First Day!

This is an addendum to the last post from two nights ago.  Rosalie had a smooth start to her first day at Matheia.  She woke up in the morning feeling excited, and then nervous, and then excited again!  A jumble of feelings.

We arrived and it was a bit of an overwhelming bustle, but we got everything sorted--where her lunchbox and things went, and where she was supposed to go.  We found where her group would be meeting, and they had spots for people to sit with their names on them. I pulled a classroom paparazzi with my phone:

I think those spots where they are sitting are the kids' book bags.  They will send book bags home to us with a selection of books for us to read with the kids, and we return them with a paper that says whether we liked the books or not, then they send new books home to us based on our "reviews" and the kids' preferences.

Anyway, it wound up being a great day for her.  She said she made new friends and enjoyed herself.   Last night she was excited for today to happen so that she could come back!  It sounds like it's going to be good. 

New Chapters

Wow, so much to tell.

First of all, today was the last day at Berry Patch, and tomorrow is her first day at Matheia. It's the  beginning of the school year and the beginning of her new chapter as a preschooler.  She's going from kids her age and younger to being the smallest fish in the pond, a preschooler in a Pre-K - 5th grade environment.  Fortunately the older kids are sweetie pies.  Rosalie is excited and nervous, and definitely happy.  This morning she said, "Today is my last day at Berry Patch.  It's really special."  Sure enough, it was a great day for her.

Nicolie and Veronica, the best teachers ever, sent her off with a small photo album with monthly photos since she started at the BP, which was when Rosalie was TWO.  It was such a great time for her, being there.  I am so grateful to Nicolie and Veronica for their loving care and attention, their creativity and humor.  They taught her so much!

Fortunately she will get to come back and visit on certain days when her new school is closed for teacher in-service days, and for the monthly Parents' Night Out on Saturdays.  Myself, I've been surreptitiously tearful about the bittersweet transition, but we know this is the right time for Rosalie to move on to her next adventure in learning.  She's going to sponge up so much this year, maybe even start reading! She sure seems ripe for it already.

Tonight Rosalie helped pack her first lunch for her first day of school (This is a new experience because BP used to serve delicious lunches to the kids).  She proudly helped make her own ham and cheese sandwich, and was excited to load each lunch item into each little container.

This weekend we went on a great adventure: our first official family hike! We had been putting it off because we wanted to make sure she was physically and mentally ready.  What a drag it is to try to enjoy nature when someone is whining and complaining.  I mean, besides yourself.  Anyway, Michael found a great location -- Twin Falls, right east of Snoqualmie -- and it was a couple-mile hike total, which would be just right at this point.  The falls were beautiful.  We didn't have the camera, but thankfully Michael had his phone/camera.

I was mentally prepared for whining, but actually that girl was just thrilled the whole time.  "My first hiking trip!" She kept exclaiming.  She noticed and oohed & aahed over everything, from a caterpillar on the trail, to the trees, to every trickle of water on the side of the hill--she deemed each and every one of those a "waterfall."  We walked together, nobody carrying anyone else, all the way up the hill to the falls lookout, and all the way down to the river for some river-rock-climbing and water-testing.  At one point in the middle of the hike, while huffing up the hill, she paused in her enthusiastic hike narration to declare, "I'm so happy!"  We grown-ups were, too, especially then.  Even at the end of the hike when she was tired, she kept up her good attitude and trucked on.  I only needed to give her a piggyback ride from the trailhead to the parking lot--mere yards.

Needless to say we'll be doing another hike again soon.

Last weekend Michael's parents came to visit and we re-celebrated Michael's birthday.  Jenny & Bob brought presents for all of us! An overall theme of these presents was that we all received multiple aprons in honor of my graduating from culinary school.  I was really touched by Jenny's thoughtfulness--she made many of the aprons.  Rosalie layered apron after apron over her neck as she unwrapped them. I picture a typical kid who receives clothing presents as being ho-hum about it: as in, "Where are the toys?" But instead she sincerely and enthusiastically noticed, "I will be so warm!  I have all of these aprons!"  And she hugged all the aprons to herself.  In the end she also got some cool markers, books, and a kite.  She was happy as can be.

This animal lover obviously had a great time with her friend Zoe, the Klatt doggie.  She's getting really good at being alpha/authoritative with Zoe, which goes a long way with an exuberant dog who is full of love.  As you can see, she's got Zoe on a tight leash here.

It seems minute in comparison to the monumentally cool things that have been going on, but we made a black bean frame the other day (I was out of macaroni—that was the original idea).  It started with careful placement of each glue-laden bean upon the frame (we even tried tweezers), and it ended with generously pouring glue all over the thing and then pouring beans over the glue, trying to keep them on the frame by catching them with our fingers before they slid off.  Good times.  I will not be teaching her patience, but at least maybe strategy.  And really, can you tell the difference?

Quotable Rosalie:

"What's better than popcorn? ...More popcorn!"

Our cutie pie.