Preschool

I was, well I guess I could speak for Pete here and say that we were, not the type of parents to get super amped up about preschool. I've heard horror stories of the application process and having to have your kid be evaluated to make sure they have the right temperament,and having to go through multiple screenings and to me anyway, it just reeked of some sorority pledging process (and I say that as a former sorority girl) with snotty teachers and even snottier parents.

Meaning: we were just not interested. Lucia was blissfully happy at her daycare, which is run by a former preschool teacher. 

But as her little mind has developed in the past few months, we've watched her be able to -- and really enjoy -- recollecting the details of her day, the previous day/night, going over the sequence of her day, and bringing more and more art projects home. It's been awesome. We also found out that the oldest kid at her daycare (who is only older by 3 weeks) was going to preschool 2 mornings a week, which meant Lucia only had little babies and a 2-year-old to hang with. Which isn't devastating, I know, but maybe not ideal for her little mind. I also have to fully disclose that I was painfully jealous of the feedback that Mary and David got about Danny, and most importantly, the feedback about things they could do at home to encourage his development. Man. I wish we had that with our daycare. It just seemed like she needed more of a push, and was maybe outgrowing her existing daycare.

So we started thinking about it. My obsessive research skills came in super handy, as I was able to narrow our search down to preschools that were 1. highly rated by other parents, 2. close by and 3. offered all-day care. With Pete's schedule being insane and me tied to my desk, a half-day/morning shuffle 2-3 days a week wouldn't work for us. The shortlist was made, and emails were sent. To our surprise, a Reggio-Emilia/Waldorf/Montessori-inspired (which makes me want to roll my eyes just writing it, I know) school was offering a tour yesterday. We brought Lucia along, and hilariously, on the drive over she declared that she loved the school (before she had seen it). Classic Lucia. 

We arrived, and were basically blown away. The place is so freaking cute; we sat on teeny chairs and watched the "acorns" which is Lucia's age group, do a sing along and learn how to sit in a circle. Apparently, impulse control is a huge deal for a three-year-old (we both nearly slapped our foreheads: so that's why we have to tell her to please be patient so often), so sitting in a circle and waiting your turn is uh, a skill they have to learn (Look, we never said we were early childhood education specialists!). We watched that for a while, then went to continue the tour but Lucia didn't want to go. She wanted to stay and watch the kids. So cute. We looked at the nap area and learned about the snack time (which is served family style with the teachers sitting at the table) and toured the "pinecones" room, which is where the 4-year-olds are. 

Then we went outside, and nearly fainted from the awesomeness. First? They have two goats and chickens that the kids get to "care" for. They have an outdoor play kitchen made of stone and wood (!), huge garden, and composting and gardening is one of the activities they do. There's a slide and an old wooden boat for the kids to play in, and other types of activities for them to get into. Lucia immediately asked, can I go play? Of course, kid. Apparently the place was designed by the owner/founder to maximize learning through movement and activity. Um. Yes. Each month they learn about a different artist or classical musician, dance, yoga, creative problem solving and making dream boxes. 

We walked back to the car grinning ear to ear. We found a preschool for her! She'll start in March and will go three days a week, and remain the other two days at her current daycare.We're thrilled, and I guess we're now those parents who care about preschool. Funny how things look different from the other side. 

Little Perfect Tree

We debated getting a tree since we won't be in town for the actual day Santa Claus arrives (which also varies by country; in Norway, since it's closer to the North Pole, they celebrate on the 24th). But people started putting trees up and I could see them in windows and was sad that we weren't. $20 later, we had our little mini tree. It's just a hair taller than Lucia, which meant she was super psyched about decorating it. The only lights we had were those horridly cool-light LEDs, so Pete ran to the store to get the warm light  LEDs, and voila. Another benefit of having a mini tree is that it was decorated in about 15 minutes. We put the huge skirt around it and the three of us put the star on together. We're getting excited for the holidays. 

Hi Daddy!

Poor Daddy has been working craaazy hours to launch his company's products, so that means Lucia and I spent a lot of time on the weekends together. This particular day, we had a mere six errands to run (!) and stopped by Starbucks to refuel. Lucia tried their oatmeal for the first time, and declared it delicious (meaning, she at the whole thing).

Thankful

Our trip to Delaware for Thanksgiving, or "back East" as they call it out here, was uh, eventful on the way. Lucia developed pinkeye literally as we flew across the country and had an allergic reaction to something she ate so her lips were gigantic and red, almost like candy lips, when we arrived. Good times. 

Still, we had such a lovely trip. Mimi, my mom, was recovering from a scary bout of pnuemonia, so we took it super easy and carefree. Pete unfortunately had to work a lot, so Lucia, Mimi and I spent a lot of time together hanging out and well, just enjoying each other. Lucia got a new doll with tons of outfits (how apropos) from Mimi and Big Papa. She named her new doll The Lucia, so she would constantly ask, where's The Lucia. One day she panicked when I put her down for a nap because she needed The Lucia to keep her safe while she slept. Ok then. 

I think one of the things she enjoyed the most was hanging out with her cousins. Aunt Kate was incredibly accomodating, providing a carseat for us to use and well, playdates with my nephews. Don't tell anyone, but I also think she really enjoyed french braiding Lucia's hair. :) 

I was able to unplug from Facebook, Twitter and incessant chatter they create and found myself blissfully unaware of what so-and-so posted about outrage/heartwarming story of the day. It was wonderful, and a lesson for me in stress management. I talked with my parents about my career plans, and Pete and I got to go out for an amazing dinner date and talked about our future plans.

All in all, it was a super relaxing, awesome vacation. Big thanks to my parents and Aunt Kate for making it so special. 

Hei/hi

Some pictures to tide you over while we unpack...

Braids

This morning when I dropped Lucia off at daycare, she clung to my leg and burst into tears. Don't go Mommy, don't go, she cried. It's been like this sometimes lately; this week with my surgery and heightened stress levels around the house, I think she's picking up on them. Anyway, Charlotte, our daycare provider's youngest daughter (who is about 10) was home from school today and offered to braid Lucia's hair. Lucia lit up like a Christmas tree at the prospect. When I picked her up tonight, she proudly showed off her braids. We took them out to leave the ponytail holders at daycare, but I redid them tonight. She loves them, as you can see and already told me 1. please don't take them out again and 2. she wanted to wear them tomorrow for her swimming lesson. Who knew braids could be so fun?

All done

Things got off to an very early start this morning and all I can say is that it went very smoothly and we are very relieved to have this surgery over and done with. We are not quite out of the woods yet, we are going back for a followup consultation next Monday afternoon to make sure things went well and are healing as it should. Thank you to all who thought of us today!

Say A Prayer?

In our never-ending and fairly heartbreaking ongoing journey to provide Little Miss with a sibling, I am having outpatient procedure tomorrow to correct Asherman's Syndrome. Please say a prayer that all goes well, and the surgery is successful.

Train Ride

We decided to take Lucia on a train ride today from Oakland to Berkeley; it's about 19 minutes and it cost $20 for all three of us. She's been so excited about trains for a while. Today didn't disappoint, though I almost missed the train after the ticket printing machine was so slow. 


Once we got on board, Lucia wouldn't stop talking about ice cream. She asked the ticket man for ice cream, and decided she was definitely having ice cream when we got to Berkeley. Mind you, she's allergic to dairy so she's never had ice cream, she's had gelato and sorbet, but whatever kid. Let's find you some "ice cream." We arrived in Berkeley and it started raining, which was a bummer for sure. We struck finding a non-dairy ice cream somethingorother, but we got her some dark chocolate covered dried strawberries and then she wanted a cookie and then 2 seconds later (and after she took 2 bites) didn't want it anymore. Sigh. 

We walked up and down the shopping district, then decided to have dinner there. We found a great Italian place and Lucia acted like a typical 3 year old, which was kinda stressful, but the food was great. After dinner we spent some time in the bookstore and this gigantic Richard Scarry book captivated her for a while. We didn't buy it for her because of the rain but I have a feeling Santa might know about it. 

That Post

We were gonna write a post that said hey, about that whole giving up the pacifier thing? Totally rocky for a few days, but now it's smooth sailing! 

Except uh, it's been anything but. Bedtime is an epic battle, ranging from 45 minutes to 2 hours to get her from rah-rock to sleeping peacefully. Despite her totally rad ladybug. She gets up between 5 and 6:30 everysinglemorning and basically refuses to go back to sleep. If she's up at 6:30 then I just let her, since I'm not going to spend 20-30 minutes wrestling her to sleep for another 20-30 minutes. She refused to nap Saturday and everyday since then, until yesterday, when she finally conked out for 2 hours. I got her to sleep by 7:40 p.m., only because I started dinner at 5:30. Seriously. 

We are hoping she continues to uh, adjust to not having her friend the pacifier and we can all get some sleep soon. Like her mama, she's a different person when she gets some sleep.