The 2nd Greatest Holiday

I'm learning that Halloween isn't to be taken lightly when you've got children. I was informed (by Meredith) that on October 1st it was okay to put our Halloween decorations out. Seems a bit early if you ask me. But rather than field daily inquiries as to when the decorations would be out, I caved. So we are sooooo ready for Halloween. We've been to the pumpkin patch (twice), our house is spookified, we've got costumes picked out, and the kids are already planning for a night of heavy trick-or-treating. Meredith told me that her bag last year got too heavy for her so maybe she should have two bags, that way Daddy can carry the first load after it gets full. That's when I realized just how great this holiday is in the mind of a 6 year old.

Look at it this way...

Christmas: Decorations are in stores way early to allow for adequate anticipation - in fact, they're available just after the Halloween stuff is moved to the clearance aisles.

Halloween: Decorations and costumes are available just after back-to-school stuff is taken off the shelves.

Christmas: Lots of time spent visiting family and friends.

Halloween: Ditto, just much, much shorter visits. And with the added bonus of wearing dress-up clothes.

Christmas: Delicious desserts, candy canes, holiday cookies.

Halloween: Candy for months. Literally.

Christmas: Santa visits and brings lots of presents.

Halloween: Um, candy. For months. AND you get new dress-up clothes.

So Happy (early) Halloween! Look for pictures of a cheetah and ballerina very soon...

Olivia Goes to Preschool

Shhhh...do you hear that? It's the sound of no children in my house. Today is Olivia's first day of preschool. I just got home a few minutes ago from the surprisingly easy drop-off. I was fully prepared for a struggle, hoping it wouldn't compare to the waterworks of last year. (A quick refresher: Olivia was enrolled in Children's Day Out for 3 weeks. 3 weeks was how long it took for her to revisit her separation anxiety - last seen when she was 8 months old, create an air of anxiety in her classroom full of already-anxious children, and frustrate the preschool's entire teaching staff to the fullest extent. I mean, 3 hours of continuous crying would try a saint's patience. That may seem harsh, but hey, you weren't there.)

I think we were fortunate that Meredith started a few weeks ago. Olivia got to see the routine, see how much fun Meredith was having, and realize how much she missed playing with someone while Meredith was at school. And this year we didn't hype the whole school idea too much, hoping we wouldn't create any anxiety. But we did go last night and pick out a new dress - a purple dress, of course - and some new shoes.

So back to today. After a breakfast of her all-time favorite Eggo waffles, we headed out the door. She was ready - no stalling, no whining. Just an occasional "NOW can we go?"

After dropping Meredith off, we headed to preschool. We were really early, which I think worked to our advantage. It helped, too, that her buddy Colby was there to explore with her. (That's the two of them, walking into school together.)

The school was quiet and Olivia got to explore her classroom and check out all the toys (the dollhouse was the clear favorite)

and poke a finger in Baxter's cage (the rabbit from Meredith's class last year, who Olivia says "sure got bigger!").

As I'm talking to her teacher, Miss Susan, I hear Olivia say "excuse me Miss Susan." Not a bad first impression to make (I'm secretly hoping Susan was one of the few teachers who didn't hear the crying coming from Olivia's classroom last year and that none of the other teachers warned her about her hysterics). Susan says "Yes?" and Olivia proceeds to soooo sweetly ask "Can I please play with the dollhouse?" Awwwwww.

We said our goodbyes and I made sure she understood we were leaving but that we'd be back soon. She sorta acknowledged me, in between her comments about the dollhouse's twin babies and mommy with the gold hair and the baby swing hanging in the house's corner and its secret compartment under the stairs.

Here's hoping that in a couple of hours, when we pick her up after her first day, we hear about how much fun she had. And that when she comes out of her classroom we don't see tear streaks on her cheeks and a crusty nose. Maybe then I'll be able to enjoy the deafening silence of my empty house...

+++++ UPDATE +++++

So...phew! She loved it. She says she had so much fun and is excited to go back. What a HUGE relief. My only concern is that when we picked her up we walked inside to get her (instead of driving up like we will in the future) and she said "I thought you left, but you didn't leave!" Hmmm. Well, at least she had was alright thinking we'd left.

She had great stories to share too. She told us how they all went potty at the same time and there were two "terlets" - one for grown-ups and one for big girls (the smaller stool). She talked about looking in a magnifying glass at books, sitting in a circle "but not a whole circle, a rainbow circle", singing songs about a bee, taking a rest on square carpets that had bumps, playing with the baby dolls, having rainbow-colored "smunched" goldfish for a snack and water in cups like Gramma's (dixie cups), and the fact that another little girl had the same shoes as her so "we have to go home and put them on so everyone can see them quick!"

Now, if you listen closely you'll hear my gigantic sigh of relief...

It's a bit early for Halloween

But check out this toothy smile!

Meredith lost not one, but two teeth. TODAY. The first she lost at Gramma's, and apparently she didn't miss it much. In fact, she didn't even know it was gone. As she was talking I said "did you lose your tooth today?" and she replied "no." Um, then what happened to it? You could literally see it dawning on her and she said "so that's what that was!" She was eating Sun Chips and thought she found "a nut" so she spit it back into her bowl. Sure 'nuff, the bowl was sitting there with a tooth resting on a Sun Chip. As we were checking out the gap Gramma noticed how crooked another tooth looked. We wiggled it and you could tell there was just a tiny thread holding in it place. So as we put the first tooth in her Tooth Fairy Box tonight we decided to give it a tug. It didn't take much! She's expecting a haul tonight from the Tooth Fairy, and I'm sure she'll deliver.

Of course, not to be outdone...

And so it begins...

The first day of school. I can't believe Meredith is in kindergarten. I thought I would be fine, drop her off, no problem. Alas, there were tears. And they didn't come from Meredith...

Meredith was so excited - I think she started a countdown the day preschool ended.

We found out that her morning class will have 5 of her friends from preschool in it. Add to that a few neighbor kids and she knows just about all of the 14 kids. Add to that the fact that Meredith can handle anything you throw at her. So she's fine. She's better than fine.

These are the girls we walked to school with. From left, Brooke, Ashley, Meredith and Gretchen. Yep, they held hands like that the whole time.

Now you can't see it in this picture, but I'm getting teary-eyed. The kids standing in the hall are 6th graders. They're holding welcome signs and high-fiving the kindergarteners. And there's fanfare music playing. It was a really special touch that I'm sure was lost on most of the kids. But hey, it got me.

True to form, Meredith did exactly what her teacher had explained last week and got her supply cubby and headed off to find her name at one of the tables. The teacher politely told all of the parents to go home, and the school bell rang, officially kicking off Meredith's school career. I just hope today's excitement stays with her for a long time...

The Birthday Grrrrl

You know, just because it's your birthday it doesn't mean you HAVE to be happy and have a good time. I guess we're all entitled to bad days.

So Olivia turned the big 3 on May 13th. At this point she doesn't have a lot of friends. When you ask her who her friends are she lists Meredith and Meredith's friends. So I decided to forgo a large birthday party in favor of a special day at the mall with just a few kids. I should have called it a day at lunch. We started off at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch with Daddy, Gramma and Meredith. Here's what happened when I asked for the first picture:

I'm guessing underneath that menu she's NOT smiling.

So after lunch we had plans to meet up with Natalie (Olivia's buddy) and head to all the girly spots in the mall. I planned a visit to Club Libby Lu (against my better judgement) thinking that we would shop and maybe get glitter-ed and call it good. No such luck. Both Meredith and Natalie were Club veterans and were all about the makeover "experience". Olivia? Not so much. But she readily agreed to join her buddies and get made over.

The end result was a lot better than the process, as is obvious in the photos. She really did seem to enjoy herself once she snapped out of her funk. Maybe next year we'll do a backyard party...

Ah...Young Love

Meredith and Jake, sitting in a tree...

So I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Meredith has her first official boyfriend. His name is Jake and he's in the "other" preschool class. Which really just means that Meredith only gets to see / play with Jake during recess. His name first came up early in the school year when I would ask Meredith about her day. She would focus mostly on the day's snack and what they did when they played outside. No big surprise there. So she would talk about how they played "chase" with the boys. Come to find out this means that the boys run after the girls, trap the girls up against the fence and wait for other girls to come rescue those trapped girls. I'm guessing there is a lot of squealing and screaming involved, but that's pure speculation. Meredith would always comment on how fast Jake was. She sometimes gets notes in her backpack from him. Most of them root on a favorite Kansas team, but notes nonetheless.

Then one night before Christmas we were at the park looking at the holiday lights and I hear Meredith say "uh oh, Jake's here," but she's grinning. He eventually finds his way over to us, and without saying a word to each other, they both start running. Jake chasing (but never catching) Meredith, Meredith screaming and giggling. Honestly, they NEVER SAID A WORD. At this point I kind of guessed at a crush.

Last month there was a school outing at Wonderscope museum on a Friday night. We get out of the car and Meredith turns to me and whispers "there's Jake." I see Jake turn to his mom and say something (which I come to find out later is "there's Meredith!") Again, not a word is spoken. Jake's mom tells me later in the evening how as they were getting ready Jake says to her that he has to look nice because Meredith will be at Wonderscope too. But there's absolutely NO interaction between the two of them.

But we're making progress. Friday last week was rainy, and rather than play outside the kids in both classes watched a movie. Meredith tells me, sort of in an offhand way, that she sat by Jake they had their arms around each other "like this" as she puts an arm across my shoulders. And this morning, Jake's mom tells me how the minute he got into the car after school on Friday he says very excitedly that he "watched a movie AND got to sit by Meredith!" (Though he omits the "arms around each other" part.) And apparently he wants her phone number and address so he can invite her over to play this summer and "for sure" invite her to his birthday party. So they can ignore each other some more.

The only sad part of this story is that Jake and Meredith will go to different schools in the fall. Though the potential is there for their paths to cross in the future when they hit middle school. Time will tell if Jake and Meredith will STILL be sitting in that tree. And whether or not they actually SPEAK to each other...

The Sounds of Summer

1. Children squealing
2. Bike wheels ratcheting
3. The Ice Cream Man
4. Snoring

So the weather was finally what it should be in May...sunny and 75. Sunday morning we decided it was time to see if Olivia was big enough to ride on the trail-a-bike, or "tricycle" as she calls it (which is, in fact, true). Sean attached the third wheel to his bike and I put Olivia on the seat. I'm not sure she'd fully grasped what exactly this contraption was, but when Sean took off down the driveway Olivia said "whoaaaaa aaaaaaaaah". To translate, a nervous whoa that turned into a scream. Now this was an obviously happy scream, thankfully. We figured that was a good sign and loaded the bikes into the car to head to the park. Meredith has officially mastered the art of riding with two wheels. She's determined to be first in line when we ride - you can see her checking for passers out of the corner of her eye. If she sees you coming her feet start pumping and she inches farther ahead. We stopped to see some turtles in the creek, only to hear Olivia ask "why are we stopping?" and to, a few minutes later, hear Meredith say "ready? GO!" as she took off on her own. I guess they got a bit of Sean's love for motion. We found out as we rode that Olivia could officially reach the pedals, but she couldn't push them around for a full rotation. She'd push forward until she couldn't reach, then ratchet the pedals backward. Gotta give her credit for trying.

So after a morning spent riding bikes we headed home to do some much needed yard work. We're in the front yard, and Meredith says "you hear that? Sounds like a bell." Sure enough, it's the ice cream man. Now other than what they've seen on TV, neither kid knows anything about this phenomenon. And we all know how sneaky the ice cream man can be. He circles your street, making sure to ring the bell loudly enough for you to hear, but he waits until you just can't stand it any more to actually turn down your street. But, alas, he's headed our way. Meredith runs toward the curb and stares. Honestly, I'm not sure what she thought would happen next. But after some giggling and waffling we finally selected a Tweety Bird popsicle (for Meredith) and a fudge pop (for Olivia). Watching them drip and lick and drip some more as they sat on the front porch gave me such an amazing sense of summer. And summers to come.

Needless to say, the girls were exhausted by the time we finished bathing (or scouring in this case). They hit their pillows and were sound asleep just a few minutes later.

Ahhhh, summer.

Tattooing Your Little Sister

I should learn to check on the girls when I hear crazy giggling.

Meredith hollers "Mommyyyyyyyyyyy. Olivia drew on her face!" Olivia walks out of the playroom with black marker on her forehead and chin (in a strange beard-like shape). Yes, it had to be black marker. I take her into the bathroom, telling her all the while that we don't draw on our skin. "Markers are for paper, not faces." As I'm wiping the (thank god) dry-erase marker off her forehead she says "Look at the bootiful flower Mer-dith drew." She lifts up the skirt of her dress to show me a flower on her thigh. Aha. I ask Olivia if she drew on her face before Meredith drew the flower or after. She says "Mer-dith was first." So I call Meredith it and ask the same question, half expecting the opposite answer. She admits to drawing on Olivia's leg first and starts to walk off. While I'm asking her to "wait just a minute...we're not done here," Olivia pulls down the front of her dress to show me the sunshine on her chest. I asked Meredith if she did this as well. She says "no, I don't know who did that one." Now Olivia is pretty good at drawing abstract rainbows and guitars, but she's never drawn a sun that LOOKS like a sun. On her own chest, no less. So I ask Olivia if she drew the sun. She too says "I don't know who drew that." Interesting. Thankfully, all the art washes off.

I send Olivia off and ask Meredith why she thought it would be okay to draw on her sister. "Is that something we do? Don't we draw on paper, not sisters?" She says "but Uncle Jason drew on his foot."

Say AHHHH

I took Meredith to the dentist today for the first time. I am confident I was more nervous than she was leading up to the appointment. She honestly had no idea what to expect, and rather than make her nervous trying to explain all the odd things they'd do, I didn't say much. But she was a trooper. She only gagged a few times when they took x-rays, and her reaction to the water/suction combo was priceless. She got some good "prizes" to bring home - a new pink toothbrush, "big-kid" toothpaste, an egg timer to help guide how long to brush, and a balloon. The only real complaint she had was that the gloves the technician used tasted "kinda yucky."

Pomp and well, you know

Today was picture day at preschool. Meredith got all dressed up in a new dress and slept in curlers so her hair would be perfect. We were primed for pictures. So this afternoon she mentions, out of the blue, that she wore a "funny red costume for pictures." When I asked her about it she said it was "really loose and silky and had a funny hat that was flat on the top."

Guess they take graduation seriously in pre-kindergarten.

Top 10 Life Lessons, as taught by Disney

1. You have a singing voice like a lark. And when you sing, people will know what you’re singing and sing along with you. And when there are no humans around? Animals make great duet partners.

2. Speaking of animals…If you’re ever in a pinch, just wait it out. The animal kingdom will pitch in. And they’re crafty little buggers. They can sew, sing, dance and generally save your ass. And if they don’t, see Number 3.

3. Your fairy godmother(s) will always be ready help.

4. Your mom will die. Probably before you’re old enough to understand. But it will happen. And your father will try to discipline and take care of you, but he’s just no good at it. And you don’t really have to obey him. Because…

5. Your father is a short, round, clumsy idiot.

6. Stepmothers are always evil. And tall. And typically dressed in dark colors. And for the most part, they only married your father so they could abuse his power.

7. But, never fear, good will always prevail over evil. Period.

8. Apples? Not always good for you.

9. The ultimate goal of any princess is to get married. To a Prince. And it is okay to get married when you turn 16. I mean, why wait? You’ve known him for days now.

10. Honestly, all you need is love. Or at least, true love’s kiss.

She's got good taste...

Olivia was looking over my shoulder as I was checking msn.com today. Here's how our conversation went...

Olivia: Who is that momma?
Me: It's a real life prince - Prince William.

O: Where is he now?
M: He lives in England, kind of far away.

O: He's beautiful, isn't he.
M: Yeah, I suppose he is.

O: When I grow up I will get married to him.
M: You can be a princess.

O: I already am!

My girl wants to potty all the time...

We're officially done with diapers. Stinkerbell herself is potty trained. The done-with-diapers thing is cool enough, but add to that the fact that she's so proud of herself and I couldn't be happier.