Scarecrow

Sarah's class is making a scarecrow for Aldridge Gardens. Today the other room moms and I helped the kids create their own little scarecrow person, decorate an apron with their handprints, and make a big scarecrow. All the kids had fun with it, and I'm excited to see how it looks when we get it all set up.

A Trial Separation

Sometimes, even though two people might love each other very much, they just reach a point where their differences become too great. Maybe they've tried to find ways to compromise, again and again looking for a way to make it work out, but each time they fail. And the more they try to stay together, the more apparent it becomes that it just isn't working. So finally, out of despair, they talk, and agree to a trial separation. Nothing permanent, not yet, just take it one day at a time and see how it feels.
That's what happened in our house last night. After over five years together, Sarah and Abby have decided to try sleeping in different rooms (I had you going there for a second, didn't I?). Their sleeping patterns are just too different. Abby requires very little sleep, and Sarah requires an inordinant amount of sleep, and every day the problem gets worse. Yesterday, Sarah was like a girl possessed - tearing up paper, scribbling on her artwork, carving on the kitchen table. That's what happens when she's tired, or maybe even exhausted. I put them to bed by 7pm each night, and Sarah goes right to sleep despite the fact that Abby stays up looking at books for about an hour. But in the morning, Abby wakes up before 5:30, and she tries to be quiet, but Sarah always wakes up. It just doesn't work. Plus, their room is right over ours, so every morning Perry and I wake up before 5:30, too, when Abby walks to the playroom or drops a book.
So, after lengthy discussions, we all decided that Abby would sleep in the "pink room" while Sarah would stay in her bed. Abby has wanted to do this since we moved into the house, but Sarah has always been the one who didn't want to separate. Until a few months ago, she wouldn't even go upstairs by herself! But she's becoming more confident and secure, and she decided that she was ready. This morning Abby came down the stairs at 6:15 (it was "six-zero-zero" on her clock), and a few minutes later Sarah came down. We didn't hear a peep before then. Everyone agreed that the experiment was a success. But, I'm going to call it a trial for awhile. It really makes me sad that they're not together anymore - it was so sweet to check on them at night and see them together. But if this will help Sarah regain control of herself, it might just stick.

p.s. I got some pics of the picnic, so I edited that post.

Baking

My mom is an excellent baker. We had homemade goodies almost every day when I was growing up. Unfortunately, I did not inherit that gene. I like to cook and think I'm pretty good at it, but baking is an entirely different story. It seems so precise - I'm much better when I can improvise and estimate. But, for the sake of my girls and to build the memories, I attempt to bake on occasion.

Sue gave the girls a Junior cookbook last week. They've been flipping through it. Saturday, Abby asked if we could make teddy bear cookies. I looked at the ingredients and realized I had everything we needed, so we did it. It was a lot of fun, and they really are good helpers. They help me gather the ingredients, turn on the oven, measure everything, pour it into the mixing bowl, and of course lick the beaters. I had to laugh at myself when I thought we were ready to shape the cookies, and then noticed the two eggs and the vanilla still sitting on the counter! No wonder the batter was so dry! I was scared to add them late, because I know that doing things in the right order is important in baking, but I was not willing to start over. So we added them, mixed again, and decided it was all OK. The best part was that they got to lick the beaters again after that!

Then came the really fun part: rolling balls in our hands, then mushing them on the cookie sheet, repeat, repeat, repeat...9 parts per teddy bear (body, head, ears, arms, legs, nose), probably 25 teddy bears (I lost count). They turned out soooo cute and yummy! We had way too many, so the girls delivered some to our neighbors. What a fun afternoon!

Paper Dolls

The girls had their first big homework assignment this weekend (fortunately they both had the same project so there were no hurt feelings). They brought home paper dolls and needed to decorate them with pictures, magazine clippings, colors, etc. The assignment was "all about me", so it's supposed to help their classmates and teachers get to know them.

I found a big stack of photos and a bunch of magazines and let the girls pick things that were important to me. They both decided to do pictures only, and after sorting through the pics 3 times, they both had it narrowed down to about 30 each. I had to step in help them get it down to about 10, and then I did most of the cutting. But they took it from there. They laid it out, glued the pictures down, decorated with stickers, and had a great time creating. These turned out really cute, and I can't wait to see what all their friends created.

We had a great weekend. Today was beautiful. We went for a Jeep ride and played in the park this afternoon, before pizza and movie night (Babe).

Kindergarten - Times Two

It's almost like a social experiment - taking two kids, with almost identical experiences, and putting them in different classes with very different teachers. Sarah's teacher, Mrs. K, is very laid-back. loving, nurturing, and focused on hands-on learning. Sarah is doing great with "kids-spell". She can write complete stories just by sounding out the words and writing the letters she hears. "Wuns upon a tim thar wus a litl grl", she wrote this morning. Amazing. But ask her to read a word, and she freezes. She hasn't made that connection yet. She can read anything that you've read to her, because she has an awesome memory. She knows a lot of sight words. But show her the word "pig", and she doesn't know how to say puh...i...g......... puh..i..g........ puh.i.g..... pig! It's so odd, because if I asked her to write the word pig, she could do it in a second! It's just the way she's learning.
Then there's Abby. Her teacher, Mrs. S, is very structured and disciplined. She's also loving and sweet, but she runs a tight ship. Abby knows which letters are vowels, and what sounds they make. She knows her blends (th, sh, etc.). And she obviously practices phonics, because she can sound out any word I show her. But she doesn't like to write, I've never seen her do "kids-spell", and she gets really upset if I ask her to read a book, because she wants me to read it. She loves books, stories...she doesn't want to struggle through the words.
I'll try to remember to post about these differences every now and then, to record their accomplishments and take note of how the different approaches to learning will ultimately get us to the same goal - proficient reading.

p.s. I forgot my camera yesterday at the picnic. Ugh! But, some other people had theirs, so I'm hoping to get some emailed to me.

Edited to add a picture!

Our family is complete again

Bailey's home. Yea. He's doing really well - he has a couple of meds to take, and he has to eat prescription food for a few days, but he definitely seems better. The girls were soooo excited to see him when they got off the bus today!
Perry and I had a meeting at school tonight, and Sue kept the girls. When we got home, Bailey didn't meet us at the door. Perry guessed that he was closed into the girls' room, and sure enough, that's where he was. Abby was curled up at the bottom of her bed, wrapped around Bailey, sound asleep. It was only around 7:20, so I'm thinking maybe THAT's the answer to Abby's sleep problems? I wish I had a pic, because it was so sweet, but Bailey saw me when I opened the door and jumped down to go find Perry.
Tomorrow we have a kindergarten picnic at school. I'll definitely take my camera. Sarah asked me to bring carrot sticks, dip, and water, while Abby asked for brownies and popsicles. I'm thinking I might throw in a few sandwiches, too!

How's our boy?

Bailey is still at the vet. He was on IV-only yesterday and most of today, and then they were planning to give him some water starting tonight. If he does well with that, he might be able to come home tomorrow. It's so quiet around here without him - the mood of the family has changed and there's just not the same joy. The only positive thing I can think of is that I slept great without him in our bed last night - he's a serious bed-hog!

Bailey

Bailey is at the vet with pancreatitis. He's on IV fluids and will have to stay 1-4 days. Needless to say, we miss him terribly and we're worried about him. He's such an awesome dog, and while I'm confident that he'll be fine, it's still scary. I'll update you when I know more.

Just catching up

After a room mom meeting Friday morning, Perry and I loaded up the car, checked the girls out of school, and headed south for the weekend to visit my family. It did occur to us that we were heading to the coast at the same time that Hurricane Gustav was making a beeline for the same spot. But we decided to make a quick trip, and I'm really glad we did. Friday night we had a nice family dinner and then played out front with some really cool frisbees Mimi found.

Perry and Thomas had a beautiful Saturday morning for a round of golf, while I hung out with Leslie, Mimi, Pop, Emily, & the girls. We didn't even go anywhere all morning, we just played games and talked. That night we had a very decadent meal - Pop cooked his famous ribs, and they were his best batch ever. Mimi boiled a bunch of shrimp to go with it, and we all ate until we were miserable. That night, S&A had a slumber party at Emily's house, so P & I watched the Alabama game with Mimi, Pop, and Thomas and also kept our eye on the storm.

Sunday morning we got up early, even though S&A weren't there to wake us up. But it was very nice to have time for coffee and breakfast without little ones running around! We decided we should head back in the morning because of the Louisiana evacuations. We got on the interstate before 11am, but that was probably a couple of hours too late. The traffic was bumper-to-bumper, with most of the cars from Louisiana. As awful as it was, I really felt sorry for those people evacuating. It took us about 5 hours to get home, which wasn't too bad considering the circumstances.

We enjoyed our day off today. The girls and I met Debbie Debbie at the mall to look for school shoes, this afternoon they had ballet, and tonight we had dinner at a neighbor/friend's house. Tomorrow it's back to our routine.

Check out these cool mushrooms Abby found growing in our backyard. I've seen pictures of mushrooms like this, but I've never seen any up close!

And one more pic. This is Sarah, this morning. She has always liked shoes - in fact her first word was "shoes". Today she made quite the fashion statement!

Future Olympians? Probably Not

The girls are loving gymnastics, and they are getting better. But they're definitely not the most coordinated girls in their class (like their mom). They do have very good rhythm and they love music, so I think I passed on some good stuff too, but I sure hope they don't have their hearts set on college cheerleading! Cartwheels? Not so much. But here are a couple of pics on the balance beam. They're pretty good at that.