Monday, August 30, 2004
"Schoolgirl Update"
Well, I have been so wrapped up in Sierra's new life as a kindergartener that I haven't made the time to update my blog...sorry folks :-)
Sierra's first day was last Wednesday. The poor little thing - she was already out of her element last week because Haywood was away on a business trip for the week, so getting her to bed on Tuesday night was hard. For now, her bedtime is supposed to be around 9 (I know that might seem late, but trust me, if you know Sierra, she normally goes to bed much later and gets up earlier - she is just one of those kids that doesn't need to sleep for 10 hours a night.) Well, after a variety of "crises" (i.e. delay tactics) I managed to get her settled in with the light off by 10:30pm. Not even one minute later, she began screaming out - she got stung by a wasp that had somehow found its way into her bed :-( I felt so bad - I gave her some ice and calmed her down and then she finally settled in.
With that rocky end to the evening, I was a bit nervous about getting her up in the morning and doing her new morning routine all in time to catch the bus. But she was perfect the first morning and has been every day so far. She gets up promptly at 6:40a, eats breakfast while watching a few minutes of tv, brushes her teeth, gets dressed and then we spend the rest of the time taming her hair, which is sometimes hard if it had still been wet when she went to bed. Then we drive to the top of our road to catch the bus by 7:26.
So far, she likes school and has met several friends. She did wonderfully the first day, but on day two and three, she cried at school several times, missing me. (It's interesting to me because she is definitely a daddy's girl in a lot of respects, but now because she is used to him being at work all day, she doesn't feel that she is really away from him while she is at school.) I thought the adjustment might be hard for her since she has never been to daycare, but after the first day went so well, I thought we might have lucked out. But on the afternoon of day 2, the teacher called me and told me Sierra had been teary-eyed on and off several times during the day, especially when it came to getting on the bus in the afternoon. It's so hard for me to think of her being upset at school and me not being able to comfort her. After she got home, we talked and she told me it would really help if she had a picture of me to look at when she got upset, so I put one in her book bag. The next day, she still cried a couple of times, but she said it was much better and she told me she missed me at lunch because they aren't allowed to take their book bags to lunch. I did pick her up from school on Friday because the long bus ride seems to be contributing to her distress - she views it as "that much longer" before she can get home. She did bring home a picture she had drawn of us during the day. The sad thing was that in the picture, she and I are both crying. Friday night, she cried and said she never wanted to ride the bus again and she repeated this on Saturday. This of course worries me, because we're getting on a morning routine that doesn't really have time figured in for refusal to ride the bus, etc. I have asked her every possible question about the bus and all responses have been postive, other than the ride being a little long, so I know there are no mean kids or other things specifically bothering her. I have decided that I will pick her up one day per week, but I really can't drop her off and pick her up every day because it would take about 2 extra hours to do that and I feel that she really can do this. While I want to be supportive and comforting to her, I don't want to be a crutch that allows her to stop developing and getting past having separation anxiety....so i have to be somewhat middle of the road - of course if it were up to me and I wanted to be selfish, I would pick her up and drop her off everyday so I could spend more time with her, but I know that she needs to be able to do this because the reality is someday I will work again and most likely in the other direction from where her school is, so it's better that she get into the routine early.
The interesting thing is she has not said anything about not wanting to go to school and she really seems to be enjoying it there so far - it's just the to and from that seems to be the problem. She really likes her friends and said they comforted her when she was upset. All except one little girl who actually said, "If you don't stop crying your mommy's NEVER going to pick you up!" Grrrr - a real kick 'em when they're down little girl. I know this kind of thing will happen from time to time, but the kid in me wants to wring that little girl's neck! I'm sure she is either jealous that Sierra got some attention from the teacher or maybe she doesn't have a good relationship with her mother or have a mother at all, but whatever it is, I'm glad Sierra has made the friends she has so far.
I'm anxious for her to get home this afternoon to see how things have improved for her - I know she'll do better and better each day.
By the way if you've gotten this far...thanks :-) I'm just kind of rambling and since I intend to keep what I write to look back on in years to come, I realize not everything I write is going to interest everybody, but thanks for listening :-)
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Well, I have been so wrapped up in Sierra's new life as a kindergartener that I haven't made the time to update my blog...sorry folks :-)
Sierra's first day was last Wednesday. The poor little thing - she was already out of her element last week because Haywood was away on a business trip for the week, so getting her to bed on Tuesday night was hard. For now, her bedtime is supposed to be around 9 (I know that might seem late, but trust me, if you know Sierra, she normally goes to bed much later and gets up earlier - she is just one of those kids that doesn't need to sleep for 10 hours a night.) Well, after a variety of "crises" (i.e. delay tactics) I managed to get her settled in with the light off by 10:30pm. Not even one minute later, she began screaming out - she got stung by a wasp that had somehow found its way into her bed :-( I felt so bad - I gave her some ice and calmed her down and then she finally settled in.
With that rocky end to the evening, I was a bit nervous about getting her up in the morning and doing her new morning routine all in time to catch the bus. But she was perfect the first morning and has been every day so far. She gets up promptly at 6:40a, eats breakfast while watching a few minutes of tv, brushes her teeth, gets dressed and then we spend the rest of the time taming her hair, which is sometimes hard if it had still been wet when she went to bed. Then we drive to the top of our road to catch the bus by 7:26.
So far, she likes school and has met several friends. She did wonderfully the first day, but on day two and three, she cried at school several times, missing me. (It's interesting to me because she is definitely a daddy's girl in a lot of respects, but now because she is used to him being at work all day, she doesn't feel that she is really away from him while she is at school.) I thought the adjustment might be hard for her since she has never been to daycare, but after the first day went so well, I thought we might have lucked out. But on the afternoon of day 2, the teacher called me and told me Sierra had been teary-eyed on and off several times during the day, especially when it came to getting on the bus in the afternoon. It's so hard for me to think of her being upset at school and me not being able to comfort her. After she got home, we talked and she told me it would really help if she had a picture of me to look at when she got upset, so I put one in her book bag. The next day, she still cried a couple of times, but she said it was much better and she told me she missed me at lunch because they aren't allowed to take their book bags to lunch. I did pick her up from school on Friday because the long bus ride seems to be contributing to her distress - she views it as "that much longer" before she can get home. She did bring home a picture she had drawn of us during the day. The sad thing was that in the picture, she and I are both crying. Friday night, she cried and said she never wanted to ride the bus again and she repeated this on Saturday. This of course worries me, because we're getting on a morning routine that doesn't really have time figured in for refusal to ride the bus, etc. I have asked her every possible question about the bus and all responses have been postive, other than the ride being a little long, so I know there are no mean kids or other things specifically bothering her. I have decided that I will pick her up one day per week, but I really can't drop her off and pick her up every day because it would take about 2 extra hours to do that and I feel that she really can do this. While I want to be supportive and comforting to her, I don't want to be a crutch that allows her to stop developing and getting past having separation anxiety....so i have to be somewhat middle of the road - of course if it were up to me and I wanted to be selfish, I would pick her up and drop her off everyday so I could spend more time with her, but I know that she needs to be able to do this because the reality is someday I will work again and most likely in the other direction from where her school is, so it's better that she get into the routine early.
The interesting thing is she has not said anything about not wanting to go to school and she really seems to be enjoying it there so far - it's just the to and from that seems to be the problem. She really likes her friends and said they comforted her when she was upset. All except one little girl who actually said, "If you don't stop crying your mommy's NEVER going to pick you up!" Grrrr - a real kick 'em when they're down little girl. I know this kind of thing will happen from time to time, but the kid in me wants to wring that little girl's neck! I'm sure she is either jealous that Sierra got some attention from the teacher or maybe she doesn't have a good relationship with her mother or have a mother at all, but whatever it is, I'm glad Sierra has made the friends she has so far.
I'm anxious for her to get home this afternoon to see how things have improved for her - I know she'll do better and better each day.
By the way if you've gotten this far...thanks :-) I'm just kind of rambling and since I intend to keep what I write to look back on in years to come, I realize not everything I write is going to interest everybody, but thanks for listening :-)
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Tuesday, August 24, 2004
"Seafood and other body parts"
Apparently I haven't taught Sierra quite enough about seafood yet. Tonight she was patting our dog, Stan, on the head and I asked what she was up to. She replied, "I'm just massaging his scallop."
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Apparently I haven't taught Sierra quite enough about seafood yet. Tonight she was patting our dog, Stan, on the head and I asked what she was up to. She replied, "I'm just massaging his scallop."
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Sunday, August 22, 2004
"Complex analogies from the mind of a 5 year-old"
Yesterday, we went down for our niece's baby shower and Haywood and Sierra dropped me off (since there were no boys or kids allowed during the shower) and went off to run errands. When they came back, Sierra was describing to the guests how mad Haywood was because he told Sierra not to spill her ice cream sundae and then he ended up spilling his own.
Her analogy was, "Daddy was as mad as a superhero would be nice."
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Yesterday, we went down for our niece's baby shower and Haywood and Sierra dropped me off (since there were no boys or kids allowed during the shower) and went off to run errands. When they came back, Sierra was describing to the guests how mad Haywood was because he told Sierra not to spill her ice cream sundae and then he ended up spilling his own.
Her analogy was, "Daddy was as mad as a superhero would be nice."
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Friday, August 20, 2004
"one of those moms...."
sierra had her kindergarten orientation today! she got to meet her teacher and her new classmates and she had a great time. one of my good friends from high school and college is now the gym teacher there. he kept mentioning that he couldn't believe he was teaching gym (he was in the education school at uva studying sports medicine) but he said it truly is the best and most rewarding job he could ever imagine. of course, as i was trying to have a somewhat mature conversation with this friend that i hadn't seen in a long time, sierra runs up and grabs my boobs - how embarrassing!! she was just so excited to be there she was going crazy.
i just hope this enthusiasm continues to wednesday morning when she'll be boarding the school bus for the first time and be whisked away into the trustworthy (we'll see) hands of our local government employees. we even landed ourselves in the principal's office today, as I had specific concerns about sierra's teacher. someone told me that the teacher she was assigned might not be the "best" teacher and of course that got me a little upset, as she was one of the top scorers on the pre-assessment tests they were given, so I assumed she'd have the "good teacher". the principal assured me that i should not worry about her being challenged, etc and that her teacher is a very good teacher (well, of course, what else can he say)... but at least my concerns have been noted in the event that the teaching situation is not as good as he assured it was.
I'm sure some people might think i'm overreacting a bit, after all this is kindergarten, but i just know what happens to smart kids when they are bored and not challenged and it just kind of pains me to think of my little girl, who we are constantly working with and teaching new things, sitting around bored or misbehaving while she waits 6 months for everyone to learn their letters and numbers and how to count by 5s and 10s.
In other related news, I signed up to help with art projects in class, field trips and parties - yup, i'm now one of those moms (hard to believe i'm the same person who was handing out ones to Cody at Camelot just last year - I'm sure the other parents would be thrilled). I guess this will be my taste of what it's like to be able to try to control a group of children and will make or break any chance of me considering elementary education as a future career. Recently, there was a technology instruction position posted at the elementary school and I labored over whether to apply for it and finally decided against it, as I have a fear of dealing with groups of children. I'm one of those people that's good with their own children, but not really with anyone else's, I guess....so hopefully that will change for the better this year.
Tomorrow, we're headed down to VA Beach for our niece's baby shower. I actually learned how to sew for this one and bought some cute baskets and then sewed some liners for them with some cute pooh fabric that I found and then filled them with all the necessities that I could think of. I'm hoping there will be some good pancit there! One food item my sister-in-law is preparing should provoke a little commentary - pe*is pasta - it's a boy, afterall! What will they think of next?
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sierra had her kindergarten orientation today! she got to meet her teacher and her new classmates and she had a great time. one of my good friends from high school and college is now the gym teacher there. he kept mentioning that he couldn't believe he was teaching gym (he was in the education school at uva studying sports medicine) but he said it truly is the best and most rewarding job he could ever imagine. of course, as i was trying to have a somewhat mature conversation with this friend that i hadn't seen in a long time, sierra runs up and grabs my boobs - how embarrassing!! she was just so excited to be there she was going crazy.
i just hope this enthusiasm continues to wednesday morning when she'll be boarding the school bus for the first time and be whisked away into the trustworthy (we'll see) hands of our local government employees. we even landed ourselves in the principal's office today, as I had specific concerns about sierra's teacher. someone told me that the teacher she was assigned might not be the "best" teacher and of course that got me a little upset, as she was one of the top scorers on the pre-assessment tests they were given, so I assumed she'd have the "good teacher". the principal assured me that i should not worry about her being challenged, etc and that her teacher is a very good teacher (well, of course, what else can he say)... but at least my concerns have been noted in the event that the teaching situation is not as good as he assured it was.
I'm sure some people might think i'm overreacting a bit, after all this is kindergarten, but i just know what happens to smart kids when they are bored and not challenged and it just kind of pains me to think of my little girl, who we are constantly working with and teaching new things, sitting around bored or misbehaving while she waits 6 months for everyone to learn their letters and numbers and how to count by 5s and 10s.
In other related news, I signed up to help with art projects in class, field trips and parties - yup, i'm now one of those moms (hard to believe i'm the same person who was handing out ones to Cody at Camelot just last year - I'm sure the other parents would be thrilled). I guess this will be my taste of what it's like to be able to try to control a group of children and will make or break any chance of me considering elementary education as a future career. Recently, there was a technology instruction position posted at the elementary school and I labored over whether to apply for it and finally decided against it, as I have a fear of dealing with groups of children. I'm one of those people that's good with their own children, but not really with anyone else's, I guess....so hopefully that will change for the better this year.
Tomorrow, we're headed down to VA Beach for our niece's baby shower. I actually learned how to sew for this one and bought some cute baskets and then sewed some liners for them with some cute pooh fabric that I found and then filled them with all the necessities that I could think of. I'm hoping there will be some good pancit there! One food item my sister-in-law is preparing should provoke a little commentary - pe*is pasta - it's a boy, afterall! What will they think of next?
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Friday, August 13, 2004
"Semantics"
Today, Sierra and I went to Wal*Mart to get some school supplies (for Sierra) and baby supplies for my niece's baby shower. Of course we had to make the obligatory stop at the built-in McDonalds, which happens to be next to the restrooms we had used earlier. When we were done eating, I told Sierra I just wanted to run by the toiletries area so I could buy some nail polish remover before we left. So as we walked toward the other end of the store, Sierra kept pulling my hand back towards where we had been sitting and said "you're going the wrong way, Mommy!" I said, "No, sweetie, the toiletries are this way." She said, "Mommy, no they're not!" I once again explained that we were indeed going the right way and she just looked confused and said "oh, so you're going to use a different bathroom this time... " I then got to explain the difference between toilets and toiletries and we both got a good laugh out of it. Next time I'll know to use "Cosmetics" or "Health and Beauty Aids" or maybe even "the Nail Polish aisle."
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Thursday, August 05, 2004
"Something to talk about"
Actually, I have very little to talk about, hence my lack of posts lately. Sierra starts school on August 25th and we have been getting ready for that. She had a great time with her aunts at the beach last weekend! Now, we're actually getting ready to head to the Outer Banks for a vacation to meet up with our friends V and EJ as well as Luann, Andrew and family, so it should be a great time! Can't wait to hit the seafood buffets :-) (Actually that's a little joke for someone who always says my life revolves around my next meal...hehe). Speaking of which, Sierra's ready for breakfast and so am I, so I'll be back in a bit...
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Actually, I have very little to talk about, hence my lack of posts lately. Sierra starts school on August 25th and we have been getting ready for that. She had a great time with her aunts at the beach last weekend! Now, we're actually getting ready to head to the Outer Banks for a vacation to meet up with our friends V and EJ as well as Luann, Andrew and family, so it should be a great time! Can't wait to hit the seafood buffets :-) (Actually that's a little joke for someone who always says my life revolves around my next meal...hehe). Speaking of which, Sierra's ready for breakfast and so am I, so I'll be back in a bit...
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"New TiVo Feature"
Looks like TiVo will be expanding over the internet in the near future...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41594-2004Aug5.html
Now, if they could just let me watch my recorded shows on a different TV in my own house.... not having high-speed internet access sure does complicate things! Verizon - can you hear me now? DSL please!
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Looks like TiVo will be expanding over the internet in the near future...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41594-2004Aug5.html
Now, if they could just let me watch my recorded shows on a different TV in my own house.... not having high-speed internet access sure does complicate things! Verizon - can you hear me now? DSL please!
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