Hopping on the School Train!

Here are some pictures of Bailey's first day of school. First, preparing to leave the house...that is if the giant backpack doesn't prevent her from walking to the car.






A nice thing about the school she's going to is that they provide these backpacks for all the kids. And, when I say THEY provide them, I really mean we pay out the wazoo for them!



She was very particular about how I was to fix her hair and what outfit she wanted to wear. She has started using the word "cool" to describe things, perhaps because of the time she spends with grandma's 8-year-old neighbor. Regardless, it freaks me out when she has an opinion about what is "cool" and what isn't. I guess I should get prepared to hear that for the next 15 or so years, huh?

Here she is sitting in her very own cubby!



And, I title this one, "Hey, wanna be friends?" Sorry it's so dark, they were in Chapel singing songs and there wasn't much light.




Jason and I took her together for her first day, and then I stayed a bit longer to make sure she found her way back to the right classroom. As I left, I said "Have a good day, pretty girl." And, she replied with, "I will. I love you, mommy." I guess I couldn't ask for a better departure...no crying except my own.

After she had experienced her first day, we initially couldn't get many details out of her except that she liked it. Here's what I know:

1. She took her first nap (outside of just falling asleep in the car) in probably a year on her first day of school.....during her time in the extended day program. Weird.


2. She got to watch Veggie Tales.


3. She got to choose a circle mat for book time and she chose a Diego worm (???).


4. She didn't make any new friends on the first day, because, "It takes time to make friends, mom."


5. Her teacher gave her a hug.


6. She ate about 1/8 of her lunch (also out of character for Bailey!).


7. She learned about Creation from Genesis 1:1-2. She had a bit of trouble recalling the exact verse (In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.), saying He created the sky and the grass, instead. Then, she started talking about how God did all his work in 5 days (hee, hee) and then started talking about Moses. I'm sure we'll have many more jumbled conversations about Bible stories, but it's nice to hear her at least talking about the Bible. On a side note, she also said a wonderful prayer before dinner - I wish I could have gotten it on tape!

On a different note, she has started "playing" tennis. My mom and dad got her a tennis outfit, a racket and some pink tennis balls for her b-day, and we got around to taking her to a court over the weekend. She did connect with the ball some, but honestly she was just as excited about chasing the wayward balls as she was about actually hitting them. She also enjoyed hitting the balls that were at rest golf-style....and kept saying, "I DID IT!!!"



Nolan is 9 months now. I took him to his check-up thinking that the dr. was going to remark on how much he's grown. I had this in my mind because of his foray into people food and how rabid he is about eating sometimes. I always tell my parents that they will be to blame if he shoots up to 90% on the growth chart since they were the ones who introduced him to all kinds of new things when they kept him! Anyway, with these thoughts in mind, I was quite taken aback when she instead wanted to have a conversation about what I'm feeding him due to a fall in his growth percentage to under 5%. I look at my kid and think there's no WAY 95% of kids his age are bigger than he is. I've seen some scrawny kids and Nolan definitely has some chub in places.

But, nevertheless, she grilled me on his eating habits for a good 15 minutes. She said that eating people food is part of the problem since he just can't get enough actually in his mouth to equal what he would get should we feed him the recommended 3-4 small bottles of baby food per day. Fighting with him and the baby food is a nightmare, but I guess we're going to have to do again. And, actually, other people do better with baby food than I do....I think he just wants me to hold him. I'm also going to try my mother's recommendation of giving him finger foods on his tray to keep him occupied but then slipping in some spoonfuls of baby food when he's distracted.


I mentioned last time that he's starting to imitate and interact with hand gestures and tone of voice. I do think he's calling me ma-ma-ma-ma and Jason da-da-da-da discriminantly now. A few nights ago, after Bailey had gotten in trouble for not listening, I saw him shaking his hand at her and kind of yell-babbling. I honestly think he was chastising her just the way we do. I think this mainly because Bailey did the same thing with our dog when she couldn't yet talk. It's neat to see these moments! I don't know how soon he'll say a real word, and I'm trying not to compare the timing with Bailey's since she is a girl and was pretty advanced in her language early on, but I'm still eager to hear something and am trying to listen intently when he "talks."

Here are some cute pics of Nolan and the kids together from this week.

Story time!!!