Pumpkins at the farm...

Another Halloween and another trip to Springridge for pumpkins.  I think we got 7 pumpkins or so. 

How many photos do we have of the girls on ponies? Tons.  Paige keeps asking me to remind her how old she has to be to go to pony camp--8.

Scout almost 7 months...

Probably won't take long before Scout is heavier than Paige and Rose combined.  Scout was spayed last week :(, and she weighed in at 42 lbs.  When we brought her home 5 months ago she was around 15lbs. 

The evening after the surgery.  Whimpering and freezing under a blankie.  The next day she was back to normal.  We still had to limit her activities, so no walks for 5 days, even though she seemed normal.  She started to get restless and destructive without exercise.  It kind of worked out well though as Mike was away and it's hard to take her for much exercise when the girls have to come too.

School, dance, gymnastics, mix and mingle...

Now Paige is fully into the swing of things at school.  She still has had barely any days of classes, as the gradual entry went on and on, but things seem to be going well.  It's hard to know.  She doesn't talk about school all that much, even when I ask questions, which I do every day. As far as I know nothing upsetting has happened, and she came home one day with an "attentive listening certificate" so I assume all is well.  One day she also came home with a ton of school resources (tracing shapes, velcro animals, etc) in her backpack which I had to explain was stealing.  Right away she said that her friend put them in her bag, which I could tell was the truth, but I think Paige still needed to learn the lesson that you can't bring home stuff from school! When we sent them back the teacher talked to Paige and the friend about it.  Apparently her teacher said "you can't put things in your friends' backpacks". I hope that Paige will branch out and try to make more friends, but she;s shy to do that unless someone approaches her.  She has her 2 friends from last year, Rebekah and Keianna, and I think they might be a bit clique-y.  They are the only SK girls, so they are sticking together.  I'm encouraging Paige to talk to the JK's and become friends with them too. Learning their names would be a good start.  

I already know the things that Paige needs to work on this year.  Penmanship, writing in lower case letters instead of capitals, and cutting with scissors! I also think she needs to learn to slow down and focus on being neat or correct, rather than trying to do things as fast as possible.  At home though she is making huge progress with reading.  She has a "my Little Pony" phonics book set.  There are 12 story books.  She read one every night for 12 days.  Lots of the books she could almost read on her own as she was sounding out the words and remembering the sight words. We put a sticker on a chart for her every night as a reward. She has branched out to other beginning reader books and is doing a great job. It's so fun to see her read.  At first she wasn't interested, but the sticker chart motivated her, as well as when she realized she could read.  That was exciting for her I think.  She's also learning to sound out words and write them down.  I don't tell her if they're wrong, I just read them if I can and tell her good job! She started a Christmas list the other day which was good practice (Yes--there is lots of talk of Christmas around here...even a couple of viewings of a Rudolph show). 

On Saturdays Paige has dance class.  First she has ballet so she changes into her ballet shoes and brings her dance bag into the class to change into her tap shoes after ballet is done.  I don't know if she knows anyone from ballet, but on the first day of class as jazz was about to start, who strolls into the studio but Rebekah and then Keianna! Her 2 friends from school! Now they see each other all the time.  Nice to see their moms once a week though to discuss school stuff. 

Here's Paige in her dance attire with her jazz shoes (and Rose copying in the background of course).  Next September Rose can start baby ballet, although we'll be at the studio for a long time on Saturday morning, waiting for both classes.  I think Rose would love it though.

On Wednesdays the girls have gymnastics.  Paige seems to be learning a few new things this time and Rose is loving it.  A natural gymnast for sure.  Superb jumping abilities, and she is FAST! I decided to get Paige an outfit as it would be easier to just put on under clothes when it is cold outside, and Rose insisted on getting one too.  They look so cute in their outfits! When Paige starts Grade 1 next year she'll be full time, so not sure what activities she'll keep up, but I think Rose should definitely keep up with the gymnastics!

Rose is also loving "Mix and Mingle", specifically the painting.  She paints for a good 15 minutes, just layering on the paint. Unlike last time, she is actually a huge participant in circle time, doing all the actions and singing along to songs she knows.  She sits right up front.  Paige was the same way.  

Oh--and obedience level 2.  Scout had a rough start.  She's one of the younger dogs out of 5 or so, and a lab to boot, but this week she did awesome.   I am determined to get her to outperform the other dogs by next week! I feel like there is so much more control over dogs than kids.  I find it fun to train Scout because she actually listens and it takes her about 10 minutes to learn something new. Kids are so much harder!!

Rose talking

Rose is on a roll with her talking.  She's slowly dropping her random "filler words", and speaking in huge long sentences. As she started talking in sentences, she would string the words together that she knew and then fill in the rest with random sounds.  Sort of like "Go, blah blah blah blah, store, blah blah blah, food".  Now she's really coherent, and able to use lots of words.  The other day I said to her that Scout would be so excited to go to puppy school that night.  Rose then says "Scoutie says Woof, I want to go to puppy school".  I thought it was so cute, as she put on a pretend high pitched voice as she imitated Scout.

She has been saying a few things quite often:

"Yes it is!"
"I want that right now"
"Good job!" (she is so positive..."good job mommy get the cereal!"
"Not nice!!!"


I feel like her talking improved once she resumed napping.

Hallelujah!

There were a couple of months where Rose didn't nap.  She'd have the odd one every few days or so, but nothing consistent.  Every day I'd put her in her bed and cross my fingers.  Most days she'd be talking away and eventually yelling to get out of her room.  I figured she was going the way of Paige.  But if my memory served me correctly, when Paige started to drop naps she was quite pleasant the rest of the day.  When Rose was dropping naps she was tired, tantrumy and disastrous.  When we went to St. Albert, Rose had 3 naps out of 10 days. With the time change, long flight, busy days, it definitely wasn't enough.  As a result she was cranky and not very sociable.  A couple of weeks after our Edmonton return we went to the cottage.  It was the first time at the cottage that Rose moved from the small playpen to the other twin bed in the girls' room.  For the 3 days we were there she had a nap everyday! You might think it was from the fresh air and activity, but the previous trip there she didn't nap at all.  I wondered if it was the combo of bed PLUS dark black curtains.  At home Rose's room was pretty light at bedtime.  After returning from the cottage we put a dark blue sheet on her window at nap time and she slept.  She never looked back.   Naps every day ever since labour day weekend!!

Paige ingenuity...

I just thought I'd post this in case Paige ends up in a career where we could look back and say "we always knew she would be a ____"--engineer, mathematician, architect, etc--ever since the time she got that car out from behind the TV cabinet.

There was a toy van which had fallen behind the TV cabinet.  In my mind, we needed a long stick, or had to move the heavy unit forward to get it out.  Paige was upstairs playing one day and then came and told me she got the van out from behind the cabinet using merely a piece of ribbon.  Apparently she threw the ribbon out behind the cabinet, and anchored one side by wrapping it around a wire.  Somehow she got the ribbon under the car, and then when she pulled up the other side of the ribbon, the car rolled  out onto the floor.  Smart I tell you!

Other activities...

Other activities for the fall--On Wednesday mornings both girls are starting gymnastics again and Rose will be starting a class with me next Tuesday.  It's "Our Special Time" which I have been to tons with both girls, but now it has been renamed "mix and mingle".  Now that Paige is older and used to the school thing, we really needed to have other things planned.  Last year felt like we had a lot of free time and we had other friends to see.  Now all of her other friends are in school full time. The last thing we wanted to do was be bored.

On Thursday nights we are starting obedience level 2 with Scout.  She's doing great at home, but good to go to the next level.  Speaking of Scout, today she went to daycare...the people who do the training and the boarding also do daycare.  Mike is away all week, so I signed her up to go today to get some exercise and a change of scenery--and to give me a bit of a break.  Without Mike home she can't go for her usual early morning and evening walks. She came home at 4:30 looking tired and a bit dirty--great because i'm sure she rolled around in dirt, played with other dogs, and maybe even went swimming.  Great fun for her.

SK

Today was the first drop-off day of school.  It wasn't a full day, only a morning.  She'll also go on Thursday for a half day, and then Friday is a full day, which begins her regular school schedule which is the same as last year--Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Friday. 

Leaving the house.  Notice the mismatched socks under her sandals. Cute. 

First one in the kindie pen.  At least she was an SK.  She was ok to go in on her own and just wait.  Rose and I waited until she went into the school 15 minutes later.  There were only 6 or so kids in her class for this initial visit.  Two of the girls were her friends from last year.  Out of the 3 kindergarten classes lined up, there were a few criers and 1 runner.  Glad we never had to deal with that.

Funny how different it felt dropping her off at school this year compared to last year.  I felt like a pro!

Dance shoes...

I sewed my first pair of dance shoes.  Not sure if this is one of many, or first and only.  On Saturday Paige starts jazz and ballet.  The classes are back to back and she has 2 sets of shoes, which she will come out to swap in the middle.  This means 2 dances at the year end recital, which hopefully end up on the same night.  I'm looking forward to dance this year, although I'm not sure if she'll be in a room where I can watch.  If not, the plan is to have an hour of reading time.

More things Paige says....

Scene: Looking at photo album...

Paige: Mom, how'd you get these pictures out of the camera like this?

But the fact that as soon as we load the photos onto the computer we can also view them on our ipads, iphone, ipod, and TV instantly is perfectly normal to her...