This house is getting crowded

| September 18, 2013

Sam has entered that very typical stage where she has imaginary friends. The first of these was Teddy Bear. She kept talking about him, then they started playing hide and seek and other games in the house. One night she was making Mark crazy running through the house yelling, “Teddy Bear, where are you?” He thought she was looking for a toy. I finally told him what was going on. She is so funny with it. We went to my parents’ house for dinner for my birthday and suddenly she told me that Teddy Bear was going to stay home but he decided to come over. So there he was.

Next came the fairies. I was driving her home after work yesterday and she started talking to them. She then told me that they sit on the side seats and she sits in the middle seat. Also, that the fairies didn’t need seat belts. I told her no, everyone needs seat belts and she responded, quite accurately, “No, imaginary people don’t need seat belts!” I think it’s really funny that she knows they are imaginary. Like, “Duh, Mom. They aren’t real.” I have no idea if this is typical or not. I tended to think that kids sort of believe in their imaginary friends, but who knows. As long as all these new friends don’t start causing mischief in our house, it is fine with me!

Survivor – Week 1!

| September 18, 2013

Sam survived her first full three days of preschool!  Mark and I are so proud of her. She is still a bit unsure about going, but there are no tears, not even the hint of tears. She isn’t exactly jumping up and down at the idea of going to school, but she has fun there and doesn’t complain when I say it’s time to go. She has even started to open up a bit and tell us things that happened without our pulling it out of her. Here are some of the tidbits we learned.

  • “I missed you just a little bit, but then I didn’t. I missed Zephyr.”
  • A girl has a pet spider. Sam did not ask the girl’s name, the spider’s name, nor did she share that she has a pet cat, but she’ll get there.
  • In Sam’s words, “I made a friend.” 🙂 All Mark and I could find out was it was a girl but Sam, once again, didn’t ask her name.
  • Her teacher taught them to sit “crisscross applesauce” (apparently, it is politically incorrect these days to say “Indian Style”).
  • She was sad because I forgot to put on her locket and she couldn’t look at our pictures on Friday.  Bad Mommy 🙁
  • One girl was kicking her at lunchtime (what Sam always calls snacktime) but she said she was sorry, and Mrs. McCann said, “All the feet have to be quiet, and keep your hands to yourself!” Sam thought this was very funny.
  • They do attendance and the teacher calls your name and you have to say you are here. I asked her how do you say, “I’m here!” and she said, “You have to raise your hand!” Marianna was not there.
  • They learned they have to push in their chairs.
  • On Monday, “the lady with the earrings” wasn’t there. I had noticed that Mrs. McCann wasn’t there so I said to Sam that I saw that and I wondered where she was. Sam told me her other teacher told them Mrs. McCann had a tummy ache. Sam hoped she was ok because tummy aches are not fun. The funny thing is that I have honestly never noticed that Mrs. McCann wears earrings. She certainly doesn’t wear large ones.

After Friday’s class, Mrs. McCann talked to Mark and I about the fact that Sam never eats snack and she wanted to know what in the heck Sam will eat! I told her she is a bit picky, but she likes mini saltine crackers and pretzels. We were told we could bring some in for her, and I did, and I am happy to report that on Monday, Sam ate snack with her class! She had some crackers. No juice, no water, but she did eat.

It is really impressive how much she is learning after only a few days. Last night she was telling me some story about something they did in class and it had to do with the days of the week. I couldn’t really understand what she was trying to explain, but then she said, “Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday…”  Ok, she skipped Thursday, but she never even knew any of the days before. And this morning, she went downstairs without me to follow after Zephyr and when I came down she told me she turned the kitchen lights on. I asked her if she pulled the chair over, because there was no evidence of how she could have done something like that, and she told me no, she used her stool. Her stool is in the powder room. Which means she went and got her stool, used it, then folded it back up and put it back.  Impressive.  Last week, that stool would have still been sitting there, right in the kitchen.

By the end of this school year I don’t think I’ll be able to recognize my little girl!