All I can say, is that while half of them don’t really know most of the choreography, Carrie’s class entirely makes up for it in extreme cuteness. And they’ve all clearly worked very, very hard on their dances. I can’t wait for the recital on Saturday!
We’re getting our windows cleaned next Monday. The kind of cleaning where they have to come in the house. Not just that, but they need to be able to actually access all the windows. I didn’t take a before picture, but short of tip-toeing through the pile of crap crafts all over the floor, there was no way to get anywhere near the craft room windows.
So I just want to know one thing…
When did all my yarn get replaced with tribbles? And why couldn’t the good stuff be the yarn that was mysteriously multiplying??
On the upside, I’ve found a lot of my “missing” needles - they’re all in UFOs, many of them just stuck into incomplete swatches. On the downside, there’s seriously not enough hours left in my life to knit up everything in there. And even if there were, there’s new stuff out there that’s way nicer than a lot of my old stuff. So once again I have a big pile of stuff to donate. Another sizable pile of nicer yarn is probably going to go up on Ravelry as stash that’s available for sale or trade - I might be able to fund my etsy habit for a while off of yarn that deserves a better home.
And I haven’t even started on the sewing, quilting, cross-stitch, beading or scrapbooking supplies…
Denis didn’t make it home until almost lunchtime. Poor guy had to sleep in the airport last night after missing his connection by 10 minutes. :(
In other news, four-and-a-half can really be a wonderful age!
Carolyn thought she saw a firefly outside around 6:30, which at this time of year is still full daylight. So I said, “Honey, I thought the fairies didn’t light up the fireflies until after sunset?” (From the Tinkerbell movie). And she said, “No, Mommy, that’s silly! The fairies don’t light up the fireflies in *our* world, they do it themselves.” And I said, “How do you think they light themselves up?” After a moment, she said, “I think they turn on like a flashlight! Like this!”
And then she got the mini maglight off the key hook, turned it on, placed it on her chair, and bent over in front of the chair so it was shining on her butt. I about died laughing - Denis came in and I could barely explain what was going on.
Then she said, “Wait, it would probably work better like this!” and pulled down her skirt so she could shine the flashlight on her bare bottom.
Denis and I were laughing so hard we could barely breathe! Now we’ll have a to have a discussion about why she probably shouldn’t show anyone else her new firefly trick, though…
(And yes, I’m aware that she’s going to be really embarrassed by this post when she’s a bit older! At least I didn’t take pictures…)
I’ve decided I really, really don’t like bedtimes as a “single” parent. At all.
But I at least have a project. I’ve been cleaning out the linen closet. I swear there were dish towels breeding in there, as I don’t remember ever buying them or even receiving them as gifts. Not to mention the extra-long twin sheets from college, the jersey knit sheets with holes that never actually fit well on our mattress, the curtains that came with the house (and came down just as soon as possible…they were ugggggly)…you get the idea. There’s several bags of “stuff” waiting to be donated somewhere they might be put to good use.
I should be cleaning out the craft room, but at least the linen closet is going to be quite lovely and organized when I’m done!
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!
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!”
Tripping up those stairs!
"Congratulations!"
The diploma
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!
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
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!
With those sunglasses, she looks like a movie star!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Anna and her BFF Nicole had a blast playing piano.
Piano for four tiny little hands...
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…)
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!