Trip to the American Girl Store

Over Christmas break, we needed to fill an afternoon, so we took a trip to the Galleria area to the American Doll store. Parker's doll Elizabeth was in serious need of a trip to the AG beauty shop.

Walking in. You can see Elizabeth's hair is a total mess.

You choose your hairstyle and ribbon, and then wait while the stylist combs out a year's worth of tangles.

While we were waiting, we went upstairs to the little cafe, where girls and moms and dolls have lunch. I'm not sure if you can see in the background, but if you bring your doll with you, they have little booster seats so the doll can sit right up at the table with you. And if you don't have a doll, they have loaners.
We just sat at the ice cream counter and had some juice while we waited. Parker was getting a little tired at this point. She perked up a little after the juice.



This give you an idea of how the store looks. Doll displays and people everywhere. I've only been there during the holiday season. I wonder if it's less of a zoo during the summer.

The finished hairdo. You can see that Parker had had enough of the the crowds. Later she rallied a bit and really enjoyed the mall. She put Elizabeth in a shopping bag and drug her all over the mall with us, even though I could tell it was pretty cumbersome. Next year we'll have to make time to ice skate. She was super mad that we couldn't stay longer to skate.

And believe it or not, Elizabeth's hair still looks pretty good! This is her cowgirl outfit by the way (sans hat). Not sure if I've posted that or not.

White Christmas

Here are some pictures from our 'white christmas'. When the rain started turning in to snow, Parker was super thrilled. She spent a LOT of time running around on the patio catching snowflakes on her tongue. Like her hodge-podge outfit? Santa hat, purple gloves and white shirt and legging, chosen specifically to match the snow.

This was the accumulation we woke up to on Christmas morning. They said this was the first White Christmas in 80-something years. And one of Parker's Christmas gifts was a new larger, warmer coat, just in the nick of time.

In other (more recent) news, Parker got her first report card this week. They do them mid-year, and end-of - year. As expected, she did really well and has mastered nearly everything. But instead of letter grades they do a "D" for that skill being "Developed: Successfully completes tasks independently." It is quite a shock opening up the envelope and seeing a big string of D's though (as I'm sure my parents can attest). The only area where she received a "SD" for "Still Developing" is on writing the letter J. I'm pretty sure she can do that.....so I'm thinking the teacher just threw in the SD so it would look like she actually checked her on each an every letter and didn't just give her straight D's.
Her reading level is a 12 on the DRA leveling system they use. The goal for the end of the year for Kindergartners is a 3, so she's well past where she needs to be. I'm not telling that though....I don't want her thinking she can slack off the rest of the year.

Here are the teacher comments:
"Parker is becoming more and more fluent and accurate in her reading. (she has moved from a reading level of 3 in Oct. to 12 in Jan.) She enjoys reading to herself and enjoys reading with friends, as well. Parker is very polite and respectful of her classmates. She is never in a hurry to be first and will often give another friend the opportunity to go ahead of her. I would consider Parker to be a very giving, caring girl. She is a joy to have in class! "

Togetherness

Over the next few days, I'm going to try to post some of my blog backlog. With holidays, work and travel, we have been super busy, but I'm finally starting to catch up, so hopefully I'll keep the blog somewhat up to date. I know, I say that every time don't I? I think this has been my longest break. You know it's bad when blog readers start sending you cards in the mail mentioning that they are still waiting on Christmas pictures. (Hi Aunt Norma! Parker loved the card!!)

Bob took this picture of Parker and I reading together. There are not a whole lot of things that we do apart, actually. It's really nice now that she can read some independently, so reading time is no longer as much work for me as it used to be.

Parent / Teacher Conference, concert

We met with Parker's teacher friday for a progress report on how she's doing in school. They do them twice a year. As it turns out, the teacher thinks she's just as smart and sweet and precious as we do! She is in the top reading group, although there are a couple others kids that are at a higher reading level. She's right on track with everything else. The teacher reports that she tries hard, takes pride in her work, is very cooperative and gets along well with everyone in the class.
We're so pleased with how she's doing, and pretty pleased with ourselves too.

As I'm typing this she's sneaking around and peaking over my shoulder. I guess I'm going to have to make sure to keep the blog address a secret so she can never pull it up and see all that I say about her.

This morning I was treated to a little concert. Apparently Parker wrote some music yesterday. This morning she added a "big finish" and performed it for me in her pj's. My job was to hold the music and turn it around at the right time - it's 2-sided , and help her "get her fingers situated" . As she played, she looked back and forth as though she was actually reading the music. (she wasn't, I checked). Bob was accidentally included in the concert even though he was still sleeping....we left the monitor on.

Recent Artwork

This says, "A spider on you me and on you!". Tim Burton, look out.

New Closet - before/after

I'm still trying to catch up on past events. At this rate I'll be posting about Christmas on Valentines day.
After my big work project, as a gift to myself, I did a total closet makeover. Not just shelves from home depot, but the fancy kind where someone ELSE comes over and measures, demos and re-installs. That's good, because I had enough to do just boxing everything up, and repainting after the demo.

This is only 'before' picture I have. Sorry! It was a total mess before, with tons of hanging space that I didn't use. This is before the install and the paint, but after the demo.

After: Left side view. The drawers were existing. Everything else is new.

Right side view. I'm adding one more shelf over the baskets, and probably cabinet doors over the shelves in the back.

And here it is with clothes in it. I'd love to leave it like this, like a closet in a store with just a few things hanging in there. But Bob is going to evict my stuff from his closet soon, so i'm going to have to fill'er up.

Breaking Wardrobe News

This weekend, Parker's string of wearing jeans every single day (even in August) finally ended! Now, she's into wearing skirts with footless tights. It's the tights that she's really in to. I love how she totally changes course overnight. Luckily we have some tights from last year still in the package from when she started refusing to wear them last year.

Before the newfound tights really took hold, she had a few meltdowns because she wanted to wear just tights and a top. Her hobby is thinking up the most inappropriate things to wear and then asking to wear that every day. If I would let her, she would wear this every day:

A leopard print camisole, jeans, boots and a choker necklace (not pictured). And no, I didn't buy her a choker necklace, she made it herself out of a ring from a pair of of cut up tights...which was meant to be a soft ponytail holder.

The next most common request is a tank top and shorts, even in 40 degree weather. She wore this shopping on saturday. I was pleased that she put on a sweater w/out much of a fight, and chose normal shorts instead of bike shorts. Bike shorts are another daily fight. And I keep trying to phase out this tank top, but it keep being resurrected.

And the latest: A non-spaghetti strap tank top (so it doesn't violate school dress code), a sweater to make me happy, footless tights, a skirt she's had since august and is wearing for the first time, socks and boots.

Oh, and a *high* ponytail. I'm happy about the high ponytail because it's so cute, but it's way more work (for me), since it has to be redone constantly.
I think I'm about ready for summertime, and she can just wear her swimsuit 24/7 again.

More Halloween weekend

I'm still catching up from the last few weeks that have been so crazy busy. I forgot to mention on Halloween weekend that I also participated in the neighborhood garage sale and then Bob and I both ran a half marathon on Nov. 1st.
During the race, Parker's Grandma and Grandpa stayed with her, which was wonderful. I feel much more relaxed leaving her with family for an extended period of time versus a sitter.

Here's a picture my mom took, and an email she sent me after their stay:

Parker opened her art drawer this morning. Lo and behold, there were four mini candy bars in there. She appears to be a "everything in its place"person. So the mystery was who put the candy bars in there. (Turns out Carla was rat-holing a few pieces, in case they gave out all they had.)Parker was going to write a note and daddy was prepared for her to write one word "why" and a question mark and he was prepared to help her spell"why". Here is what she came up with all on her own, I swear. "Why did you put candy in my art drawer?". Daddy even asked her if she knew how to make a question mark -- no problem, no assistance required nor requested.

Thanksgiving Program

A couple weeks ago all the kindergartners at Parker's school did a Thanksgiving program. They all dressed in costumes (used year to year, thank goodness, so I didn't have to make anything) and sang several songs. Parker was an Indian woman, and she was very happy to have her hair in 2 braids, which made her feel very authentic.

They stood on risers and sang a number of songs. Parker is the third one in on the bottom left. It was very organized and all the kids were very attentive, especially considering how excited they all were.

In addition, they had some artwork displayed in the foyer and Parker was proud to show hers off.

Halloween weekend

We had a VERY busy weekend. Instead of dealing with the giant piles of clutter that is my house, I'm going to post the Halloween pictures since I know a few folks are anxious to see them.

It seemed like Halloween went on FOREVER this year. We got 2 good weeks out of it at least. Last weekend we attended a carnival, both in costume. Parker is a bumble bee, thank goodness. I was STUNNED that she didn't want to be Hannah Montana.....which was lucky, since they boy next door went as Hannah. My costume is courtesy of Bob's mom, she made the little sheer bolero top and the hat of course. It was a big hit during trick or treating...none of the other parents usually dress up.

The neighbors put out a blow up haunted house. they also have a fog machine which worked so well that it actually fogged up the neighborhood quite a bit, especially around the lake and made things really sort of spooky.

Our whole cul de sac goes together in one big mass to trick or treat (9 kids) to start out, and then they generally splinter off in to separate groups w/ a similar pace. Generally, the dads take the kids to TOT and the moms stay home and hand out candy. But this year, UT was playing so Bob stayed home to cheer them on, and I went out with Parker with the normal dad group....I was the only parent in full costume of course. Parker hung in there for about half a mile and then said "I'm ready to go home" and that was it. I was shocked, because last year she was out for hours it seemed.

She got home and dumped out her loot....lots of good quality candy this year. She ate a couple pieces and then was ready for bed. She was asleep before 9pm!

Pumpkin Carving

This year we got to the pumpkin carving a little late, so we had to do it indoors. Bob did the honors this year, and made Parker do some of the icky part of pulling out the seeds.

Helping with the cutting out.....

Final product

Student of the week

Another busy week around here. The highlight of last week was that Parker was Student of the Week. There is one student per class, per grade selected. She got a certificate during a little assembly they have on some fridays...sort of like a pep rally. She's proud of it, but not exactly sure what she did to earn it. I bought her a couple new hair bows in school colors at the PTA table, and she was probably more excited about receiving those than the award.

She continues to keep herself busy with arts and crafts. She's also big in to 'reuse and recycle'. Here, she's making a bracelet by taping strips of colored paper around the rubber band that comes around broccoli. It carried over into dinner as you can see. Prior to that she was tracing around cookie cutters, coloring and cutting out the shapes and taping them around the house to decorate.

The long days continue to be an issue. It is a common occurrence for her to get mad or frustrated about something and stomp off and go lay down...and fall asleep. It's nice to have the little break from the tantrum, and it's tempting to let her sleep, but too much of a nap and she can't get to sleep at night, further compounding the problem. On this day she snuggled up in a pile of warm towels fresh from the dryer, waiting to be folded. I can't blame her though...I've always wanted to do that too.

Angel trumpet, book report

Check out the blooms on my angel trumpet. By looking at the plant, you can tell it's been totally neglected all summer, but it' still loaded down with flowers. Maybe it knew I was wondering if it was worth lugging into the garage for the winter or not. Yes Mother, I'll save you some seeds.

Not a ton to report from Parker. We have escaped the N1H1 so far...even though 3 more classmates have gotten it.
I scanned in some of her school work. This was done at one of their centers...they listen to a recorded book, and then do a 'book report'.

(the book was The Roly Poly Spider and she like the story because "he got stuk in the pip" (stuck in the pipe).

Now that my work project is over, I'm going up to school about once a week to run copies or help monitor science lab or whatever little task the teacher needs. I was there yesterday, and as I was dropping off my copies to the teacher and saying goodbye to Parker, I noticed that her face seemed really warm...and flushed. Assuming the worst (flu!) I took her down to the nurse to take her temperature. Normal. It wasn't until I got home that I realized that she probably wasn't feverish....she was blushing because her mom was interrupting her class!

Long overdue update

We've had a jam packed schedule the past few weeks, which is why the blog had been so quiet. I did a project for Bob's company that turned out to be WAY more time consuming an involved that I realized it would be. Apparently when you tell a construction company that you'll have something to them at a certain time....they hold you to it. I've basically worked full time for the last month. But happily..hopefully...I'm DONE (knock on wood that they don't call me tomorrow for changes).

The trouble with working is that I don't really have child care in the afternoons. They have a after school program at Parker's school, but she's already so fried just from normal school, I'd rather have her at home. I had a 6th grader from down the street come over a couple days a week to amuse Parker while I worked, and the rest of the time she had to amuse herself.....not usually her strong suit. She did pretty well though...lots of coloring and dreaming up crafts. Lots of time on the computer and probably more tv than I'd like. Here's how we spent our time this past Monday, a holiday:

And making Shrinkey Dinks....

When she's not coloring, cutting or complaining, Parker is reading. All her sentences start with "how do you spell....." or "I can spell...." . She continues to pick out words on signs and packages and I expect her to be a very independent reader very soon. She even wrote a book a couple weekends ago. I need to remember to scan it and post it. Stay tuned.

quick post

Here's a quick pic of Parker reading to hold you over until I have time for a longer post. Parker is continuing to soak up school like a sponge. It's like there's not enough information out there for her to absorb.
Also notice her new favorite wardrobe item: boots. In this pic, she has them paired with shorts.

Emerging reader

Parker is soaking up Kindergarten like a sponge. They spend the first half of the day focusing on reading and writing, and she is becoming a great reader. Her new parlor trick to to pick up a book and start reading it....she still can only do simple words and has to do lots of sounding out, but she's very confident and is really enjoying knowing what signs and labels and words around her say. Her favorite thing is to read words, usually dialog, that have exclamation marks.
The days of spelling things out in front of her are fading. The other day at dinner I told Bob, "someone in Garland with Swine Flu D-I-E-D." and Parker said "SOMEONE DIED?" She said she figured it out by using the first and last letter sounds, and context clues.

Speaking of Swine Flu, or actually, the flu formerly know as Swine, we are bracing for it. There were hundreds of absences at the middle school last week, and at our doctor's visit (a followup on her reflux stomach issues) there were several kids being carried in and out by their parents, obviously quite sick. And if the flu doesn't get us, the school nurse said that lice is being passed around too. Flu sounds like less work.

The outcome of Parker's doc visit was that she's going to continue to take Prevacid for a while until she is totally symptom free, and then we'll try to ween her off. I'm not crazy about the idea of her being on medince long term, but the ped says that it's very safe and much prefered over having an inflmaed esophagus for long periods of time. We are also going to do a blood test for Celiac disease and something else just to cover all the bases. I hope the HIPAA police don't come after me for posting that. If anyone has any opinions on any of that, feel free to share them.

I'm expecting a super busy week, but I'll try to at least scan some artwork or something so my sister doesn't have to resort to watching zoo cams because there is nothing new on the blog.