Me: Ugh. I feel sick...
Alice: Did you take a Secretariat? You should really take a Secretariat. Or maybe 1/2 a Secretariat.
(I'm taking zofran and phenergan for nausea. They are definitely not horse pills...)
____________
Me: Did you know the baby is getting fingerprints this week?
A: Really? Wow..... What if it doesn't get fingerprints?
Me: Um. I guess it wouldn't be able to pick things up very easily.
A: Well, Daddy has arches on his fingerprints but you and I have whorls on ours. I wonder what Speck of Dust will have..... What if it has ALIEN fingerprints?!?!
Me: (trying to figure out how the heck she knows what kinds of fingerprints we all have) Huh?
A: You know, aliens??? Like, from outer space??? I'm going to be really mad if Speck of Dust has alien fingerprints.
Me: okay... Why?
A: (looking at me like I'm an idiot) Because I want alien fingerprints.
Showing posts with label WG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WG. Show all posts
Monday, April 2, 2012
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Jumpy Balls
We have been on pantry probation for a little over a week. I was trying my best to make meals from what we have around. I've done a pretty good job with it and have found some things along the way that I'd forgotten I had. The 5 pound bag of frozen cranberries, for instance.
Wondergirl loves cranberries. She always has. When she was in speech therapy, her therapist encouraged us to talk to her constantly. I did. Not being one to baby talk, I explained things to her. One of those things being how cranberry farmers separate the bad cranberries from the good. Cranberries bounce like little balls when they are fresh. The bad ones won't, so somewhere I read that the bounce test is how you easily separate the good cranberries from the bad. I thought bouncing fruit was fascinating, and apparently Wondergirl did too because a year later, at age 3, she confounded me one day by asking me to buy "jumpy balls" while we were in the fruit section. (which shows you that pre-verbal does NOT mean pre-comprehension!) I had no idea what she was talking about. After a lot of frustration I figured it out. And I bought a bag of jumpy balls. Which she ate, raw, in about two days. The thought of eating raw cranberries makes my face hurt a little bit, but WG is all over them. She just ate some this afternoon, in fact. I'm sticking to muffins.
Wondergirl loves cranberries. She always has. When she was in speech therapy, her therapist encouraged us to talk to her constantly. I did. Not being one to baby talk, I explained things to her. One of those things being how cranberry farmers separate the bad cranberries from the good. Cranberries bounce like little balls when they are fresh. The bad ones won't, so somewhere I read that the bounce test is how you easily separate the good cranberries from the bad. I thought bouncing fruit was fascinating, and apparently Wondergirl did too because a year later, at age 3, she confounded me one day by asking me to buy "jumpy balls" while we were in the fruit section. (which shows you that pre-verbal does NOT mean pre-comprehension!) I had no idea what she was talking about. After a lot of frustration I figured it out. And I bought a bag of jumpy balls. Which she ate, raw, in about two days. The thought of eating raw cranberries makes my face hurt a little bit, but WG is all over them. She just ate some this afternoon, in fact. I'm sticking to muffins.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Better
This morning marked 24 hours without a fever, so I am officially un-contagious. I celebrated by going to the grocery store. You know things are desperate when you wonder if mixing jello and applesauce is a good idea and start looking at sweetened condensed milk as a viable alternative for the real thing. Still feeling under the weather and moving slower than usual. I have much more energy now than I did yesterday though. I even cut WG's Halloween Costume out tonight. It was a kind of now or never situation and the pink sequined dinosaur costume she's worn for two years has been promised to another little girl... WG is going to be a bird this year. A pink bird with lots and lots of feathers. Maybe a crown, too. I'll post pics when I get it sewn up.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Oink
Yup, we've got the dreaded H1N1. Actually, Wondergirl has the dreaded H1N1. Tim and I just aren't feeling great. All three of us are taking Tamiflu, which a wonderful wonderful drug. Really. The exhaustion with this, even with the Tamiflu, is incredible. WG described it as feeling wobbly. That's a pretty good description. We're all slow and taking lots of naps, but I imagine we'd all be in bed all day if it weren't for the Tamiflu.
So, lots of TV and quiet crafts for Wondergirl. Here she is making yarn pom poms. I used to make pom poms all the time at Grandma G's house and I'm tickled that Wondergirl is enjoying them too.
So, lots of TV and quiet crafts for Wondergirl. Here she is making yarn pom poms. I used to make pom poms all the time at Grandma G's house and I'm tickled that Wondergirl is enjoying them too.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
What You've All Been Waiting For...
I'll save the vacation recap for later. I know y'all are much more interested in seeing pics of Miss M and WG.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wondergirl -vs- The Garden
Remember this?
That was taken last summer when WG ventured into the "jungle" at the back of our yard, picked some poison ivy and smeared it all over her face.
I took these today:
No, it's not poison ivy. She learned that lesson. (And, can I say that I cannot believe how much more grown up WG looks compared to last summer?!?!)
WG and the neighbor girls often play together through the fence. I thought things had been peaceful for too long and when I glanced out the window I saw elder neighbor girl slamming a cucumber over and over into the fence. WG and the elder neighbor child decided it would be a good idea to make slop stew in WG's wagon. WG picked 1/2 our garden, including every single one of our peppers, and both girls smashed it all up in her wagon.
Needless to say that was the end of playing outside for WG that day. She came in, sobbing. She was in her room and all of a sudden started screaming that her face hurt. All of our peppers were hot peppers. Even the bell peppers cross bred with something and became mutant gigantic hot peppers. She must have had pepper juice on her hands because she BURNED her face. It is actually a lot better now. Right after it happened on Monday her entire eye was purplish red and puffy.
Next summer we will laugh about this. Maybe.
That was taken last summer when WG ventured into the "jungle" at the back of our yard, picked some poison ivy and smeared it all over her face.
I took these today:
No, it's not poison ivy. She learned that lesson. (And, can I say that I cannot believe how much more grown up WG looks compared to last summer?!?!)
WG and the neighbor girls often play together through the fence. I thought things had been peaceful for too long and when I glanced out the window I saw elder neighbor girl slamming a cucumber over and over into the fence. WG and the elder neighbor child decided it would be a good idea to make slop stew in WG's wagon. WG picked 1/2 our garden, including every single one of our peppers, and both girls smashed it all up in her wagon.
Needless to say that was the end of playing outside for WG that day. She came in, sobbing. She was in her room and all of a sudden started screaming that her face hurt. All of our peppers were hot peppers. Even the bell peppers cross bred with something and became mutant gigantic hot peppers. She must have had pepper juice on her hands because she BURNED her face. It is actually a lot better now. Right after it happened on Monday her entire eye was purplish red and puffy.
Next summer we will laugh about this. Maybe.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Lost in Translation
A few weeks back I mixed up some sprite and orange juice and gave it to WG. She was suspicious. I told her it was a kiddy cocktail. She tried it and loved it. Today we went to McDonald's for lunch. I mixed up some sprite with orange drink for her. WG's face lit up and she said, "Thanks for making me a cocktail, Mom!" I parked her at the table and went back for some ketchup. There were a few older women sitting at the next table and when I got back, WG was telling them all about how I make her cocktails and how they are her most favorite things to drink. I explained what she was talking about but I don't think they bought it.
------
WG loves flowers. Gardening is definitely her thing. When she sees a flower that she doesn't recognize she asks what it is. Her violin teacher has peonies lining her driveway. WG was impressed by them and asked me what they were. I told her they were peonies. She told me she thought pennies were money. I repeated, "No, not pennies, PEE-oh-knees." "Yeah, that's what I said! Pennies!" Then it hit me. She was translating from the Southern accent. When people say "pennies" here it comes out "peonies." Now we call those flowers pennies.
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The lyrics: "The house is a-rockin! Go, go rock it!"
WG's interpretation: "The house is a rocket! Go, go rocket!"
------
WG loves flowers. Gardening is definitely her thing. When she sees a flower that she doesn't recognize she asks what it is. Her violin teacher has peonies lining her driveway. WG was impressed by them and asked me what they were. I told her they were peonies. She told me she thought pennies were money. I repeated, "No, not pennies, PEE-oh-knees." "Yeah, that's what I said! Pennies!" Then it hit me. She was translating from the Southern accent. When people say "pennies" here it comes out "peonies." Now we call those flowers pennies.
------
The lyrics: "The house is a-rockin! Go, go rock it!"
WG's interpretation: "The house is a rocket! Go, go rocket!"
Friday, June 5, 2009
How Did We Get Here, Anyway?
It occurs to me that our reason for having WG on a gluten free diet is no where on this site. A lot of you know the story, but for those who don't, here it is.
The summer before WG turned three she got sick. The symptom we noticed most was her thirst. She was guzzling water. Knowing that doctors like hard data we started tracking her intake to see if it really was a problem worthy of a phone call. She was drinking up to 80 oz of water a day. We would put her to bed with a full sippy cup and she would drain it and cry for a refill in the middle of the night. We called the pediatrician's office and were advised to cut her off or offer her alternatives like fruit or popsicles. We were also told that since it *was* summer and we *do* live in the South drinking a lot of water was not necessarily an abnormal thing. It was not unreasonable advice.
We tried to limit WG's intake. That lasted exactly one day. First she screamed when I wouldn't refill her sippy cup and then she got creative. I caught her drinking from the cat's dish. Later I saw her headed for the toilet with her cup. What goes in must come out. WG was also urinating A LOT. She wasn't potty trained yet and I would put a fresh diaper on her only to have to change her clothes five minutes later because she had peed through the diaper.
The pediatrician did a diabetes test. It was negative. The pediatrician ran some other tests which showed some abnormalities in her kidney function. At that time we were refered to a pediatric nephrologist as well as a pediatric endocrinologist.
The pediatric nephrologist was a jerk. His nurse was a jerk. I wasn't wild about his office staff either. He ordered the tests that showed her wonky kidney functioning to be repeated because, in addition to the excessive peeing, WG had a pattern of diarrhea followed by constipation. He told us that would skew the test results and that we needed to bring her in for labwork after she had had normal bowel movements for at least 3 days.
Nearly a month later this is the conversation I had with his jerky nurse:
Nurse: "We are waiting on WG's lab results. Why haven't you had her labs done? This is really important."
Me: "Well, the doc said the first results were skewed because she had diarrhea. He said to wait until she had normal bowel movements for three days before having the labs drawn. She has not had normal bowel movements for three days in a row yet."
Nurse: "You really need to have her blood drawn."
Me: "Well, I can bring her in, but she hasn't had normal bowel movements for three days and I'd really hate to have to repeat this test for a third time. What would you like me to do?"
Nurse: "She needs to have normal bowel movements for three days."
Me: "Okay, but then you're going to have to wait awhile because I don't think she has had three days in a row of normal bowel movements her entire life."
Eventually we got the labs drawn. I think we were "blessed" with three days in a row of constipation and I decided to define that as normal to get the nurse off my back. These labs still came back somewhat abnormal but the pedi nephro dismissed them and us. I was not sad. Of all the docs that WG has seen he is the only one that I knew I could not work with on a regular basis. He has gotten rave reviews from other patients, by the way. We just had a complete personality clash.
The pediatric endocrinologist was not a jerk. I actually liked her a lot. She tested WG for a bunch of things. WG tested negative for all of them.
Finally she said, "I notice that there is a family history of mental illness. Excessive water drinking can be a sign of schizophrenia. You did mention she has terrible temper tantrums. Do you think there is a possibility that WG could be schizophrenic, bipolar or OCD?"
We were a bit stunned that someone (and someone who was NOT a mental health professional) would postulate that our 2 year old was schizophrenic. I think our answer to her was something along the lines of, "No, we don't think that's a possiblity. Perhaps in 10 years or so we might consider that, but not right now."
Our pediatrician (whom we completely adore) was a bit stumped at that point. She sent us back to the GI doc that WG had been seeing on and off since birth. She had been talking to him about WG and he suggested that the excessive water intake was actually due dehydration from her chronic pattern of constipation / diarrhea. He tested her for Celiac Disease and made a follow up appointment to find out the results.
Around that time a friend and I had decided to give the South Beach diet a whirl. I don't short order cook for my family, so WG and Tim were basically eating what I was eating: lean meats, fruit and veggies. Grains were minimized.
WG started to get better. I mentioned to my mom that the GI doc was testing her for Celiac Disease and my mom told me that quite a few people in our family have been diagnosed with Celiac. With that knowledge, we took WG off gluten completely. Quite simply, she got better. She stopped seeking out water. The dark circles under her eyes disapeared. Her tantrums significantly diminished. She gained some weight (which was a good thing!), and she had normal bowel movements for the first time in her life.
Thinking that maybe we were seeing results because we were desperate for answers, we added gluten back into her diet to see what would happen. Her symptoms returned full-force.
At WG's follow-up GI appointment, we were told that her tests for Celiac were negative. She does not have the Celiac gene. Can she eat gluten? Absolutely not. Her pediatrician and her GI docs have said that she needs to stay on the gluten free diet as long as it is beneficial to her.
The gluten free diet has also been beneficial for Tim and I, but that is a whole other post!
The summer before WG turned three she got sick. The symptom we noticed most was her thirst. She was guzzling water. Knowing that doctors like hard data we started tracking her intake to see if it really was a problem worthy of a phone call. She was drinking up to 80 oz of water a day. We would put her to bed with a full sippy cup and she would drain it and cry for a refill in the middle of the night. We called the pediatrician's office and were advised to cut her off or offer her alternatives like fruit or popsicles. We were also told that since it *was* summer and we *do* live in the South drinking a lot of water was not necessarily an abnormal thing. It was not unreasonable advice.
We tried to limit WG's intake. That lasted exactly one day. First she screamed when I wouldn't refill her sippy cup and then she got creative. I caught her drinking from the cat's dish. Later I saw her headed for the toilet with her cup. What goes in must come out. WG was also urinating A LOT. She wasn't potty trained yet and I would put a fresh diaper on her only to have to change her clothes five minutes later because she had peed through the diaper.
The pediatrician did a diabetes test. It was negative. The pediatrician ran some other tests which showed some abnormalities in her kidney function. At that time we were refered to a pediatric nephrologist as well as a pediatric endocrinologist.
The pediatric nephrologist was a jerk. His nurse was a jerk. I wasn't wild about his office staff either. He ordered the tests that showed her wonky kidney functioning to be repeated because, in addition to the excessive peeing, WG had a pattern of diarrhea followed by constipation. He told us that would skew the test results and that we needed to bring her in for labwork after she had had normal bowel movements for at least 3 days.
Nearly a month later this is the conversation I had with his jerky nurse:
Nurse: "We are waiting on WG's lab results. Why haven't you had her labs done? This is really important."
Me: "Well, the doc said the first results were skewed because she had diarrhea. He said to wait until she had normal bowel movements for three days before having the labs drawn. She has not had normal bowel movements for three days in a row yet."
Nurse: "You really need to have her blood drawn."
Me: "Well, I can bring her in, but she hasn't had normal bowel movements for three days and I'd really hate to have to repeat this test for a third time. What would you like me to do?"
Nurse: "She needs to have normal bowel movements for three days."
Me: "Okay, but then you're going to have to wait awhile because I don't think she has had three days in a row of normal bowel movements her entire life."
Eventually we got the labs drawn. I think we were "blessed" with three days in a row of constipation and I decided to define that as normal to get the nurse off my back. These labs still came back somewhat abnormal but the pedi nephro dismissed them and us. I was not sad. Of all the docs that WG has seen he is the only one that I knew I could not work with on a regular basis. He has gotten rave reviews from other patients, by the way. We just had a complete personality clash.
The pediatric endocrinologist was not a jerk. I actually liked her a lot. She tested WG for a bunch of things. WG tested negative for all of them.
Finally she said, "I notice that there is a family history of mental illness. Excessive water drinking can be a sign of schizophrenia. You did mention she has terrible temper tantrums. Do you think there is a possibility that WG could be schizophrenic, bipolar or OCD?"
We were a bit stunned that someone (and someone who was NOT a mental health professional) would postulate that our 2 year old was schizophrenic. I think our answer to her was something along the lines of, "No, we don't think that's a possiblity. Perhaps in 10 years or so we might consider that, but not right now."
Our pediatrician (whom we completely adore) was a bit stumped at that point. She sent us back to the GI doc that WG had been seeing on and off since birth. She had been talking to him about WG and he suggested that the excessive water intake was actually due dehydration from her chronic pattern of constipation / diarrhea. He tested her for Celiac Disease and made a follow up appointment to find out the results.
Around that time a friend and I had decided to give the South Beach diet a whirl. I don't short order cook for my family, so WG and Tim were basically eating what I was eating: lean meats, fruit and veggies. Grains were minimized.
WG started to get better. I mentioned to my mom that the GI doc was testing her for Celiac Disease and my mom told me that quite a few people in our family have been diagnosed with Celiac. With that knowledge, we took WG off gluten completely. Quite simply, she got better. She stopped seeking out water. The dark circles under her eyes disapeared. Her tantrums significantly diminished. She gained some weight (which was a good thing!), and she had normal bowel movements for the first time in her life.
Thinking that maybe we were seeing results because we were desperate for answers, we added gluten back into her diet to see what would happen. Her symptoms returned full-force.
At WG's follow-up GI appointment, we were told that her tests for Celiac were negative. She does not have the Celiac gene. Can she eat gluten? Absolutely not. Her pediatrician and her GI docs have said that she needs to stay on the gluten free diet as long as it is beneficial to her.
The gluten free diet has also been beneficial for Tim and I, but that is a whole other post!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Huh?
(WG trying to walk across the studio without tripping over her craft supplies which were strewn all over the floor): "Boy, this is some rocky terrain!"
*************************************************************************************
What I said: "WG, you can't check any videos out until we get back into a library routine. The fines are killing me."
What WG heard: "blah blah blah blah library martini blah blah blah..."
What WG said: "Mom, can I have a library martini?"
*************************************************************************************
What I said: "WG, you can't check any videos out until we get back into a library routine. The fines are killing me."
What WG heard: "blah blah blah blah library martini blah blah blah..."
What WG said: "Mom, can I have a library martini?"
Monday, May 4, 2009
4 going on 14
(In the car on the way home from the hardware store.)
WG: I need a ride to Aiden's house tomorrow morning at 6:45.
Parents: ?
WG: We have rehearsal.
Parents: ?
WG: He has a band and he asked me to be in it with him.
Parents: ?!.... 6:45 is awfully early, WG.
WG: But we have a gig. Aiden said so.
Parents: !.... What do you play in the band?
WG: Music. That's what bands play. (I could feel her eyes rolling at my stupid question.)
Parents: No, what instrument? Or do you sing?
WG: I sing AND play the violin.
Parents: And what does Aiden do?
WG: He's the drummer.
WG did not get to go to Aiden's house. I don't know where he lives or what his last name is. WG was NOT happy with me. She told me I was breaking up the band.
WG: I need a ride to Aiden's house tomorrow morning at 6:45.
Parents: ?
WG: We have rehearsal.
Parents: ?
WG: He has a band and he asked me to be in it with him.
Parents: ?!.... 6:45 is awfully early, WG.
WG: But we have a gig. Aiden said so.
Parents: !.... What do you play in the band?
WG: Music. That's what bands play. (I could feel her eyes rolling at my stupid question.)
Parents: No, what instrument? Or do you sing?
WG: I sing AND play the violin.
Parents: And what does Aiden do?
WG: He's the drummer.
WG did not get to go to Aiden's house. I don't know where he lives or what his last name is. WG was NOT happy with me. She told me I was breaking up the band.
Friday, April 3, 2009
April Third!
Apparently they talked about April Fool's at WG's school. On Wednesday she would say something silly and then say, "April First!" She didn't quite get the Fool part. Today we were on our way to school and she said, "MOM! There's a spider on your head!" I started brushing my hair with my hand when I heard giggling from the back seat followed by, "April third!" It's going to be a loooong month.
Kite day
They made "kites" at WG's school today. She was so excited about her kite that she had to take it out of her backpack to show me before we even got in the car to go home. It's a paper plate she drew a picture on with some yarn and a popsicle stick for a handle. She took it out to the backyard when we got home to fly it. It actually catches the wind pretty well. (Yes, that is WG NOT wearing a dress. I was tired of trying to get Tennessee dirt stains out of all her dresses so we've designated these as her "worm digging" clothes. You *know* she loves worms when she is willing to wear pants to get to them!)
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Hair cut
WG detests having her hair cut. She's got some sensory processing issues going on and a trip to the hair salon completely wigs (ha!) her out. She's had her hair cut professionally once. There was a kid's salon in town that I took her to a few summers back. She did okay there (and I figured it was a kids salon, so they would be used to the screaming) but it went down with the economy and no longer exists. I can't subject a regular hair salon to WG. The poor stylists at supercuts don't make enough money to have to deal with her. I also feel bad subjecting WG to a regular hair place when I know it makes her extremely upset and uncomfortable. So, I cut her hair myself. I cut her hair around Thanksgiving and decided it was time to do it again last weekend.
Here she is, post-haircut. It went better this time, probably because I read up on how to cut hair. I'm going to buy a pair of hair scissors for the next cut, though. (I've been using fiskars.) Note the "chewy P." Sometimes the only thing that helps WG to hold herself together is to chew. She had two chewy P's going during her haircut.
Here she is, post-haircut. It went better this time, probably because I read up on how to cut hair. I'm going to buy a pair of hair scissors for the next cut, though. (I've been using fiskars.) Note the "chewy P." Sometimes the only thing that helps WG to hold herself together is to chew. She had two chewy P's going during her haircut.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Don't worry, Grandma, you can always find another husband.
This is what I said to my grandmother at my grandfather's funeral. In my defense, I was only four at the time and truly meant to comfort her. Four year old logic is a wonderful thing. I am thoroughly enjoying watching WG figure things out and come to her own (incorrect, but completely logical) conclusions about life.
WG has realized that, eventually, living things die. Our conversations about death and dying started when my Grandmother (the one I told to remarry) died earlier this year. She's not morbid or anything, but now she notices that things die. Flowers, bugs, roadkill... Her violin teacher has several (living) turtles and had a frog that died. WG, always observant, asked Miss Maryanne what she did with the frog after it died. Maryanne said she threw it in the woods. WG then concluded that the raccoons probably ate it.
A few weeks later I had forgotten about this exchange and WG and I were reading a book about a little girl whose grandmother had died. WG interrupted the story and our conversation went like this:
WG:"When your grandma got dead, where did she go? Did she go in the garbage?"
Me: "Nooooo...."
WG: "Well, did they throw her in the woods?"
Me: (disturbed) "Um. No... Why do you think that?"
WG: "Remember Miss Maryanne's frog that got dead?"
I couldn't answer her because I was laughing too hard, especially when she asked if the raccoons ate my grandma.
WG has realized that, eventually, living things die. Our conversations about death and dying started when my Grandmother (the one I told to remarry) died earlier this year. She's not morbid or anything, but now she notices that things die. Flowers, bugs, roadkill... Her violin teacher has several (living) turtles and had a frog that died. WG, always observant, asked Miss Maryanne what she did with the frog after it died. Maryanne said she threw it in the woods. WG then concluded that the raccoons probably ate it.
A few weeks later I had forgotten about this exchange and WG and I were reading a book about a little girl whose grandmother had died. WG interrupted the story and our conversation went like this:
WG:"When your grandma got dead, where did she go? Did she go in the garbage?"
Me: "Nooooo...."
WG: "Well, did they throw her in the woods?"
Me: (disturbed) "Um. No... Why do you think that?"
WG: "Remember Miss Maryanne's frog that got dead?"
I couldn't answer her because I was laughing too hard, especially when she asked if the raccoons ate my grandma.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Oh Boy...
I don't know what the discussion was about, but it went something like this:
Tim: "You don't have a choice."
WG: "I think I do have a choice."
We're in for it....
Tim: "You don't have a choice."
WG: "I think I do have a choice."
We're in for it....
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The worm doctor is in!
WG's favorite thing to do outside is to search for worms in the garden. She has wanted to be a worm doctor for quite awhile, and is very happy that spring is here along with the worms. Unfortunately she loves her patients a little too much and a little too hard and most end up in a better place than our garden. Here she is with her latest patient:
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Parent teacher conference
It's been a long time.
WG is doing well. I went for my first parent-teacher conference a few weeks back. WG is at the top of her class academically and the bottom socially. That's about what we expected. WG is much more comfortable around adults than she is around her peers. It's the catch-22 of RSV lockdown: it keeps them well while they are small, but they lose out on social development. She'll catch up. She's not an outcast, she just doesn't exactly know how to play with her peers and is happy playing by herself.
Academically she's a knockout. On color identification they had her look at colored paper cutouts of bears. The gray bear was a bit faded and was kind of a bluish purplish gray. Miss Kim said she looked at it and said, "That bear is lavender." The faded red was magenta and pink was light pink. No lack of vocabulary here! She's tracking letters from left to right which is, apparently, pretty unusual for her age. She can count to 29 and turn over to 30, 40, 50, etc with prompts. Otherwise it's, "twenty-nine, twenty-ten, twenty-eleven, etc." Her scissor use is improving with the adaptive scissors. I actually kind of miss the worksheets that look like they've been attacked by someone with garden shears. They will work with her on transitioning to regular scissors by the end of the year. She's still writing backwards, but her teacher is chalking that up to her left handedness. WG does very well with the routines at school. Her teacher has no reservations about sending her on to Kindergarten next year. Her only recommendation is to keep up her socialization over the summer.
No pictures today, but if you pop over to my sewing blog you can see pics of my latest projects as well as a pic of WG in the coat that Tim made for her.
WG is doing well. I went for my first parent-teacher conference a few weeks back. WG is at the top of her class academically and the bottom socially. That's about what we expected. WG is much more comfortable around adults than she is around her peers. It's the catch-22 of RSV lockdown: it keeps them well while they are small, but they lose out on social development. She'll catch up. She's not an outcast, she just doesn't exactly know how to play with her peers and is happy playing by herself.
Academically she's a knockout. On color identification they had her look at colored paper cutouts of bears. The gray bear was a bit faded and was kind of a bluish purplish gray. Miss Kim said she looked at it and said, "That bear is lavender." The faded red was magenta and pink was light pink. No lack of vocabulary here! She's tracking letters from left to right which is, apparently, pretty unusual for her age. She can count to 29 and turn over to 30, 40, 50, etc with prompts. Otherwise it's, "twenty-nine, twenty-ten, twenty-eleven, etc." Her scissor use is improving with the adaptive scissors. I actually kind of miss the worksheets that look like they've been attacked by someone with garden shears. They will work with her on transitioning to regular scissors by the end of the year. She's still writing backwards, but her teacher is chalking that up to her left handedness. WG does very well with the routines at school. Her teacher has no reservations about sending her on to Kindergarten next year. Her only recommendation is to keep up her socialization over the summer.
No pictures today, but if you pop over to my sewing blog you can see pics of my latest projects as well as a pic of WG in the coat that Tim made for her.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Snow day!
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday it was GORGEOUS. Very much spring weather: sunny and in the 60's. Today, well, it's snowing. This is a rare thing here in East TN. In fact, this is WG's first experience with "home grown" snow that is more than a dusting. We have an inch on the ground right now and it is still snowing heavily. The predictions call for 2 to 4 inches, which, in the South is the equivalent of 2 to 4 feet of Northern snow as far as the interruption of daily life goes. The mere mention of snow down here makes people do all sorts of crazy things. We are out of milk but I didn't even bother stopping at the store on my way to pick WG up from school today (early, because they closed the schools). I knew it would be a futile mission.
To be fair, we really aren't equiped to deal with real winter weather down here. Why invest in snow removal / salt trucks when it only snows once or twice a winter? The scariest thing is driving in it because people aren't experienced and put too much faith in their large 4-wheel drive vehicles. Today, at least, people seem to be using common sense and caution on the road. Still, we're home and planning to stay here because, as WG says, "when it snows, you stay home and watch movies."
Friday, January 9, 2009
Okay, I lied. Here is my overdue WG update.
WG had a very nice Christmas. She gave us the supreme gift of sleeping in. She finally came in our bedroom at 8:30 (funny how the definition of sleeping in changes once you have children...) and asked if Santa had come. We've never gone overboard with gifts and we scaled back even more this year. Funny, because I think it wound up being one of our nicest Christmas' ever. WG got art supplies, some "girlie" things (lip gloss and stick on earrings from Santa and a very cute apron and barrettes from Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Ron. The apron says "diva" which made me laugh because it's so true.) She also got a kids digital camera which she LOVES. Hard telling how many pictures she's taken so far but I wouldn't be surprised if it's up around 1000. Once she figured out she didn't have to actually touch the camera to what she wanted to take a pic of she got some pretty decent ones. The early pics are mainly of the floor, ceiling and the cat's fur.
WG went back to school this week. She has cried every day and has been counting the days down to the weekend. In another week I expect she'll be back to loving school and hating the weekends.
I'm playing a concerto with the orchestra on the 25th. Ack! It's something I'm both excited about and dreading. It's been nice to prepare an actual solo piece again. Pretty much all of my practice time is devoted to learning the orchestral repertoire du jour. I had forgotten how engaging it is to really study a piece. On Sunday I'm doing an interview with the music critic of the local paper as a preview of the concert. The symphony PR rep told me that besides talking about the upcoming concert he is planning on asking me about my symphony blog, specifically about my post about stage etiquette. I'll post a link to that article when it is published.
And now, here are the pictures I promised.
This was taken at Thanksgiving when Granny Julie and Friend John were here. We are all wearing white tops because of a request by Tim's aunt for a family picture. She wanted everyone to wear white tops and blue jeans. Tim doesn't own a pair of blue jeans and it was a miracle that we were able to get WG to wear a pair of pants at all.
I made this top for WG New Year's Eve / Day. It was my first time fully lining something and doing a collar, and I'm pretty tickled at how it turned out. It is enough like a dress that WG likes to wear it. Phew.
This is how WG really feels about practicing:
BUT, she has a beautiful bow hold.
And, finally, here is the most recent pic of the kitchen renovation.
WG had a very nice Christmas. She gave us the supreme gift of sleeping in. She finally came in our bedroom at 8:30 (funny how the definition of sleeping in changes once you have children...) and asked if Santa had come. We've never gone overboard with gifts and we scaled back even more this year. Funny, because I think it wound up being one of our nicest Christmas' ever. WG got art supplies, some "girlie" things (lip gloss and stick on earrings from Santa and a very cute apron and barrettes from Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Ron. The apron says "diva" which made me laugh because it's so true.) She also got a kids digital camera which she LOVES. Hard telling how many pictures she's taken so far but I wouldn't be surprised if it's up around 1000. Once she figured out she didn't have to actually touch the camera to what she wanted to take a pic of she got some pretty decent ones. The early pics are mainly of the floor, ceiling and the cat's fur.
WG went back to school this week. She has cried every day and has been counting the days down to the weekend. In another week I expect she'll be back to loving school and hating the weekends.
I'm playing a concerto with the orchestra on the 25th. Ack! It's something I'm both excited about and dreading. It's been nice to prepare an actual solo piece again. Pretty much all of my practice time is devoted to learning the orchestral repertoire du jour. I had forgotten how engaging it is to really study a piece. On Sunday I'm doing an interview with the music critic of the local paper as a preview of the concert. The symphony PR rep told me that besides talking about the upcoming concert he is planning on asking me about my symphony blog, specifically about my post about stage etiquette. I'll post a link to that article when it is published.
And now, here are the pictures I promised.
This was taken at Thanksgiving when Granny Julie and Friend John were here. We are all wearing white tops because of a request by Tim's aunt for a family picture. She wanted everyone to wear white tops and blue jeans. Tim doesn't own a pair of blue jeans and it was a miracle that we were able to get WG to wear a pair of pants at all.
I made this top for WG New Year's Eve / Day. It was my first time fully lining something and doing a collar, and I'm pretty tickled at how it turned out. It is enough like a dress that WG likes to wear it. Phew.
This is how WG really feels about practicing:
BUT, she has a beautiful bow hold.
And, finally, here is the most recent pic of the kitchen renovation.
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