Party Central and a Big Mistake

Its been a bit of Party-Central over here. Last night, we went out to a welcome home party for little Tessa, who is 6 yrs old and just home from China. Lots of little kids there, to T had fun, but it was an adult party too. With the exception of the office christmas parties, I don't think I've been to a real, adult party in about 3.5 years. Real, glass plates and everything...that should tell you something. There were about 50 people there, and I actually had a few adult conversations with people I work with and see on a daily basis.

These pics are from Zack's 10th birthday party. That was Sunday. T had a ball on the water slide, playing with all the big boys. You'll note that if you look closely, she comes up to about their bellybuttons.
No problems...despite their height T still took aim at them with the water cannon, and attempted to blast them from here to kingdom come.

That's my girl.
Shortly thereafter, the slide suffered technical difficulties, and started spontaneously deflating. All the kids migrated to the pool...my worst nightmare. Since T's swimming skills are not that good, I feel I have to stay close. Problem was, there was not one bit of shade around the pool...at is was a scorching 97 degrees before factoring in the humidity. Oy! I went out to the car and got one of my black rain umbrellas, like the little old ladies you see walking down the street during the day, so that I could have some shade. No one has ever prayed for rain more then me. Alas, my prayers were answered. T decided she had had enough, and wanted to go inside.

After singing the song and eating the cake, we came home. T was zonked. Lets hope she sleeps well tonight!

Meanwhile, I've added the video below, if you want to see a little sheer religious cuteness. Also, in answer to inquiring minds, soap and water did indeed get all the magic marker out...from everywhere. As Ceci said, thank god they weren't sharpies!

whoops, after posting I forgot the 2nd 1/2 of the title. Lets just say this, if you're busy wandering Target, and your kid spies a bright pink Recorder (the musical instrument), just walk on by...don't stop, don't buy it, don't bring the thing into your home. 'nuf said!

Trouble

I can't tell you how much in trouble T is in. It all started when I realized that T had shut her door, and it was quiet. Too quiet. I went into investigate, and she was under all the covers. Head and all. Not being stupid, I investigated further, and found this.

I can't tell you how mad I am. It was all done with the Dotsa markers, that are all in timeout until further notice. Every marker in the house is in time out. Luckily, it all pretty much came out. It was even on her back and butt. In the cracks of all her private places. Wherever you could possibly mark on her body was marked, and marked up good.

She has now been ordered to go to bed, and is somewhat cooperating, at this relatively early hour of 8:00 p.m.

I need a drink.

Catholic School Works

If I can ever get the video to upload to u-tube, I'll be posting a short clip. After a mere 3 days in catholic school, T spontaneously started doing the sign of the cross last night. Its really cute, so stand by while I work on the technical difficulties.


Meanwhile, today, t was basically black when I picked her up, from all the dirt on her. Took pics with my iphone, but I'm having techy difficulties with that as well. Picassa stopped working to download pics to my computer, so I'm trying to figure out a back up plan. So far no luck.

UPDATE: did it! Feast your eyes on the sheer dirtiness and sweatiness of my girl!

Lastly, T seems to be adjusting well to getting up extra early to be on time for school. Me, not so much. I'm dragging. Figures .

2nd Day a Success!

Well, the 2nd day of school went just as well as the first day. T reports that she really likes it and seems excited to go. When I pick her up at the end of the day, she's always dripping with sweat from running around the playground. She's in her glory b/c PK4 and the kindergarten, and maybe even 1st grade all get to play in the big-kid monkey bar area. T is thrilled about that. I was noticing the other day that the pk4 area is a little too babyish for my monkey-bar maven.

Its really sweet b/c as we walk to our car, we basically cross the area where all the bigger kids are playing and hanging out. Taylor is constantly saying Hi to all the kids...whether they respond to her or not.

So ends day 2. I was wondering how the drop off would go on the 2nd day, when the excitement had worn off a bit. On boy went into all out tantrum, kicking and hitting the teacher when his parents left. I was just glad that wasn't T.

I'm also happy to report that so far there have been no reports of T hitting, kicking, pushing or punching any of the other kids. I was getting those reports from daycare and was very concerned that T has an anger control issue. I still think she does a bit, but so far no reports from school. I'm hoping that it was a function of her being frustrated and stuck in a class when all her little friends had been moved to the 4 yr old room. Who knows. All I know is that so far, she hasn't taken out any of the other kids, so all is well.

that's it for now.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!

We woke up bright and early and were at the school before the teacher. T was very excited to be going, and insisted at the last minute to having a pony tail ...which given T's short hair, is really a top knot.

We posed for pics outside the house, so T could show off her coveted Barbie lunchbox.

We then loaded up the schoolbus, and off we went. We parked at the school, then walked in. I started showing T where some of the big kids would be, and showed her a big kid schoolroom. I think that actually stressed her a little. This school is HUGE in comparison to her daycare.
Here's a picture of 1/2 the playground. Off to the right, not pictured in the photo, is the baseball diamond. The red roof is the cafeteria on the first floor, and the auditorium on the second. You can also see at the far end the big kid monkey bar area. PreK has its own little play area that is separate.

We made T pose in the front of the school. Then went on our tour, and then to her classroom.

This is a picture of about 1/2 of the preK play area. Finally, another little girl showed up and they were playing together. Unfortunately, she's in the other class. As they let us in, turns out most of the first kids there were in the other class, and T wanted to go with them. She started BALKING at entering her room. Luckily, Dot talked her down from the edge. I was afraid that she'd start crying or something, but nope. Some more kids came and went into T's room, and Dot got her to go inside with them.

T put her lunchbox away, then sat down to work on some puzzles. This shows about 1/2 the classroom, which is shaped in an "L" design. I took this picture standing by the teacher's desk, and the bathroom was behind me. The "smart board" is to the left on the wall, and the L goes off to the left. In that area, is the pretend play area, toys, etc. I told T that it was time for me to go, and she said OK, without a care in the world, kissed me goodbye, then was off to explore the room some more.

I picked her up from after care at around 5:00 p.m., and received glowing reports from the teacher and from T. She's very excited to return tomorrow, so I guess she had a good time. The whole day I could barely work, wondering what she was doing and how she was adjusting. Oy, what stress.

That's it for tonight. T will be going to bed soon. She's not used to the early morning hours, nor just a 45 min to hr nap. The daycare napped them for 2 - 3 hours, that's why she was always up til all hours of the night.

So ends our first day of school. It was clearly more stressful on me, than on T!

Sleepy Girl

Somebody fell asleep today while getting her hair cut. Aunt Dottie had to hold her head up so that Kelly could finish cutting it.

Another Milestone

Well, today is officially T's last day of daycare. She's about to officially make that leap from "baby" to "little girl". I've been telling her that today is her last day there, but I don't think its really sunk in to her. She absolutely loves her teachers and friends, to it will be interesting how she deals with it all. Coincidentally, they're having a pajama party at the daycare, so she's very excited and distracted about that. She is so, so excited to be wearing her pajamas to school and has been talking about it all week, so that's pretty much trumped any feelings of sadness, I think.

She also confesses to being very excited to start her new school. Again, we'll see how it goes. I suspect there will be many days of acting out in the near future, as she transitions and gets comfortable with her new surroundings and routine.

For myself, I'm a little sad too, to be leaving the Carol Center. They have been so great. They taught my orally defensive and starving baby to eat solid foods when we first came home from china and they potty trained her. What more could a single, inexperienced mom ask for??

With the new school, I'll be paying more for less. I say less because the mommy days are over...those few days when I was off work but the daycare was open. Nope, with the new school they're either closing early or taking the day off everytime I turn around. Plus, they don't feed T breakfast. My life is about to get infinitely more complicated. But in the end, I'm really excited for T.

My little schoolgirl!

What a Day

Good lord, what a day I've had. Started out with me going to the new school for the "book sale", and doling out some cash. Then I had to go meet with some investigators. Unfortunately, I forgot my phone in the car and forgot to tell my secretary. So, between about 10:00 a.m. and 12:30, when I realized I didn't have my phone with me, you guessed it, all hell broke loose.

I had a total of 20 calls and 13 voicemail messages. See the odd bandage on T's forehead? Turns out she was riding a trike at school, at her usual break-neck speed, when one of the other kids thought it would be a good idea to swing out some sign he was holding. T ended up with a cut to her forehead along the hairline. Bled like a stuck pig, and nobody could get me. Oy. By the time I called, everybody assured me that there was no need for stitches as the blood had stopped flowing. Plus, T was back to her old self, asked for seconds at lunch, and seemed fine.

This evening, I returned to the school for the parent/teacher orientation. I really like her new teachers and her new school. She's in a class of 19 in total. They nap them for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Phys ed is on thursdays. The classroom is really cute and cosy. While I was there, T got to spend some quality time with Uncle Jack, who took the pics you see here.

That's all for now, I'm sure dot will be calling from Houston soon for all the minute details.

Good night, all!

The Artist Formerly Known as Nan Xian Yi

Dot Crazy

It appears that we're crazy for Dots in the household, and surprisingly, I'm not referring to Aunt Dot in this instance. Instead, I'm referring to Dotza....markers that make circles of color with a dot in it. The thing comes with templates. You put a piece of paper over the template, and then trace the dots with your dotza pens, forming a picture. Can I tell you that T LOVES the things? She's busy dotting away. I highly recommend this toy! But, make sure you have a good clip board around, else the pictures will look odd, as T isn't that good at ensuring that the paper and the template stay aligned. Clip board takes care of that.

Meanwhile, if TS Ana wasn't bad enough...they heavens are giving us Bill. He looks a bit more formidable and requires close watching in the next week.