Home improvements

As you can see from the image above (from the third floor hallway), the building owners has finally decided to renew the hallways. The drab carpets and flower pattern wall paper that was installed probably sometime 1985 has been replaced with more neutral colors that are more classic.
I hope they also do something to the nightmare-inducing walls in the elevator at the same time.

New shoes

And even more silly faces.

"Castles"

Somehow we are very into building "castles" these days. And practicing silly faces.

"My Little Pony" causes behavior problems

Theres no doubt. Since Lucia started watching the incredibly trashy cartoon series called "My Little Pony" she has become sassy, cranky and rude. I'm astonished how a cartoon can mess up a little girl in such a short amount of time.
I called Netflix tonight to hear how I can set up my streaming service to remove certain titles, but there was no way to do this. Lucia will therefor no longer watch anything on the iPad :( Bummer because she really likes it over the TV, but if there a show on TV we have better control over what she is watching.

Forget the Farm

Lucia and I went to see Uncle Josh yesterday; we decided that despite the heat (92 degrees) we'd brave the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Reserve and Deer Hollow Farm. I may have forgotten that it's a mile hike (mostly unshaded) to get to the farm. Yet we soldiered on. We slathered Lucia in sunblock and a hat and made it. The farm was cute, but Lucia is typically meh about animals unless she can snuggle with them. She repeatedly asked if she could go hug the newborn baby goats (kids, as they are called) and I was tempted to get in there too, they were beyond cute, almost like puppies, all wobbly and fuzzy. Anyway, she was super meh about the farm. On the walk back, we saw some kids playing in the creek and man, as hot as we were, that looked like a fine idea. We soaked our feet, and Lucia made friends with Kaitlin and Tyler. Kaitlin kept trying to hold her hand, and Lucia was hellbent on finding sticks to poke in the mud. When we asked if she was ready to go, she said "but we're best friends, Mom." Which was super cute; I've never seen her be so interested in a little girl before. They seemed to really gel. Now I'm kicking myself for not asking where they live: I figured since we were so far from Oakland that there's no way it was near us, meaning there was not a good likelihood of having a future playdate. In hindsight, that was pretty presumptive. 

ANYWAY. Another forehead-slapping Saturday with me wondering why I try to do anything organized, when a simple creek, mud, sticks and a friendly little girl made Lucia's day. Afterwards we drove around trying to find one of those totally rad yogurt places, but settled on the high-end grocery store for pints of sorbet and associated treats to cool off/recover from the heat. Fun Saturday! 

My Thoughts Exactly

When are you going to have a baby in your tummy? Lucia asked last night. 

Me: Well, Mommy and Daddy are working on it, but sometimes it takes a long time. 

Her, whimpering: BUT IT'S TAKING TOO LONGGGGGGGGGGG!

Me: Exactly, kid. EXACTLY. 

"I hate you when you hit me"

Lucia declared to Pete last night. We've learned with age 3 these kind of silly, half-truth statements are part of the boundary pushing. But this statement left us both a little rattled, since uh, we have never hit her (we don't even spank). So we went to talk to her teacher to find out of maybe she had heard it at school. The answer is yes, our teacher confirmed. Apparently the troubled kid frequently says that. Which, I mean, 1000 sadfaces for that kid. Pete and I talked about it after and wondered if she was in a foster situation. If so, kudos to those parents. If not, even more sadfaces. We have heard before that this little girl got a "rough start" so we're not sure what that means, but I'm pretty sure after this morning's confirmation that  she was beaten. My heart hurts for this little girl and the promise of what she could have become, and the impact the abuse will have on her for the rest of her life. She won't be at our school next week: Monday is her last day. Obviously, she won't be terrorizing other kids like Lucia anymore, but she also won't have the experience of such an awesome preschool. AT the risk of sounding like a trite PSA, this is how abuse leaves a lifetime impact on a child. These are the ramifications of having a child struggle with displacement, a term I unfortunately had to learn about when Lucia was being hit by her. I'm hopeful that this kid will go onto another school where she can get the interaction she desperately needs and that her rough start doesn't become a rough childhood. 

Her last day is Monday; after the hitting situation this little girl brought a card to Lucia, so I think we'll make her a card this weekend to say goodbye and good luck. 

Evaluation

We had Lucia's preschool evaluation this morning. I thankfully forgot about it until yesterday, so I couldn't max out on anxiety about it (though I did manage to get a lot  little nervous). We came in and sat at the teeny table and chairs with her teacher Christina. All good news to report; Lucia is doing fantastic and acclimating more and more. Christina did suggest that she could use more support in finding her voice with friends. Apparently she, Piper and Mia play a game called "Kitty," and often make Lucia be the baby kitty and she reluctantly goes along, but then Christina intervenes on behalf of her and asks her to tell her friends what she wants. It echoes some of the things we've encountered at home, and where we've really been working with her. She also suggested routine charts (already on it! CHECK!) for at home to show her what comes next, as they'll be introducing those to her school so the kids can know what to expect from their day and what happens next.

The other good news is the kid who was hitting her will no longer be at that school; the administrators and parents have agreed that she needs more one-on-one support that our school can't give her. While we are confident that the hitting stopped a while ago; a few weeks ago this kid was making tons of racket during nap time and Lucia refused to go to sleep, which indicated to me that she was still scared of her. :( 

Overall, she absolutely loves school, and we are thrilled with how she's progressing the quality of her care there. Yay!

First letter

Lucia really likes to point out letters she sees especially if they are a "L", "U", "C", "I" or an "A". Obviously. She just started this week asking for help writing them too, I write a letter first and she copies it. Heres she tried to write an "L" below her drawing. It doesn't look like much but its fun to watch.

Oakland

Sometimes Oakland is just awesome. Today is one of those days.

Farmer's Market Walk

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"Farmers Market walk"

Springbreak recap

I have spent the week of springbreak with Lucia and we had a great time together. 

Here are a few pictures.

Today we found a new playground. Pretty awesome since its pretty close too.

We received a package from Norway full of toys and jewlery!

We learned how to take good pictures, remember the golden section Lucia!

We visited a new art studio and tried out all the messy things we dont do at home.

We played a lot with LEGO. (We are going to need more of those so we can build bigger garages)

Favorite Hat

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"Favorite hat"

Easter Presents

A package arrived from Bergen today..

Photography 101

Heres a fun little video I took of Lucia while she for the first time experimented with a camera on her own. I have shown her to take pictures on the phone and on my big lens camera, but this was the first time she took pictures with something she now considers her own camera. Boy was she angry when I told her it was not hers and is not a toy...