Amelia

Amelia-isms

2011-12-17T19:58:00.001-05:00

Amelia is a reader and she is good at it. A funny side benefit is hearing her mispronounce things.

Last weekend she asked Daddy what was above Colorado. He said Wyoming. She then said, "That's not all. There's also Nebra-ska." Instead of Ne-brass-ka. It took us a minute to figure out what she had said and then we laughed pretty hard.

Last night she was watching a youtube video of a guy playing Pachelbel's Canon by rubbing the edges of water-filled wine glasses. He had done all four parts (moving line, harmony, etc.) and so it was a split screen in four parts. She said, "Move your computer, Daddy, so I can see all four i-MAJ-es." I immediately knew she meants imagines, but she floors me by how much her vocabulary is already growing through what she is reading rather than just hearing it.

Volunteering

2011-12-16T16:38:00.000-05:00

I've been volunteering in Amelia's school all week for about 90 minutes, sometimes more depending on the day. The teacher has been doing an ornament every day so I've been going in at 10 am when they are done with their block (gym, art, etc.) and doing those with the kids. Yesterday was one of those days where I went back in at 2 pm to finish the ornament and then I can just take Amelia home at the end of the day rather than waiting in the carpool line. As she and I were walking down the hall, she looked up at me and said, "I really like it when you come to my classroom. It warms my heart." There was a lot of noise in the hallway from kids heading to the bus line and she said, "I am afraid you couldn't hear me. I said it really warms my heart." I smiled at her and said that I heard her and that I liked seeing her too. And my heart was just melting. How sweet!

Snow!

2011-11-29T21:43:00.001-05:00

It snowed today and Amelia had a blast. I picked her up early from choir because I was nervous about driving in the snow. (Took driver's ed in FL ... can you blame me?) She couldn't wait to get home and into her snow pants to play in it!

Becoming her own person

2011-11-27T17:24:00.000-05:00

Amelia is turning into a little person and it's just wonderful to see her emerging. She is still not all sweetness and light (but what child is?), but it's fun to see how she is coming into her own as a person.

Today we went to Wal-mart and she definitely had opinions different from mine as to what she wanted.

We got home and she asked Daddy if she could run a train, so they went downstairs together. That hasn't happened in a long time.

She also asks do I have time for xyz before supper? She seems to (finally!) be developing a sense of time. yay!

Last week she decided she was ready to be dropped off at school rather than me walking her in. She is so proud of herself, getting out of the car and slinging that backpack onto her back. For me, it's dealing with that fine line of being proud of her and *sniff sniff* she is growing up so fast!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T21:47:00.001-05:00

Amelia developed a fever 20 minutes before we ate dinner. Seriously.

But otherwise, we had a great Thanksgiving. Uncle Stephen and his family came. Amelia thoroughly enjoyed visiting with her cousins. We went to the Hands On Museum and also the Speedway Christmas Lights.

Good times!

Exhausted

2011-11-18T20:10:00.001-05:00

Daddy is out of town and last night I went to bed about an hour later than normal - woohoo! But then around 2 am Amelia came into the room and climbed in bed. She fell right to sleep but then scooted into the middle of the bed, and then scooted some more towards me. Katerina, our pregnant kitty, was already at my feet. I was crowded in our king sized bed and Daddy wasn't even there!

I wasn't quite awake when Amelia came in and just assumed it was 5 am (couldn't see the clock so I didn't realize it was around 2:30 am) and we'd be up in an hour or so anyway. This morning, after the sun was up, she told me she had come in because she'd had a bad dream and I told her just to lay in the bed since Daddy wasn't home. I didn't quite remember the entire sequence, but it made sense. She also told me, once the sun was shining, that when she woke up she thought we were in a hotel. She cracks me up.

Her being in bed made it hard for me to sleep because she does make noise and it puts my mommy radar on high alert, just like when she was an infant. Also, my hand has stitches and boo-boos from a bad fall last week (Amelia was running and took us both down, but only I got hurt thankfully). I was worried she'd snuggle into my bad hand since she was sleeping on that side of my body. Since I couldn't get back to sleep, I got up and putteredor about an hour and then went back to bed at 4 am, only to have her wake up for the day at 4:50 am. She was excited because it was her leader day at school. Ugh.

So I am exhausted.

In other news, she is turning into such a great helper. Had to use a snake on the bathtub drain tonight and I asked her to get me some paper towels and she did so ... immediately!

The best part of the day was just a little while ago. When I put her to bed tonight she said, "Mommy?" And I said, "Yes?" And she said, "I love you." Awwwww. She'll say she loves me, too, but she doesn't initiate very often, if at all. So it meant a lot tonight.

[Smile]

Differences

2011-11-17T19:47:00.002-05:00

Watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with Amelia earlier. She LOVED it but I couldn't help think of the technology. As a kid, I had towait and watch it the night it came on TV. Tonight, we watched it when it was convenient - thanks to a DVD and a laptop. We didn't even have VHS and computers when I was a kid ... we've come so far so fast, not to mention the TV had maybe 5 channels if you counted the sometimes fuzzy one that we got on the lower dial ... yep we had to get up off our butts and literally turn the dial. No remote controls. And no cable bill ... TV was free! Am I really that old? Don't answer that.

Another striking difference is the one between her and me. She cackled and giggled over the physical humor parts and the non-speaking parts, like where Snoopy was setting the table with Woodstock. I always thought, how boring, when are they going to start speaking again. I have always been into dialogue - but she LOVES physical humor. As much as I enjoyed Lucille Ball, I always found her antics too outlandish to be believable. I was always more interested in how she was going to get out of the mess she got into in each episode and whether she'd ever get some sense (ha!). I know Amelia is going to adore her and just laugh and laugh and laugh. I need to get ahold of some episodes of I Love Lucy! I wonder if there are some on You Tube.

Halloween

2011-10-31T21:25:00.000-04:00

Amelia has enjoyed "playing" haunted house lately. Since it's been getting dark earlier and earlier, she likes to turn off all the lights in the house and then walk around (creep around) with a flashlight. It's not all fun and games, though. I pretended to be a sock-eating monster the other night and took her socks off. She started to cry. Yes, I felt bad.

Halloween was fun. I am dealing with a car in the shop, so I was a little distracted during the day and not quite in the spirit of it all. But Amelia was ready to get dressed ... as a cat! Yep, we bought her a tiger costume, but after wearing it for Acro and then deciding to be a pumpkin for dance, she decided she was ready to be a cat for Halloween. Hmmmm. So next year we won't get a costume until the last minute, I think! This is year three as a cat!!! I did get her to wear the tiger gloves over her Dora gloves so her hands would be warm and yet cat-like. (And she has two shirts on under that black turtleneck!)

After putting together her outfit and drawing whiskers anda nose, we went to Nana's and then to church for Trunk or Treat. She scooped up some candy and then we headed inside for hots dogs and soup. Amelia liked the potato soup so much she asked me for mine - not some of mine, ALL of mine! She cracks me up.

We then headed to our neighborhood and we were only going to go to a handful of houses. Our plans changed when her friend, Josephina, spotted us (Ameee-liaaaaa!!!!!) and the two of them had SO much fun hitting the rest of the houses down the street. I told her mom we need to just plan for them to trick-or-treat together next year!

Pumpkin Time!

2011-10-30T22:38:00.002-04:00

Amelia and I had fun decorating the house last week with pumpkin lights, ghost lights, pumpkin & cat cut-out garland and some pictures of pumpkins. But until yesterday we had no pumpkin. We tried getting one at the fruit stand Saturday afternoon, but they had none left. Then, at church, they were giving away the pumpkins used for decoration! So we scored a jack-0-lantern sized one and one that I'll use for pies and pumpkin pancakes. I love her method of carrying the pumpkin!

Later in the evening we carved the jack-o-lantern. It was actually an optional homework assignment to design and carve a jack-o-lantern, and we were really cutting it close, no pun intended! Amelia enjoyed drawing its face. I love her look of intensity here! And I was impressed with her creative mouth design. She really rocked when it came to digging out the seeds. I should have known that my very tactile child would love that, but I didn't suspect that she would be so thorough. She did a great job getting out all the seeds - there were none for me to go back and pull out. While we roasted the seeds, I cut out her design and we put in a real candle. No bad, huh?

[pictured dated 10/30/11]

Katerina

2011-10-29T09:32:00.009-04:00

Katerina is our newest WUWL (wandered up and wouldn't leave) cat. She is adorable and the same size as Tallulah, maybe a shade larger, and she is all gray just like Tallulah is all black. We first met her in mid-September and she wasn't shy about coming straight into the house and making herself at home. But we always let her back out and figured she went home because we saw her intermittently. We thought she might belong to someone who only let her out a few days at a time. However, last weekend when the weather turned cold and Katerina had NO interest in going back outside, we let her spend the night. And she didn't want out the next day either. We also decided there was a good chance she had worms.

Aunt Meg, the family vet, determined they were the type caused by fleas. She came by last week and made "friends" with Katerina by shoving two worm pills down her throat and then giving her a rabies shot between the shoulder blades. The best part of the visit was that she brought Kirby, her large poodle, because Amelia had a blast showing Kirby around the house and then tethering her to a Pooh chair in her room while she wrote stories. And then Kirby wouldn't let me into Amelia's room - I didn't know poodles were so protective!

Since Katerina had worms and she loved to lay on the couch, I showed Amelia how they looked like rice. Amelia likes to lay on the couch first thing in the morning sometimes (at o'dark thirty, so I am still in bed myself) and I didn't want her laying on worms. Amelia found some on Katerina's circular cat scratch/ball toy that she spends a lot of time on, too, but I told her that was okay since Katerina was the only one who ever sat there. This morning, Amelia says (at o'dark thirty while I am still in bed), "Mommy! There are worms in my kitty book!" Thinking that the worms should be gone by now but not wanting her touching or spreading the worms around the house, I jump up out of bed. On a Saturday morning. I thought maybe Amelia had left the book open on the ottoman last night and Katerina had been sleeping on it. No, this was a kitty book she got at her school library yesterday that had a chapter on vaccinations, worms and the like. So while there indeed were worms in her book, the "worms" were a topic! She cracks me up. Now that chapter will have so much more meaning for her!

Katerina is very patient with Amelia, so we may have finally found a cat for her, since our other cats have always run from her! I love this picture where she chose to sit on the pillow after Amelia was already working on the floor on her kitty calendar. Katerina is a sweet kitty and purrs easily. She doesn't seem to care about the other two cats who glare at her, so it might go well this winter. We'll see!

In unrelated news, this morning Amelia asked me to help her with a word in her Otis book. She said it looks like "chick-a-go" and it didn't make sense. I looked and it was the city Chicago. I laughed because she is right!

[pictures dated 10/24 & 10/27, respectively]

Acro

2011-10-27T21:54:00.000-04:00

Amelia takes Acro (short for acrobatics, gymnastics really) every Tuesday evening. This past week the parents were invited in for a performance for the last 15 minutes and the children were to dress in their costumes as long as they could tumble in them. We amended Amelia's tiger costume by drawing ears on her forehead instead of using her hat that has the ears. This is her being fierce! (Are you scared?)

The next night for dance she decided she wanted to be a pumpkin instead. I indulged her but I am not sure she looked like one. She wanted an orange shirt, green pants and triangles fo her eyes and nose. I added an orange bow in her hair and hoped her pumpkin shirt gave a clue, too. The important thing is that she was happy because we did exactly what she wanted. When it doesn't matter in the big picture, I think it's important for young children to feel like they can make decisions since so many other choices are out of their control - like going to school when they're having so much fun playing in the morning! (That's a big struggle right now.)

Amelia and the other girls danced a cute routine to the Ghostbusters theme, but I forgot to bring in the camera. Oh well - we have the memories!

[picture dated 10/25/11]

Frog Jam

2011-10-13T21:02:00.004-04:00

We went to the county fair earlier this month where Amelia got a crazy balloon hat and we also bought some frog jam while we were there. Amelia, who can read, is convinced that there are frogs in it, along with some raspberries and such. She hasn't looked closely at the ingredient list (yet). When she does I am fully prepared to tell her that there are frogs in it because there are two pictures of frogs on either side of the ingredient list so they didn't feel it was necessary to list them in the ingredients. I have had so much fun with this - even telling her that it was kinda "gummy" because of the frogs. I overheard her asking Hannah how many frogs had to die to make her jam! She insists on eating it on her peanut butter sandwiches and I've come to find out she's told her teacher about it, too! I was volunteering this morning and Ms. Melanie says, "So Amelia says she has frog jam? Really? What's in it?" I know what to get Amelia and her teacher for Christmas!

In the afternoon we saw Daddy play in the alumni band and Amelia and I took turns taking pictures of each other - her new favorite thing! Here's the one I took of her.

Then we went to a used bookstore with Aunt Jeannine & her kids. I love how much of bookworm Amelia is and, since I had the camera, I just had to take a picture!

[photos dated 10/8/11]

Cheap Fun

2011-10-04T13:07:00.003-04:00

Amelia noticed that I was saving empty toilet paper rolls for her art teacher. This weekend she asked why? So I decided to show her and we had the most fun. I explained that you can wrap them with construction paper to make all sorts of things like pilgrims, animals, even cats. She of course chose a cat, and a black one at that. She quickly caught on and had the BEST fun making a kitty, complete with ears, four feet and a great tail. Just some glue, construction paper, scissors and a toilet paper roll. We also used felt for the nose since we had pink felt but no pink paper. Who needs all those fancy electronics?

Yesterday it was digging in the backyard. (Oops) But she and her friend Josephina (who informed us that pansies were edible as she nibbled one) did have a ton of fun. They were supposed to be planting pansies into our two pots because the petunias had died. We enjoy the color on the front and back porch, and Amelia loves picking them out (all purple and all yellow) and then creating her own pattern in the pots with them. Grandma sent her kid-sized gardening gloves and tools at Easter and we’ve had a lot of fun with them!

The real fun yesterday was the discovery of propellers. She was sent home with three sets of cheap plastic propellers that you assemble by putting the propeller on the end of a plastic stick. Seriously, these probably came in 10 packs for $1. The girls played with them for a LONG time and after Josephina left, Amelia continued to play with them. We had to “put them to bed” last night complete with a blanket and a kiss good-night so Amelia could “stop thinking about them” while she tried to fall asleep.

[pictured dated 10/4/11]

The Drop-Off

2011-10-02T20:52:00.006-04:00

We went to Pet Harmony and dropped off the cat food and toys that Amelia collected at her party in lieu of (or in addition to) gifts. We wound up with over 28 lbs. of food and lots of great cat toys for needy felines!

Of course, the real reward was getting to play with kitties!

[pictures dated 10/1/11]

Leader-tards

2011-09-14T20:43:00.002-04:00

We took a year off from dance when Amelia went to kindergarten. I felt that a 7-hour day, 5 days a week was enough activity. (Plus we also did piano.) This year she wanted to do Acro and I wanted her to do Dance (ballet/tap). So what's a mother to do? Enroll her in both! My plan was to let her do both for a month and then pick, but she is enjoying both of them so far. And I get a kick out of her saying "leader-tard" more than once a week! "Mommy, I need help with my leader-tard," just makes me smile.

They Notice Everything, Don't They?

2011-09-07T21:37:00.000-04:00

The other day Amelia was changing out one of her DVDs (Diego, Dora or Backyardigans) for one of the others and couldn't find the case. So she tells Daddy, "I'll just put the DVD in the case of the one I'm going to watch, just like I've seen Mommy do with the CDs in the car."

Birthday Anticipation

2011-09-04T20:46:00.001-04:00

This morning at church the pastor pointed out a few birthdays and had the congregation sing, "Happy Birthday". Then he went over a few prayer requests and asked if there were any others. Apparently, Amelia thought he was still on birthdays because she piped up loudly and let everyone know hers is on the 22nd!

1st Grade: Amelia's Perspective

2011-08-24T10:02:00.001-04:00

Amelia hasn’t said much about how she likes first grade. When pressed, she will say her favorite thing is one of her block activities, usually the one she had that day (gym, art, music, computers or library). Sometimes she will say recess, sometimes lunch, but never something she did in her classroom. Her teacher this year is known as one of the tough but fair ones, and she was recommended by her kindergarten teacher who said she’d be good for Amelia both academically and for discipline. Amelia’s handwriting has improved drastically and she comes home with “excellent” behavior almost every day. (Two “good” days so far.) She also comes home a lot less messy than she did in kindergarten. She still seems shy interacting with her teacher. She gets all shy and won’t answer Ms. Melanie when asked if she is having a good day and Amelia seems reluctant for the interaction required to turn in her folder every morning. I don’t think teachers should be a child’s “best friend” so I am not yet too concerned about this long warm-up period, especially since Amelia seems to be doing well at school otherwise (100% on her first spelling test!).

Last night we got a little more of her reaction to first grade. At dinner she suddenly said, “I feel like school is my home during the week and I am just treating my house like it’s a hotel.” After expending energy trying really, really hard not to laugh and fall out of my chair, I said, “But at least I get to pick you up every afternoon and you can come home and play.” She reluctantly agreed that it helped, but she much preferred the weekends.

She is definitely a child who would play every day if she could, all day long. At night she often tells me that she can’t go to bed yet, there are still things she wants to do, and she isn’t just making excuses because she can tick them off, too! She clearly runs out of day before she runs out of ideas, and this was happening during summer break, too. Poor thing. I hope she always has such an enthusiasm for life and the things that interest her.

Fascinated with Adele

2011-08-23T09:45:00.001-04:00

Amelia is in love with the Adele song “Rolling in the Deep”. A friend of mine had posted a youtube clip of an Air Force Band covering it and she heard it from her room where she was supposed to be falling asleep. She came running out to watch it and the next morning was singing "Coulda had it alllllll" at the top of her lungs when she awoke. This was in place of her normal routine of meowing to let me know there is an awake kitty in her bed. (I then have to come in and find the kitty who is hiding under the covers!) Since she seems to love the song so much, I showed her Adele’s video on youtube and then decided to print the lyrics to help us learn the words.

So far Amelia is still more interested in watching and listening to Adele, but it turns out she thinks lyrics is pronounced “lickereece”! I guess that’s what happens when you have an early reader!! It was really funny, though, when she was asking where the lickereece were and I had NO idea what she was talking about. I’ve been correcting her but it hasn’t stuck yet because apparently (like horz davorz and cha-hooa-hooa for me) lickereece has been in her head for a while. She matter-of-factly told me, “Mommy, I got that idea from the book that came with the Silly Songs CDs.” She used to say Wellbinks for Webkinz, too, but she has self-corrected that one. Hopefully lyrics is next!

Kitties & Babies

2011-08-20T21:28:00.008-04:00

Aunt Meg brought Liza's Build-a-bear collection, complete with wardrobes, to Nana's house recently. Amelia is in heaven borrowing one or two at a time, dressing them in "pajamas" and regular clothes, playing with them, sleeping with them ... it's hilarious.

We're trying to teach Amelia to be nicer to the cats. She so badly wants to be able to pick them up and cuddle with them but we've been patiently explaining for years that they don't like that. We briefly considered a ragdoll breed, but they shed WAY too much. She is doing better lately with DeMarcus who sometimes can't get enough attention from any of us. Despite all that, Amelia says to me the other day, "Maybe I could hold a baby sometime since babies don't bite or scratch," and made a cradling motion with her arms. So sweet! Luckily, Tia Polly will have Isidora next month and Amelia will get her chance. Liza was afraid to hold Amelia as a baby because she was afraid of being drooled on! Amelia doesn't seem to realize that could be a problem. She did repeat what she heard at nursery last week though. The baby there spits up, but not out! hahaha

We had our shower tiled last week. It has a few scratches and cracks that need to be addressed. In the meantime, Amelia stood in the hallway and said, "From here, it looks like cardboard!" Yep, that's what we paid the big bucks for, little girl.

Her mind

2011-08-18T12:43:00.003-04:00

She is definitely growing up. She now says chihuahua correctly instead of chi-wala.

I still love hearing how she thinks, though. The other day she said that Dodah didn't like how she doesn't name animals with real names but instead will call a cat "kitty", etc. She explained to me, "I need to read more books so I can learn more names. Dodah doesn't understand that I don't know enough names yet!" Her earnestness was so cute.

Dodah thought it would be cute to write the word "mind" on a piece of paper, hide it and let Amelia help her find her mind. It was funny that afternoon to hear Amelia say, "Dodah lost her mind but I helped her find it!" A few days later she said to me, "Mommy, I think I need a new mind." I thought she was going to go to her desk and just make one! She does sometimes say, "My brain is too tired. I just can't think." I already knew it goes a million miles an hour, so that just give me proof!

Second Tooth, First Grade!

2011-08-10T13:19:00.009-04:00

What a fun, adventure-filled week we’re having! Monday evening Amelia finally lost her second tooth. It was pushed out so far from her new tooth growing up behind it, but it did not want to leave! For over two weeks I’ve been wiggling it every night, and pulling once or twice. Monday evening I had a firm grip for a third try at pulling and Amelia pushed my arm away – and out came the tooth! Talk about teamwork. Just like with the first tooth, it went from pain to proud in one moment! She had a huge smile on her face.

She put it in her Hello Kitty’s dress pocket and when the tooth fairy showed up later, she couldn’t find Hello Kitty! But apparently she persisted (with some help) and in the morning, Amelia had coins instead of a tooth! And just enough money to add to her chore money to buy her Trouble game that she’s been after. It’s good timing, too, because we already had plans to go to Wal-mart in the evening to buy schools supplies after “Meet the Teacher”.

Today was Amelia’s first day of school and she did so well going in, putting her things away in her cubby, finding a seat and getting started. I am so proud of her! I can’t wait to pick her up and hear about her day!

Family Walk

2011-07-14T12:39:00.000-04:00

We were walking as a family up to Dodah’s last night for a quick visit. Amelia suddenly says, “It’s just like in Bible times! They didn’t have cars and they had to walk everywhere. [short pause] Oh, but they had a donkey, too. Mary got to ride a donkey once!”

Summer Evening

2011-06-20T20:51:00.002-04:00

Right now, I am listening to Amelia singing and talking to herself in her room. I think she is playing the music from Tad. She should be asleep by now but she spent the entire day at home playing with daddy and then, after I got home from work, me. It's more enjoyable and clearly not as tiring as playing at Nana's or going to school. And that's okay. Soon she will be a teenager and I will miss these years.

Earlier this afternoon Amelia also played computer games in her room. I let her play them in her room once last week due to bug spray in the kitchen - dang flies! - and now it's her new favorite place to play them, on her Pooh table, which she will outgrow soon, I am afraid. It seems she has suddenly outgrown a lot of things, and many more are very close to becoming a part of her past.

For parts of the past two days, I've been trying to clean out her closet and her room. Yesterday I found Uno Moo and asked Amelia if she thought it was too babyish for her. She said, "Yeah. It was more fun to play when I was 3 or 4." Such a grown-up sounding answer to me! Wow. Today I found her wooden number and alphabet puzzles. She had fun trying to make words with the letters of the alphabet puzzle, and large numbers using 2 and 3 of the number pieces. But I know those are outgrown, too. *sniff sniff* The time really does go by ...

She has just become such a little girl all of a sudden. Every day of her life I love her to death just the way she is, and that's how I feel right now. But I also can't believe I am finally coming out of the toddler/preschooler tunnel. I am sentimental about it, yet also happy to have survived and moved on. I think motherhood is full of these contradictions, although that's not quite the right word for it.

Father's Day Weekend: First Play, Reading in Church

2011-06-19T20:48:00.001-04:00

We took Amelia to her first play yesterday. It was the 3 Little Pigs at Barter Theatre, about 90 minutes away. They did a really nice job and Amelia enjoyed it. She especially liked Maxie, who was Wolfie's assistant and wanted to re-do his lair because Maxie "just wants to make everything beautiful."

Today she read in church for the first time. In my effort to interest her in what goes on during church, I had pointed out the teens that read. That day on the way out she asked the pastor if she could read sometime! She really wanted to do it! I was shocked. He chose Father's Day and I was a little anxious that it was too soon and she would be distracted by the microphone or the people watching her but we decided to go for it.

This morning I was thinking of it being Father's Day, getting ready to make breakfast, all the normal Sunday stuff and she came in the kitchen and said, "I can't wait to go to church because I get to read today!" It was all she could think about. Just before the service she told Jacob, "Today's a BIG day! I am reading!!"

She did a great job and loved it so much she wants to do it again. She read Genesis 1:1-5 and did the entire thing before looking up and giving the biggest smile. People started to applaud and she got really shy and flopped on the floor (which is something she does when she gets embarrassed by attention from others). She got right back up and went to her seat. She was so herself and it was great.

[photos dated 6/18 and 6/19/11, respectively]

Last Day of School

2011-06-09T15:46:00.004-04:00

Amelia is no longer a kindergartner! Yesterday was her last day of school and I took her picture by the sign, which I had also done on the first day of school. Different angle, though. Much different emotions, too. In August, it was full of expectations and now it's like, "What just happened?" Seriously ... we're done? I also took her picture with her teacher and the helper.

We also found her pillow pet. She managed to take it every day since at least Christmas and didn't come home with it Monday. I didn't notice until Tuesday morning and when it wasn't at school, I mentioned it to her teacher who told me she didn't remember saying good-bye to it the previous afternoon. (Ha! I didn't know until then that Amelia has Ms. Mary say good-bye to it each afternoon! How cute.) I emailed Daddy who thought he had seen it the night before when he was tucking her in, but that proved to be a different critter. After she went to bed Tuesday night, I got to thinking about it and realized something was up because Amelia didn't seem concerned. I don't want her to be too materialistic so I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but then I started wondering if someone took it from her and she was afraid to tell me. So when she woke up yesterday I gently asked her what she thought happened to her pillow pet. "When I'm waiting in the pick-up line at school and Emily is behind me, she always plays with it but sometimes she forgets to give it back." Ah-ha! But I thought Emily was a bus rider ... turns out it was an Emily in Ms. Betsy's class and when we got to school and stuck our heads in Ms. Betsy's class, what do we see right in front of Emily? Yep, the pillow pet. Amelia was thrilled. Emily said she found it on the floor and we thanked her. (Ms. Betsy later told me she was glad she brought it back because she doesn't always bring things back.)

I am glad Amelia didn't have to end her school year with a her pillow pet being stolen, and I am sorry there are children that feel they need to steal. There's one in Amelia's class, too, who steals (according to the teacher). This same girl has begged Amelia for her pillow pet all year, and she has also bullied Amelia. I tried dealing with it at home by giving Amelia responses for Taylor, but finally had to bring it to the teacher's attention after she made Amelia put rocks in her mouth on the playground. (The teacher spoke to her and kept them apart and we had no further problems.) Prior to the rocks incident, Amelia wanted to give Taylor a different pillow pet from home that she never plays with. I was concerned at that time about setting a precedent for Amelia giving away toys to children who ask for them (especially these bully types), but I also thought it was sweet that it was Amelia's idea to give her the unwanted pet. We waited until the end of school to do it. Since Amelia still wanted to give her the pet, we brought it in Tuesday morning. Amelia was so excited about giving it to Taylor! (We brought it Monday but left it in the car since we were running a little late due to all the extra stuff for water day - extra clothes, sunscreen, etc.) It was sweet to watch her happily give Taylor the pet, even though I was a little worried that she may wind up with no pillow pets since her cat was missing at that point. But it all worked out!

Amelia has been a little less pleased with school over the past week or two since apparently they stopped doing a lot of their normal things in anticipation of the end of school. I don't know why they have to do that, and the last few days were especially unstructured. This past Friday they had a little celebration ceremony at 8:30 and when I dropped her off at 8 am (on my way to get Nana and return for the ceremony), I was told I could take her home after the ceremony. Well, of course, Amelia wanted me to take her home (and I would have loved to) but I was totally unprepared. Fortunately, Amelia wasn't the only one and there were 11 kids that stayed that day. The ceremony itself was nice with the kids singing a few songs and getting their kindergarten graduation certificates. Daddy noticed how they each handed it to the helper when they got back in line! We also got a nice memory book of pictures the teacher put together. Ms. Betsy is retiring after this year and they played a sad song while each child from each class gave her a carnation. Many of the kids were crying by the end, too. Kind of sad on an otherwise happy day.

She came home a few days ago worried about first grade. I think Ms. Mary has been talking to them a lot about how first grade will be different. I took her to see one of the first grade teachers and asked about their daily routine. Ms. Moore was so nice and showed her around the classroom and several of the other children helped her describe their day - how they have two snacks (kindergartners are required to go to breakfast, it's optional for everyone else), read and have homework and spelling tests, and all that good stuff. Amelia hasn't worried about it at home since!

I was waffling about getting her a yearbook and so yesterday morning I bought one and she got excited about her friends signing it so I left it with her for the morning. The helper said she would make sure it made it to Amelia's back pack and it is so cute with each kid signing their name in a different color on the inside cover. Amelia had fun looking at all the pictures of her friends and people she knows from this year. I am glad I went ahead and got her one. They did a nice job - the whole thing is in color.

We also went to the dermatologist yesterday since Amelia has a spot on her cheek from a band-aid that is still slightly noticeable after 6 weeks. The dr. confirmed it is definitely an adhesive reaction but should eventually go away (it's like a slight shadow). She also said that she has the type of skin that would probably develop rosacea when she is grown (which Grandma has so I guess it's hereditary). I had her look at a spot on the back of her knee from last year. Our family doc said it was just some odd skin thing and to put ointment on it. The dermatologist said it looked like eczema. It's cleared up now, but you can still see where the skin is slightly lighter. I was a relieved it wasn't some kind of fungus or strange skin disorder. Hopefully it was something she ate (maybe too many strawberries - she loves those things and eats too many) or other seasonal thing, but I'll still watch for a recurrence.

Now, onto our summer!

Twins

2011-05-18T12:22:00.004-04:00

Amelia is still fascinated with being a cat. It turns out one of the special ed teachers in her school mews at her and Amelia will meow back whenever they see each other in the hall. I love how people can enjoy her!

One morning this weekend, I think it was Sunday, Amelia came bouncing in our room with a tummy full of kittens. She had stuffed three stuffed cats under her pajama shirt. And she left them there. I only know there were three because that is what she told me. She was very proud of herself and proceeded to do her morning bed bouncing and parental wake-up as if nothing was amiss - tummy full of kitties and all.

Yesterday Amelia told me how Kristi Sm*** volunteered in her class. I asked her if she knew that she was one of Ms. Mary's daughters, and then asked her if she knew that Kristi was a twin and her sister's name was Sarah. Even though Amelia had twins Emma and Samuel in pre-school last year (which seems forever ago now) and she talks about the twins in the other k-garten class because she sees them at lunch and at recess (Amber and Emily?) she asked me what twins are. So I explained that they are in their mommy's tummy together, that she was the only baby in my tummy but that some mommies have more than one baby in theirs. Then I said that twins are born within minutes of each other so they have the same birthday. You should have heard her, "So Ms. Mary had TWO babies in her tummy AT THE SAME TIME?" I was like, yeah, just like you had three kittens in yours the other morning. She said, "Oh, you mean under her fur." And that was the end of the subject.

She is SO funny.

Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T11:24:00.010-04:00

We were up this morning watching the Royal wedding and Amelia was very interested. She came out of her room asking, "Is this another weddintg?" (We had just attended Christy's.) I said yes and she asked, "But we weren't invited?" I told her no, but that everyone could watch it on TV. When they came down the aisle as husband and wife she asked what Catherine's new last name would be. I told her Windsor, leaving out the part that she would never use it. She then asked what William's last name was (Windsor) and then asked, "Why?" Hmmm. "Because that is his family's name." Tough questions!

Earlier I asked her if she knew there was such a thing as real princesses and she said she did. I also pointed out the choir boys and making the comparison to her children's choir. She noticed how they weren't wiggling and began looking for boys like the ones in her choir.

The best thing was the timing. Since Kate didn't begin her trip to the church until 5:51 am EDT, I didn't have to get up until David did! And we were able to watch everything but the balcony kiss before leaving for school, so Amelia wasn't late.

Busy day!

2011-04-16T20:53:00.002-04:00

The tooth almost came out tonight. Amelia is still so very excited about it coming out that she let me try numerous times to dislodge it. Her permanent tooth has broken through behind it and is more than clearly visible. If I was wiggling or pulling and it hurt, Amelia would say, "Ah-choo!" I thought that was cute. I told her she was brave but I thought we should try again tomorrow. She wanted to sleep with her Hello Kitty tooth pillow anyway. All it needs is to sew up the bottom half and stuff that half as well. Her head is already stuffed and sewn. We went ahead and finished the dress today just in case we needed that pocket!

She also had her first sleepover last night. Her little friend Livia is moving to Portland next month. They've been friends since Amelia was 9 months old. So sad.

And today was Amelia's first time attending a wedding. She worked in her activity book for the most part but I pointed out to her when they were exchanging vows saying that "Paul is promising to always love Christy" and then again when "Christy is promising to always love Paul". And then the ring exchange and of course the kiss!

An impending visit from the tooth fairy, a first sleepover and a first wedding. Such a busy girl!

Did you know ... Cottontail drives a Kia Soul?

2011-04-13T10:06:00.006-04:00

We walked into the lobby at school today and there was a woman with pink ears, pink color sprayed into her hair and some bunny face make-up. I pointed her out to Amelia and the woman came over and started telling Amelia that her name was Cottontail, then turned around and showed Amelia her tail! Then she turned back around and pointed out her “sisters” (large stuffed bunny head earings) on her ears and said one was Flopsy and the other was Mopsy. Then she pointed to her bunny rabbit pin on her vest and said that was in honor of her brother Peter who, at the moment, was incarcerated for grand theft carrot. "That means he is locked up in prison!" You see, he got caught in Mr. McGregor’s garden.

It was SO cute! I loved how the woman stayed in character the entire time. Amelia was totally smitten. I wish I had a camera to capture the smile on Amelia’s face as soon as the woman started talking to her! It was one of those ear to ear grins where her eyes almost become slits. So cute.

Then on the way out of town I came up behind an orange Kia Soul turning right from the school's road and noticed bunny ears through the back window of the driver side!

Any day now!

2011-04-09T08:31:00.011-04:00

A blogger/FB friend posted a pic of her little girl a couple of months ago saying she had "shark teeth". Amelia does now, too! You can clearly see the second tooth coming up behind her very loose tooth.

We are working on a cute Hello Kitty sewing project that we received as a late Christmas gift from Aunt Jeannine. Amelia is doing all the sewing, I'm just guiding her and tying knots. I think it will be a perfect tooth fairy pillow!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T15:45:00.001-04:00

Daylight savings time is kicking our butts. Poor Amelia gets so upset that she has no time to play when wakes, like she normally does. A few more days, though, and all will be well again. Right?

Amelia was complaining earlier this week that her lip still hurt. I think that her lip took more of the brunt from that rock than her tooth did. She says it’s fine now, but she was licking it a lot and it got chapped, so that probably didn’t help much either.

This morning she picked the same green dress she wore last year. It fit her a lot better since it was pretty big last year on her. She said she will have happy flowers today. How cute.

I decided to take her picture just as we were leaving so that her hair and dress weren’t yet messy, although I didn’t realize she had a yogurt mustache! We were almost late so I took them quickly. She thought it was a great idea and then gave me this really stiff pose. So I tried to get her more relaxed but moved the camera while it clicked and she came out blurred. Her daddy thought it was her that was being blurry!

When we got to school leprechauns had been up to mischief! Before Amelia even had time to hang her name on the peg board Ms. Mary said, “Amelia, look! Leprechauns have been here!” There were chairs on the table, things out of cubbies, little green footprints on the tables and walls, and green water in the toilet!!! I love how fun Ms. Mary makes kindergarten, even in this day and age of testing and standards, etc.

[picture dated 3/17/11]

Another Tooth Saga

2011-03-08T20:31:00.003-05:00

I was letting Amelia play outside like we used to do growing up. I was looking through the window every few minutes as I put away laundry and cleaned the kitchen. She was having fun throwing her stuffed cat up in the air and then trying to get it out of the tree by jumping or climbing. Well, then the cat landed a little too out of reach and she decided to throw rocks at it to dislodge it. And one of the rocks came back down and landed on her mouth.

I thought at first she just had a busted lip. But then when she was brushing her teeth before bed I noticed a small chip in the center of her front left tooth. It was pretty sharp to the touch so I called the dentist this morning and they got us in at 4:30 pm. They confirmed there was no crack going up towards the gum, as I had feared, and they filed it down so it's not so sharp. (And it's barely noticeable really.) So now we are just watching for an abscess as it all heals. Poor girl.

While we were at the dentist, Dr. Angie confirmed that Amelia's bottom tooth is loose. So my baby is definitely growing up!

Horse Poop & Loose Tooth

2011-02-22T09:46:00.002-05:00

One of the pitfalls of living in a rural area is fertilizer. I picked Amelia up from school yesterday and as we turned left we could tell the farmer had recently used some natural fertilizer. I heard Amelia sniffing in the back seat and I told her it was cow manure. She said, "It smells like horse poop!" Yep, it does. Lots of it! Then she wanted to know why cow poop and horse poop smelled the same. Ummmm .... I don't know?

Last night Amelia was brushing her teeth and said her tooth was loose. Yeah, right. I was sure she just wanted to be like a lot of the kids in her class, most of whom are up to a year older than she is. Plus, I know they just got done with a unit on healthy teeth, complete with a set of teeth that they got to brush. I humored her and sure enough, I think her bottom front tooth is loose!

This was followed by me telling her she can't be old enough yet, she is still my baby. (Yeah, right.) I got really, really sentimental. Wasn't it just last week that she first got that tooth? She was toothless for so long and then finally it popped through. It can't be leaving already!

It is just a little loose. But as I looked at her last night at bedtime, noticing how tall she is getting, how big she is, I know my little girl is just going to keep growing. sniff sniff. Time waits for no one. While I am enjoying how much more conversational she is as we talk about things and she asks really neat questions (except for the above mentioned poop one), the trade-off is losing baby things like teeth.

And another thought that occurred to me last night was how I will save that tooth and probably all the other ones. I didn't think I would, but now that we are on the eve of her losing one, I feel very sentimental about it.

To stave off some of her excitement last night once I confirmed the loose tooth I told her that losing a tooth is very painful. She looked at me disbelievingly and I said, "It sure does hurt once it comes out. Your friends didn't tell you that, did they?" They never do.

Amelia hints about a sister

2011-01-26T20:45:00.002-05:00

Sort of. And then I figured it out.

On Sunday afternoon Roxana was here with her girls and told Amelia that Livia had sorted all her toys and gave Anda many of them. She told Amelia how happy Livia was with her clean room and how easy it will be to keep it neat.

That evening as Amelia was getting ready for bed she said, "Maybe when I'm older and like sharing with another girl, I can have a sister." Since Amelia isn't the world's greatest about sharing unless it's her idea, I didn't think I had to worry about her comment, plus it's the first time she's ever mentioned a sibling.

Then I figured it out ... because I thought it was curious she said sister rather than sister or brother. Amelia's style is to be pretty inclusive when there are options. The following day it dawned on me that she was processing what Roxana had said and that's why she said sister - because Livia has a sister.

We often go through Amelia's toys, books and clothes together and weed out ones for other little boys and girls. I probably involve her in this too much because she will often come to me out of the blue with an item and announce that she really likes it and can she keep it, to which I always says yes. So she doesn't have a problem with passing things along, but I think the idea that a younger sibling would be eager to inherit her possessions may have unsettled her a little!

And it's been almost a week and no more mention of a sister. Phew!

On another note, Amelia seems to be using the word 'rather' in place of 'either' as well as 'prefer'. As in, "Would you rather the blue one or the pink one?" Or, "Your choices are the cat rather the dog." It's pretty funny. I've also been correcting her double negatives and incorrect verb usage. I've tried explaining it to her as well as just correcting her. She stumbles a little, but at least she is thinking about what she is saying. I don't want to take away her confidence so I don't correct her when she hesitates and still gets it wrong.

She is doing really well with the double negatives, but now she sometimes sounds a little uppity. She, not surprisingly, is going the slightly harder route and instead of dropping the second negative, she drops the first. She was saying, "I don't want no cookies," and now says, "I want no cookies." This throws other adults because they think there was an amount in there and then ask her again how many she wants!

Woodstock's newest fan

2010-12-15T10:44:00.000-05:00

Amelia watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special at school and decided she really likes Woodstock . The first (and so far only) Christmas card we received featured Woodstock and Amelia was so excited she carried it around for a couple of days.

When I showed her the Dora wrapping paper at Wal-mart the other day she noticed the Peanuts wrapping paper and wondered aloud if Woodstock was on it. She turned it around until she found Woodstock .

This morning, after a snow day with Daddy yesterday that included some Christmas shopping, she told me we needed to get a dog. When I asked why she said because then we could go to Walgreens and get the Woodstock dog toy that she and Daddy saw yesterday. (Yep, best reason to get a dog yet!) She repeated herself to make sure I understood that the point was about Woodstock . “So after we get a dog, we have to go all the way to Walgreens and get Woodstock !” Yes, dear.

So guess who is on-line this morning looking for plush Woodstock toys? (Note to self, when on Amazon, choose ‘toys’ and don’t leave it on ‘books’ when searching Woodstock !) I think I’ve helped Santa find a perfect stocking stuffer for a little girl named Amelia.

A few more Amelia-isms

2010-12-12T21:09:00.005-05:00

We don't watch a whole lot of weather and local news in our house, except this time of year. During the weather report last week during all the snow, Amelia heard the newscaster talk about Franklin and she says, "If I could go inside the TV, I would tell her that Franklin is also a turtle."

Instead of aren't, Amelia says amn't, as in, "I am really good at this, amn't I?" (I have corrected her several times on this and it doesn't seem to be working yet.)

Instead of perhaps, she says p'haps.

Instead of whether she says rather, as in, "I don't know rather Daddy is home or not."

Rhyming

2010-10-22T20:12:00.001-04:00

Amelia has a new-found fascination with rhymes. She is noticing that there are rhymes in the songs she hears on her CDs. Everytime she notices one, she points it out with such delight. It honestly brings her joy. Like, "Wow! That was there all this time and I just now noticed it!" So cute!

She's such a gentleman!

2010-10-20T09:26:00.000-04:00

Since turning 5, Amelia is very proud of being able to do things she couldn't do when she was 4. In some ways, I think she looks at turning 5 as some kind of magic thing and I've had to remind her a few times that some things still need practice and it's okay if she can't do something by herself right away.

She is also being more helpful and tries to open heavy doors like the one near her classroom. The other day she was holding a door open with her entire body and she said, "Look, Mommy! I'm being a gentleman!" I just smiled proudly at her and said, "Yes, you are!"

Amelia says ...

2010-10-10T19:32:00.002-04:00

This morning Amelia was looking at her calendar and she said, "Tomorrow is Columbus Day Observed. Tuesday is Columbus Day. Ms. Mary was wrong! She said Monday was Columbus Day. That Ms. Mary, she's always saying things to make sure we are paying attention."

While I was taking my shower she was playing in the sunroom. Daddy overheard her tell her little kitty that climbing on the footstool was "unexpectable". Then she brought Daddy the stuffed fox and told him to pretend it was a present he got her for New York Day. He said, "New York Day?" And she said, "Yes, New York Day. It's the first day in January."

Happy October!

2010-10-01T20:49:00.000-04:00

Tia Polly bought Amelia an adorable Halloween shirt and I figure now that it's October she can wear it. Since it's purple and mostly just features a cat, she might get away with wearing it past Halloween ... we'll see. The cat is velvet which is pretty neat, too.

[picture dated 10/1/10]

First Field Trip

2010-09-30T20:52:00.006-04:00

Amelia went to an apple orchard with all four kindergarten classes today. Her daddy met the group there since he works just a few minutes away. She got to ride an activity bus for 45 minutes each way. I was a little worried about that. She said she shared the seat with three other children. I would love a picture of that!

They got to the orchard, had their lunch, rode on a hay-baled trailer to the orchard, picked apples that were then bagged (Amelia got three), came back, picked out a pumpkin, had a presentation about how orchards operate and got to sort apples by color and size, went in the corn maze which had stops where each group of four children had to answer a question to know which way to turn, and then had some apple cider. She was pooped tonight when I saw her!

Here is her loot. These apples are HUGE! I told her we would use her pumpkin to decorate the front porch for a little while and then we'd make pumpkin pie. She really liked the pie idea. It's nice to have someone in the family who likes pumpkin pie as much as I do! Mmmmmmmm.

Amelia on Dance

2010-09-24T22:05:00.000-04:00

As I brushed my teeth this morning, I heard Amelia telling her Daddy, “Everyone has dance inside of them. You just have to let it out and you can dance any way that you want to. Dance doesn’t die until the world dies. When the world dies, there is no more dance.” The first part sounds like something she would have gotten from Angel or Me-me, but she said she made it up herself.

Last day of being 4

2010-09-21T21:53:00.001-04:00

So hard to believe today was the last day that Amelia was 4! I told her on the way to school that today was the last day of her being 4 but that it seemed like she was 5 already for a while because she was going to kindergarten, and it's true.

I love my girl at any age, but it is amazing how big she is getting. Just for fun the other night I rocked her as I sang "Rock-a-bye baby" and then dropped her in bed when the baby falls, just like I did when she was in her crib and toddler bed. She thought it was fun, but of course had no memory of it. **sniff sniff**

I find myself saying, "A couple of years ago when Amelia ..." and it floors me that there are YEARS of memories now. She still seems so young and so little in many ways. One of my favorite sayings is the days are long but the years are short ... so true.

[picture dated 9/21/2010]

Shopping

2010-09-15T21:12:00.000-04:00

Took Amelia shopping tonight at Kohl's. She found some Hello Kitty pajamas that she just had to have. Unfortunately the jeans I took her to try on didn't fit and neither did the other pants that were on sale for just $4.99. Amelia is not a chunky girl but sometimes we run across pants that are fine in the length but snug in the hip area. We did find a cute long-sleeved cat shirt that she also wanted to get for her cousin, Sarah, which was cute. I showed her an "I love Mom" shirt where the love was a heart and it was all written in a leopard pattern. I asked her if she wanted to get it and she said "no". I was a little disappointed, but that's what I get for giving her the choice.

While we were shopping an announcement came on over the loudspeaker. I was tuning it out and going about my browsing and Amelia said, "Stop, Mommy! No talking! We need to listen!" I still think it's cute when she demonstrates behaviors she has learned at school, whether it's spontaneous or transferred to a similar experience outside of school.

As we were leavingt I told her to put away the Eeyore she had been playing with the entire time we had been shopping. We walked out and I happened to look down as we were about to step off the curb and tucked under her arm was Eeyore. She wasn't being defiant, she just put him back and then picked him up again. Fortunately, no one was chasing us from inside the store but I immediately turned around and went back in with her. This time I watched as she put Eeyore away. Following instructions is still something we have to work on with her.

On the way home she talked a lot about wanting to wear her new Hello Kitty pajamas but by the time we got home she wanted to wait and wear them on a different night.

Pick out the real animals!

2010-09-12T20:39:00.001-04:00

I walked in and found this scene on my bed and couldn't resist taking a picture. The cats went in for their afternoon naps and didn't mind if some of the spaces were already taken.

I also love how DeMarcus invited himself to the picnic Amelia was having for her other animals.

[pictures dated 9/4 and 9/12/2010]

Alpha Friends

2010-09-09T21:10:00.002-04:00

When I picked Amelia up from Nana's last Thursday the first thing she told me was that her clothespin was moved down but she didn't want to tell me why. (This is a behavior-related thing.) My mind immediately jumped to conclusions like: she pushed down another child! she threw things across the classroom! But she wouldn't tell me. As the afternoon progressed I tried to pry from her why it was moved. I tried tricking, I tried cajoling, I tried bribing. After dinner she was playing with one of her toys and said something behavior related and I asked, "Is that why your clothespin was moved?" She said no. And when I asked her why she told me ... she had gotten up and looked at the time-out room while she was in music class and when she didn't sit down after being asked twice, her clothespin was moved when they got back to her classroom. I was so relieved! I just told her that she should try harder next time to do what grown-ups tell her, but really I was relieved. The music teacher is young and new and I don't think he appreciates the developmental levels of the different aged children. A 3rd grader is not going to behave the same as a kindergartener, and vice versa. She told me this afternoon she was much better and her clothespin wasn't moved down. She was very proud of herself and I told her I was, too!

This afternoon Amelia got her fake apple from her play kitchen and declared it was her alpha friend Addy Apple. She put it on the chair she sometimes uses as her pretend bed and then proceeded to get alpha friends B-I. For "f" I put a frog down and she said, no, she needed a fish. So not only was she repeating something they've been doing at school this week, she was precisely copying it. I loved watching her expression as she would pause to remember what came next. For some reason instead of going to "J" she chose to put her Dora doll in the purple pajamas as the last friend.

She often doesn't tell us what she has done at school but she will later mimic it or have it come out some other way - reading a story to a stuffed animal or playing with her toys. It's so cute.

Happy girl

2010-09-07T21:19:00.005-04:00

So I think my theory about Daddy being gone was right. She is back to being her easily self-entertained person. (I think part of her uneasiness may have been that Daddy's vehicle had been in the driveway the entire time, but he wasn't home.)

Today, after school, Amelia happily played all by herself on the front porch steps. I was able to hang an entire load of laundry in the backyard without a single, "Mommy!" I came up the basement steps and walked to the front windows to see what she was up to since the last I knew, she was going to feed Romeow (our outdoor cat). There she was on the front steps with two small branches of very small pears. It looked like she was having a little show and each branch had a part. Or maybe they were just having a conversation. Then a school bus drove by and she jumped up to wave at it and went right back to her little game.

Today was the deadline for turning in Amelia's physical or she would be kicked out of school until it was complete. It's been done since the 10th but the thing is, she failed the eye exam. The same thing happened last year after which I took her to my eye doctor who said she saw just fine with maybe a slight astigmatism that did not (yet) need correction. I requested and received a letter from him about that exam but I was still nervous about turning it in, fearing that they would make me take her again (it was not an easy exam ... I don't know why she isn't more cooperative about eye exams). So I waited until the last day and the school official pretty much waved off my concern about the eye exam. (I had to ask her twice if she wanted the letter from the eye doctor as I was trying to hand it to her.) However, Amelia's shot record was missing. Apparently that is the only thing they really care about in addition to the physical form being completed, but the physical form doesn't have a place to list the shots that were given. I wondered later why the doctor's office didn't offer to print an updated shot record since they were completing the physical. Fortunately, I was able to have it faxed so that detail is taken care of for now.

I hate that I get so nervous about people who have the authority to make drastic changes in my daughter's life - like the school kicking her out of kindergarten if she can't pass an eye exam, or way back when she was first born and I was terrified social services would come after me if I didn't take her in for yet another bilirubin prick but decided to skip a day (since they weren't doing anything for her except pricking her ... what was the point?).

Poultry

2010-09-06T20:24:00.001-04:00

Every Friday Amelia brings home her Poetry Songbook which is a white binder that holds the songs and/or poetry that her class did that week. It started with two sheets and each week there are two more. We go over it on the weekends and it's a lot of fun to see her go through them for us. Saturday we took it to Nana's and Amelia kept talking about it and it sounded to me like she kept saying it was her Poultry Songbook so I explained to her the difference between the words, trying to get her to emphasize the short 'e' in poetry. I also wrote both words out so she could see their similarities and differences and explained to her that poultry meant chickens. (I didn't want to get into turkey, etc. since I wasn't really sure how many other birds are considered poultry and she's the kind of kid that would ask.)

Last night after her piano lesson Amelia said she wanted a snack and I told her we could have one when she got home. She asked for peaches and watermelon, neither of which we have at home so I asked her if she wanted oranges and blueberries or did she want to go to the store? She said she wanted to go to the store so we did. She added bananas and canteloupe to our stash of fruit and then we headed over to the yogurt section real quick before checking out. Suddenly Amelia says, "Look, Mommy! It's a poultry sign!" I was like, "HuH?" I looked around but I didn't see anything and told her so. She said, "Look, it's right there! It says poultry!" So I looked again and sure enough, way up high on what I think is called a bulkhead was a sign for poultry. That girl doesn't miss a thing! So we walked over and I showed her a package of chicken and pointed out where it says chicken. She agreed and said, "Yes! It says chicken breast!" I am not ready for that conversation so I just agreed and we went onto yogurt.

Amelia did such a nice job drawing a tree and person and house on the front of her binder. She even used different colors including brown on the face which reminded me of a story she told me one day. She was talking about coloring at school and said, "So I used brown because some people have brown skin." She was very matter of fact about it which I thought was great. I have never pointed out that some people have different skin or hair than she does because I want her to come up with her own conclusions about people and not pre-judge anyone just because they look different from her. The other thing about her drawing was how she pointed out to me that it was raining. I noticed all the vertical blue slashes but I had assumed they were just Amelia keeping busy and doing a little extra decoration once she was done. I love her imagination!

I have become my mother circa 1978

2010-09-05T20:16:00.004-04:00

Daddy has been out of town since Thursday evening and being a single mother is not what I am cut out to be. I've had Amelia all to myself, no breaks, since 5 pm Friday. By this afternoon, I was getting a little testy.

Amelia is an only child by design. I didn't want her to have to share the love and attention of her parents with siblings. I have always been very purposeful in paying attention to her. While she can be very, very good at entertaining herself, she is also very good at wanting to involve us in her games and imaginary play. I am not very good at setting boundaries with her and I think I am going to have to start consciously making some to save my sanity and her childhood.

Every few minutes this weekend it was Mommy-this and Mommy-that. Maybe it was because her daddy was gone and she was slightly unsettled ... I am just now realizing that. But in the meantime I had a very vocal shadow all weekend. For example, I would go down to the basement to get some laundry and within 30 seconds I would hear footsteps and an urgent, "Mommy, are you down there?" And I'll spare you the battle of the wills that was her bath this morning. She wouldn't wash herself but didn't want me washing her either.

Playing with Amelia can be fun but she is a micromanager. This drives her daddy a little crazier than it drives me, but it does bother me sometimes when she tells me exactly where to sit, exactly what to say, exactly how to say it. I try to give her a lot of leeway in how she conducts herself, so I don't think she is mimicking me. I think she is just a lot like me - a control freak - which leads to the frustrations I have.

I have long known in my head that Amelia is not a mini-me. The world is better off for it, I am sure. So she doesn't behave or react to things the way I anticipate. She doesn't like many of the same things I like, or at least not with the same fervor. Examples include ice cream and pizza, or even eating for that matter; she greatly prefers stuffed animals to real ones so zoos are a complete waste of time, as is pointing out animals along the side of the road like the llamas the other day. She totally had her nose in a book and couldn't be bothered to look up. However, she adores reading so we do have that in common.

Amelia is a very bright, beautiful, healthy, energetic and joyful child. I refuse to sit her in front of the TV unless she specifically asks, and I let her play computer games upon her request. She does play lots of (childrens) music CDs and sings along while making up games, dances or audiences with her stuffed animals. One of the consequences of shunning TV is being more available to her and as the weekend wore on I became a little worn out, which brings us to the grocery store this afternoon.

Before leaving the house, she wrote out our complete list. When we got to the store she wanted to get the items in the order they were listed but I explained to her that we didn't write them down in the way the store is laid out, we wrote them down in the order we thought of them and we were not going to criss-cross the store. She accepted that fact reluctantly. I consoled her by letting her cross things off the list as she put them in the cart. We got to the cat food aisle and she picked out the treats and the food. Then I mentioned that we also needed some (dry) Fancy Feast but that I may get a bigger bag than usual since the cats were really eating a lot of it lately. She announced that I should get the green bag (it's on the top shelf and she can't reach it) but I was looking for the 3 lb. bag which only came in purple and was also considering the Cat Chow Indoor Formula as an alternative. Seeing that I was not retrieving the bag she picked, she loudly complained, "You're not doing the right thing! You never do anything right!" This put me over the top. I can't remember how I started my reply, something along the lines of, "You're right I don't do anything right but I am doing the best I can. I am ready to give up," followed by "Would you like to go find another mother?" While my mind flashed back to 1978 Amelia gave me a look that I couldn't read and I interpreted as incomprehension so I said either, "Would you like a different mommy?" or "Would you like someone else to be your mommy?" (I just remember trying to phrase it in a way that she understood what I meant.) She then looked completely stricken and quietly said, "No." So I said, "Then help me pick out some cat food," and I pulled two off the shelf and she picked the green one, even though it wasn't Fancy Feast. At least the girl is consistent.

I still don't think I am cut out for all the guidance a soon-to-be 5 year-old needs. It takes a lot of extra mental energy for me to consistently make her use words (instead of whining or using hand gestures), not letting her shout or talk over people, getting her to eat neatly, and so on and so forth, on top of all the regular obligations of getting her and me dressed, feeding all three of us, remembering all the appointments and commitments, practicing piano, getting her to and from school, packing lunches, water bottles and anything extra, etc. etc. etc. I keep thinking I am doing something wrong, that she should be learning more by imitation or osmosis and not have to have everything explained to her. And why does she seem to get some things right off the bat and others take FOREVER and have to be repeated ad infinitum (like getting her to figure out she needs to go potty without being told).

I know all moms deal with this but I really don't know how.

The allure of cafeteria food

2010-09-03T20:03:00.002-04:00

This morning while Amelia was eating her yogurt for breakfast I put her lunch box on the table. She looked up at me and asked, "Mommy, do you think I can sometimes forget my lunch?" I asked her why and she said because she really likes some of the choices they have at school. I told her that I thought we could probably do that and we would look at the September menu and pick some days. I printed one off at work today and we'll look at it over the weekend. What a big girl!

I pack her lunch so that I know she has food that she will eat and I can also check and make sure she did eat. I am not sure how well she can handle a cafeteria tray and I'm a little concerned she'll be so distracted by everything else that goes on that she may not eat. Like most kids, her little body and overall mood is very affected by whether or not she has had enough to eat and I'm a little worried that by the end of the school day she will be a bit of a whiny monster if she doesn't eat enough at lunch. But as my mother would say, growing up is saying good-bye. She will figure it out.

And yesterday morning when she slept a little later than usual (getting up at 7 am instead of her normal 6:30 am) she wasn't excited about eating her yogurt. She turned to me and said, "They have breakfast at school, you know." I told her I did know that (breakfast is free for all kindergarteners) but I wasn't sure that she always liked what they served. (The other day she told me they gave her poptarts for breakfast and I about died. How is that nutritional?)

Dress-up

2010-09-01T20:47:00.000-04:00

Amelia is on a kick where she loves to dress up her animals, but it's not a complicated process. Each animal just gets the first thing she grabs out of her dress-up drawer, whether it's a plastic bracelet, hat or whatever. This started a few weeks ago and now whatever animal she takes with her to bed or in the car has to be "dressed up". It's hilarious to me how important it is to her, too.

Sunday

2010-08-31T21:39:00.002-04:00

Yes, it's Tuesday and I am blogging about Sunday. Look at my pretty girl! She actually smiled and posed for me! This kindergarten thing is truly the best thing that has happened for her. She is responding so well to all the instruction, new stimulus, structure, etc. She is still full of energy but I am noticing a lot of positive changes, too. (And this dress was her Easter dress in 2009 - it was just longer!)

Another fun thing from Sunday came from the backseat as we were driving home from supper out at Moe's. Amelia said, "Let's say our day verse." At first I didn't know what she meant and then she said something along the lines of, "Always be kind to one another. James 1:10:30. Now you say it Mommy! Make sure you say all of it!"

[picture dated 8/29/10]

Happy Birthday Nana!!

2010-08-30T21:32:00.000-04:00

Today Nana turned 78. We had her over for dinner and cake and a few presents. On Saturday Amelia informed me that, "The day after tomorrow, it's your husband's mother's birthday." She blows my mind.

[picture dated 8/30/10]

Jokester

2010-08-29T14:54:00.007-04:00

About a month ago Amelia learned a knock-knock joke - the one where you ask knock-knock a few times with the same answer and then on the last time you answer "orange" ... "orange you glad I didn't say banana?". When she got laughs from it, she became a joke teller and it was so funny watching her crack up because people were laughing at her joke, even though I am not sure she truly understood the play on words. Now she has learned a new one that isn't so funny, but the fun has started all over again because it's so cute to watch her try to be a joke teller.

Yesterday we presumed she learned about home safety because any time any of us left the house she loudly told us to be sure we locked all the doors. We live in a small town and while we try to make sure the doors are locked when we leave or go to sleep, we don't really worry about it too much most of the time.

Friday was library day and I wonder if they went over sorting. All day yesterday and most of this morning Amelia has sorted all her books into a book store. She'll ask if a book is "a character" or "just a book" and then separates them all accordingly. We have a very small group of Clifford books, a small group of Veggie Tale books, a larger collection of Dora books, other small "character" groupings, and then a large selection of "other" books. This morning before leaving for church I was asked to come to her bookstore to buy a book. She charged me 50 cents (which I then had to put in the offering at Sunday School) and took the book from me, then my money, then gave me the book back. (She is getting the clerk thing down.) When we got home from church, I learned that she only charged Daddy 11 cents for his book. I think I smell favoritism in that deal!

Apparently someone has gotten in trouble at school and has been sent to the principal because one of her stuffed ducks just got sent to sent to Mr. Tigger's office (her bouncing Tigger) to spend the day. Hmmmm (At the wedding she told Pastor Tommy that he looked like her principal. Tommy, who knows the principal, thought that was very funny.)

Friends of Dodah brought Amelia a lei from their anniversary party in Chicago. (I'd rather go to Hawaii for my anniversary but that's another story.) DeMarcus seems to enjoy the lei better than Amelia has, don't you think? Here he is bidding you "Aloha".

First Time Flower Girl

2010-08-23T21:55:00.001-04:00

Our really good friends, Tia Polly and Cristian, got married today. It was a lovely, small wedding on the deck of some older friends of theirs. Amelia was the only attendant - a flower girl and ring bearer combined. We tied the rings to some netting around the black-eyed Susans she held (and then dangled between the porch rails when she got bored - which worried me to death!). Amelia then tried to entertain the dog by shaking the flowers in front of its face. I think she expected it to react like one of our cats and was disappointed when it didn't.

Afterwards we went to dinner and Amelia was really well behaved, sitting between me and her daddy. The restaurant staff gave her a blob of dough to play with while she waited for her food and she had a lot of fun with that. She was twisting it at one point and Lila pointed out to Debbie that she could come work at their restaurant because she was twisting the dough just like they do with the rolls.

[picture dated 8/23/10]

Sunday

2010-08-22T09:30:00.004-04:00

This morning at breakfast Amelia was chattering on about going back to kindergarten tomorrow and seeing all her friends. While it was a relief to know she is still looking forward to school, it was just a wee bit disappointing (to my ego) that she is looking forward to it when there is so much weekend left!

Rainy Saturday

2010-08-21T21:14:00.006-04:00

It rained all day today but that's okay because we didn't have anything planned except to hang out together.

One night this week Amelia told me that she wanted to spend more time with me. She said something along the lines of "I really just want to be with you all the time, Mommy." It was sweet. I think two full weeks of kindergarten are beginning to take their toll - the novelty has worn off. She is still excited to go and excited to tell me about her day, but I think she is also realizing how much less time she is home and with me. So yesterday I promised her that I would be with her all day today and I made good on that.

She is also missing her Nana. Nana used to keep her two days a week and now she gets her just 2 hours one afternoon after school. So we went to the Wagon Wheel and met Nana and her friends for breakfast. Meg, Bethany and Hailey were there, too. Amelia and Hailey were excited to see each other and moved their chairs so they could sit next to each other and color. After they ate they wanted to play tag in the restaurant. It took a little persuading on Bethany's part, but they decided maybe sitting at the table together a little longer wasn't such a bad idea either.

We had a little visit at Livia's and then came home and played for a few hours. All three of us played Silly Switch and sat on the sunroom listening to the rain. Amelia and Daddy colored together after playing with her oversized legos. Amelia was "assigning" Daddy "work" and then evaluating it.

Then we picked up a pizza and went to Nana's where we had supper and Amelia practiced the piano before playing with the Thomas set (which included finding some dolls small enough to ride in the open cars).

In just these two week of kindergarten I can see that Amelia's socialization skills are improving by leaps and bounds. On the way to Nana's this evening she asked, "Do you think Nana will share some of her pizza with me?" How cute is that? (especially since Amelia isn't overly fond of pizza ... I think she just wanted to know if we thought Nana would be willing to share.)

Earlier today Amelia and Daddy made a "cat inn" - a tent using some chairs and a large blanket that features a cat. DeMarcus took them up on their offer!

[picture dated 8/21/10]

Settling Up

2010-08-19T20:02:00.002-04:00

Amelia was bouncing up and down the minute she saw me in the carpool line. I love her enthusiasm. Apparently the adult in charge of line #4 doesn't ... we learned later she told Amelia to "settle down" to which Amelia said she was settling up!

Amelia is very excited about next Tuesday when they are going to do a "pretend lockdown". I immediately knew what she meant and thought how sad, a sign of the times. I asked her about it and she said, "We'll hear a different sound (different from a fire alarm I presume) and we go this way and then that way (as she mimics walking and turning). Then we go to the corner and hide behind Miss Mary's desk." She has it down pat. I hope she never needs to do it in real life.

We had a busy afternoon. After picking her up we headed to John L's for the oil change. Amelia did not want to walk to the post office. She was adamant about waiting and so we did. She announced when my car went up and again when it went down. She acted scared of the car getting a new tire as we got back in the car. After the bank we stopped by and said hey to Tia Polly at work and then onto the post office and finally the library.

After supper we headed over and saw Livia who is back from Romania. Amelia really enjoyed playing with her, going down the slide and "washing" their fence with the water gun while Livia scrubbed with a brush.

School is beginning to take its toll. Amelia is quite tired by 7pm and so we've been putting her to bed by 7:30 pm. Tonight before supper she started crying, saying she missed being with me. I think part of it was an act, but of course I indulged her. I stopped making dinner and sat down, pulled her into my lap and told her how much I enjoyed being with her. She's been in school for two weeks now, so maybe the novelty is wearing off, or maybe it's just part of the adjustment. She was herself the rest of the evening, so I think she's fine, but she's definitely noticing that life is different now.

First Full Week of Kindergarten ... a Success!

2010-08-15T21:18:00.005-04:00

Amelia made it through her first week just fine. She bounded out of bed each morning ready to go back. I think she really has enjoyed all the new stimulation. She also has renewed enthusiasm for doing coloring books and workbooks at her desk. Her new things seems to be using a marker to draw shirts on the coloring book characters but putting lines for the neck, arms and waist, and then coloring them with a crayon. Often she just colors the shirt. She will tell us that she is going to do her work and then disappears to her desk for long periods of time. Here she is today, so serious, doing "her work".

She did have an accident Monday which was her second day of school. Her teacher said she didn't think Amelia went potty when she told her to go after their outdoor time. I was concerned because Amelia didn't seem unhappy about having had an accident and it was just the second day of school. I was afraid this may be the first of several if she thought it was okay. After we got home I asked Amelia if she went potty after outdoor time like Miss Mary asked her to. She said she didn't need to go and so I told Amelia that she needed to go potty whenever a grown-up tells her to go, even if she doesn't think she needs to go. She needs to try. And if she ever needs to go when someone hasn't told her to go, she just needs to ask. I reiterated these 'rules' to her the next morning and she did fine the whole rest of the week. In fact, she hasn't fought me at all when I've told her to go ... so maybe something has finally clicked for her.

She also had a fire drill this week and said that they line up on the asphalt, "but Miss Mary and Miss Merita call it the blacktop".

Tuesday she came home and it was all about having an "art center" which she made in the middle of the kitchen floor. (Tuesday is art day.)

She also had her school physical/5-year check-up Tuesday afternoon which Daddy took her to and I met them later. She is 42 lbs., 42 inches, which is funny because for the longest time last year she was 38 lbs. and 38 inches! She also got four shots ... ouch!

Wednesday morning she came in our room and said that Caden had kicked her the previous day. After determining it wasn't a hard kick I asked her why she thought Caden kicked her and she said, "He wanted me to stop messing with him." So I said, "Hmmm, well, maybe you should stop messing with him," and she agreed. It was a pretty cute exchange and I like seeing how she seems to have started figuring out some of the socialization aspects of kindergarten. (She plays with Caden on some Wednesday afternoons at Mimi's, so they know each other. I think she tries to annoy him on purpose because he doesn't like to be touched.)

Wednesday was P.E. and they went to the gym and played some games which Amelia came home and tried to replicate. Very cute.

On Thursday Amelia was all excited about her music class. She said Miss Robin (who is a recently retired elementary music teacher) from church came to do their music lesson and she changed her name! She said her name was Mrs. Smathers!! And then Amelia laughed and laughed. She still thought it was so funny.

Daddy wasn't home Thursday night so we ran some errands and stopped off at McDonald's. For the most part she was happier playing with the Littlest Pet Shop toy that came with her Happy Meal and less interested in the Playland. She sure loves their parfaits and I still get a kick out of hearing that word from such a little girl!

Yesterday she told me the parts of a the book - including the spine. So apparently that's what they did at the library on Friday.

She had a little bit of a stuffy nose Friday, more of one yesterday and seems a bit better today although her voice is croaky. I don't know if it's from being at school (all those kids, all those surfaces, etc.), a new schedule, the shots, or germs from the Playland at McDonald's. But she is still going strong and her appetite is holding up, so I've just put her to bed a little earlier tonight and last night so she can hopefully get back to 100% sooner.

Yesterday was a fun day ... I took her to a Wal-mart that was doing a Dora party so she could get a free cupcake. I thought the email notice said Dora would be there, too, so I purposefully didn't tell Amelia in case it was a madhouse. Well, since it turned out to be just free cupcakes, it wasn't crowded but Amelia didn't seem too excited either. She enjoyed her cupcake that came with a free plastic Dora ring, but otherwise it was just another Wal-mart trip as far as she was concerned. We picked up some Pooh toothpaste and Dora band-aids and then headed to Belk since they had advertised a Kidfest yesterday, too. Amelia tackled the poor Chik-fil-A cow who was probably mentally going through his/her other job options by the end of his/her shift. Amelia was all into high fives and hugs. Then she spun a wheel and won "free chikin". She wanted to go down to the Food Court immediately and get four chicken nuggets, but I distracted her with the coloring table. (Food court at the mall on Saturday, yep, let me just pull my hair out now. We'll wait and use the freebie coupon this winter when we are looking for indoor things to do.)

[pictures dated 8/14 and 8/15/10]

First Day of Kindergarten

2010-08-06T21:37:00.006-04:00

Amelia started kindergarten today! She seemed very happy to be there so it was easier to leave her than I thought it would be. They had a sign-in board just like her pre-school where she found the first letter of her name and hung it on her peg. Then we found her cubby, put away her backpack, lunch box and mat. After that she found her name tag and then sat at her table where there was an activity waiting for her which she found absolutely delightful. So we left at that point to let our little girl be a kindergartener.

I was hurriedly taking pictures this morning because we were running right on time, not a little early as we had planned because it took a lot longer to get from the parking lot all the way into her classroom than we thought it would, and she has to be there no later than 8 am or she is marked as tardy.

Daddy picked her up since I had to work, but they stopped by so I could get a quick report. She LOVED it. She went on and on repeating a story, I am assuming verbatim, about a dog that goes, "Woof, woof, woof, bow-wow, wow!!" She was so enthusiastic and animated. When I asked her if she wanted to go back she said, "Yes!! Tomorrow!!" and was visibly disappointed when I told her she had to wait until Monday.

While she was "performing" the dog book story for us, I looked over at her Daddy and said, "We made the right decision," (about pushing forward with public kindergarten) and he readily agreed. Now we'll wait and see how she does next week when she goes 5 days a week for 7 hours a day.

[pictures dated 8/6/10]

Kindergarten!!

2010-08-04T21:14:00.002-04:00

It's been a roller-coaster getting Amelia into kindergarten.

She is 23 days too early to start without getting tested, etc. My mother-in-law, a retired 1st grade and special ed teacher insisted that Amelia is ready for kindergarten and offered to pay for the testing, which was good considering it cost $455.

The list of approved psychologists was 2 people long and only one called me back last Spring. He said to wait until the summer. When I called in June, it turns out they close for two weeks so we didn't get her tested until July 13th and she exceeded the required 98th percentile. He also said she was reading on a 2nd grade level. I asked about how much she fidgets, etc., but he said she was totally normal for her age (the testing took two hours so he saw her in all her glory) and that she was not hostile and was easily redirected. Despite her meltdown at the beginning of the session because when they called us back she dropped her markers and had to put them back in the exact order in which they came, he didn't mention anything about her having autistic tendencies. (She also did her hand waving thing when she gets excited - it's rare but she does do it. I actually think it's cute since she's been doing it most of her life.) And despite how active she is and how easily distracted she is, he said nothing about ADHD which was a relief because it runs in my side of the family. (I later learned that being able to be redirected means she isn't ADHD.) [Note: I was not overly concerned about autism or even ADHD ... but from time to time I would wonder if my super active, intelligent girl who doesn't seek out friends might have some tendencies for either or both. She is very happy, not given to hostile outbursts at all, and makes eye contact, etc. BUT as a mother one does worry more than is healthy.]

So all of that was a relief until I contacted the school and was met with an icy, "Are you sure he gave her the right tests? Tested her for both ability AND aptitude?" I actually did say, "I would hope for $455 that he did." I didn't say, "And he was on your mighty short list of options!" but I thought it. I knew I had to get two letters of recommendation from preschool teachers and/or caretakers so I had already gotten that ball rolling. However, I also needed to put together a portfolio of her work that came to include examples of her cutting (fine motor skills), art (kitty cat drawings), letters and numbers.

When I turned everything in - the formal report from the psychologist, the letters of recommendation and Amelia's portfolio, I was told that Administration had up to 30 days to make a decision, even though school started in less than a week. I was shocked! It turns out that IF they let her in, she would be treated as any other transfer student. Her absences would not be counted against her because she wasn't enrolled. But I worried about her not getting to start with all the rest of the kids.

The teacher I want her to get is Miss Mary because she comes so highly recommended. Seriously. I've heard about this teacher since before I even thought about having Amelia. After I turned in the materials, Amelia and I went down to meet her and see the classroom so she would have a point of reference in case she does get in. Miss Mary was also concerned about Amelia missing the first day of school. Our back-up plan is a private school that we visited in the Spring. We love it, and it doesn't start until September 1st so that buys us some time, but we would prefer not to have such a high tuition bill so early in Amelia's schooling.

Public school starts tomorrow and I was informed at 2:06 p.m. today that she met all the criteria and that tomorrow we go in at 1 pm to enroll her. What a relief!! During the call I begged for Amelia to be placed in Miss Mary's class. (Yes, I really begged ... at this point in the Hoops Nightmare, and I'm not referring to basketball, I lost my decorum.) Around 5 pm today I found out Amelia IS in Miss Mary's class. (She also happens to be my boss's wife and the founder of the preschool Amelia attended last year) So that was a HUGE relief. Even better ... kindergarten has a stagger start so only half the class starts tomorrow and the other half, including Amelia!!, starts Friday. So not only did Amelia manage to get in, but she won't miss the first day of school.

Wow! I am excited and relieved, but I also have a lot of logistics to figure out in a hurry including getting her supply list tomorrow so we can go shopping in time for Friday morning.

When I told Amelia she would be starting school Friday she was pleased but not nearly as excited and relieved about it as I was. Her daddy looked at me and said, "That was your battle, dear." Yes, I suppose it was, but I'm still nervous about whether it was the right decision to push so hard.

Games and Imagination

2010-07-08T22:11:00.002-04:00

I love seeing Amelia's imagination and creativity continue to grow. One of the things she likes to do is make up games. All kinds of games. One example is with books. She will open her Penguin book, for example, and on pages where there is a sun she says it is hot and you get to turn the page again. If there is no sun, it is cold and it's the next player's turn. The person who gets to the end of the book wins.

She is also making up little stories with her toys more and more. It is fun to observe her when she doesn't know I am there.

She also likes to take a group of her stuffed animals and put them to sleep - each with their own pillow and blanket. My living room looked like a daycare center at naptime the other day. We moved her Pooh table into her room to better facilitate her tea parties. (It had been a craft center in the kitchen. We moved her plastic desk up from the basement and put it in the sunroom until winter.) Within minutes of moving her table she had extra chairs around, each occupied by a different animal, and was busy getting plates, bowls and silverware for each.

Rules and Walking

2010-07-07T22:17:00.003-04:00

Amelia is really into rules, telling me if I break them (like if I brush my teeth without her ... "Mommy, you broke my first rule!") and making up new ones. I am tempted to use "rules" to help make her more compliant since they really seem to make her tick. However, I am afraid that would set her up for a lifetime of expecting everything in life to be black and white, and most of us have discovered there's a lot of gray out there. (And more and more in my hair each day, but that's another story.)

Last week I suggested we take a walk with Amelia putting one of her animals in her toy stroller and going down to Aidan's house and back. We've done that occasionally and it seemed like a good idea. She has wanted to walk every day since then - just once a day - but with a different animal each day. This morning I went on my jog/walk and was walking down the big hill when I heard something funny. I was trying to figure out if it was some sort of lawn equipment or handyman tool noise when I then heard a familiar voice say something that ended with "Amelia" and knew right away that a little girl had conned her daddy into a very early morning walk with the animal of the day! I wound up meeting up with them right at the turnaround point and we enjoyed the walk back together as a family with her pointing out her favorite mailboxes.

When we got home we made birthday cards for Abby who turned 3 today and Shirley, our neighbor. Amelia did a really nice job of drawing a kitty on the front and then writing all the words on the inside by herself. She then made one for her stuffed kitty Stripe who is also having a birthday, she says.

Yard Saling

2010-07-03T22:46:00.002-04:00

We met Nana, Bethany, Billy & Hailey at the Wagon Wheel (along with Louise and Fifi) for breakfast and then stopped at a yard sale on the way home (that I had spotted on the way to breakfast). Kathy, whose sale it was, said stuff a bag for a $1. Can't beat that kind of bargain ... but I still tried (key word: tried) to be careful not to bring home anything we didn't really need.

Amelia was playing in the mountain of stuffed animals and I was helping her find ones that were cats. Once she found a few animals to play with, I browsed some of the other trash-to-treasures. I then heard "Mommy, can I buy these?" I figured, sure, for $1 it won't kill us to have a few extra stuffed animals. She'll play with them for a week or so, then ignore them for a month and we'll donate them or something. So I turn around and ask her what she has found. "A kitty, a dinosaur, a night-time Pooh Bear and Look! It's a person dressed like a monkey!!" she says. The person dressed as a monkey is actually a yellow teletubby named Lala. Hmmm, how do I talk her out of the teletubby? Well, it could not be done so we are the proud owners of a Lala, although I have not enlightened her as to its identity. When we got home, she put them each on a different step of the deck and than ran inside for more '"friends". (I also scored that adjustable basketball goal for $2 ... I was very pleased about that as I had been looking on Craigslist for one for a year now.)

She also told Daddy that her new toy was a person dressed like a monkey. She hadn't changed her description of it by the time we got home. It's funny to see their perception of things when they aren't told ahead of time what something is. At the yard sale, she also got some kind of Pokemon game that is like those lottery slot machines except it's horizontal and changes its eyes, nose and mouth so you get a completely different expression every time you press the button. So, I hear a sad voice coming from the back seat (and remember she doesn't know who Pokemon is either), "Look, Mommy, the bunny's ears are flat. She's scared!"

[picture dated 7/3/10]

Out of the blue

2010-06-23T22:10:00.004-04:00

This morning in the kitchen Amelia says to me, "I am fine with our family." I wondered what she meant and she then repeated herself.

I say, "Good. I'm glad."

She then says, "I don't need any brothers or sisters." I am not sure where that came from!

I think, "Good!" because we weren't planning for any and it made me happy to know she likes the plan we had for our family, even if she didn't know that was the plan.

So I nonchalantly said, "Oh, okay honey."

Mommies to little girls

2010-06-17T21:13:00.000-04:00

Recently Amelia asked me if she can be a mommy to a little girl when she grows up. I told her sure. I am flattered in a way because I am thinking she wants to be like me, and how sweet is that?

It's become a theme and she has mentioned it several more times, about once a day every other day or so. She still doesn't play with baby dolls and her mothering of stuffed animals hasn't increased. She just talks about how she wants to be a mommy to a little girl when she grows up. It's cute.

Creepy Sun

2010-06-06T20:15:00.002-04:00

Coming home from Tweetsie yesterday I gave Amelia a Capri Sun left-over from a lunchable about a month ago. I normally stick with juice boxes, and only as an emergency when we run out of juice brought from home or mixed with water from a convenience store so she doesn't see too much of Capri Sun.

Amelia is really coming along with reading but doesn't quite sound things out completely. She studies words and then takes a good guess at what she thinks it says. So from the back seat we hear, "Is this creepy sun?"

First Nail Polish

2010-05-11T19:07:00.001-04:00

I've been hesitant to put nail polish on Amelia because of all the harsh chemicals in there. I figure she's been exposed to so much already - like all that BPA in the rubber duckies she had in her mouth when she was an infant. (I didn't start seeing those articles until she was around 18 months old.)

Amelia has been putting marker on her nails whenever she can get away with it and then the other day she put Play-doh on her fingernails and proudly announced, "Look Mommy! I have blue play-doh nail polish!"

I've investigated "safe" nail polish and it's pretty expensive to buy on-line. I decided to check out our local health food store and found some that is supposedly safe but still has a scary sounding ingredient. We looked at all the colors and she decided she wanted pink. I told her she couldn't put her fingers in her mouth if we put it on and she promised she wouldn't.

It was a pretty day outside Saturday so when we got home we stayed out on the front porch and did her nails. She was so proud! (Can't you tell?) It's been a couple of days and some of it has already worn off. Since it's water-based and she has NOT broken her habit of putting her fingers in her mouth, there is noticeably less on her right thumb and index finger. That was one of my concerns about the toxins. I told her we wouldn't be able to put it on again unless she stops putting her fingers in her mouth. All she cared about was that I didn't take it off before today so she could show all her friends in pre-school.

[pictures dated 5/8/10]

Chah-walla

2010-05-10T18:56:00.000-04:00

I remember having a book about dogs when I was little and reading on my own. The dachshund and chihuahua baffled me since I had never heard of them, although I had seen those types of dogs. Being a phonics learner, I was very literal and would wonder whether the 'ch' in dachshund was a hard 'ch' or a softer 'sh' pronunciation, and whether the next two letters went together for a 'sh' or were separate with the 's' being ssss and the 'h' making the beginning of the word hundred. But chihuahua, I had down pat, I was sure. It was pronounced cha-who-ah-who-ah, although I wondered why I never did hear that word out loud anywhere like I did beagle (as in snoopy) or german shepherd, etc.

Fast forward a few years to Amelia who isn't quite reading those words yet, but is trying to pronounce the words she hears. Her 'cousin' Hannah adores chihuahuas and after her last visit here I've heard a whole lot about cha-wallas, especially since there was at least one in the stash of Little Pet Shop toys that Hannah passed down to her. When Amelia says chihuahua, it sounds like koala with a 'ch' in front of it. And of course, I think it's adorable!

The things she notices

2010-05-09T20:16:00.000-04:00

We were in Wal-mart this afternoon and Amelia and I went to the right so she could pick out a book to read while we shopped. Meanwhile, Daddy headed to the left with the cart so he could pick up some soda. Once the book was picked out (a Thomas the Tank Engine one), we headed toward the soda with Amelia running, which is her usual speed. We passed a PDA couple moving towards us - the guy walking behind the girl but in a tandem way so that there was no space between them. Amelia stopped with that gawking look on her face that she gets when something bothers her (like when a man isn't wearing a shirt or someone is in a wheelchair). When I caught up to her she said, "Those people were stuck together! I was going to fix them but they were going too fast!" And then off she went in the direction of daddy. It was all I could not to burst out laughing as I imagined Amelia trying to separate the two lovebirds.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-08T20:12:00.000-04:00

I ran an 8k race this morning with my friend, Karen. Daddy brought Amelia to me as the race ended so he could go pick up his train ticket. Amelia had fun running around the pavilion, enjoying a brownie while I stretched and drank some much-needed water. After about ten or 15 minutes we headed to the car so we could follow Karen to a nearby bakery. Once we were in the car and headed out of the lot Amelia says, "Happy Mother's Day, Mommy!" It was such a nice thing to hear that I didn't tell her it wasn't until tomorrow, I just said, "Thank you!" She then asked if Mother's Day was tomorrow and I confirmed that it was. Then she said something about a card and I said, "Yes, you made me a very nice card," and I held up the one she made me at preschool yesterday that was still in the passenger seat of the car. Then she said, "No, do you have the one I bought with Daddy?" Hmmm. "Was that this morning, Amelia?" "Yes!" she said.

There are no secrets with children!

Bird Baths

2010-05-05T21:17:00.003-04:00

Tonight Amelia was taking her bath. She had a bunch of her rubber ducks and some little containers that she filled partway with water. She then put a duck in each container and said it was their birdbath.

I love her imagination!

Getting the oil changed

2010-04-30T18:19:00.003-04:00

Took Amelia with me to get my oil changed at the very local Mayberry-type filling station. The owner's elderly uncle stopped by and was chatting with another regular. Amelia watches them for a few minutes and then says, "When those grown up boys are done talking to each other, I want to tell them something."

I have no idea what she had in mind but after the uncle left, she did chat up the remaining customer whom I know as an acquaintance. He asked her what her name is and when she asked him his, she responded, "I have a Daddy named David!" (how many daddies does she have?)

Globe

2010-04-28T15:58:00.002-04:00

This morning I took down the globe that my parents bought me when I was 8 years-old to show Amelia some geography things. She has a map puzzle and we've looked at other maps, like in rental car places and she always recognizes Florida first and says excitedly, "That's where Grandma lives!" I showed her America and she corrected me and said, "You mean the United States." Sure honey. She was curious about Canada and Mexico. Then we tilted it down and I showed her where Tia Polly and Cristian are from (Chile). Then I pointed out the Atlantic Ocean and reminded her of how we saw the airplanes when we were at the beach in SC at Easter. I had told Amelia how her friend Livia was going to ride one right over the same ocean to see her grandparents this summer. So while we were looking at the globe I traced my finger from the coast of SC all the way to Rumania (as it's spelled on my globe). Amelia was pretty fascinated so I went ahead and showed her all the oceans - how besides the Atlantic there is the Pacific that goes to Japan and China (in case she's heard of those countries ... I should have reminded her about Kai-Lan, oops). Then the Indian Ocean and the Antartic where I showed her the space between Antartica and Argentina and told her penguins lived there. I expected her to say something about Madagascar, but she didn't. Then on up to the Artic Ocean where I also pointed out the North Pole. I'm thinking academically about North Pole and South Pole when I notice how her entire face has lit up. I know what she is thinking, but I wait. And then I ask her if she likes the North Pole and she says, with a huge smile, "Yes! The man who knows I love cats lives there!" I said, "Who's that?" and she yells, "Santa!!" So, despite my misgivings about playing up the myth of Santa, I went along with it and as I got up from the floor to make her oatmeal I said, "Yep, and his reindeer, too!"

The reason we wound up looking at the globe was we had been reading her baggie book (the book that her teacher sends home each week in a large ziploc bag). This week's book was called Gravity, which was great because it's a concept I've been trying to get across to her as she accidentally drops her toys on the floor of the backseat or tries to put her toothpaste on with the brush straight up in the air. The book included the lava that comes down from a volcano. I asked her if she knew what a volcano was and she announced, "A mountain that explodes!" So I took down the globe to show her Iceland and told her how a volcano erupted there last week.

On the way to school we talked more about her bad dream from last night. She said that we took her to a park near where a girl she goes to school with lives. She said it wasn't too far away from here. She said at the park there was a scary room because it had strange lights and a strange ceiling and too many toys on the floor! And then she clarified and said it was too many toy trucks on the floor, that they were dump trucks. She then described the colors of the one she played with and the one I played with, describing how the front was one color and the 'box on the back' was another color. When I repeated it to her she said, "And Daddy was there, too!" I tried to assure her that if we were both there, that she shouldn't have been scared, that we wouldn't take her to a scary place on purpose. She responded with, "What?" which is her standard response when she is processing new information.

I know all children have bad dreams and I'd like to think she wasn't too scared if she had stayed in the room and played with the toy trucks. She was still talking about it when I picked her up from preschool and took her to MeMe's. It has really lodged in her brain today!

Drive-by

2010-04-21T17:52:00.001-04:00

I work late on Wednesdays and a lot of times Daddy will do a 'drive-by' after he picks up Amelia. It's always fun to see her. Tonight she needed to use the potty and so I had a little extra time with her which was a nice treat. I decided to take her picture with our work webcam and she had fun seeing herself on the computer with it.

[pictures dated 4/21/10]

Got Milk?

2010-04-06T21:15:00.000-04:00

The world's cutest milk mustache.

[picture dated 4/6/10]

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T20:40:00.000-04:00

We are in Myrtle Beach for Easter weekend. Got a hotel at the end of the beach right next to a state park and it's been great. Went to church this morning and then spent time on the beach before teaching Amelia putt-putt. She was a very good student!

On the beach she enjoyed making "cat treats" and handing them to us as well as a few passers-by. It was always interesting to see their reaction! One grandmother really indulged Amelia, who rewarded her with extra helpings.

She loved running into the water and then running back out. I love this action shot.

[pictures dated 4/4/2010]

Fine Saturday

2010-04-03T16:38:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I told Amelia it was Good Friday and also explained its significance to Amelia. This morning she asked me if today was Fine Saturday.

I stifled a laugh and said, "Sure!" I love how her mind works.

Spring is in the Air

2010-04-01T11:02:00.002-04:00

Every so often we have a part of the day that smells Spring-like and Amelia notices. She'll say, "I like the way the air smells." Once, on a blustery day, she said she liked the way the wind smelled.

This morning, unless it's Mother Nature's April Fool's joke on us, it would seem that Spring may be here. It smelled so nice that even at 7:20 am Amelia said, "I like the way the air smells!" Me, too. Let's hope the Spring weather is here to stay!

Easter eggs!

2010-03-30T21:06:00.002-04:00

Amelia and I were playing Silly Switch today and she looked so grown up to me, so I got my camera out. She even smiled for me, but I also like this photo even though she is talking to me as she shakes the die in her hand.

She asked me to play with her and I told her I needed to unload the dishwasher first and asked if she wanted to help. She said, "No." So I went about my business. Two minutes later she asked how much longer until I could play and I told her I was still working on the dishwasher but I could play with her sooner if she helped me, so she did. She put away the silverware (her normal chore). When she first started doing that, she thought the tissue paper I used to line the bottom of each section was a blanket for the silverware and she would use it as such to put them to bed. The tissue paper has disintegrated from so much use so today I gave her some paper towel pieces to use and this is what the drawer looked like when I checked on her progress. Too cute! (Although Daddy wasn't sure what to make of it when he came home from work and was getting silverware for dinner. He was like, "Have you seen the silverware drawer?") Today for the first time the silverware had genders. I don't remember all of them, but the small forks were little girls. She didn't need any prodding today and even put the tray back in the dishwasher and put the door up. I guess she really wanted to get to that game!

We invited Livia and Anda over to color Easter eggs tonight. I put Amelia in an old white shirt and shorts in case the dye got everywhere. It was fun to see her in summer clothes. The girls had a lot of fun. I was so concerned about Amelia cracking eggs and then I went and cracked one as I was giving it to Anda. The girls were so curious about eating an egg so I went ahead and showed them how to peel it and they enjoyed sharing it. They thought it was really neat that some of the blue had gotten on the egg. In this picture Amelia is complaining that she needs a fork - even though there is one right in front of her. She is so sensitive to being slighted when I pay attention to Livia or Anda. I know it's natural, but I wish she felt more secure about my attention. (And besides, she uses her fingers much of the time to eat, despite my constant reminders that eating with utensils is more polite.)

This was the first year that Ameila has dyed eggs. Things have changed so much since I was a kid. The kits came with collapsable cups for the liquids and I had glass bowls all ready to go. (Livia's mom looked at the bowls and said, "What are those for?" I am just so old fashioned, don't you know.) No more wire egg holders or white crayons and rub-off decals that you put on before you dyed the eggs. It's all easy stickers now. I think it takes some of the creativity out of it, but I guess as long as the kids have fun, they don't notice the difference, although it may make it less interesting for older children. Amelia wasn't as enamored with making eggs more than one color, either. I always enjoyed dipping eggs in halfway in two different colors which made the ring in the middle a third color. But she is only 4 and this was her first time, so I am sure she will get more creative later.

As a surprise, Livia's mom brought some Easter baskets for the girls and they wanted to use the sidewalk chalk so we went out and the girls drew with the chalk and then hugged good-bye. It will be nice when they can play outside all the time.

[pictures dated 3/30/10]

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-03-27T20:34:00.009-04:00

We took Amelia to an Easter egg hunt today. By the time we got there, found a parking spot and walked to the event, they were shutting down the inflatables (darn!), but Amelia was a good sport about it. We went over to the area where the Easter egg hunt was staged. They divided everyone by age group so the only kids vying for eggs with Amelia were other 4&5 year-olds. This worked out really well. I still taught her a little strategy, though. I told her that since we were all surrounding the area that she shouldn't stop right away because that is what everyone else will do. She should go all the way to the middle before she started picking up eggs and she should be sure to hold her bucket out in front of her so she doesn't unintentionally tip it over when she bends over to get her eggs. She listened and then a few minutes later she repeated it all back to me! It was so cute ... she was apparently into it! While we waited to scoped out where all the blue eggs were. I told her she might not get all of them, that she should just pick up whatever eggs she sees. Since it wasn't an aggressive group of kids, she was able to get all the blue ones! She got about eight eggs total and was very pleased. They also gave out a goodie bag with a small activity book and some candy.

We went back into the other section to see what might still be open. All the inflatables were gone, but we spied the Easter Bunny and Amelia took off for him/her. She is so fast! Here she is approaching the bunny and s/he is completely unaware! Fortunately, Amelia did not tackle the bunny, she ran around and jumped up and down to get his/her attention. Amelia was so cute talking to the bunny and then she said, "Bye Bunny!"

We were able to get her some balloons and a free biscuit from Bojangles which she scarfed down. She was either really hungry or it was really good. Then she played on the playground for a while. She loved the tire swing and in the end there were three girls total on it with her. They were so cute talking to one another. "I'm 6, how old are you?" "I'm four." "I'm four, too!" and then "My hair gets in my face." "Mine, too!"

[pictures dated 3/27/10]

Banana Split!

2010-03-23T21:40:00.001-04:00

It snowed yesterday and it looked this morning like it was going to snow some more. It was overcast and dreary so after pre-school we headed to the mall so I could use a free kid's meal coupon at Chik-Fil-A and let Amelia play in the play area. She noticed that the DAI in Dairy Queen was burned out and that reminded me that she hasn't had a real-life banana split yet. It is featured in one of her Pooh videos (actually the episode prior to the sad, stripeless Tigger one) and she got a plastic pretend one from Aunt Amy at Christmas. So we marched on over and ordered a banana split and I lifted her up so she could see it made. We then shared it - and she LOVED it! It was fun to just do that on the spur of the moment, too.

Then we went to Barnes & Noble where instead of the train table she played with the stuffed animals - putting one on each seat around a table. Then we moved to the stage where she put one on each bench, then on the stage she put one in each child-sized Adirondack chair and proceeded to have a show - complete with an audience!

I had something I needed to return at Books-a-Million and wanted to pop into TJ Maxx real quick to check something. They had a Fur Real cat that Amelia became enchanted with (not hard to believe). It meows and purrs, blinks its eyes, moves its head. I decided to offer to get it for her IF she starts listening to me when I tell her to do something. I hate to resort to that kind of bribing, but I am getting a little desperate. The bargain was that I would take him away if she doesn't listen to me. She agreed and tried carrying him "in his crate" (his box) but needed help. It was so cute! She gets the crate thing from Max, the little dachsund that Dodah has. She likes to crawl in his crate.

Happy 4-1/2!!

2010-03-22T21:26:00.001-04:00

Amelia turned 4-1/2 today and we decided to let her pick out a birthday cake. She's been planning her 5th birthday for months and since we have a wonderful family friend who usually makes her cakes and it's been such a long winter I thought it would be fun to celebrate her half birthday. I took Amelia to Ingles Sunday to pick out her cake. She opted for a Winnie the Pooh cake despite talking ad infinitum about the parking lot birthday cake she wanted, and briefly considering a Dora cake. We told the woman what we wanted and she went back to make sure they had the kit. While she finished filling out the form Amelia asked if she could see the pieces and had a lot of fun looking at them.

We picked up the cake today after I finished working and also got a blue balloon ($1 ... who could say no?). When we got home she noticed how she could let it go and still reach the bottom of the string until the textured ceiling won and there was a loud POP! So I got out some regular balloons and inflated four which Amelia picked out: blue, red, yellow and green. We had fun batting these around the living room and the popped balloon was quickly forgotten.

We went to dance where Amelia tried to tell Miss Angel (who knows Amelia has a September birthday) that it was her half birthday and Miss Angel said, "Silly goose! Today isn't your birthday!" Amelia liked being called a silly goose and told me about it all the way home.

After dance and dinner we had cake and I wrapped a Hello Kitty sticker book for her which she loved. So it was a nice simple family party. I took some cake to the neighbors after Amelia went to bed and tomorrow we'll bring some to Nana and also to Livia and her family. In the meantime, Amelia has had a lot of fun getting Pooh to pop out of his honey pot.

[picture dated 3/22/10]

Dreamer

2010-03-21T20:43:00.002-04:00

Amelia has been dreaming and they're not all good. The other morning she woke up saying she dreamed she had been at Grandma's, running around in her house and playing in the sand box in her backyard. But last night she woke up at 4:20 am crying because she was dreaming of Tigger losing his stripes. (This is an episode in a video called Tiggerific Tales which she hasn't seen in a few months.) I told her she could watch the video in the morning and I took her potty so she could maybe re-set herself, but she was still upset. I put on her lullabies and rubbed her back, but she was still upset. I know sometimes it's hard to shake a bad dream so I laid down next to her thinking we'd fall asleep together. She would ask me a question or reach out to touch me every few minutes and after about an hour she started wiggling a lot so I got up, gave her the Dora flashlight and a book and went back to my bed. We both woke up at 9 am this morning - a record!

Tonight she wanted to watch the Tigger episode and then proceeded to get all teary right before bed. She was upset because she couldn't remember all the words to the song Tigger sings about not knowing who he really is. She says she feels exactly the same way. !! What is she, 4 going on 14? She said she couldn't think of any happy things to think about and I told her to think about her 1/2 birthday tomorrow (we're getting her a cake because she didn't get to pick out her 4th birthday cake), going to Grandma's, and Tad - which I set to sing to her.

It took her about an hour to fall asleep. I think a large part of it is the time change. It's just an hour but it's amazing how it wreaks havoc on her. Going to bed when the clock says 8:30 pm or 9 pm when your body says it's 7:30 pm or 8, and then being woken up in the morning when you're used to waking up by yourself ... it is taxing on a little girl.

In other news, I bought Amelia some Snyder's all natural rice & corn puffs. I thought they were pretty tasty, but Amelia turned them down. I am not the only one who likes them, however. Tallulah, the cat, LOVES them. She was sitting on my lap and stuck her nose in my bowl and proceeded to eat three pieces before I could react! Hmmmmm

Big Day

2010-03-20T20:56:00.001-04:00

We were invited to a birthday party at an indoor pool. Since it's still wintery weather and an hour's drive to the place, I packed everything rather than putting bathing suits on under our clothes. I let Amelia pick out her bathing suit and proceeded to leave it at the house. Bad Mom! I had her cover-up and her floatie and her towel ... but no suit. So she swam in her undershirt and panties. Oh well. I felt bad but she didn't seem to notice until it was time to leave and she had to wear her stockings without panties. She had on the cutest outfit that is a hand-me-down from her cousin, Ashley. It was a dark blue fleece jumper with a blue leopard print heart and trim (and a white turtleneck).

We got to the house for the pizza and cake part and they had a 3-dimensional Thomas cake plus a Thomas balloon and Thomas plates and napkins. Amelia thought it was just fantastic. The little boy's name was Aspen which she pronounces Azth-ben. They had a playroom in the basement with a train table, a ball pit and a big toddler toy with rolling balls. Oh, and a tunnel. She didn't want to leave.

When we got home it had turned into a nice day and we went to the park for a little while with Livia and then to Nana's house so Mommy and Daddy could go out to eat.

She was exhausted by bedtime which hopefully will help her readjust fully to the time change.

Taxes ... Texas

2010-03-18T20:45:00.002-04:00

I picked Amelia up from Nana's this afternoon and told her we needed to go pick up our taxes since they called me this morning to say they were ready. (Yay!) When we got home Amelia asked me where we went and I told her we went to get our taxes.

Amelia: "Taxes? What is taxes? Isn't there a United State Taxes?"

Me: "You mean Texas. Yes, there is a state called Texas."

Amelia: "When I was a baby I flew on a plane to Texas."

Me: "Yes, you did. We went to see Uncle Stephen, Aunt Jennifer and your cousin Austin there." (I think she remembers me telling her that when we were doing a States puzzle a month or so ago.)

Amelia: "We drove to Tennessee and then flew to Texas. Both those United States start with T!"

I adore how she says United State instead of just state. I did correct her, but I suspect it will be like some of her other things (like bessert) which stick around for a while no matter what.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T20:50:00.002-04:00

I hope you remembered to wear green. We did!

I buy a lot of Amelia's clothes on eBay. A few weeks ago I asked her if she liked this dress and she emphatically said YES!, she could wear it for Patrick's Day. (Her teacher goes over the holidays/special days in the coming months and she was aware that St. Patrick's Day was coming even though it took her a while to realize Patrick was a saint.)

This morning when I got the dress out she was so excited that she was going to get to wear "the dress that mommy bought on the computer". Dodah stopped by with some shamrock socks and a slinky for Amelia who informed her that the dress came from the computer. (When I put her tights on this morning and she asked for socks and shoes I didn't tell her that you don't wear tights AND socks since I knew Dodah was coming with shamrcok socks and I knew she'd have to wear them, but it was too cold not to wear tights with her beloved new-to-her dress.)

I didn't think to take a picture until tonight when her hair was in her face but that's okay. Here she is enjoying the cute light-up Easter bunny that Grandma sent.

[picture dated 3/17/10]

Dairy Queen

2010-03-15T21:48:00.002-04:00

We had a great weekend. We went to Greensboro and met Daddy for dinner. He was down there watching the ACC Tournament. We then went to his hotel and swam Saturday morning before heading to see Aunt Jeannine and her family. Jeannine, Hannah, Amelia and I went shopping for the remainder of Saturday and that was fun. (Of course!) We went to church with them and then back to their house for lunch before heading home. It was hard to have to ask Amelia to stop playing in the back yard with Hannah - they were digging and exploring and it was so fun to just watch them having fun together. Plus it was sunny - we haven't seen much of the sun at home.

On the way home we had a number of potty stops and when we stopped at a Dairy Queen at supper time I decided to see if Amelia wanted to have something to eat. We had already gotten a parfait at McDonald's at an earlier potty stop so I wasn't sure if she was hungry since we were also dealing with the time change. She did want some chicken nuggets and they had applesauce as an alternative to the fries so she enjoyed her kids meal. She wanted to know what her toy was and I tried explaining that she was going to get to choose an ice cream treat for dessert instead. "They don't have toys here? Dairy Queen doesn't have toys? Why don't they have toys?" It wasn't s spoiled brat kind of thing, it was just so surprising to her. Even though there are some lame toys that Wendy's and some other places have given her, they at least had something they tried to pass off as a toy. We got her the small ice cream cone and still she was flabbergasted as we walked out to the car. There she was between licks, "Why doesn't Dairy Queen have toys?"

So today we get home from Nana's and she was playing in her room. She came across the Dairy Queen pretend food that Aunt Amy gave her at Christmas and she says, holding up one of their ice cream sandwiches with the DQ on it, "Mommy! Look, Dairy Queen USED TO HAVE toys. They just ran out and don't have them anymore!" She seemed so pleased to have figured it out, I didn't correct her.

Meet DeMarcus

2010-02-26T20:50:00.000-05:00

We named our newest kitty after Kentucky's great freshman center DeMarcus Cousins. Amelia actually named him Big Cat DeMarcus because he is a big cat, and DeMarcus Cousins is bigger than her favorite player, John Wall.

A guy got married and the wife & cat didn't like each other. His friends said to listen to his cat but instead he gave his cat away. And now he lives with us. Amelia is THRILLED to have her own cat. He is still getting used to being here. The other three cats don't like him much but they are mostly leaving him alone or just growling or glaring at him. No marking, no fights, so we're good so far. He talks a lot so we think there is some Siamese in him.

Meg brought him by last night after Amelia was asleep. He explored the house and then we all went to bed. We didn't see him at all this morning and didn't mention anything to Amelia.

I took Amelia to the Y with me for the first time. She LOVED the child-watch area. I wasn't sure how she would react but she immediately ran to the other side where there is a playhouse. There were three other girls there about her size/age and she just fell in like she had always played there. When I came back to pick her up she told me to go away for a while! The girl nearest me told me that she thought it was sweet how Amelia and Riley were best friends. I told her we didn't know Riley and she was amazed at how easily they had become buddies.

When we got home DeMarcus was in the cat napper in Amelia's room but Amelia was dawdling downstairs. I went down to encourage her to come up and then couldn't find DeMarcus. A few minutes later I located him in the basement and brought him upstairs and put him down so he could walk into the kitchen and I said, "Amelia! Look what I found!" She looked up from her book and shouted, "My own kitty!" She immediately came to the kitchen and poured him a cup of food. It was so cute.

[Picture dated 2/25/10]

New Tires

2010-02-22T22:01:00.001-05:00

I am tired of the snow. This cartoon was in the paper last week and I cut it out and put it on the fridge. We've been going to work and the grocery store and that's about it. For a month.

I borrowed my mother-in-law's 4WD last week and still slid on the ice (3 times), then gave up and walked the 2 miles to work where I looked up "how to drive in snow with a Saturn Ion. (answer: good tires and kitty litter in the trunk)

So today, while the weather was finally nice, I bought new tires at a new place. My two front tires were completely worn out, and I knew it. The tire place came recommended and it was one of those where you drive up, they jack your car up on the spot and put on your tires. Amelia was scared - probably having flashbacks to the body shop - and wanted nothing to do with getting out of the car so I cracked her window and walked over to check on her every few minutes. (She was never out of my sight.) Every time I would approach, she would turn her body away from me and say, "Go away, Mommy!" She was afraid I was going to make her get out.

When it was time to go, I noticed her squirming and asked if she needed to go to the litter box. I could see "Dilemma!" written all over her face so I offered to take her to Wal-mart and she was SO relieved! I did tell her that the office of the tire place was really nice and they even had a real bobcat that had been stuffed that she could pet. She was tempted but when I parked the car she panicked and asked for Wal-mart. So off to Wal-mart we went which was fine because it allowed me to stock up on the kitty litter which will reside in my trunk for the rest of winter. (Part 2 of my driving-in-snow plan.)

More snow is in Wednesday's forecast. We'll see how we do!

Saying Grace

2010-02-19T21:53:00.000-05:00

Lately when Amelia volunteers to say grace before dinner (every night someone different says it), she wants us all to participate. So she starts with "God is great, God is Good," and I pick up with "Let us thank him for our food." Daddy then says, "By his hands," and stops thinking she will pick up, but no, she prompts him! It's hilarious. She has her own specific meter for how it should be divided, and she wil not be deterred.

Budding Author

2010-02-18T19:59:00.003-05:00

Amelia was at Nana's today - all day. Usually she goes to school in the morning and then to Nana's but she hasn't had school since last Tuesday (the 9th) because of the weather.

According to Nana, Amelia asked for five pieces of plain paper and proceeded to make this book. Amelia told me that it was her book of cats (she hasn't learned the concept of keeping words together yet) and that she also wrote all the words on the inside so she would know what it said. (Each page is filled with a different color of scribbles that look like this.)

Her imagination is really something.

Doctor Visit

2010-02-17T20:02:00.001-05:00

Amelia was complaining this morning that her cheek hurt. At first I just thought maybe she brushed it up against something. When she complained again just two minutes later and accompanied it with a moan, I asked her if her ear hurt and she said it did. She moaned a few more times while she was laying down so I gave her some Children's Motrin and 10 minutes later she was up and bouncing around like her usual self.

I decided to go ahead and take her to the doctor because if she had an ear infection that was bad enough for her to complain about, that it shouldn't be ignored. (Plus I have Nana's 4WD so I can get out!) I made her an appointment with her 'new' doctor (the one we don't have to spend two hours waiting for). While we're in the waiting room Amelia said, "I hope when they come to call my name they don't call me Amelia." I asked her why not and she said she wanted them to call her Spunky since she is a cat. When the nurse came, Amelia didn't say anything about wanting to be called Spunky but she asked her what her name was (Kim) and then when we got to the room she climbed onto the table herself (sniff, sniff, where did my baby go?). Amelia then proceeded to tell the nurse she was a cat, so Kim asked her if she could purr, which she did. (She thankfully did not hiss and spit, which she likes to do with Daddy.)

When Dr. Hall came in she noticed Amelia was her usual energetic self and I told her she had no problems with appetite or diarrhea, and her lungs sounded good. She was impressed by how well Amelia was breathing deeply for her. I guess maybe other children aren't as compliant. Dr. Hall asked Amelia which ear hurt and Amelia told her the right ear and pointed to it. Dr. Hall asked her what her other ear was and Amelia said her left. (I guess the doctor was taking the opportunity to gauge development?) When Dr. Hall touched Amelia's leg and asked her if it was her left or right leg Amelia said, "No, that's my left back paw." Dr. Hall had to step back out of Amelia's line of sight to silently laugh.

So Amelia's ear is red but because she isn't having any other symptoms, Dr. Hall recommended waiting until Friday to see if she was still complaining about her ear to fill the antibiotic prescription since antiobiotics can sometimes bring on other problems. (her words, not mine)

** edited Thursday night to add: took soup to Dodah who is sick. She saw Dr. Hall today and mentioned Amelia because she knew I had taken her there. Dr. Hall said, ooh, that is one precocious child! (And Amelia hasn't had any other issues with her ear, so we're good to go with her.)

Yet Another Snow Day

2010-02-16T19:53:00.004-05:00

Amelia said she didn't want to play in the snow, but she changed her mind when we got back from the post office. It's also very cold and she didn't last long before her hands got really cold (even with gloves on).

We watched Anda for a few hours this morning while her sister was taken to the doctor. Anda's diaper needed changing as soon as she got here and Amelia was very interested - she's been trying to diaper her cats lately with her toy diapers (a Christmas stocking stuffer). When Anda needed another change I let Amelia help. It was so cute! As I was changing Anda the second time, Amelia was at my elbow. When I asked, "Do you want to open that tab?" She was like, "Me?!" You would think she had just won the lottery. I didn't have to ask twice! She did a good job getting them close to Elmo so Anda's diaper wasn't too tight or loose, and she was just so proud of herself for helping.

This afternoon we had fun playing board games (Candyland and Silly Switch) and then Amelia played some computer games while I cleaned the kitchen.

If Spring or Summer ever comes, I am not spending one more minute inside than necessary, and I think Amelia will be fine with that plan, too.

[picture dated 2/16/10]

The cat transformation continues

2010-02-15T20:57:00.003-05:00

This morning I told Amelia I needed to brush her hair. "No, Mommy! It's my fur!" (Okay, fine, just let me brush it so you don't have bedhead.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T20:58:00.002-05:00

She wouldn't pose or smile for me, but she was too pretty today not to take her picture.

For the third Sunday in a row we had no Sunday School because of the weather so we had to make a mad dash around the sanctuary handing out Valentines.

During the children's moment April asked who knew what day it was. No one answered at first and then Amelia shouted out "Valentine's Day!!" April then talked about different ways you can show love. She gave the example of feeding people and then asked the children to say how they could show love. When it was Amelia's turn she wadded the netting of her dress up in her hands and acted all shy. I was sitting in the row right behind her because I don't like to let her go up by herself in the event she decides to take off for the choir loft (again). I figured she wouldn't answer but April asked her again, trying to encourage her to say something. Amelia then says, "Listening to my mommy and doing what she says." WOW! I was pretty impressed. Now, if we can get some action on that item ...

[picture dated 2/14/10]

Placemats

2010-02-13T21:03:00.002-05:00

We invited Nana to join us for crockpot chili Thursday evening. When Nana got there I was busy doing something and she decided to make herself busy by clearing the table. She unknowingly removed the placemats Amelia made us that we had been using for a few days. She cut out pictures from the large coloring pad she has from Melissa & Doug. The pages are pretty thick and I bought it with the idea that they would be good for painting without getting shredded by the watercolors.

Cutting is something Amelia needs to work on and her preschool teacher had sent home paper cutting homework in November. (She recently said Amelia has greatly improved ... but we never did do those exercises, so I'm thinking she just must now be at the right developmental stage for her motor skills and concentration.) When she started cutting the pictures, I didn't say anything and the next thing I know she has decided it's a placemat. Then there's four! I was pretty impressed both with her cutting and her imagination, so we've been using them.

When Amelia came to the table Thursday night for supper, she immediately noticed that the placemats were missing. I hadn't noticed and I felt so bad! I took them off the counter and let her distribute them to the appropriate person so we could each put them under our plates. Just like most things, she had long decided whose was whose and I certainly wasn't going to risk not remembering incorrectly. She seemed so proud to hand them out, and Nana acted duly impressed.

Granola bars

2010-02-12T20:46:00.000-05:00

They were on sale and David used to eat them all the time, so I bought a box of chewy granola bars a couple of weeks ago. When I told him about them, Amelia wanted one, too. I've been buying her the Earth Kids ones because they're all natural and have no high fructose corn syrup. She didn't think much of Daddy's "canola" bars and fortunately, I had some of hers in the cupboard.

Tonight I was looking through coupons and came across one for granola bars and asked him if he wanted me to buy more the next time I was at the store. Amelia pipes up and says, "I like canola bars, too, but only the regular kind, not the ones with all the stuff in them." This was accompanied by hand gestures where she was pointing at an imaginary granola bar that she was holding in her other hand. I am sure she was referring to the Quaker ones and am continually amazed at her memory.

(Canola bars is like bessert ... too cute to correct her. She'll grow out of it soon enough I'm sure.)

Spunky

2010-02-07T20:54:00.000-05:00

We have a new pastor at church and today was his first day preaching. I was down in the nursery with Amelia so we came up after the service to meet him. I told her to go up and say, "Hi Pastor Glenn and Ms. Cindy. I'm Amelia."

She goes up and says, "Hi Pastor Glenn and Ms. Cindy. I'm Spunky the cat!"

I tried not to roll my eyes and said, "But we call her Amelia."