End of the Summer
It is the end of the summer, Rebecca starts Kindergarden tomorrow, and I am regretting every hour of the last 5&1/4 years that I have spent on silly things like laundry and blogging and mental self preservation, rather than with her, as irrational as it is, because this is pretty much the end of our quiet morning time and quiet nap-time time. 5 1/2 hours at school each day. Although the nap-time time is coming to an end for it's own reasons, Penelope's nap time has become pretty erratic and I don't think it's only the canines she's been working on, although I can hope. I am really not good with napping every-other day, given that she is not the only child in the house, and Rebecca is going to keep (trying to) going to bed and waking up at the same time each day.
It is the end of the summer. We spent the first four weeks at Roque and with Nenny & D. Pa, which was lovely, although Rebecca was quite ready to come home to her friends by the end. We collected rocks, built steps down to Hemlock Brook from a new picnic spot, and she had her own table at the children's market on the Woodstock Green.
When we came back we bought a dishwasher, and ran various errands for a week. Then two weeks of summer camp at MVPNS for Rebecca, then several glorious weeks of (MOM WHERE ARE WE GOING) doing nothing summer, with play dates, a trip to Chuck E Cheese, one to Happy Hollow, Monday afternoons at the park, Wednesdays at Rinconada or farm, swimming at Eagle pool, Thursday night live on Castro, the start of Thursday afternoon Swimming lessons with Lillian in August, lazy Friday Art Playgroups, too many birthdays, and a billion summer park days and meetings for PACT (kindergarden).
Penelope and Yash had a joint birthday party on the 7th, before the Greene's left for France. We built an air rocket launcher which has definitely provided enough entertainment to justify its construction. We've built many rockets, and experimented with launching various substances such as falafel (Go Spencer...), glitter, candy, plushie rockets, and lots and lots of water. We really need to waterproof the solenoid batteries.
Penelope is very two. She is chatty, imaginative, and starting to both respect rules and throw tantrums. She is very firm on what she thinks should happen, but at the same time "Penelope Jane! Go back into the bathroom and turn off the water!" actually works. Not buying her shoes (she really doesn't need any more shoes) when we went to Payless because Rebecca's sneakers were too small and had holes in the toes = screaming and crying. But at the same time she is a very sweet and caring two who will try to help her big sister and give her hugs and play whatever game she wants.
Rebecca is five, and very ready for Kindergarden. When she went to MVPNS camp, she just dove in, even though the only person there she knew was Ellie, and she was off making her mom do some art project with her. We went to the PACT class posting on Friday, and were thrilled to see that every friend Rebecca has made over the summer and almost all of our fellow LAPP families are in her class. There are 2.5 kindergarden classes, so there were bound to be some, but everyone except for Audrey is in Teacher Terry's room 12. Drop off tomorrow is still going to be hard, and I need to remember to pack a handkerchief, since I cry about everything there is no avoiding tomorrow. Thanks genetics! Stupid over-emotional tear ducts. We'll see if I can handle the post-drop off traumatized parent coffee or if it's too embarrassing.
We've adjusted our schedule, dinner is at 6 now, bed time ostensibly starts at 7, but usually 7:30 before Rebecca has been dragged through her cleaning the floor chore, lights off at 7:45, dark story time over at 8, if Penelope didn't take 'too long' a nap everyone is asleep by 8:30, and awake around 7. Sometimes Penelope is awake at 6:30 and Rebecca doesn't wake up until 7:30, but that doesn't seem to be changing when I let her skip her nap. Children's sleep never does make sense. We will see if we can manage to get out the door on time with whatever it is we are supposed to bring...
It is the end of the summer. We spent the first four weeks at Roque and with Nenny & D. Pa, which was lovely, although Rebecca was quite ready to come home to her friends by the end. We collected rocks, built steps down to Hemlock Brook from a new picnic spot, and she had her own table at the children's market on the Woodstock Green.
When we came back we bought a dishwasher, and ran various errands for a week. Then two weeks of summer camp at MVPNS for Rebecca, then several glorious weeks of (MOM WHERE ARE WE GOING) doing nothing summer, with play dates, a trip to Chuck E Cheese, one to Happy Hollow, Monday afternoons at the park, Wednesdays at Rinconada or farm, swimming at Eagle pool, Thursday night live on Castro, the start of Thursday afternoon Swimming lessons with Lillian in August, lazy Friday Art Playgroups, too many birthdays, and a billion summer park days and meetings for PACT (kindergarden).
Penelope and Yash had a joint birthday party on the 7th, before the Greene's left for France. We built an air rocket launcher which has definitely provided enough entertainment to justify its construction. We've built many rockets, and experimented with launching various substances such as falafel (Go Spencer...), glitter, candy, plushie rockets, and lots and lots of water. We really need to waterproof the solenoid batteries.
Penelope is very two. She is chatty, imaginative, and starting to both respect rules and throw tantrums. She is very firm on what she thinks should happen, but at the same time "Penelope Jane! Go back into the bathroom and turn off the water!" actually works. Not buying her shoes (she really doesn't need any more shoes) when we went to Payless because Rebecca's sneakers were too small and had holes in the toes = screaming and crying. But at the same time she is a very sweet and caring two who will try to help her big sister and give her hugs and play whatever game she wants.
Rebecca is five, and very ready for Kindergarden. When she went to MVPNS camp, she just dove in, even though the only person there she knew was Ellie, and she was off making her mom do some art project with her. We went to the PACT class posting on Friday, and were thrilled to see that every friend Rebecca has made over the summer and almost all of our fellow LAPP families are in her class. There are 2.5 kindergarden classes, so there were bound to be some, but everyone except for Audrey is in Teacher Terry's room 12. Drop off tomorrow is still going to be hard, and I need to remember to pack a handkerchief, since I cry about everything there is no avoiding tomorrow. Thanks genetics! Stupid over-emotional tear ducts. We'll see if I can handle the post-drop off traumatized parent coffee or if it's too embarrassing.
We've adjusted our schedule, dinner is at 6 now, bed time ostensibly starts at 7, but usually 7:30 before Rebecca has been dragged through her cleaning the floor chore, lights off at 7:45, dark story time over at 8, if Penelope didn't take 'too long' a nap everyone is asleep by 8:30, and awake around 7. Sometimes Penelope is awake at 6:30 and Rebecca doesn't wake up until 7:30, but that doesn't seem to be changing when I let her skip her nap. Children's sleep never does make sense. We will see if we can manage to get out the door on time with whatever it is we are supposed to bring...