Firsts
Last Wednesday for the first time Penelope actually participated in the 'walk around to the music' part of music/circle time. Usually she is okay sitting in my lap not participating (although I am sometimes allowed to participate, sometimes not), but once everyone stands up there is no way she is having anything to do with the crazy mass psychosis hive mind marching and singing, and she is OUT of there. Rebecca never liked it either, still doesn't, today at Lauren's (Princess) birthday party she took a good while of watching Princess Aurora lead the girls through some dances before she was willing to get out onto the floor and participate. She wasn't willing to have her picture taken with the hired princess at all, although Penelope finally did with me. With the princesses help they put together a little skit for all the parents, and much like the festival of lights, or any other group performance, Rebecca was securely in the back.
Yesterday Penelope and I talked about how we were going to be not having any diapers in the daytime anymore, that I was going to get her some cotton training pants and a doll that went potty, sort of in trade for her diapers. We didn't actually make it that far though, I had already gotten her a new potty that was hiding in a box, since she complains that the old minimal one we had for Rebecca hurts her bottom and she won't sit on it, and we broke that out later Friday afternoon at an opportune seeming moment, without waiting for the training pants or accompanying doll. She's been doing great too, it's ridiculous, but the potty has two little electrical contacts in the bottom, and it sings when she goes pee pee, and she is SO EXCITED. So she's been running around the house bare or in underwear and mostly making it to the toilet on her own. When we have been going out (a lot today) we practiced sitting on other potties, but pretty much she only goes when she is ready, and there better be a toilet 3 seconds away. She's been struggling to find more autonomy recently, so I think working on this is just what she needed. She actually told me I could put her in her carseat twice today, which has been unheard of recently.
For Rebecca (who's school obviously I need to write about) her big news is that she is having her first sleepover tonight. She has been lobbying for it for a while, but as it was actually finally scheduled, and coming closer became less and less certain that she would actually spend the night. I told her not to worry about it, and that I would come and get her if she decided she needed to come home, but she and Anya W. seem to have fallen asleep at Cherie's house, so baring midnight trauma hopefully things will work out. Exciting first for her either way.
Rebecca is also thrilled that she can skip bars on the monkey bars now, which she has been all over since the beginning of school, in addition to climbing any pole in sight. She has made it up into our tree by pushing over a slide, and also sometimes tying ropes around it to climb up. And she goes very high up. I'm trying to do as good a job as my mom did letting her pick her own risks. She isn't reckless about it. She has also tied a chair on a jumprope and some random rope she found, so that she can swing on it, about 3 feet off the ground. I've been warning all parents who come that they are on their own judging and allowing or not their children to mount her contraptions, that there has been no adult participation! Some other of her friends have been climbing the tree with her when she has shown them how to get up, but not all of them can do it, and our rule has always been that you can climb anything you can get onto *without* adult help, if you can't you aren't ready.
She is also finally reading willingly. She has been 'able' to read for a very long time, in that she started being able to decode words when she was two and we would play lots of literacy games and play school, but she has never wanted to and always met any encouragement with negativity, so I haven't pushed her, other than playing literacy games when she wants to. Since she started school when she was three we basically stopped doing anything at home. But they've been working up a lot of excitement about reading at school, and I think she's finally warmed up to the idea that she *can* do it. Friday she was willing to read a simple board book to Penelope while P was sitting on the toilet, and last night we told her she could sit with Penelope and read her books instead of doing her normal sweeping chores, which was fabulously successful, as neither Jesse nor I had to sit in with P, who wanted to sit on the toilet but only if someone was with her, and Rebecca got a thrilled audience to practice her emerging skills with, and as our teacher says, nothing improves your reading like more reading.
Yesterday Penelope and I talked about how we were going to be not having any diapers in the daytime anymore, that I was going to get her some cotton training pants and a doll that went potty, sort of in trade for her diapers. We didn't actually make it that far though, I had already gotten her a new potty that was hiding in a box, since she complains that the old minimal one we had for Rebecca hurts her bottom and she won't sit on it, and we broke that out later Friday afternoon at an opportune seeming moment, without waiting for the training pants or accompanying doll. She's been doing great too, it's ridiculous, but the potty has two little electrical contacts in the bottom, and it sings when she goes pee pee, and she is SO EXCITED. So she's been running around the house bare or in underwear and mostly making it to the toilet on her own. When we have been going out (a lot today) we practiced sitting on other potties, but pretty much she only goes when she is ready, and there better be a toilet 3 seconds away. She's been struggling to find more autonomy recently, so I think working on this is just what she needed. She actually told me I could put her in her carseat twice today, which has been unheard of recently.
For Rebecca (who's school obviously I need to write about) her big news is that she is having her first sleepover tonight. She has been lobbying for it for a while, but as it was actually finally scheduled, and coming closer became less and less certain that she would actually spend the night. I told her not to worry about it, and that I would come and get her if she decided she needed to come home, but she and Anya W. seem to have fallen asleep at Cherie's house, so baring midnight trauma hopefully things will work out. Exciting first for her either way.
Rebecca is also thrilled that she can skip bars on the monkey bars now, which she has been all over since the beginning of school, in addition to climbing any pole in sight. She has made it up into our tree by pushing over a slide, and also sometimes tying ropes around it to climb up. And she goes very high up. I'm trying to do as good a job as my mom did letting her pick her own risks. She isn't reckless about it. She has also tied a chair on a jumprope and some random rope she found, so that she can swing on it, about 3 feet off the ground. I've been warning all parents who come that they are on their own judging and allowing or not their children to mount her contraptions, that there has been no adult participation! Some other of her friends have been climbing the tree with her when she has shown them how to get up, but not all of them can do it, and our rule has always been that you can climb anything you can get onto *without* adult help, if you can't you aren't ready.
She is also finally reading willingly. She has been 'able' to read for a very long time, in that she started being able to decode words when she was two and we would play lots of literacy games and play school, but she has never wanted to and always met any encouragement with negativity, so I haven't pushed her, other than playing literacy games when she wants to. Since she started school when she was three we basically stopped doing anything at home. But they've been working up a lot of excitement about reading at school, and I think she's finally warmed up to the idea that she *can* do it. Friday she was willing to read a simple board book to Penelope while P was sitting on the toilet, and last night we told her she could sit with Penelope and read her books instead of doing her normal sweeping chores, which was fabulously successful, as neither Jesse nor I had to sit in with P, who wanted to sit on the toilet but only if someone was with her, and Rebecca got a thrilled audience to practice her emerging skills with, and as our teacher says, nothing improves your reading like more reading.