Slide, baby, slide!

I was upside down, but here is Q not coming down the slide.
"I don't wanna, it's too far. I don't wanna, it's too slippery! You're too far! You can't see me, it's too far! I can't see you!"



Ready set go from C5 ... and nothing. Just a slide tease.


FINALLY!

We finished the porch. By we I actually mean Ray and Darryl. It is now safe, clean, and no longer a stroller parking garage. Which means we are coming down from our white trash high.

In the spirit of keeping things middle class, we put our porch swing back up.

Cuteness

So, why not? I'm posting the photo.

No future in log rolling.

We've implemented a new chart ... the Caught Ya Being Good chart. If they do anything I like (sneeze into their elbow, say please and thank you, pick up without being asked, etc) they get a tiny sticker on the chart. When their line is filled up (about 25 stickers) they get to choose something ... what park we go to, what dessert we are having, where we go for dinner (if we go out), an extra book at bedtime. Stuff like that.

So, yesterday, C5 choose to go to Spring Park, a local park abotu 10 minutes away by car. We'd discovered this park over the weekend, and C5 really wanted to go back.

What gets cut off at the end of this video is C5 saying "I can get off myself!"



And Q3 trying not to do the same thing:

This photo brought to you by the number ..

102.



Degrees, that is.

At 5:00, after a very nice afternoon, I noticed Q3 was hot. Took her temp (102), put her in the bath, put her in snuggly pjs (she did not want to be cold!), watched a little Mary Poppins and had dinner. After eating a few bites of her favorite (noodles!) she snugged herself down on the chair and fell asleep ... it wasn't 6:30.

It came up quick. I checked her after a little walk ... even hotter. So I gave her tylenol then checked her temp around 10 minutes later. 104.

It is now 20 minutes later and I think her temp is going down. She has a wet washcloth on her head on on her chest. She's sleeping fitfully but sleeping.

Keeping an eye on.

Better day

Q played with others. C5's teacher told me the sub on Friday normally subbed for middle school and expected too much from the Kindergarteners. And that she was forgetting the whole thing. Hooray!

Oh, and C5 also has mentioned that two girls, S & J don't like her. And then she told C40 that S told her that she wouldn't be friends with C5 unless C5 gave her some of her lunch.

C5 refused.

But ... really? I wasn't expecting that.

Port towns day

Port Towns day here in Bladensburg, Colmar Manor, Cottage City, and Edmonston Maryland. Bouncy castles, slides, food, music, and ... RIDES. Well, one ride. A miniature Whip.

They were excited to wait in line and then **Finally!!** get on the ride and go. Although before the ride they didn't know what to expect, C40 was trying to get them excited about a twirly ride. For the record, you can see me NOT on the ride behind them.




C5 LOVED it:


Q3 was less certain, and even had to say STOP once or twice:


They both ended up enjoying it


After they got off I let them have the ice cream they wanted BEFORE the ride and I wouldn't let them.


Then we played on the playground before we went back to Hyattsville for dinner ... fun!

We miss you Mrs. B.

On Thursday C5 had her first substitute teacher. An older male who looked not squishy and in touch with 5 year olds. Thursday afternoon he was the first out with the kids and looked frazzled. Very frazzled.

On Friday C5 had her second substitute teacher. A middle-aged male who looked like a gym teacher. By Friday afternoon ... well, let's just review what my child did during the day:

1) said no to the teacher when he asked her to stop talking, and continued talking
2) hit a friend (the friend hit her first, she told me)
3) had a temper tantrum, including kicking, crying, screaming on the floor. Her friend M5 wanted to go to her and tell her it would be OK, but M5 was worried that the teacher would yell at her
4) stuck her tounge out at the teacher
and
5) spanked the teacher

Yes. She spanked the teacher, sassed the teacher, and had a temper tantrum.

We've going to talk with Mrs. B on Monday.

Life lessons learned early.

C5: "Weekends + Holidays + Afternoons = Fine for me!"

wazzzuuuup?

So, Thursday afternoon I was told by Q3's teacher that she had to go to time out because she was ... being a meanie girl. Not those words, exactly, but here's the scene:

V3: Can I play?
Q3: No. I don't like you.

And then, of course, Q3 and K3 played together happily. But of course that was unacceptable. We had a talk. Her new strategy (um ... encouraged by me) is to play with a new person every day. Monday it will be J3. I don't know him, but she remembered his name, so THAT is good. We'll see how that goes.

Back to school night

Back to School Night was very reassuring. C5's teacher shared that her class was particularly bright this year, and she is going to be whizzing through the K curriculum to make sure they know everything, then moving onto grade 1 and beyond. So, already it is good to know that there will be challenges ahead and the teacher is paying attention to where her kids are.

We also found out that today they had a school-wide assembly today to kick off the school fundraiser, which includes selling stuff and the students get prizes if they sell a certain number of things.

Mrs B: Your child was sent home with a large white envelope with the details inside.
E39: C5 didn't come home with one.
Mrs B [chuckling, came over to explain]: C5 didn't want to do it, she probably threw it away.
E39: ??
Mrs. B: At the assembly she said "This is ridicuous! I'm not doing this!"

At which point I'm guessing she tossed her large white envelope or stuffed it behind a sofa. Because it did not come home to me.

I can't say I blame her. But I've never heard her say ridiculous before.

Pets

Of course, a dog is in our future. Someday. I think.

In the meantime, Q3 has found a pet. I've tried to rid the windowsill of this pet, by getting rid of her home 2-3 times, but not hard enough.

Q3 calls her Good Spider. The photo is a little blurry, but here she is. Q's first pet.

Unexpected

We had a first today that I was not expecting. We had a playdate with M5 that C5 had set up and wanted. I'd set it up short because I wasn't actually sure how much C5 & M5 were getting along ... not for any specific reason, just that I know M5 actually likes Q3 more than C5. Because they play dress up together. But I digress.

So, the playdate happened, and everybody played really very well together. And fore the most part C5 kept herself engaged in the play with the two other girls. When it was time for M5 to go ... C5 broke down crying. Bawling. Practically kicking and screaming because the playdate was too short.

Whoa. I'd never seen that from her before.

Firsts for everything, I suppose.

New breakfast

Q3 went to the cupboard thie morning and wanted an icecream cone. So I mixed cereal with yogurt and put it in.




They both decided it was a good idea. This photo isn't so good of C5, but it does show you how nice her hair looks every morning.

Tea party

This was the day before our office move ... and somehow my girls had finagled their way into a tea party admist the boxes and moving carts.

This is what Q DIDN'T wear (so I had to take a photo and bring it to the hosts of the tea party on Friday). And then C5 thought she wanted to get in on the photo session. So, here they are Friday morning.





But the tea party was a success. It was a good diversion after C40 left for Amsterdam. And C5 ate a ton, Q3 at a half a ton, and nobdy was hungry for dinner. So we ate peanut butter and apples for dinner. Well, not even a whole apple. Just a half, their tums were so full from the scones and goodies of the tea party.

Show off

I was reading to C5 tonight when C40 knocked at the door and he and Q3 came in.

Q3 dropped her pj bottoms as C40 explained she wanted to show off her new diapers.

As C5 started yelling "Blue's Clues!" (You can tell a lot about our lifestyle if the highlight of the evening is a new diaper) and Q3 said "And now I will show you inside!"

As she said that she thrust her diaper area forward, flashed a great big smile, hooked her fingers in the diaper tabs on her hips, gave a quick flick of the fingers .... and dropped trou.

Last day of the pool

I was going to talk about the last day of the pool. But I was just called up to check on Q3 who was painting with blood and had "spilled" some on her nightclothes and wanted to change them.

She apparently had picked her nose too energetically (in the spirit of full disclosure I'll just say I believe this is an activity I engaged in as a child. Ick) and started a nosebleed.

Once we got her back in her room, she wanted to make sure that I would throw out her calendar and make a new one in the morning, because she got blood on it (it was taped to the inside of her bed. I don't know why).

Not just had she gotten blood on the calendar, Q3 had gotten a lot of blood on it. Because she had been painting. With blood. On the calendar. One whole block was colored in, and a whole lot of fingerprints. And now she doesn't like it. I wonder why not.

Fall is almost here.

How can I tell? Well, we went apple and blackberry picking. The last time we did pick-your-own was Sept 11, 2006. C5 was C2 and Q3 was just Q5months. It was a quick apple pick in Maine.

But today both girls were excited to pick apples, even with a longish drive up New Hampshire Ave to a farm in Howard County. The Gala apples were ripe, so that is what we picked.



We had some fuss over the yellow jackets on smushed apples, so after we picked some pounds of apples I carried Q3 and C40 walked C5 back.



But then we ran into the blackberries. Normally, I'm a raspberry, not blackberry fan. But, you can't argue with fresh berries of any sort. They were gorgeous, plump, juicy, sweet blackberries.

At first it looked as though it was mostly picked-over bushes and unripe berries. But then I had an idea to get way down low and I hit the motherload of berries.

My strategy resulted in grass and berry stains on my pants as I tried to get the low ones. C40 went for the high ones, and C5 & Q3 just got what they could. Q3 mostly just ate from the bushes, after we told her to keep her hand out of the flat.




Q3 fell asleep in the car on the way home, C5 read Dr. Seuss's The King's Stilts.

Almond joy

Really, Q is a nut. A certifiable macadamia.

Flat out on the floor (notice the dressed horse she is sleeping on)



And ... in her closet nook. 'Twas to be a book nook but it seems to have become another place to sleep.

Actual birthday

Friday was C5's actual birthday. Candle in her cereal. I think she liked that.


Cupcakes at school. I KNOW she liked that.


Opening presents. Can't upload the 6 minute movie. Let's just say she enjoyed the gifts!

And getting phone calls. She loved the phone calls she received with her favorite people on the other end singing Happy Birthday. Thank you for that!! She told us that was her favorite part of the day.

Letters

Came down to these on the diningroom wall the other day. I think they look nice. They'll make up for the fact that the postal museum is took theirs down.



[I was just out of the frame.]

Q's first day of school

C40 brought Q3 to school this week. Q3 was a tiny bit apprehensive once she got to school, but ... but enjoyed every minute of it. Actually, the two days I've picked her up she's wondered why I was there ... and could she stay longer???

I'm not going to burn her out yet, so the answer was no. But her teachers said she was great, she played well with everybody and by herself. So, very nice.

Can you tell we virtually never comb her hair? (the same strategy does NOT work for her sister...)

More sleep

A couple of days ago I was awoken by a cry, so I went to investigate.

Q3 was not in her bed.

Not in her chair.

Not on the floor ... oh, yes she was. Under the chair.


I took her out and cuddled her and she started to tell me about the wolf, she didn't want the wolf to get her. Which was why she was in the chair.

Ah.

So, eventually she got to sleep. Woke again. Back to sleep for the night. So we thought, but we found her in the morning under her chair again.

And last night ... she just went to bed there.