{week 32}

What a week!!! Thanks to our friend Julie for loaning me her real camera (since I left mine in Macon!!!) for Cassidy's first week of kindergarten. But, of course, I snapped plenty of iPhone pictures too! We started the week lazily with a pajama day crafting & watching movies in anticipation of the long week ahead. And also, my girls love anything bead/glue/glitter/mess related, so it was a win. Tuesday was the practice bus ride, meet & greet and then the big girl & I had a mommy-daughter date shopping for a first day of school outfit, a couple books - we got "The Kissing Hand" & "Llama, Llama Misses Mama" among other {tearjerkers}, and went out for lunch. Wednesday was the first day of school. Cassidy had a wonderful day and was all smiles getting on & off of the bus. The early morning totally wore everyone in the family out though. Cade took a monster nap in the afternoon and Kalea was asleep in her bed by 6:30 that night!!! 

So, we're adjusting. I'm making bigger pots of coffee in the morning, bedtime is earlier and, thankfully, easier for the most part. Kalea and Cade are getting to spend some quality sibling time together. (And I laugh, because JUST as I typed this, they started fighting. Yep, quality.) It hasn't been without a couple bumps in the road. Cassidy, on the surface, is doing amazingly well with such a big transition. However she's had her moments of complete meltdowns that seem completely unrelated - I'm sure due to being over tired and not quite used to everything. We're back to packing lunches, meal planning (that yummy salmon is this recipe. one pot, super easy, 25 minutes from start to finish) and seeing the sun peak over the trees in the morning. And blessed through all of it. 

{kindergarten}

The post also known as "{should have bought stock in kleenex}".

No, it's actually been a lot better than I imagined, but I do admit to a few tears and little anxiety. And that's just me! Cassidy has handled the transition really well. She did mention multiple times in the last few weeks that she wasn't "ready for kindergarten yet, mama." but in the end she hopped on the bus with barely a backward glance. 

My type A self was relied heavily on friends who have had kids at our elementary school and her 4K angel of a teacher to figure out what was going on the past couple weeks. We shopped for supplies, got mostly the right items, figured out the bus schedule and then waited. Apparently there is a lot less hand holding {for the parents!!!} from the administration compared to preschool. {cue anxious tears} But yesterday at the Meet and Greet, most of the missing pieces fell into place. 

Cassidy & I rode the bus together from her stop to school. Her driver's name is Mrs. B. Mrs. B drives Bus B. How convenient. Then we swung by the class lists, which didn't get posted until that morning because almost 60 students registered the prior day. Poor administrators & teachers!!!! After that it was off to Mrs. Musselwhite's classroom. What a fun place! Cassidy made fast friends with some boys - who we found out live in our neighborhood - playing blocks, then play-doh and exploring the classroom. We did a practice walk from the bus area to her classroom, snapped a picture with her sweet new teacher and then headed to the cafeteria to sign daddy up for PTSA. Hmm, I wonder if he'll catch that! Since we live in the neighborhood right next to school, we decided to just walk home instead of waiting for the bus. She looked too big just walking ahead of me, as if she'd done this a thousand times before. {cue tears}

Today she bounded out of bed, ok, let's be real, she got out of bed with no fussing and was clearly excited. Last night we read Llama, Llama Misses Mama and The Kissing Hand to prepare {me} for her first long day away from home. {cue tears} This morning she opened a first day of kindergarten gift of a heart shaped locket with pictures of Mommy & Daddy inside. We told her that it was her special kissing hand gift and that she could squeeze it if she missed us during school. {cue tears...are you getting the kleenex reference yet?!?} Then it was a quick breakfast, some obligatory pictures - the sign says, "1st day of kindergarten, I want to be an artist, singer & dancer when I grow up!" - & the whole family to the bus stop. {cue tears} We're so proud of our little girl!

{count on it}

Grinning because she counted to 100 for the first time!!! So proud of her!

project 365 photo: 09.08.2011 {class book}

This weekend Cassidy was entrusted with her teacher's class book. The instructions are to read it together over the weekend & return it on Monday. This particular class book has an "All About Me" page for each child in the class as well as a picture him or her. The kids must have dictated the answers while the teachers filled in the paragraph. Some of the answers are pretty hilarious, some are sweet & some sound exactly like you'd expect a three or four year old to speak.

I think Cassidy did a very good job with her "All About Me" page. I'm just a little concerned though about the number of people in her family...is there something she knows that we don't?!?

project 365 photo: 09.07.2011 {tiny dancer}

Cassidy's new preschool offers ballet-tap class on-site once a week right after preschool & today was her first class. She was so excited.

I got to sneak in the back during the last few minutes of class & watch without her knowing I was there. She did a great job imitating her teacher & following directions...smiling the whole time!

preschool.

I can barely believe that Cassidy is old enough to go to school! Today was her 1st day at Holladay Preschool & she had a great time making her snack place-mat, exploring all the different toys & things to do. I asked her after class what her favorite part was & she said, "Ummm, lunch!" I guess it was pretty special since they got chocolate milk with their graham crackers for snack! 

I got to stay with her today during the shortened "transition" day so she could get used to the environment & expectations...& take a few pictures too! She was interested in the other kids, but watched from a distance & mostly played by herself. According to my parents, I did the same thing when I first started school! My guess is that, after a couple days, she'll have new friends to pal around with & we'll have a hard time getting her to leave at the end of the day! Her first full day, all by herself, is on Monday. We'll keep you posted on how it goes!

flash cards.

Recently Cassidy has been really interested in letters, "writing" her name & playing "homework" with some baby sign language flash cards we have. I thought it might be fun to make a flash card book with her with letters so that she can start to learn what they look like & the sounds each letter makes. (Believe me, I'm not pushing her to be reading yet, but since she's interested I thought we should capitalize on that!)

I let her choose an image for each letter of the alphabet from Google Images. Then while she was otherwise occupied I printed & cut them out. Afterward she chose a picture to glue while I wrote the word on one side of the card & the letter on the other where she helped stick down the picture. As we put each card together she told me the name of the letter & what the picture was. To keep them all together I hole punched each card's corner, put on one of those hole-saver-sticker-thingys & used a ring to keep them together. Cassidy is so excited about her new book...she even wanted to sleep with it! I liked that she was able to help make the book & can understand better what it is. My guess is that we'll be doing more fun flashcard books in the future for numbers, site words & all types of things!

bangs!

I don't know when she got so grown up,
but today we ventured into the big girl world of bangs!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

pretend play.

Recently Cassidy has been really into pretend play. She goes shopping at the farmer's market, cooks in her little kitchen, eats lunch or dinner with her stuffed animals & dolls and even clears the table & washes dishes! While she plays pretend, it's interesting to see how she interacts with "others," figures things out & creates a world for herself - which largely resembles our day to day life. A lot of times we hear phrases & commentary that she doesn't use in real life.

It's definitely neat to watch her develop into a little person. She clearly has her own opinions & agenda most days, but is getting better & better about using her words & more complete phrases or sentences. We got the book "Calm Down Time" recently which seems to have helped her begin to deal with not so pleasant feelings. She loves reading & it's made an impact on her that she feels the same way as the children in the story. The book is part of the The Free Spirit Toddler Tools Series & we have a number of the other books too - I'd recommend them to anyone with a toddler!

This year Cassidy starts preschool. She'll attend the preschool at our church two days a week for two hours. The class is a co-op where there is a teacher & a parent in the classroom each day. The school follows a loose curriculum that is based more on child-lead exploration than academic rigor at this age - which I think is just right! Michael will be on the preschool board of directors this year & assisting with buildings & grounds. I'm not sure how ready I am to have a school age child yet, but don't think I really have a choice!