Teeth

I got my braces off!! I'm so happy now I can eat everything!

Milestone alert! Pierced ears

 Parker got her ears pierced today. She's really pleased.

Outtage

I'm trying to get some pictures posted.  Bear with me, this time of year is totally insane!
Here's Parker's recent lost tooth.  It hung on for days and days and days and finally one morning it was hanging out and wouldn't go back, Parker was crying because it hurt no matter what she did.  So we both got our nerve up and she let me yank on it.  I was prepared to use all my might....we were running late, there was no time for tooth drama!  It came out so easily that she didn't even feel it!  She gave me such a look of "you are so useless" because she thought my fingers slipped.  The new tooth is already peaking through.

I made the headband she's wearing too. 

Finally!

Parker's front tooth FINALLY came out today at school.  It's been just barely hanging on for days and days, sticking out of her mouth, flapping around, and hurting.  It was painful if anyone (including her) tried to pull it, so we just waited.  It was extra thrilling for it to come out at school because she got to go see the nurse and get a special tooth box necklace to keep it in until she got home.

Summer - full immersion

We are starting week 4 of summer...8 more to go I think. So far Parker has done 10 days of swimming lessons and a week of Vacation Bible School. Shortly she'll start some kiddy tennis lessons and a week of gymnastics morning 'camp'. In between all that we seem to be keeping pretty busy with trips to the pool and bike rides (she rides, I run along side her. Our record is 4 miles) and playdates with friends. It's hard to keep up with blog posts because the second I sit down to post, I have someone hanging over my shoulder reading what I type or wanting to look at the pictures. Now that we're getting more into our summer routine, maybe I'll be able to eek out a bit more time to post.  (I know I always say that....)

 In other news, Parker lost her first top tooth last week.  This makes 3 total she's lost.  I"m ready for the other top one to come out too, but it might be a while.

Ok, I have to move aside now so Parker can look at pictures of herself at swim lessons.  Told ya.

Happy Anniversary To Us

Today is our 10 year anniversary! We've been slightly upstaged by that other wedding that happened today, but that's ok.
Parker has two little Brittish friends (twins) and they both wore tiaras all day at school today! Why didn't I think of that? Maybe next year I'll wear a crown of plumeria and gardenia in my hair all day. 

Toothless

 

Breaking news.  Parker just pulled out another tooth.  She's missing 2 on the bottom now.  This one was somewhat less dramatic, but we still had a few days of it hanging out, but still too tender to pull.  She's getting so grown up!!

In other news, we are implementing allowance this week.  She's getting half of what it costs to buy a stuffed Webkinz Hamster....let the overpopulation begin.

Wiggly tooth

Not the cutest picture, but I was anxious to post it.  Parker has her first loose tooth.  It's not totally loose on it's own accord...she somehow bit her finger and that loosened it, but I'm assuming it will eventually come out.  She's a little freaked out about it, and so am I.

Milestone alert

Painting her own nails. Will brushing her own hair be next? Let's hope so.

Breaking news

Parker can ride her bike with no training wheels!!!

Favorite low-tech toy

Last weekend, after 3 weeks of illness and antibiotics and droopiness, Parker was finally cheerful and full of energy. She channeled all that energy into learning to jump rope. She's tried and tried before, and finally it clicked and she had a great time seeing how many times in a row she could jump before getting tangled up.
The audio to this is:
"WATCH ME, WATCH MOM, WATCH. WATCH! WATCH!"
*THWACK* "ONE!",

*THWACK* "TWO!",
*THWACK* "THREE!",
*THWACK* "FOUR!",
*THWACK* "FIVE!",
*THWACK* "SIX!",
"SIX! I DID SIX IN A ROW. DID YOU SEE ME?! WATCH!"
(repeat for 12 hours).
On monday, her legs were so sore she was walking like Fred Sanford.

Shoe Tying and first week review

We made it through the first week of school. It was the easiest week I've had in a LOOOOONG time. During preschool, the first week back was a big adjustment....Parker would come home and flop on the couch and need lots of down time. And it didn't change all that much as the school year went along. For some reason, now, she energized and ready for more action when she gets home. She needs a big snack, but is ready to play with friends immediately....unlike last year when she needed a good hour to recover.

We had a huge breakthrough this weekend in shoe tying. She LOVES her running shoes and has been very frustrated that she can't tie them....and she's very easily frustrated when trying to learn. Apparently, I have not been letting her watch enough tv...because that's how she put it all together. She was watching Little Bill (a Bill Cosby creation) and they showed Little Bill learning to tie his shoes. Bob said Parker came running into the room and said "I wanna try something" and got it on her first try, including remembering the rhyme.
The audio is low, so here's what she's saying:

One little loop,
what do you do?
Wrap it around,
then pull it through.
Now you have a bow
and you tied your shoe!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Kindergarten - 1st day - part 1

You might have to click on the picture to see it larger...as it grows, the size it uploads shrinks. Next year I'll have to start a new row I guess.
Parker has grown a TON since last year, hasn't she? She's possibly even taller than she seems in the pictures....she was leaning against the door.
All went well today. No tears or drama....and Parker handled it well too, haha. I'll post a blow by blow report tomorrow when I have more time. I used my extra free time today to enjoy menu planning and a trip to the grocery store without help or company. Tomorrow is Target and Costco! Whoohoo.

Oh, snap! She can whistle!

After many months of practice and frustration, Parker can whistle! And when she's really showing off, she snaps and whistles at the same time.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Next milestone will be either skating, doing a cartwheel, tying her shoes, or losing a tooth. Stay tuned.

Parker reads Bob to Bob

Here's a little video of Parker reading. These are little books called Bob Books, and they have short sentences with mostly 3-letter words. She's really super proud of herself that she's able to 'read a whole book'. The teacher also sends home little "take home readers" from school and she's doing great with those too.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


EDIT: sorry the first video didn't work, I can't seem to make the Blogger video upload. Hopefully this one works using Dropshots.

It's a snap!

(I hope this video posts properly. I never know until I publish it. )



After weeks of practice, Parker has learned to snap her fingers. She's so thrilled with herself....she wants to demonstrate for us all the time, and she'll just absently snap here and there when she's talking to you.

Next up will be tying her shoes and whistling. She might get the whistling pretty soon, but I'm afraid shoe tying is way down the road.

Dog Can Hop - Parker Reads!

Monday evening, Parker read her first book on her own. Her teacher sends home little 6 page booklets with them, along with a popsicle stick that has plastic eyeballs glued onto it so we can point out the words or just have it follow along while we read. Usually we just read these together and we'll have her sound out a word here or there, or just talk about beginning or ending sounds. During dinner the book was on the table, and she got it and slowly sounded out the title. She was so proud of herself! And we were very proud too. She made it about 4 pages in sounding out the words until she got frustrated, but I'm counting it as reading the whole book on her own.

Progress Report

We got Parker's first progress report of the year today. She will get 2 more, in February and May.
Here's what it said:
Mastered Skills:
Making Plans/collaborative play
pretending
drawing, painting
music, movement
sorting, matching, identifying patterns.
Emerging Skills:
Reading
Writing
Number recognition
Comments and Suggestions for home:
"Parker loves to participate. She is a pleasure to teach and very popular with her friends. Parker loves to read. Read to her daily focusing on comprehension and sequence. Let her follow your finger for direction. Parker is writing more and more every day. Let her write your family's names and start wriging her last name. Encourage her to write simple notes to her friends. She enjoys this activity.
Parker can count to 30 by rote. Put a calendar at her level on your fridge. She enjoys counting and this will help her with number recognition.

-------------------------------------------------
My comments:
If any of the teacher blog readers out there have a link to a fun calendar I can print to hang on the fridge, send it our way. We accept PDF's too. I assume I'm supposed to count days until this or that with her? She really does love counting. "Mommy, listen to me count to 30!" is a favorite parlor trick. Of hers.

I was a little surprised to learn that Parker couldn't identify all her numbers....although that's not really something we do much. We've been playing Go Fish quite a bit, and she seems to know everything except 12 and 13 and is a little iffy on 6 and 9. My cards only go up to 13 though. She knows nearly all the lower case letters too....we also have Go Fish cards for that. She really enjoys card games...we even have a rummy type game where you do sequence with pictures (she needs some work on sequence and comprehension too). Even when we put together puzzles, she like to make that into a card/domino type game by dividing up the pieces and taking turns trying to 'play' your puzzle piece.
Here she is doing 'homework'. Her teacher frequently sends home little activities like this, where match the uppercase letters on plastic caps to the lower case letters on the pumpkins. We also have little reading phonics books coming home every couple days. Lots of homework for a preschooler! She enjoys all of it though, mainly because it is usually one on one attention from me or Bob.
She really does love writing, although she is very resistant to the idea of writing 'notes' to her friends at school like the teacher suggests. Not sure why. She did write "gum" on my grocery list yesterday, and also another hyphenated bathroom type word that isn't really blog material.
Our home is covered in post-it notes, and the tips of all my markers and smooshed, but she's having fun and learning, and there are lots more office supplies where those came from.

First Day of school

Here are some quick pictures I took this morning. I'll have commentary later.

Blender Composting

This summer, we have really been enjoying all the fresh fruit and veggies that are available. I spend lots of time peeling and chopping. And Parker never misses a chance to help, especially with cantelope and watermelon.


But I hate just throwing all the peels and rinds down the disposal, when I could be composting them and reusing them in the garden or the flower beds. I've tried compost piles and bins before, but never seem to really use anything from the pile....it's so icky. I've read about different methods of just burying things straight in the soil, and saw a blurb in the paper about just grinding things up in the blender with water and dumping it straight in. So I've been trying it.

Step 1: add rinds to blender with water and blend...

Finished product.

Take a detour to examine a caterpillar that has devoured my tomato plants.



Dig hole, dump and cover.



I'm not seeing any results yet...but it isn't hurting anything at least. And maybe I won't have cantelopes and tomatoes popping up in my flower beds anymore from 'undercooked' compost.

I don't have pictures, but our excitement for the day was a hummingbird that got stuck in our garage. He couldn't figure out how to get out. He few in circles forever around the ceiling, while I Googled tips on getting him out. I went and got one of our hummingbird feeders and hung it up in there, and pretty soon, it had attracted a second hummingbird. I gave up and took Parker to the pool, and Bob moved the feeder around to lure him out. Eventually he figured it out, with some help from the 2nd hummingbird I think. Bob said the 2nd bird fussed at him after he returned the feeder to its normal spot, so I guess it was "his" feeder. I have 3 feeders up and it's like a war zone out there. I think they're using up all the calories they're ingesting buzzing around guarding the feeders...they were probably better off before I started feeding them.

And in late breaking news, Parker walked into the kitchen and said "I can spell bus. B-U-S. " She was flipping through my Better Homes and Gardens (odd, I know) and saw an ad for Word World that showed the letters in the shape of a bus. Althought I wonder if it had C-A-T in the shape of a bus if she would have noticed.