Samantha's first blog

pamelamyers | June 13, 2016

Sam got her yearbook today! I was so excited to see it. I would have wanted to see it anyway, but I had volunteered to prepare the page for her class containing all the candid photos, so I had a sneak peek at the whole book as it was being created. Our super-gorgeous, always photogenic daughter was on THREE pages, besides her class page. A photo of her on the first day of school, at the holiday concert, and dressed in her Batgirl costume for the Trunk or Treat were all chosen by the people who made those pages. So…aside from the official portrait, and the candids on her class page (she is in five pictures on that page – with other kids in them, of course), she is all over the book.

Speaking of the portraits, Mark noticed that the portrait page is a sea of toothless smiles. It is so cute. They look like a hockey team. 🙂 Of course, our girl looks the cutest!

It is funny, I was so excited to see  the yearbook and when I told Sam her yearbook was coming home today she was like, “What’s a yearbook?” She was happy to look all through it when she got it though. What a great memory. It seems so funny that kindergarteners get yearbooks today, but someday, she will look back at that book and smile.

 

Category: School | No Comments �
Tags:

pamelamyers | June 13, 2016

Sam’s dentist appointment was today and it is a day I dread almost more than any other. She so hates the dentist. I have no idea why. They have never done anything other than clean her teeth and take a few x-rays so it is not like she has had a painful or uncomfortable experience there.  Not to mention the fact that I have never talked about the dentist in a bad way. I never make it sound like a bad thing, and when I tell her if she doesn’t brush she will get cavities, I never say anything bad about what the treatment will entail, or anything that makes it sound like getting a cavity fixed would be a bad thing. I just tell her she’ll have to go to the dentist more often. I am very careful about what I say.

I was glad we were going, actually, because I wanted the dentist to have a look at her teeth to tell me if she has any more loose ones. I am just glad she finally lost that pesky top tooth before we went!

When the dentist came out to get us, I talked to her for a few minutes to tell her what has been going on, tooth wise, and then she told Sam to come on back and I just sort of walked back out through the door into the waiting room. I have never been able to do that before. Sam always clings to my hand and makes me sit in the exam room with her. At her age, I really shouldn’t be back there. I should have been able to leave her on her own a while ago, truthfully. So, she really surprised me. It took a while, but I figured they must have been doing x-rays (they did) and no one came to get me, so I hoped for the best.

It turned out great! Not only was she fine by herself, but the dentist said her teeth look great! Sam has been complaining about her gum where she lost the tooth, but the new one is on it’s way in and her 6 year molars are coming. No problems, no tears! Yay! I asked Sam about her visit in the car and she made it sound like it was just no big deal at all. Ah, my big girl. She had quite the handful of little prizes. I asked her why she had so many and she said, “Well, she didn’t say a number. You know, like, you can take one or two…” You know what, for no tears and an easy dentist experience, she deserves all the prizes she wants!

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments �
Tags:

pamelamyers | June 11, 2016

Sam went to Lina’s school friend party today. It was at this really unusual place where they do sort of extreme fitness. The kind of place where you train to do American Ninja Warrior type of things. Yeah, I’d never heard of it either. Google it. Anyway, I wasn’t sure if she’d like it, but she loved it! I shouldn’t have been surprised since it is semi-gymnastics oriented. Sam wouldn’t do some things (like climb the wall and jump over the side), but she did a lot, including walking the balance beam, walking the slack line, swinging over tires on a huge rope. She loved every second! Here they are with their trainer/party host doing some pre-event push ups to warm up.

Sam has quite good balance, actually. When we get back from vacation, I am going to start taking her to gymnastics.

I couldn’t believe she did this! I thought she’d be too scared, but swing away she went. She asked me if she could do it again and again.

So many kids fell off the slack line, but not Sam.

One of her party favors was silly string. I haven’t seen that in ages. It makes such a mess, but I knew she’d love it. I let her spray it in the driveway. She loved it, of course!

One of her other party favors that I thought she’d want no part of was Pop Rocks. She didn’t know what they were but when I put some in my mouth and she heard them popping all around, she decided to try them herself. Lo and behold, she liked them too! Now if I could just get her to try actual food….

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment �
Tags:

pamelamyers | June 10, 2016

Today was Sam’s end of year party in her classroom. All parents were invited so Mark and I both went. Sam loves when we are at her school, especially her Daddy, since he doesn’t get there as often. It was listed for the entire day so I assumed (correctly) that it was going to be a whole day of fun and games.

The first “station” was coloring these little knapsacks the kids could take home. Sam did a lot of it but she let Mark and I help. It’s a good thing, it was a lot to color and I don’t know if she would have gotten it done!

I love the way it turned out.

They played lots of games inside, like trying to blow a ball across a table using a straw…

…and trying to carry a soda can across the table with a friend (that’s her first kindergarten friend, Adeline) by holding it up with a piece of uncooked spaghetti in their mouths.

Outside, they had races to see which team could fill their bucket with balls first (without dropping any).

This hula hoop game was my favorite. The kids had to link hands and try to move the hula hoop all the way around the circle by using their heads, shoulders, or anything really but hands. Sam forgot to step out when she got it over her head so she and her friend got stuck inside together. So cute!

Paper airplanes was the last game, trying to see who could throw theirs the furthest. Sam is not a great paper airplane flier, I must say. Poor kid needs some lessons!

The last thing was snack and then we went home. We took the opportunity to give both Mrs. Biehl and Miss Cipolloni a thank you card and a gift card. Sam really loved her teachers and I know she will miss them a lot. She kept telling me too, that she wishes Miss Marino, the student teacher was there. Sam would like her to be her first grade teacher. It was hard to explain to her that I don’t even know where Miss Marino is going to be teaching. But I am glad she loved all her teachers so much. What a wonderful kindergarten experience she has had!

That night, Mark and Sam started assembling his space Lego that he got for his birthday. Sam has been bugging him ever since he opened them. Here’s a start!

Category: School | 1 Comment �
Tags:

pamelamyers | June 9, 2016

Yesterday was Kindergarten Bump Up Day. What this means is that the kindergarteners spend almost a full day at school doing things with the first graders, visiting first grade classrooms and getting an idea about what it is like to be in first grade. It is a big transition, in my view, going from half day kindergarten to first grade. They go from only spending two and a half hours at school to spending six and a half hours at school. For Sam, that will be a big deal. She has never spent that much time away from family. She was pretty excited about it though since to a kindergartener like Sam, the first graders are very grown up. Here she is ready to start her day!

From what I was told by the school, they were going to spend the whole day with the first graders and doing first grade things. When I asked Sam at the end of the day what she did with the first graders she told me they went to a first grade classroom, they got to sit at their tables while the first graders sat on the floor, and they asked the first graders questions about first grade. Sam, of course, did not ask any questions.  Sigh. I asked her what else did they do? Did they go to the cafeteria, or anything else and she said no. We had the longest discussion (argument?) about this because Sam was insistent that that is all they did. After that, they went to their regular classroom where they had lunch. That was it. Done. I knew that couldn’t be right. At least, I hoped not. The school had led us to believe that the day was to be spent learning about being in first grade. So, being that kind of parent, I emailed her teacher and asked her to tell me what exactly went on because I know Sam is not a fountain of information. Truly, based on Sam’s version of events, they spent about an hour in a first grade classroom then her day went on as usual in her kindergarten class.

I got an email back the next day telling me about the multitude of things they did including visiting the cafeteria, practicing using the pin pad they will use to buy lunch, they visited the rooftop garden, played on the first grade playground, etc. When I asked Sam about this and wanted to know why she had not told me any of these things and was so adamant about what they did at school her response was classic. She said, “You asked me what we did with the first graders. We did all that stuff without them.” OMG. She is SO LITERAL. I told her she knew what I meant, but in her defense, I guess she is right. I did ask what she did with the first graders. Sigh. At least she really did enjoy her day…

Category: School | No Comments �
Tags: