Christmas 2009

Text to come later

View some photos here.

So Sweet

As I was tucking Lillian into bed tonight, she told me, "You are my joy. Daddy is my love."

Guess I was told

This morning I asked Lillian to move her doll stroller from the middle of kitchen while I was unloading the dishwasher and this is how she responded:
"Well you can just walk around it Mama."

Christmas Decorating - Lillian Style

You don't really get to decorate when Lillian helps you. She arranges items to her liking and if there is anything that resembles a person or an animal, that item will end up in a tea party, picnic or sleeping. And if it is a circle, it will end up on her head at some point.

It is all very cute but the critters having a sleep/tea party on the Christmas placemat HAD to stay like that in the middle of the living room floor for three days. Luckily I convinced her today that the cats might eat them if we left them on the floor any longer!

Can I get an order of 2 L's and a side of R please?

Today for playgroup it was just the L girls (Lillian and Lily) for preschool story time at the library. The girls had fun singing sons, some even in Spanish, and listening to books. The books were all about silly things such as a cow laying an egg. The girls took the silly theme seriously and had a a blast running around together once the program was finished.

Both girls (actually all three girls, Lily's little sister Rory) made it known they were hungry so we all headed over to the local preschool lunch spot for a bite to eat. The L's sat next to each other and when they were finished eating, announced that they were going to the bathroom by themselves. The mean mommies had to step in and I took the L's to the potty. I was not allowed in the stall, just the two of them where I overheard such things as: "Look, it's not automatic!" "No I will flush for you and you can flush for me." "I will help you with your tights." A few other things I did not quite understand and lots of giggles and squeals.

Big Girl Bed - for real

Lillian has been in a real twin-sized big girl bed for a few weeks now. Thanks to my seasonal employment with a certain company that we purchased her changing table/dresser from, we got it a great price. She loves it and it is much easier for us to snuggle with her on it!

Of course the new bed takes up most of her room so we had to do some reconfiguration and have not completed hanging things up yet but she likes it.

Pictures

Halloween 2009

Halloween started probably in September with Lillian saying she wanted to be a cat for the occasion. Great but she wanted to be a blue cat, specifically calling it the Cinderella cat. Now she is not allowed to have "character" toys so I was a bit stumped about how she came up with this idea. After informing me of how she wanted her costume, no tutu skirt and frills, we found a cat pattern and set out to look for fabric. Luckily Joe reminded me that if we got the fabric like Cinderella, the costume would look silly and not at all like a cat. So I took her to some fabric shops and she picked out this funky flower fleece fabric. At least it was a bit furry like a cat! (She had originally picked out a cute leopard print fabric and should have bought it but I had to try one more store!) So that is how she ended up as the Rainbow Flower Kitty.



So the costume got made (even with breaking my sewing machine, borrowing a machine and hair pulling and foot stamping on my part). I did not make the hood that the pattern had because Lillian informed me she was not going to wear a hood. So I re-purposed her ears from last year and was done with the headband. I also did not make the elastic for the wrists or ankles, we just used pretty gold ribbon. The red glitter shoes were all Lillian's idea. I found some cute shiny pink shoes that matched the oink on the fabric perfectly but once she saw the red ones, that was it. Lillian was talking to Granny on the phone one afternoon and invited her up for Halloween so show off her spooky decorating skills.

I had to work the day of Halloween but Joe and Granny took Lillian to get the pumpkins and around one of the shopping centers to trick-or-treat. That night we headed to the Governor's Mansion (a tradition) where Lillian fell asleep on the 10 minute ride and got super scared by a person popping up out of a coffin. She was shaking so bad that Joe picked her up.



We headed back home and saw tons of kids out in our neighborhood so we decided to go down two streets. This was her first time trick-or-treating at houses and she loved it. She did not love some of the lawn decorations and spooky music but she had a great time. After each house, she we meet us and say "More candy. I got more candy!" She asked if she could eat candy and we told her once we got home she could have a piece. As SOON as she had 2 feet in the door, she asked to eat her candy. She picked out a lollipop and hasn't really asked for much more than that.

Just Pics

I Love School!

This is what Lillian said to me this afternoon before her nap. Today marks a full week that she has been to school, three whole days. So far no calls from the teachers, no notes being sent home about her stripping down at the potty and no tears on her part!

There are only 8 children in her class and 2 teachers. The first two days she would only say "I don't know" when asked what she did at school so we had to pretend to be characters to pull more information out of her. After the second day she said, "Well they still didn't teached us nothing today." I guess that means she wants pre-approval for the lesson plans.

I walk into the school with her but use the carpool to pick her up. Usually as soon as she sits down she tells me she is hungry. She seems to play well with the other kids and really likes music class and the discovery class. Today was her first day in discovery and she got to touch a caterpillar, see a millipede and a dead ocotpus. She told me all about how the octopus swims in the water. I told her that I knew she would like the discovery class and she said "Well you were right about that one!"

The preschool is very small (only about 50 families total) and feels very cozy. And the wonderful thing, besides being within walking distance for us, is the director has been sending pictures through email each day. It's so fun to see her doing so well. Here are some pictures she has sent:

Preschool Rocks!

Today, Thursday, September 10, 2009 was Lillian's first day of preschool. She had a new outfit to wear (she had to have a purple dress because her best friend Lily was going to wear a purple dress for the first day of school), a new backpack and a new attitude.

We (Daddy went with us for the drop-off) arrived at the school about 15 minutes early so we walked around the grounds and the church looking at plants and flowers. We were trying to catch Lily but it was time to go in and Lillian actually said, "I want to go to my preschool now." We live just a half-mile from the school and for the last couple days we have pretended that the school has been talking to her - saying it was happy to have her and they were going to have so much fun.

We headed back to the front of the building and ran into Lily (her parents were brave enough to use the carpool lane!) and we followed her in. We met one of the teachers Ms. Seroba at the door and Lillian and Lily held each others hand and posed for a quick picture. Ms. Seroba was taking the girls to hang up their backpacks and we scooted out of there. I waited about 15 minutes and drove around the school - the classroom has two huge windows and saw Lillian and Lily playing with the dolls. I had the car cleaned, ran some errands and bought Lillian a new book and was ready to pick her up but it was not even 11 am yet!

walking in the hallway

Ms. Seroba, Lillian and Lily hanging up backpacks

I made one more drive by the school but wasn't able to see much. I headed back to the school about 15 minutes before the scheduled pickup time and was able to see the class heading out to the playground. They have the children hold onto a knot on a rope to keep everyone together. Ran into Lily's mommy and we chatted before pick up time.

off to the playground

The director sent these out.
Lillian reading a book and snack time!

As I got into the carpool line, I saw Lillian and Lily holding onto Ms. Maura's hand waiting very patiently. When Lillian got into the car she squealed and saw the new book I had for her. Ms. Maura said she did great and is wicked smart! When Ms. Seroba came to the car she said they read a story together and she had a wonderful time.

The car dashboard in the carpool line waiting for Lillian

Lillian and Lily holding Ms. Maura's hand waiting in the carpool line.

Waiting as Lily gets in her car

I asked Lillian what she did and she said, "I don't know." Over lunch she expounded a bit further:

"Ty did not want to do anything. He was tired."
"Lily did not lose her knot she just couldn't find it."
"One little kid got upset."
"One little boy went potty all by himself."
"My teachers did not know I had tomatoes and green pepper with my snack.
"Yahnnie got to be the helper bee."
"Yahnnie kissed me because I'm her friend."
"One little person's backpack was heavy."

I asked her what she liked best about the day and she said the tiny dolls and snacks. They had music class today where she banged on a big drum and maybe danced - she wasn't sure if danced or not. So all in all a great first day of preschool. At her orientation, they showed Lillian the basket where the children put their snacks in the morning and Lillian was very insistent that she was not going to put her snack in the basket. She wanted to keep it in her backpack. The teacher said that would be fine. When I asked Lillian about her snack she said she did put it in the snack basket!

On a side note, the parents had orientation on Tuesday night and I busted out crying in the classroom as the teacher was discussing the drop-off. When we had the children's orientation Wednesday I almost cried again but didn't. The teachers reassured me that Lillian would be fine after observing her in the classroom for awhile. I am proud to say I made it through the drop-off without crying - I waited until we were outside the building. And I hope that I do not make a habit of driving by the school every single time she attends class!

Back in the car safe and sound.

Looking at her new book

PRESCHOOL ROCKS! GOOD JOB!!