We got up this morning and went to Simply Crepes for breakfast. Aside from a decent wait (they don’t take reservations) it was a nice time. For as fancy as they look, they have a really great kids menu.
And I got a lovely bouquet of flowers from Denis and the girls:
Dance Photos
The studio Carrie takes dance at had their group photos done today. The kids all had to wear their costumes and a bit of makeup. (As an aside, I actually bought Carrie her own makeup, as I don’t really wear it and all of mine is quite old. So in the same shopping trip (at Wegmans, where they carry everything) I bought my 4 year old both makeup and a Handy Manny toy on clearance. Uhhh…)
Without further ado, Carrie in her tap costume:
There’s a pink hat that they’re also supposed to wear, but I haven’t gotten a decent picture of her in it. For their non-tap number, they take off the hat, add a very poofy blue tutu/petticoat thing, and have child-sized brooms. Not your traditional pale pink leotard with tutu, but very cute nonetheless.