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!