Finger Weaving

I taught Penguin Girl how to finger weave.  She made matching scarves for her Webkinz and herself.

New Best Friend

Penguin Girl's best friend has been the same girl since forever.  I first met the girl and her mom when the girls were both not quite mobile right after we moved here.  For the past two years the girls also went to the same preschool together.  I always thought it was just so sweet that they have always gotten along so well and were so enthusiastic about each other.

Yesterday I overheard Penguin Girl tell the sitter that she rides the bus every day with her best friend.  Huh?  I asked her who she was talking about and she named K, the little girl in her class who lives down the road from us.  I know that little girls' hearts are fickle and she will go through many best friends but for some reason hearing her say this other girl is her best friend now made me want to cry.  She's growing up so fast!

I Won!

Car Guy uncharacteristically left work super early so he, Mr. Destructo, and I all met Penguin Girl at the bus stop.  She was in good spirits.  She had a good day.  She says she likes her new teachers as much as her preschool teachers which is great because she LOVES her preschool teachers to pieces.  

She said her favorite part of the day was the afternoon snack which was Ritz Bitz, the cheese kind, something that I would never buy.  The families provide a communal snack and are told to try and make it nutritious but I know most people have a looser definition of that than I do.  I may need to start packing her own snack.

At rest time, the teacher said that they were going to play a game and the child who was the quietest would be the winner.  Penguin Girl really wanted to win so she said she did her best and fell asleep!  One of the teachers woke her up and told her that she won.  My girl is such a good sleeper!  That explains why she seemed so fresh coming off the bus.

Today they worked on teaching the kids sit down/stand up in Chinese.  The game part was to see who could sit or stand the fastest when the teacher said it in Chinese.  According to Penguin Girl she was the only kid there today who could speak Chinese so guess who won.  She said she really likes this school because she won at things all day.  

I'm so happy and so relieved that she had a good day at school and that she enjoyed riding the bus.

First Day of School!

I told Car Guy last night that I expect him to take pictures for me of Penguin Girl outside the school and when he drops her off at her classroom.  He told me when he stopped her to take the picture at her room, she said, "Oh, Dad!" and made a face!

It's so quiet without her here.  I didn't cry until after they drove off in the car.  I miss her already!

The Verdict

Penguin Girl likes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp better than Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder because she likes "rock and roll Oompa Loompas."

Farmer's Market

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner but I took Penguin Girl to the little farmer's market that just started up in the next town this year.  She had a blast and I bought some good food.  She tried okra, scuppernong and muscadine cider, 2 kinds of honey, and some bacon.  We saw hollowed out ostrich eggs brought by the rancher who was selling ostrich meat.  At the end, we bought a fancy cupcake to share.  I let Penguin Girl pick which flavor she wanted to try and even though there was oreo, red velvet, chocolate-marshmallow, strawberry, carrot, and lemon, she picked vanilla cake, I suspect because the top was decorated in the most colorful way.  It was yummy.

Bye Banana

First, there was Tallulah who was let go in the lake because his demise was imminent.  He was with us for over 2 years.  Then came Glubbee who lasted several months.  Glubbee's first replacement was only with us for a few days before I took him back to the store since he wouldn't eat.  The second replacement was Banana, so named because he was yellow with black spots.  I found Banana dead at the bottom of his bowl when we got back from the dentist's office this morning.  Poor guy, we only had him for a couple of months.  

Of course, Penguin Girl's first thought is, "Can we get a new fish?"  And secondly, "We need to flush Banana down the toilet!"  We ended up putting him in the lake among his fish friends in case they wanted to say good-bye.

This time we're going back to the store where we got Tallulah.

Camp Mommy

Today is the very last day of day camp for Penguin Girl at her preschool.  She asked me what she'd do the next 2 weeks before school starts and I told her she'd be going to Camp Mommy.  I have a box of sticker books, paper dolls, and some artsy fartsy stuff that I collected for her.  She has trips to the dentist and eye doc and an Open House a few days before school starts when we will spend a couple hours with her actual assigned teachers.  

But most importantly, I'm going to be waking her up earlier and earlier (and going to bed earlier, I hope!) until we're getting up around 6:30am to get to school on time!  I've got her a backpack, school supplies, lunch bag, uniform clothes, fancy post-its to send notes to her with her lunch, cool little chocolate treats to pack with lunch, and new shoes.  I am so nervous!  My kid is almost going to real school!

A Considerate Child

This morning when Car Guy went to wake up Penguin Girl to get ready for camp, he found her in bed sleeping with the bottle of shampoo from her bathroom.  When he asked why, she said that I said the shampoo downstairs that we use on her brother was running out and she wanted to make sure she remembered to bring down her shampoo for him because her bottle was full.

Glubbee Bites the Dust

This morning while I was out walking with the baby, Penguin Girl told Car Guy that Glubbee the beta fish is really cool because he can change colors to camouflage himself in the glass rocks at the bottom of his fish bowl.  Car Guy took a peek and noticed that Glubbee was dead on the bottom of the bowl but just agreed because he though Penguin Girl would be all sad.

When I got home, I told her the truth.  She asked if Glubbee got old.  Yeah, maybe Glubbee was older than Tallulah so he didn't last as long.  (Or maybe Mommy was not very good about changing Glubbee's water.  Oops!)  Then Penguin Girl asked for a new fish.  Ok.  Yay!!!!!!  Very happy about going to Petco for a new fish.  And also very happy to say bye-bye to Glubbee and flush him down the toilet.

Visiting School

I took Penguin Girl to Beginner Day at the elementary school she will be attending in the fall.  It's a magnet school that specializes in foreign language immersion.  She'll be in the Chinese program there.  We heard the principal speak and introduce some of the staff she thought the parents should know.  Then there was a little fashion show to demonstrate what proper uniform attire should look like and to let the kids know there are still a range of choices for them within the limits of the uniform rules.  Then all the kids went with the teachers of their language and did some activities in the classroom.  One of the activities was like Simon Says but in Chinese.  I was pleasantly surprised how fast all the kids caught on since most of the kids don't already speak Chinese.  

This next part really surprised me.  While we were in the classroom, they announced over the loud speaker that there was a school bus available in the parking lot.  Your child could get on and take a look so they know what it's like riding the bus.  When Lorelei heard this, she ran over to me totally excited by the idea of riding the bus.  I had no idea she'd be interested in riding the bus.  She went and got on the big yellow bus and thought it was cool.  I'll have to see what the bus schedule is like.  

Then we went back to the cafeteria where they had a snack set out so the kids could see what going through the lunch line is like.  I doubt Penguin Girl will be buying lunch.  She eats so slowly that she can't afford to while away time waiting in the lunch line.

It was still raining when we left the school and the traffic was horrible.  It took about 75 minutes to get home and poor baby was totally wailing for the last 45 since he was hungry and tired.  I rushed in the house with the intention of nursing him and getting him to bed right away.  As soon as I stepped in the house, I was greeted with 2 pools of dog vomit.  Which I should have expected because we were late and the dogs tend to vomit if meals are not on schedule.  I was able to get the baby to bed, clean up the vomit, get Lorelei dinner, and walk the dogs without losing my cool, so that was good.

Topsy Turvy

Among other things, I ordered a Topsy Turvy Little Red Riding Hood doll from the North American Bear Company.  It's the funniest toy ever.  You flip the skirt up one way and it's Little Red Riding Hood.  Flip it the other way and it's Grandma.  And then if you flip Grandma's bonnet over, it's the Big Bad Wolf in Grandma's clothes!  When I opened the box last night after Penguin Girl had gone to bed, Car Guy saw how tickled I was with it and said I should order one for myself.  I told him all the toys I get for the kids ARE already kind of for me.  Duh!

Girly Girl

This weekend we were milling around a shopping center with time to kill.  I took Penguin Girl into a store that was new to me called Ulta.  It was like Sephora but less hip and not as trendy.  She was in heaven.  She could have stayed there all day long sampling all the perfume and poking her fingers at the make-up testers.  While we were smelling perfume, she declared, "Mama, I LOVE this store!"  She totally would have started applying make-up to her face had my heebie-jeebies not stopped her.  I am so NOT a girly girl.  What am I going to do when she wants me to show her how to put on make-up?  I told her she could pick one perfume and I would spritz her jacket.  She picked a Demeter scent called Blueberry Muffin.  

Circle Time

Penguin Girl had something to share with everyone at circle time at school today.  She hopes she poops today so she can eat a banana.  Mom doesn't let her eat bananas because they make it hard to poop.  And you don't want to get stuck!

New Name for Baby

Penguin Girl's very apt new name for the baby:  Fussles.

If You Give a Pig a Party

I took Penguin Girl to a musical production of this Laura Numeroff book last night.  At the end, Penguin Girl said, "It's over already?  It was so short!  Will there be a DVD?"

A Night on the Town

Car Guy told me he heard at work that the circus was in town and that they were walking the animals past his building to the arena so I took the kids to meet him and see the circus walk.  Penguin Girl was very excited.  Luckily I left early because we hit traffic.  Also lucky that the baby actually fell asleep in the car!  So he only cried for about 5 minutes at the end and beginning.  

Car Guy took Penguin Girl out in front of his office building to watch the parade of animals.  I was inside getting the baby out of the carseat into a sling.  By the time I got outside, it was all over!  All I saw were the butt end of some horses.  It wasn't much of a parade.  A few circus vehicles with performers waving, all the elephants walking in a row, and the horses.  And they were all going pretty fast.  Penguin Girl still thought it was really cool.  Car Guy and I could not understand why crowds of people had lined up on both sides of the street to see the 30 second parade.

Then Car Guy decided that since we came all the way downtown, we should go out to dinner.  He has been obsessed with this nouvelle Southern food restaurant he heard about, I think because of their signature dessert, Krispy Kreme bread pudding.  It turns out it was kind of a fancy place inside the Marriott Hotel.  But Car Guy says he doesn't like to be held back from doing stuff because of the baby and he doesn't mind having to walk him around.

I walked the baby around in the beginning and Car Guy took over for the rest of the meal.  He was in the sling so eventually he fell asleep.  It was only a so-so meal but it was fun to go out to eat.  The bread pudding was pretty good.  But the really funny thing was Penguin Girl reading the menu.  We have not been out to eat in a long time.  Her reading has really advanced quickly over the last several months and she has never made an effort to look at the words herself before.  Now that Penguin Girl can read the menu, she's all about giving her opinion of what she'd like to order.  She was voting for Meyer lemon squares for dessert.  I convinced her that since apple beignets came with ice cream, it was a better choice.  And they were yummy!

To top it off, the baby was just fussy in the car on the way home not all out crying as is typical (at least that's what Car Guy said since the boys were in one car and the girls in the other) and was in a really good mood when we got home even though it was way past bedtime.  And when he finally seemed tired, he let me lay him down on the bed and pat him and shush him to sleep.  I just had to cover his eyes with a corner of his blanket to make him close his eyes.

So all in all a pretty good night.

How to Navigate the Internet

Penguin Girl has been playing lots of computer lately, sometimes software games, sometimes websites like Noggin.  Car Guy got her a game that she really likes but the graphics are a little too advanced for the computer she is using (Car Guy's old laptop his office gave him 4 years ago and it was already old back then) so the computer keeps crashing or sending up error messages.  We talked about getting a new desktop to go with the nice flatscreen monitor Car Guy fished out of his old boss' trashcan at work and fixed.  But we haven't done anything about it since there's no rush and the baby is keeping us plenty busy.

Penguin Girl, however, keeps asking if she can have a new computer since we explained to her that the reason her favorite game doesn't work is because her computer is too old.  Car Guy told me yesterday that she asked him about it yet again and she suggested that he can go look at New Computer Dot Com and order one.  Obviously.