Carolyn got her ears pierced last night – a gift from her Grandma & Grandpa for her upcoming First Communion. She chose a very cute pair of sparkly pink daisies for her piercing earrings.
I can’t believe how fast she’s growing up!
Earrings!
Growing Up
First Sleepover
Carolyn had a friend overnight last night for her very first sleepover! The girls had a really fun time, and even let Anna in on their play now and then. (Poor Anna thought that Simone had come over to visit her…I guess she’s pretty used to playing with much older kids!)
Of Hyperbole and Imaginary Friends
Carolyn seems to have mastered the art of hyperbole: “Mommy, you’re the best mommy in the whole entire universe!” is a common one. As is “Anna, you’re the best little sister ever!” I’m just waiting until she learns that they can be used negatively, too.
And yesterday in the car I brought up Mimi. Mimi first appeared almost four years ago, and has been a significant part of Carolyn’s world since. We haven’t heard about Mimi in a while, so I just casually asked Carolyn what Mimi was up to these days.
Well. The conversation went like this:
C: “Mommy, Mimi has a boyfriend!”
Me: “Really? A boyfriend? Um…so how old is Mimi now?”
C: “Oh, just a little older than me. 10. Or maybe 11.”
Me: “10…or 11? And she has a boyfriend now?”
C: “Yeah, that’s just a little older than me. Because, 6 is almost 10!”
Honestly, this conversation rattled me more than I’d like to admit. First that 6 really is almost 10 (because the years have flown by fast enough to this point that the next thing I know she really will be 10) and second that 10…or maybe 11…is old enough to have a boyfriend. Not to mention that my 6 year old is even aware of the concept of “boyfriend”.
To borrow a page from Carolyn, that was the most frightening conversation ever!
Kindergarten Screening
Carrie had her kindergarten screening this morning. The teacher should have realized she had her hands full when she said something along the lines of “oh, goody, I get to test a four year old” and Carrie piped up with “actually, I’m four-and-a-half now!”
I couldn’t see most of what was going on, but I could hear a lot of it. It was all I could do not to laugh out loud at some of the things coming out of my child’s mouth!
Highlights of the test:
After Carrie correctly identified her heel, the teacher asked, “Who taught you all of these things?” and Carrie replied, “My imaginary friend!”
At one point the teacher asked Carrie to hop on one foot, and then to walk in a straight line, heel to toe. Carrie said, “Oh! Like walking on a tightrope! I learned how to do that from JoJo’s Circus, and I know a whole song about it: ‘Balance, balance, use your balance, arms out wide and use your balance.'”
The teacher handed Carrie a book (My Little Cat) and asked her to demonstrate how the teacher would read the book. So Carrie flipped it over so it was oriented correctly and read it front to back (it had all of maybe 20 unique words in it) and the teacher said, “Your imaginary friend taught you to read very well!” Carrie’s reply? “No, that was my mommy!”
After the screening was over, the teacher came back out to meet me and said that Carrie is so ready for school she should already be there. Tell me something I don’t know! I just hope she doesn’t wind up with a teacher who underestimates her because of her birthday…
Kindergarten Registration
I know there’s 6 months before she actually goes to Kindergarten, but I can’t believe my baby is old enough to be going to Kindergarten! And riding the bus! And eating her lunch away from me every day…
Good thing she’s excited about it!
This is in front of the building where she’ll be going to Kindergarten…the same building her great-grandmother and grandmother went to for high school, and her uncle went to for junior high. (I couldn’t get the actual building in the picture without standing halfway across the parking lot. I need to bring a wide-angle lens next time.)
2 year well-baby visit
Vital stats:
2 years, 1 day old
24 lbs. 3 oz.
35″ tall
Carrie’s 2 year checkup was today, and she’s doing great! We were supposed to get a flu shot today, but for some reason the doctor said they were only giving flu shots to their 6 to 24 month patients. Um, OK, her birthday was yesterday and we were scheduled to get it today six weeks ago! For that, and various other things we’ve been unhappy with for the past two years, we’re switching to another pediatric practice as soon as possible.
I had to take her to get a finger stick lead test, and Carrie didn’t cry at all. She actually seemed fascinated by the whole process, and was thrilled to get a sticker afterwards. Then I was driving home and I hear from the back seat “red all over, mommy!” I pulled over in a parking lot and she’d removed the band-aid and poked at her finger until it started bleeding again. Sigh. Have I mentioned that blood is not one of those things I do too well at? But I managed to keep it together and get the first aid kit out, wipe her up, and stick another band-aid on her. Luckily she kept it on the rest of the way home!
Pigtails!
How can something as simple as pigtails make Carolyn look at least a year older than she really is? They’re adorable, but it almost makes me sad to see how old she looks!
She wasn’t thrilled with me taking her picture while she was trying to watch “A, B, C, D, LALALA SONG!” -as she calls her Learning About Letters DVD. She really, really loves Sesame Street now. Her other favorite DVD at the moment is “ELMO ONETWOTHREEFOURFIVESIXSEVEN, EIGHTNINETEN!!!!”, Kids’ Favorite Songs – Elmo counts backwards in that one, which she has done a few times, but she can count forwards much faster. Her titles are all in caps because they’re usually shouted at the top of her lungs, and the numbers come out as two words because she pauses after seven to take a breath.
18 month well-baby visit
Vital stats:
18 months, 3 days old
21 lbs. 13 oz.
33″ tall
Carrie only gained 4 ounces from three months ago, although there didn’t seem to be too much of a concern over that – she’s still tracking along the 25th percentile curve for weight and around the 80th for height. This explains why all of the pants that fit her waist are more like capris, and the pants that are long enough fall down over her teeny-tiny rear. I should have such problems.
Only two shots today, which weren’t too traumatic. Carrie was pretty much mollified with a sticker and a cup of animal crackers. Oh, and the nurse got a good look in Carrie’s mouth, and that fourth 15-month molar is finally coming in (which explains the last couple of wakeful nights). So now Carrie has 11 teeth – we’re more than halfway there! (Right? A full set of baby teeth is 20, isn’t it?)
We were “warned” not to push Carrie too quickly with her letters and numbers when we mentioned that she’s starting to recognize and say them. Um, I have no problem not pushing her – in fact, until a couple of weeks ago I had no idea she even knew what letters and numbers were. I certainly haven’t done anything to force that knowledge into her head. Since she does seem to be interested now, I’m giving her opportunities to count and I bought a magnetic letter set so she could play with that while I’m doing stuff in the kitchen – but it’s not like I’m planning on drilling her on letters and numbers for hours every day!
15 month well-baby visit
Vital stats:
15 months, 2 days old
21 lbs. 9 oz.
31.75″ tall
One of my wishes for Carrie is that she won’t have to shorten every single pair of pants she buys – and since she’s currently in the 80th percentile for height, it might come true! Four shots today, this time in her arms instead of her legs. The shots are getting harder and harder for me to deal with, it’s a really good thing Denis comes along to these appointments. I try really hard to convince myself that the vaccinations are ultimately a good thing, but it still worries me a bit when they give her so many at once.
Other than that, she seems to be right on target with all the developmental stages, and it was a pretty boring appointment.
Oh, wait! She somehow has her 15-month top molars cut part-way through already, and we didn’t even notice! The other day we thought she was a bit droolier than usual, but she hasn’t been complaining at night or anything so we were shocked when the doctor pointed them out. Who knew? So now she has 5 teeth plus 3 almost-teeth.
12 month well-baby visit
Vital stats:
1 year, 2 days old
20 lbs. 3 oz.
29.5″ tall
My goodness. I’ve been lifting a 20 pound weight for weeks now – I’m a strong mama! Today was Carrie’s 1 year checkup, and she checks out perfectly. She’s almost exactly (within 1/4 pound) tripled her birth-weight, which is exactly what they’re supposed to do. We can give her whole eggs now, and whole milk if we want – but since she’s still nursing we don’t have to yet. We can technically also switch her carseat to front-facing, but having read a bunch of studies and seen some crash-test videos we’ve decided to keep her rear-facing as long as we can. The rear-facing limit on her seat is something like 33 or 35 pounds, so probably for another year and half or more. (</end public service announcement>)
Carrie had her chicken pox vaccine (I’m so glad she won’t have to deal with that – it’s one of my earliest memories, since I had it when I was three, and it’s not a pleasant one) and her flu shot today. She was such a trooper, and didn’t cry at all for them. And then we had to take her down the hall for the finger stick lead test. Again, she was amazingly good and didn’t cry, despite having to sit still for a good five minutes while the technician collected drop after drop of blood. (I swear, the mama bear instinct was in full force and I wanted to claw her eyes out, although I’m sure she’s very nice.)
Now Carrie’s sleeping it all off, and will hopefully wake up a happy girl – though I certainly can’t blame her if she wakes up cranky!