Sitting at the dinner table one night, we were talking about how smart kids are. Natasha speaks up and says:
"I'm so smart I'm even smarter than my brain!!"
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
First week of school...
and right back into the swing of things.
I had to set my alarm for the first time in months Tuesday morning, to make sure we all got ready in time. I had to wake the girls up, again for the first time in months.
This year is a little different as Natasha is in Afternoon Senior Kindergarten, so only Maya needs to have a really good breakfast, the other two can eat well all morning.
Tuesday morning anxiety. I too had butterflies. The class lists were being posted only on the first day of school. Maya had spent the last couple of days trying to figure out all the possible scenarios of "what if" ... and worrying herself silly.
Maya got the 'new' teacher this year. Mme Marguerite. She is also very lucky to have lots of good friends in her class. Others were not as lucky. There were a few tears on day 1 and 2, but since then the smiles have been coming out more frequently. Let's hope this continues. Last year it took until Thanksgiving to have a tear free day!!! When asked if her teacher is nice, Maya replies "yeeeeeeeeessss" with a crazy head nod and smiles. This makes me happy!!
Maya and Cleo at home before school:
Natasha started school on Wednesday afternoon, and she too has the 'new' teacher. Mme Alyssa. Already a great name, had to imagine her being anything but super nice! Tasha, of course, loves school and forgot all about me starting on the walk to school. Her head in la-la land, excited to get to school.
Unfortunately, this year, ALL of Natasha's friends and acquaintances are in the 'other' afternoon class, so Natasha gets to watch them all walk in together everyday. She is handling really well by saying "I get to make new friends" but she has been clear on mentioning that she has NO friends, and they are ALL in the other afternoon class.
In order to cope, or maybe because she is she, Tasha is making up amazing stories. The main story of last week was of her "friend", Emma, who lives in Paris and comes to her school. But today she had to leave early because her mom just had a baby come out of her tummy and they had to go back home to Paris. Because that is where they live. When asked if Emma travels from Paris to school everyday she says "yes, they fly everyday!" Wow!!!
Alas today, a new little girl joined her class. Lucy. Lucy lives very close to us, and the girls met over the week-end, and we decided to walk to school together today. Now Tasha has a 'real' friend, and it seems they hung out and talked a fair bit today. There were still 'stories' though.
Today's main story was about the fire alarm. Apparently they were eating snack when the fire alarm went off. They had to go outside while the firefighters 'fighted' the fire, which was right under their class room! When they came back in from being sent outside, their snacks were all wet and so was their classroom. They looked outside the window and they could still see the firefighters fighting with the fire!!! :)
Often it is hard to tell stories from the truth, especially when so many of her details could be accurate. In this case, I told Natasha that I really enjoy the stories she makes up.
Maya's class is full swing into homework. I imagine it will only increase in the coming weeks. But a presentation today, 2 tests this week, along with Club de Lecture. I wasn't expecting it so soon. I think Tasha's will start in a couple of weeks.
The girls are really happy, so I think it is going to be a good year.
I had to set my alarm for the first time in months Tuesday morning, to make sure we all got ready in time. I had to wake the girls up, again for the first time in months.
This year is a little different as Natasha is in Afternoon Senior Kindergarten, so only Maya needs to have a really good breakfast, the other two can eat well all morning.
Tuesday morning anxiety. I too had butterflies. The class lists were being posted only on the first day of school. Maya had spent the last couple of days trying to figure out all the possible scenarios of "what if" ... and worrying herself silly.
Maya got the 'new' teacher this year. Mme Marguerite. She is also very lucky to have lots of good friends in her class. Others were not as lucky. There were a few tears on day 1 and 2, but since then the smiles have been coming out more frequently. Let's hope this continues. Last year it took until Thanksgiving to have a tear free day!!! When asked if her teacher is nice, Maya replies "yeeeeeeeeessss" with a crazy head nod and smiles. This makes me happy!!
Maya and Cleo at home before school:
Natasha started school on Wednesday afternoon, and she too has the 'new' teacher. Mme Alyssa. Already a great name, had to imagine her being anything but super nice! Tasha, of course, loves school and forgot all about me starting on the walk to school. Her head in la-la land, excited to get to school.
Unfortunately, this year, ALL of Natasha's friends and acquaintances are in the 'other' afternoon class, so Natasha gets to watch them all walk in together everyday. She is handling really well by saying "I get to make new friends" but she has been clear on mentioning that she has NO friends, and they are ALL in the other afternoon class.
In order to cope, or maybe because she is she, Tasha is making up amazing stories. The main story of last week was of her "friend", Emma, who lives in Paris and comes to her school. But today she had to leave early because her mom just had a baby come out of her tummy and they had to go back home to Paris. Because that is where they live. When asked if Emma travels from Paris to school everyday she says "yes, they fly everyday!" Wow!!!
Alas today, a new little girl joined her class. Lucy. Lucy lives very close to us, and the girls met over the week-end, and we decided to walk to school together today. Now Tasha has a 'real' friend, and it seems they hung out and talked a fair bit today. There were still 'stories' though.
Today's main story was about the fire alarm. Apparently they were eating snack when the fire alarm went off. They had to go outside while the firefighters 'fighted' the fire, which was right under their class room! When they came back in from being sent outside, their snacks were all wet and so was their classroom. They looked outside the window and they could still see the firefighters fighting with the fire!!! :)
Often it is hard to tell stories from the truth, especially when so many of her details could be accurate. In this case, I told Natasha that I really enjoy the stories she makes up.
Maya's class is full swing into homework. I imagine it will only increase in the coming weeks. But a presentation today, 2 tests this week, along with Club de Lecture. I wasn't expecting it so soon. I think Tasha's will start in a couple of weeks.
The girls are really happy, so I think it is going to be a good year.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Weeks 4 through 10 of summer vacation
Well, it has flown by....
The drive to N.B was great. We left at 4am, and arrived at the Masons by 5pm. So a 12 hour drive was certainly a record for us, in the past 7 years anyways. The girls were excited to play with Christine and Nicholas. We stayed 2 nights with the Masons (thank you!) a visit with Grammie Eula, and a visit to Grampie's farm, we spent 3 nights at Fundy National Park with Grant's family. We had a nice time swimming, going for a hike, walking in the mud at Hopewell Rocks, roasting marshmallow's in the campfire and the girls loved playing with their cousins.
We arrived back in Ottawa, just after midnight on Thursday morning, and re-packed, as the girls and I, along with my mom, left for North Carolina on Friday morning. It was a LONG drive, the girls, again, were great. We had a really nice LONG stop at Chocolate World, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, followed by horrible traffic for 2 hours. All in all the girls were great, in took 20 hours to get there, but we made it in one piece and in one day!
The following 10 days were absolutely fabulous. The girls swam twice a day, on most days, were showered with attention from my cousins and uncle and aunt, while I got to lay in bed and relax, and get dressed in peace most mornings.
Grant joined us towards the end of of our vacation. The girls were happy to have Daddy around, to play with. We had a few outings, most memorable was Wrightsville beach. Maya is a water lover, she jumped waves, and floated in the ocean for hours. We had to pretty much drag her out of the water when it was time to leave.
We decided to do the drive back over 2 days, stayed in a hotel with a pool, and took it easy. Good decision. We got home on the night of Wed August 4th.
Once again, after unpacking a little, we were off again, Saturday August 7th, to ride in the annual MS RONA bike tour. Once again, it was a great ride. The girls had a great time. I'll try and write another post about that soon.
The month of August flew by. With the excitement of July, it was hard to keep that level of entertainment going. Once again, we reverted to daily swims at the parks, meeting up with friends, the girls and I even started a little running together. It was fun.
I found the last 2 weeks a little more challenging, BUT thanks to a trip to Toronto, we managed to end the holidays with a big ROAR...! We visited with our friends Ange and JJ, and just basically hung out and stayed up way to late. It was SO nice AND relaxing. We did manage to squeeze in a Stem Whistle Brewery Tour. On the way home we decided to spend the day at the Toronto ZOO...fabulous!! We spent the entire day there, ended by cooling off in the Splash Pad there.
With, Perth Kilt Run, Farewell Parties, Niagara Falls, Fredericton, Bay of Fundy, North Carolina, ZOO #1, MS RONA bike tour, Upper Canada Village, Tasha's yoga class, parks, pools and splash pads, bike rides, runs, Toronto, ZOO #2 and birthday parties. Made for a fun and busy summer.
I learned a lot this summer, but one thing in particular I am happy to have been a part of. I watched as the girls finished school not knowing how to spend their time playing together, figuring out what to do. Arguing over EVERYTHING... to watching them get to know each other, and learning to work together, compromising, playing really well together and most importantly, watching out for one another. It was at times infuriating, stressful, exhausting most days, BUT to watch them grow and love each other was absolutely worth it... I hope the girls had a great summer too!
The drive to N.B was great. We left at 4am, and arrived at the Masons by 5pm. So a 12 hour drive was certainly a record for us, in the past 7 years anyways. The girls were excited to play with Christine and Nicholas. We stayed 2 nights with the Masons (thank you!) a visit with Grammie Eula, and a visit to Grampie's farm, we spent 3 nights at Fundy National Park with Grant's family. We had a nice time swimming, going for a hike, walking in the mud at Hopewell Rocks, roasting marshmallow's in the campfire and the girls loved playing with their cousins.
We arrived back in Ottawa, just after midnight on Thursday morning, and re-packed, as the girls and I, along with my mom, left for North Carolina on Friday morning. It was a LONG drive, the girls, again, were great. We had a really nice LONG stop at Chocolate World, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, followed by horrible traffic for 2 hours. All in all the girls were great, in took 20 hours to get there, but we made it in one piece and in one day!
The following 10 days were absolutely fabulous. The girls swam twice a day, on most days, were showered with attention from my cousins and uncle and aunt, while I got to lay in bed and relax, and get dressed in peace most mornings.
Grant joined us towards the end of of our vacation. The girls were happy to have Daddy around, to play with. We had a few outings, most memorable was Wrightsville beach. Maya is a water lover, she jumped waves, and floated in the ocean for hours. We had to pretty much drag her out of the water when it was time to leave.
We decided to do the drive back over 2 days, stayed in a hotel with a pool, and took it easy. Good decision. We got home on the night of Wed August 4th.
Once again, after unpacking a little, we were off again, Saturday August 7th, to ride in the annual MS RONA bike tour. Once again, it was a great ride. The girls had a great time. I'll try and write another post about that soon.
The month of August flew by. With the excitement of July, it was hard to keep that level of entertainment going. Once again, we reverted to daily swims at the parks, meeting up with friends, the girls and I even started a little running together. It was fun.
I found the last 2 weeks a little more challenging, BUT thanks to a trip to Toronto, we managed to end the holidays with a big ROAR...! We visited with our friends Ange and JJ, and just basically hung out and stayed up way to late. It was SO nice AND relaxing. We did manage to squeeze in a Stem Whistle Brewery Tour. On the way home we decided to spend the day at the Toronto ZOO...fabulous!! We spent the entire day there, ended by cooling off in the Splash Pad there.
With, Perth Kilt Run, Farewell Parties, Niagara Falls, Fredericton, Bay of Fundy, North Carolina, ZOO #1, MS RONA bike tour, Upper Canada Village, Tasha's yoga class, parks, pools and splash pads, bike rides, runs, Toronto, ZOO #2 and birthday parties. Made for a fun and busy summer.
I learned a lot this summer, but one thing in particular I am happy to have been a part of. I watched as the girls finished school not knowing how to spend their time playing together, figuring out what to do. Arguing over EVERYTHING... to watching them get to know each other, and learning to work together, compromising, playing really well together and most importantly, watching out for one another. It was at times infuriating, stressful, exhausting most days, BUT to watch them grow and love each other was absolutely worth it... I hope the girls had a great summer too!
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