Bonnie's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 5/19/07 -------------------- 4/18/07 2/27/07 1/18/07 12/21/06 12/2/06 11/11/06 10/13/06 9/24/06 9/14/06 9/4/06 8/23/06 8/17/06 8/3/06 7/28/06 7/24/06 7/21/06 7/11/06 6/29/06 6/26/06 6/25/06 6/24/06 6/21/06 6/15/06 6/13/06 -------------------- Bonnie's Introduction

Keeping busy

December 2, 2006

Things have been moving along here at a steady pace. November has been fairly mild which makes me very happy, although I will never be content with the days so short.  Once it gets dark (ie close to 4PM) I just want to go bed.  Ella feels the same way, she is always commenting about how late it is and how tired she is as soon as the sun goes down.  I have to talk her out of getting ready for bed at 5PM! 

Speaking of Ella (for a change.... LOL) she is, as always, a wonderful little girl but she is clearly growing more and more independent as the days go by.  This is a good thing to be sure but it has brought on an attitude that was never there before.  She is much less willing to follow my directions without a whole verbal debate.  She is also less willing to be polite (ie please and thank you) without a whole debate.  She no longer goes 'with the flow' as easily.  This tendency of hers to go along with most plans has made things very easy for both of us over the years but now that she has definite ideas of her own about how things should be and who is the boss of her (ie, her, and not me) there is much more resistance then in the past.  The other day she actually had her first full on temper tantrum in public.  I know I should thank my lucky stars that I didn't have to experience this unpleasantry until the ripe old age of five but it was such a shock to me and so completely out of character that I was nearly (NEARLY, but not) speechless.  After we had gone home and processed everything (I think she upset herself as well) I had to remind her that, even though she was getting bigger and smarter, when push came to shove she still had to listen to me and I still was the one who made the rules.  Thems the breaks, sweetie....

One fun thing that Ella has been doing is spending a lot of time on this website http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/.  She is very good on it, can make her own snowflake and then 'send it out'.  She will also spend lots of times just looking at other people's snowflakes.  I like that it's such a simple 'game' without a lot of hoopla, violence and NO television characters (unlike the Nickjr website where she also spends a lot of time).   It's also gotten her very proficient at using the finger pad on my laptop which is good because until now she had only used the mouse on our other computer.   I would love to hear from anyone who has suggestions about other online sites that their children enjoy.

In other news I have started back at work.  As planned I am only working one eight hour shift per week.  Practically nothing, I know, but I was still very anxious about it and hoping something would happen to prevent even this.  But alas, the stars aligned, I got good child care (a neighbor that watches children who has a daughter that Ella is very good friends with), the shifts were open and everyone was on board.  It wasn't THAT bad and I do want to keep my skills up but it certainly wasn't the best part of my week.     The paycheck will be nice, though, after four months without I am missing that!

Ella has been doing very well at school.  In hindsight, I am so glad that we didn't end up being able to get her into kindergarten earlier.  I have to admit, I didn't put nearly the legwork into choosing this school as I had her first one.  I liked that it was close, wasn't crazy expensive and was at the Boy's and Girl's Club (where I expect she will do their after school program one day).  Since she has started, however, I have been pleasantly surprised at the curriculum.  Each week there is a different letter featured.   That week, the kids learn about a country starting with that letter, cook a food starting with the letter, must bring in show and tell starting with the letter, and throughout the week draw and color pictures relating to the letter.  The kicker, though, is that each week they have homework—a worksheet to practice writing the letter (upper and lower case).  I don't even think the kindergarten kids in our town have homework (first grade, definitely). 

I know a lot of schools are getting flack for expecting too much from the younger kids but I personally don't think this is overboard.  I don't feel that Ella is getting 'robbed' of her playtime and, in fact, I hope that this is just setting the stage for a realistic idea of the focus of a school day.  I get fed up with people who complain about the amount of work expected of our kids ('kindergarten is the new first grade' seems to be the big catch phase) but then criticize our educational system when our students aren't as advanced as other countrys'.  In fact, the only thing that concerns me right now is that what she is focusing on now pretty much is what it sounds like they are doing in kindergarten as well so I worry a bit about next year.  Time will tell, I guess...

Four month check up

Lorelei had her four month well baby check up last week.  Already four months old!  Waaaa (that's me crying, not her, my baby's growing up...she's doing less crying these days, which is wonderful!)  It was fairly uneventful, actually.  She weighed in at 13 lbs, 12 oz, which was exactly 50 ^th percentile, I believe, and her head and weight were also right down the middle.  The Dr. spent a lot of time making goofy faces at her to try to get her to smile at him but she just stared.  I tried to tell him she is more serious girl then my first was but he said she must be developing early stranger anxiety (since she would smile and talk to me).  In any case, she handled her shots fine.  Didn't even cry until the third one (poor thing, I was a wreck) and even then for less then a minute.  I feel like such a trader when I bring her to these things. 

Lorelei isn't rolling yet, but I can tell she's getting there.  For a few weeks now she's been able to thump herself around a bit by pushing off on her legs while arching her back.  She is especially fond of this trick in her crib and I find her in all sorts of positions when I come to get her after a nap or sleep.  Unfortunately all too often she will thump herself into the corner of the crib and, even with the crib bumpers, give herself a pink sore spot on the top of her head from trying to barrel right through.  This also has the unfortunate consequence of seriously ticking her off leading to the end of the nap/sleep.  

Last week we had unseasonably warm weather—record breaking temps, actually.  I'm sure it's a byproduct of global warming but it's hard to be too upset at these unexpected opportunities for carefree outdoor time.  Ella biked to school while Lorelei and I walked (actually, only I walked.  It's about 1 ˝ miles to school which is fairly easy for Ella to bike in about 25 minutes but it means six miles of walking for me on those days.  Just about the only exercise I get so I grin and go for it.)  After school we spent nearly two hours at the playground.  At Ella's suggestion, as a way to get me off my duff and pushing her in the swing, I put Lorelei in the toddler swing, surrounded by one of her blankets.  It was so special for me to see my two girls swinging along next to each other and then to see Ella gently pushing her baby sister.  Lorelei promptly fell asleep, eliciting tender glances from moms all over the park (and resentful stares from toddlers coveting the swing).  I could have kicked myself for not having a camera but I guess this one I will just have to treasure in my head.

Well, I'm going to wrap this one up.  Lot's more to write—I feel like I always have an entry in the back of my head but never the time/energy to commit it to paper.  So, we do what we can.  

Happy start of the frenetic holiday season all!

Thanks for reading,

Bonnie

Finally, a quick outtake from our Christmas photo sessions: