Silly kids

Megan's personality is starting to shine through. She likes to make people laugh and knows a few tricks that will always work to get a laugh. She likes to tease. And she likes to get dressed. If she finds a shirt that's hers on the floor she'll often pick it up and try to get it on her head. If she sees her swimming suit she immediately tries to take off her clothes because she wants to go swimming. And then there's the most beloved pony skirt.

 Annie borrowed a My Little Pony skirt from Grandma Knight's stash of clothes for kids one day. After Annie had changed into her pajamas that night, Megan found the sparkly skirt and tried putting it on her leg. I helped her into it and with the help of the diaper and skirt she was already wearing, the pony skirt stayed up and she walked around so happy the rest of the night until bedtime. The next day she again found the pony skirt and tried to put it on. 10 minutes after I helped her get it on I heard her screaming in frustration in the other room. 30 seconds later she walked in to the kitchen where I was holding the skirt that had apparently fallen off, grunting and holding it out to say "put this back on me, please." She's very fashion conscious for a 1-year-old. :)

Rachel's fake beard/mustache:

 Speaking of beards...

 Megan's favorite food is beans. She likes to eat and wear them.

 Remember how I said that Ryan is a terror when he has a nap?

After he woke up from that nap it was not a pretty sight. The only thing that can head off a tantrum after a nap is watching a show, or going to Grandma's house. 

End of July

Once Rachel started back to school we stillhad two more weeks before Annie started, so we had a few adventures in that time.

Megan hit that point where she decided it was easier to walk all the time rather than crawl sometimes and walk when she felt like it. She also has decided she's a big girl and needs to sit at the table. She much prefers sitting on the bench at the table to sitting in her high chair. And she'd rather be on top of the table than anywhere else.

 Ryan is always happy to help Dad run the BBQ.

 Annie found the camera. Many times. We got lots of hilarious videos.

 And she figured out how to do special effects.

 It's always an adventure to unload the camera and go through the pictures.

A friend called one morning when it was overcast to invite us to go to the zoo and take advantage of the (momentarily) cooler weather. When we got there they were training the tiger and it was pretty cool to watch.

 Good times at the zoo. :)

 Ryan has been taking naps off and on after not taking any for many months. Most of the time he just falls asleep in the car and gets a 10 minute nap and it's great. But sometimes he can't wake up or falls back asleep.

 Usually when he sleeps for any longer than 10-15 minutes it is HORRIBLE. He wakes up SUPER cranky and screams or is easily set off for a tantrum for at least an hour after he wakes up. And bedtime is horrible. I try not to let him nap at all so Mr. Sleep Monster remains dormant.

I got a new pineapple cutter. I never knew what I was missing. It is awesome. So much easier to cut a pineapple with.

 Rachel got a thing of bubbles from a birthday party she went to and we had nice overcast skies from a monsoon that had blown in, so we enjoyed a lovely time in the back yard playing with bubbles.

Annie's first day of school

Annie started school at Sonoran Science Academy on August 3.

 

 She was pretty excited. She was less excited about the uniforms as she is a bit picky about shorts/skirts/pants, but we have found one pair that she likes and wears almost every day unless I'm washing them. Maybe I could just return the other 3 shorts/skirts I got for her. We'll see how it goes when it's too cold for capris and she has to wear pants...

 Annie at school on the first day.

She came home from her first day excited to tell us that she got to play on the playground FOUR TIMES! She didn't remember anything else they did all day. And it is full day kindergarten, so that's a long 7 hours of doing nothing except playing on the playground 4 times.

At bedtime I said something about school tomorrow and she got this look on her face and said, "I have to go tomorrow, too?! But it's sooooo loooooong." She wasn't all that happy about it. They only way I could convince her to get dressed the next morning was to promise to email her principal about having her do half day kindergarten, even though the rest of the kids would stay all day. I emailed, then didn't hear back that day, so I called the next day (Wednesday) and he agreed that we could do a trial period for a month or two where I could come pick her up at lunchtime. He told me the teacher would call me by Friday to make arrangements and we could start the following Monday.

Thursday afternoon when I picked up Annie I mentioned it to her teacher, Mrs. Xochitl (pronounced So-chee), and she hadn't heard anything about it yet, but promised to find the principal that afternoon to talk to him about it. She emailed me that night to see if I could come in for a meeting Friday afternoon. At the meeting they said they were concerned that Annie would fall behind if we did it for too long, so they said she could be picked up at lunch for August, with a goal of being full day in September, and checking in weekly on progress. We'll take what we can get.

Annie was very happy to get picked up at lunch time, but still was not having great things to say about school last week (her second week of school). Monday and Tuesday she kept begging me to be able to go back to preschool. Jacob and I had known that we might pull her out and have her start kinder next year with those her age if it doesn't work out, but we decided to give it at least 2 weeks before we made any decisions to give it a chance and see if it was just regular problems adjusting to kindergarten that any kindergartner would have, or if she was actually too young. By the end of the week she was doing a little better (not begging for preschool all the time), but still complained that she had no friends at school.

Friday I went to eat lunch with her at school so she would stay through lunch (she wanted to get picked up before lunch last week) and so I could see how she was with the other kids. She joked and all the kids seemed to like her and be buddies with her. I think she just hasn't found a "best friend" or even any specific friends that will play with her every time they have recess. She mostly played by herself on the playground when I watched her on Friday, but I think that's pretty typical for her age, judging by how all the other kids were playing.

We'll see how this week goes. We're having her stay through lunch this week to give her a chance to make more friends and get some of the fun time at school in, too. She's doing great in class and gets moved up to blue for good behavior almost every day on the behavior chart.

Here's a book Annie wrote after we got back from Seattle. We flew on Alaska Airlines, and they had pamphlets about Alaska that inspired her, I guess.

Annie's Notebook

Sum dey I wil flie (Some day I will fly.)

I wil fli to ulasku (I will fly to Alaska.)

It wil bee long ugo (It will be long ago.)

I wood (heart) it f I wr in ulasku. (I would love it if I were in Alaska.)

I just wood (I just would.)