I can hardly believe I have a first grader. Well, I can believe it when she starts getting all sassy with me. Sometimes she is six going on sixteen!
This year we transferred her to another school so that she could do the Spanish Immersion program. It was something I’d been thinking about for months. She was really sad about leaving all her friends at her last school, and I felt bad for her. However, I knew that she would be able to make new friends quickly, which she has. Also, Dave and I both speak Spanish, so it’s kind of a no-brainer. We would be stupid to not put her in a program like this.
Gwenie started preschool yesterday. She was SO excited. She had her clothes all laid out by her bed and at 7am came into our room, on my side of the bed, and when I opened my eyes and said good morning, she whispered to me, “first day of school.” Then she went over to Dave’s side of the bed and did the same thing to him. It was really cute.
When I dropped her off, she didn’t even look back at me. I decided not to take it personally. When I picked her up and asked her how it went, one of the first things she said to me was, “I don’t have any homework!” Sounds like a younger sibling to me!
Right now both girls are at school and Olive is napping. I almost don’t know what to do with myself. I think I’ll get used to these quiet mornings!
One of these days we won’t have such an ugly front door.
And sometimes I’m a little cheeky.
Well, that vacation was either way too short, or it passed by really quickly. Probably both.
I want more.
More time with Dave. (I love having him all to myself)
More visiting with family and friends.
More of these cute and happy girls. (They fight a lot less when we are on vacation)
On the drive home, I kept thinking these three things:
1. I don’t want Dave to go back to work. Ever.
2. I don’t want to face all the laundry that awaits me.
3. I want to eat another tigger’s tail.
More pictures from our vacation to come after I come conquer the mountain of laundry that awaits me.
And I can touch my nose with my tongue.
I know this makes my mom somewhat jealous considering this is something she has always wished she could do, along with wiggling her ears. I am now in the elite club of those-who-can-touch-their-nose-with-their-tongue along with Auntie Kiki, Uncle Jon, my cousin Tainui, and the one who I probably got this talent from, my Dad.
Now it’s time to work on rolling my tongue.
The girls are obsessed with making lists of things they want to do when we go to Disneyland. We don’t have anything concrete planned, but a road trip involving The Happiest Place on Earth is imminent.
So the other day I overheard Gwen making her “list” while at the same time reciting what she was writing. I asked her to come into the office and tell me what she was writing, and this is what I got.
“I got my Disneyland jar all fulled up and the bug that’s outside the window. Lets take a walk with Inez and me and mommy and daddy. And there’s a bug flying everywhere in the window and it’s right here where I’m pointing. And we help each other everyday and help each other in the night and no bad guys in the night without getting in without of the night. We don’t have a Disneyland fort made out of tent and we love Jesus Christ. We love Heavenly Father we love Disneyland everyday and Nezzie loves Legoland too without getting afraid. Without getting in trouble in the night. With no food in the night when we get up. We love drinks and Icees. We love Heavenly Father so much. And somebody loves us. Tori loves us, Heavenly Father loves us so much. And Daddy has a new iPad, that’s a new iPad today. I love Brandon. We love Tori so much. We love saying prayers and we love saying amen. I have a new baby and it has a bow on it today. We have a new visitor, called Tori (and Aunt Liz and Uncle Joe and Charles and Joey). We love them today. I get to go to Disneyland everyday. And we love saying prayers together. We love getting smiles on our hands. We won’t get ants on today. And we love getting so help in the river without falling in. I love to go potty and not stinky diapers in my panties today. My Disneyland jar is full and we love to get new computers like Daddy. And we have cute little babies just for me in the crib. And I love Daddy so much. And we cannot be rowdy and just reverent today. And I love everybody.”
Dave and I were laughing so hard when I read it to him. I suppose if you know Gwen and have heard her voice inflection, you’ll appreciate it a little more. Regardless, it’s good for a laugh.
For the past six months Gwen has been filling this jar to earn a trip to Disneyland. She earned the beans by going to the bathroom.
It started with one bean each time she went to the bathroom. But I quickly realized that there were so many freaking beans that it was going to take a long time to fill up the jar. Too long. I’m seriously craving a trip to California/Disneyland, so I decided to increase the value of the beans.
1 bean for trying to go to the bathroom (I don’t know how many times she told me, “I don’t need to go!” when in reality, she did need to go.)
2 beans for going with my or Dave’s help
3 beans for going all by herself
5 beans for going stinkies
10 beans for not having any accidents in one day (this one didn’t happen a lot)
She filled up the jar on Sunday and was very proud of herself.
I just love her eyes.
While she isn’t perfect in her potty training (I still get very frustrated some days), she is finally getting the hang of it. In her defense, we did have a big disruption a few months ago (Olive’s birth) that seemed to set her back a bit.
Anyway, now that the jar is full, I think I can safely say, Disneyland, here we come!
Well, after nearly two days of too much tv and time spent in our jim-jams, we finally got out of the house. It was cold and snowy—not exactly what comes to mind when you hear the words spring and break used in the same sentence. But we bundled up anyway, braved the cold, and headed for the public library. We got 27 books, two movies, and two books on cd.
It makes me feel like our outing in the cold was totally worth it when I came upon this scene this morning:
She’s “reading” one of our favorite books, Edwina: The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct by one of our favorite authors, Mo Willems.
Naturally I had to take a picture because this peaceful scene will probably not last. Unfortunately. She will soon be dancing, running, jumping, singing, yelling, acting crazy, making us laugh, fighting with her older sister, smothering her little sister, sitting in time out, and helping me to learn patience. It’s her daily routine.
And we love her for it.
And I’m really obsessed with my Mom’s Turbie Twist (super-absorbent hair towel). “Turbie Twist holds your hair better than a towel,” you know.
And since you can totally jump on a bed while wearing one (AND IT WON’T FALL OFF!), I’m hoping that I’ll be getting one of my own. SOON.
I have mixed emotions about the Spring. For the most part, I really love it. It is my second favorite season (after Fall). But this year, Spring is being a big, fat tease. Now, I don’t expect everyday to be warm and perfect this time of year. I’m fully aware that I live in Utah and not Arizona or California. But the snow last weekend was really a bit much. I don’t mind occasional snow storms, but it needs to get a move-on and melt already!
ANYWAY. My problem right now is: 1. The snow and cold keep us indoors. 2. We have a small house. And when I say small, I mean SMALL (even though I just wrote it in all caps there, it just wouldn’t have had the same effect if I had written, SMALL).
But I guess there’s no use in sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves because we can’t enjoy nice weather everyday. Finger painting (hand painting for Gwen) is our new official snow-and-cold-weather indoor activity.
