Dance Class

I arranged for a demo class from Dance Tykes to be held at Curves for our members to bring kids/grandkids to attend. It was a selfish endeavor, because I was interested in it for Madelyn.

Back in February we attended a Creative Movement class in town, and Madelyn was reserved. She mostly clung to my leg and watched the other kids twirl around and hop and reach on their tip-toes. She did get into the obstacle course/tumbling part at the end.

At the class today, she started out unsure, but after a few minutes something clicked and she was a dancing machine! I was thoroughly entertained as well as bursting with pride at her confidence and joy.

Making our toes go to sleep and wake up (point and flex).

Listening quietly.

Big kicks.

Waiting for instructions.

This video is by far the best part. The beginning moves a little slow, if you want to skip forward it gets even better. After the class for 2-4 year olds there was a class for age 5 and up. Since Madelyn and I had to stick around the facility anyway, she joined them for a few sections. So she does a little hip-hop at the end of the video, which is probably my favorite part; I can't believe how well she imitates the instructions.

I love how intently she watched the teacher, and notice how she is the one repeating all the dance terms? "jete!" "plie!" That's my little Teacher's Pet!

Greedy Ducks

We finally took the old bread I'd been saving on the counter for this purpose to visit the duck pond.

These ducks were a little creepy. There were SO many of them, and they were startlingly bold.

They would even kind of jump up and take the bread you were holding, even if you weren't offering it to them!

The pictures just don't quite capture the odd vibe.

And when the bread was gone, they made a mass exodus to the pond without even saying 'thanks.'

Makeshift Tent

Throw a blanket over a slide, and voila!

Tent.

Phone Privacy

Madelyn can really talk on her cell phone toy now. She has entire conversations with real people:

"Hello?! Oh, HI Kaden! How're you? Heh heh. Yeeeeah. I go a school aday. See friends."

Etc.

While she was chatting so animatedly, I tried to sneak up with the video camera to capture such an adorable moment. Well, she makes it pretty clear that her conversation is not to be spied on. Listen closely.

I can take a hint.

Eye

Madelyn has had a little red bump near her right eyelid for quite a while. I called the advice nurse at our pediatrician's office. Based on my description, she assumes it is a stye, and recommended warm compresses to help it heal. She said ideally, hold a warm washcloth on the eye for 20 minutes, 3-4 times a day. But then she laughed at the improbability of getting a 2-year-old to allow that.

Madelyn was actually into it for a few minutes, and happily held the cloth on her own eye while she played her computer.

But she did get bored quickly and I haven't been able to get her interested in it again. Even when I remember the polar bear hand warmers I have--she wanted to play with it, but not keep it on her eye. But I don't know, the bump seems to be getting better on its own, and she never complains about it. So oh well.

Curves Helper

Bringing Madelyn in to Curves while I attempted to get some work done used to be an oxymoron. I had given up on the idea for a while, but last Sunday was kind of my only opportunity to set up a big project while the club was closed.

To my delight, Madelyn was able to help me a little bit before getting bored, but then was easy to keep entertained the rest of the time!

She spent a lot of time drawing on and erasing this whiteboard. Madelyn listens to instructions about what she can and can't do or touch, and doesn't that make all the difference in the world?

First Week of School

Sending my baby off to preschool. Wow. It was a more emotional experience than I had assumed it would be, and you can read more about it here.

All ready to go, with the backpack she selected but refuses to wear. Gary and I went together to drop her off the first two days since they happened to fall on his days off. I am so glad we could both be there, and I know Gary feels the same. Madelyn cried and clung to me as soon as she realized we were leaving her there, and it was pretty heartbreaking to watch my baby carried into the classroom with tears in her eyes. It's a good thing I believe that this is going to be a wonderful opportunity for her, because it helps to keep my eye on the future.

The Montessori pick-up routine is very organized. The parents line up around the corner from the students, who are asked to come forward one by one and speak briefly with the teacher before calmly walking to their parents.

On Tuesday, only first-time students were in class, and it was only for 1.5 hours. When Madelyn saw me peek around the corner, she immediately burst into tears again (the picture is probably too small to see her very sad face). I really think it was such an emotional relief to see that we had returned and she could finally let it all out.

It was all she could do to stand there for a few seconds before running to us as fast as she could. It feels good to be loved.

To celebrate Madelyn's first day of school EVER, we took her out for a special treat. At 10am none of the ice cream places were open, so we opted for a giant cookie at an eclectic local coffee shop.

Now doesn't that make all the trauma worth it, Madelyn? :)

She was a happy girl the rest of the day (and hardly made a dent in that 2-pound cookie).

Daddy and Madelyn in front of the school building before Day Two. We are really thrilled with the Montessori school we found. Gary and I both relate well to their philosophies, we hear nothing but glowing tales of the Primary Class teacher, and quite a few of my friends from Moms Club now have children there, so I already have a great support network. I've heard that one of the reasons the tuition is relatively low for private school is because they are not charged any rent by the United Methodist Church in which they operate. The church is not related to and does not influence the school in any way, they simply believe that part of their outreach to the community is to support education, and this is how they choose to do it. I think it is fantastic.

So Madelyn cried again at Day Two drop off, but she didn't cry at pick-up. Hooray!

On Thursday, Day Three, Madelyn was already whimpering before we left the house, climbed into her crib and said she wanted to go back to bed, and in the car she started crying and saying she didn't want to go to school any more. This was the worst day, and was pretty hard on me. Especially since I didn't have Gary by my side. Mrs. Tarnowski promised to take some photos of Madelyn in class so that I could be reassured that she was doing very well once she got settled. It was nice to see the pictures of her being happy in class, and she was cheerful as can be when I picked her up.

Today, Day Four, was the best yet! She was in a great mood all morning and driving to school. In the car we talked (again) about how we would give a big hug and a kiss and say, "Bye Mommy!" and then she would go have fun at school until I picked her up in a little while. Madelyn walked willingly down the long corridor, then when we got to her classroom she started sounding nervous, but it was like she was trying hard not to cry. She gave me the promised hug and took Mrs. Tarnowski's hand and walked into the classroom of her own volition. The previous 3 days she'd been carried in, so all of this signifies improvement. And it's only the first week. I hope we don't lose much of this ground over the weekend now. Of course she was happy at pick-up again; now we need to work on walking to greet me instead of running. :)

The cutest thing is that she calls Mr. Tarnowski, her teacher, "Mickey Mouskie."

New Park

Our city constructed this cool new park a mile from our house. Sometimes we ride the bike or walk to it.

Madelyn is right in the middle of this picture, which shows some of the high-tech-looking play equipment.

These are two of her favorite things to play on: a glorified see-saw apparatus where you stand on the platforms and bounce up and down on the tires, and the "extreme: merry-go-round, which is a flat O that spins around on a tilt. It's actually pretty fun.

Fair Rides

I was pleasantly surprised that Madelyn was not only tall enough to do so, but was also interested in riding some rides at the Oregon State Fair.

We started off easy with the tee-pee canoe ride, since I know Madelyn loves boats and figured the slow pace would give her a feel for the whole concept. I calmly told her several times in line that she would have to get into the boat by herself and that we could not ride with her. She kept calmly responding, "Okay," but I still had visions of her changing her mind at the last second.

But as you can see, she didn't give it a second thought and had fun riding around the little plastic river. It was pretty neat that I could walk all the way around with her so she never felt abandoned out there.

Next Madelyn spotted the "tiger train" which was a miniature roller coaster. She seemed very excited to ride it, and met the height requirements!

Gary generously allowed me be the one to go with her, even though we both wanted to. Moments before the operator turned the thing on, Madelyn stood up and tried to wiggle out, saying "no train!" She was starting to cry, but we had already paid our tickets, and the ride was literally about to be in motion. I was able to quickly get her seated again and calmed down before a major scene ensued, but was left feeling wary that she was able to completely stand up behind our "safety bar!"

Thankfully, Madelyn remained calm through the ride and afterward claimed that she had a fun time on it. We are waving from the 5th car back. If you want to see several close-up photos of the people in the first 3 cars whizzing by, I can produce them. But unfortunately this is the only one Gary took that actually shows us in the frame. :)

Of course we had to do a little octopus fishing game. These are fun for Madelyn and she always gets to choose a little stuffed animal.

We decided to use our last few tickets on a hammer game, because they were giving away those big, inflatable hammers. We even backtracked and found a different vendor to get the particular hammers we thought were coolest (the other ones had some boy-ish cartoon characters I didn't recognize, similar to Power Rangers of Transformers in theme). But Madelyn didn't want to play this game, she just wanted the toy hammer.

Which was fine, because that was the whole point anyway: to spend 3 dollars worth of tickets to get a silly inflatable toy. Bonus: it squeaks!

Fair Fun

The Oregon State Fair was a big hit. We enjoyed plenty of family-friendly activities.

A big tortoise to pet

A nifty contraption for making music out of farm junk

We had fun banging on the pots and tractor parts.

Bulldozing some dry corn (brilliant mess-free idea!)

Pedaling a pink tractor

Milking a "cow"

It seemed pretty realistic, and felt weird!

In front of the same cow with the flowers Madelyn and I painted