As you know, Angelina recently began protesting tummy time by rolling over from tummy to back. Well just a second ago, and of course we missed it, Madeleine rolled from back to tummy! I’m pretty sure it was because she saw a toy with which she wanted to play.
Archive for April, 2008
I was cutting Jubilee’s fingernails and I realized how big her hands and fingers are now. Perhaps it’s because I’m comparing them to Angelina and Madeleine’s, which I hold daily. But my stomach turned at the thought of how fast my oldest daughter is growing up. I don’t usually think about things like this. But looking at her hands, stroking her fingers, holding them in mine…I just couldn’t believe it.
You can hear Jubilee say these days, “Pretty soon, I’m going to be an adult.” She doesn’t know what this means, but she knows it’s coming. Sadly, I do too.
This preschool is on the way to work for me (David), so it works well for me to drop-off Jubilee in the morning, and then Daphne picks up Jubilee at 12:30pm.
Our drop-off routine is like this:
- Daddy signs-in
- Jubilee puts lunch box in the cubbies
- Jubilee hangs up jacket on the coat rack
- Jubilee finds name tag on teacher’s desk and daddy pins it on
- Daddy prays for Jubilee
- Jubilee begins free play at one of several stations
- Daddy leaves for work
When we arrive in the morning there are three stations set up for free play. Two are on tables and one is on the floor. On her first day the three stations were: 1) stacking/building blocks 2) brio wooden train sets 3) dolls and doll houses on the floor. Jubilee went straight for the dolls that first day. Today, the stations were 1) various puzzle-type toys 2) tons of Mr. Potato head bodies and parts 3) fisher-price village. Jubilee pointed at the Mr. Potato head table and laughed, “Sooooo many potato head!”, but she quickly went over to the fisher-price village on the floor. It’s the same stuff she plays with in her own room, so she was right at home.
This morning while getting Jubilee dressed, I mentioned going to preschool today. Jubilee excitedly said, “Again?!” Silly girl… she thought it was a one-time thing! So I explained that she will go to preschool every Tuesday and Thursday.
Madeleine went pee in the potty tonight! Just think, I tried the potty chair a couple days ago with Madeleine and she didn’t like it, so I thought I still had to hold them over the toilet for now. It was only on a whim that I decided to put Angelina on today.
Angelina went poop in the Baby Bjorn! No, not the baby carrier, the potty chair.
Jubilee started preschool today!
Honestly, the whole preschool thing has been somewhat anti-climatic. I was expecting some drama on the first day, but I didn’t see any children crying or clinging to their parent’s leg. It all seems “normal” to her I think. This may be due, in large part, to the past year spent in the Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) children’s program which is very structured, much like school. We’ve heard from various people that BSF prepares kids very well for a classroom environment.
While waiting for the doors to open at 9am, we (Daddy and Jubilee) sat on a bench in front of the classroom. From this vantage point, we could see each child as he or she walked up to the classroom. Here’s a sampling of Jubilee during this time:
- “That’s my new friend!” (she did this several times)
- “She has a lunch box just like mine!”
- “There’s a boy!”
- “That girl is wearing a dress.”
- “Oooooh… she has a princess backpack.”
Jubilee brought home an April calendar pasted on a cutout of an umbrella. Jubilee did the cutout and pasting herself. Also the teacher wrote her name with “dotted lines” which Jubilee then “traced” in order to write her name. That was a clever idea.
During dinner on tonight, we tried asking Jubilee about her first day, but it was tough. She’s never been very good at retelling (accurately) what she did during the day. However, she was able to tell us the name of her teacher Mrs Ortiz, and also the name of one girl, Sophia. She was also proud to say that she used the bathroom all by herself.
Yes, Jubilee, daddy is very proud of you!
Jubilee came out of room time asking me to fix her “Elmo Knows Your Name” doll.
It needed new batteries. After i installed them, Elmo start talking again. So I put Elmo at her closed door, knocked and ran away. (Elmo’s still talking, by the way.) Jubilee opens the door takes Elmo, then shuts the door without saying a word!
Madeleine just sat up by herself for several seconds!
Jubilee JUST left for her first day of preschool!