our little entertainer is two. we had a quiet day today, singing happy birthday at our morning circle time. tonight we went out to andy’s garage for dinner (our family birth DAY birthday tradition) where fi got a free malt (which she had no interest in) and a pink flamingo (which she LOVES). she is talking more and more, speaking in 2-3 word sentences. she copies everything ella does, which isn’t always good (more on that later). we are having a small family party on saturday morning, brunch style…and then hope to go out to hogs back farm on sunday to pick out some halloween pumpkins. we haven’t gotten anything for her yet, since she doesn’t need or want much. after the party we may go to pea pods and let her pick something out for herself. she’s such a sweet little kid, and i know i still treat her like the ‘baby’ when she really isn’t anymore. she’s riding the trike, is scaling the climbing wall on the play set, is on her way to being potty trained (darned the cold weather! that’s the only thing that may delay her potty training on the same schedule as ella), and is always full of laughter and smiles.
in other news, ella will be starting school on monday. the school year started a couple weeks ago. we have been homeschooling and planned to continue with that. we did, however, have her go through the kindergarten screening last spring and applied to a couple programs. the only school we thought was a good match for her was j.j.hill montesorri. its is a magnet, has very good test scores, is an international peace site, but also has one of the longest waiting lists in the city. well, she ended up on said waiting list. she got into another local school (como elementary), but since it didn’t feel right for her to go there, we decided to stick with homeschooling. yesterday we got the call that j.j. hill had an opening. we went to visit the school today. ella was very comfortable there, exploring the environment and picking up on the rules right away. however, she’s been easy to switch from sweet to sour lately, often to get a reaction (its making us crazy), and today was no exception. she started out great but then stuck her tongue out at the teacher when she was asked to clean up the activity she was working on so that we could continue the tour. luckily, she was able to control herself after that and it was a good visit overall. we would rather she start school when she isn’t in the kind of phase she’s in right now, but then again we both think this is too good an opportunity to pass up. she’ll be going half days, so we can still continue with our homeschooling patterns during the rest of the day, and if it doesn’t work out, we have that to fall back on. it was a very hard choice, but we think it will be a good experience for all of us. now, if someone could just tell me how to loosen these apron strings…
