Chag Sameach

Dress-up at the Children's Museum

Baby Practice

Genevieve likes to practice her mothering skills on Sophie, which usually involves wrapping her in a blanket as tightly as possible and telling her to be quiet.

No Baby

Genevieve is well aware that she has a sibling on the way. She seems pretty happy about this and even asks when we are going to have another one. I tried telling her that I am done but she's not having it.

It is a little harder to explain to Sophie what is happening. We have a book that describes how the baby grows in Mommy's belly but I'm pretty sure she just sees it as a cute little story we read from time to time and not as something that is pertinent to her life. I have tried directly explaining to Sophie that there is a baby in Mommy's belly. She responded by lifting up my shirt, poking me in the belly button, looking at me with an air of condescension it's hard to imagine a two-year-old being capable of, and then saying, "No baby." Apparently she thinks Mommy is a big, fat liar.

Take 2

Sophie had her second day of nursery school today. I am happy to report that she did not scream the entire time. In fact, she ran off as soon as we got there and began beating on the drum on one of the tables. Maybe she did better today since she is on antibiotics for her ear infection. I'd like to say that we are so in tune with our kids that we know instantly when something is wrong and don't just assume that they are being whiny or having a tantrum. I really would.

Genevieve is still treating kindergarten as a non-event. The only thing she has mentioned about it is that it is a longer day.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for both Sophie and Genevieve.

Genevieve started kindergarten today. We dropped her off and she very uneventfully walked in the door. We didn't even think to bring the camera. We're awful parents and she'll probably need to go through years of counseling to get past this issue. On the brighter side: she loved it. She wasn't really clear on what parts she liked besides the swings (her old school didn't have swings) but she was very clearly pleased.

Sophie started separation class today. That was far from uneventful. We expected that this intrepid little warrior would turn her back on her parents and march bravely into class like a good spartan. This, sadly, was not to be. She woke up crying a little before 7AM and spent the entire morning in a tantrum. I carried her into school where every teacher was shocked. The common refrain was, "I've never seen Sophie cry." Well folks the secret is out: Sophie not only cries she can scream too. After 30 minutes of class (screaming the whole time) she started begging me to take her to the other side of the door.

"Go", *gasp*, "other", *sob*, "side", *sniffle*, "door" repeat.

I'm sure the other parents were pleased to see us go. After twenty minutes of screaming in the hall of school we decided to pack it in. We took her to the super market where she promptly fell asleep in the backseat. I guess screaming for 4 hours will really wear you out. It's a good thing we didn't have a camera or she would need to go through years of counseling to get past this issue. Maybe we aren't awful parents after all.

Words Of Encouragement

It is always amusing as an adult to hear our own words thrown back at us from our children; particularly when they've caught us in some glaring hypocrisy where we've rationalized away our actions. Sometimes it is just cute to hear your youngster sounding precocious. However, other times it is just odd.

Sophie has been potty training herself. For the last two months she's been asking to use the toilet and often times is very successful. We praise her for trying and she is very pleased when it works. Of course now she's started to turn it back on us. This morning while using the toilet I had a small cheering squad behind me.

"Good work daddy."
"Way to go."
"Sophie proud of you."

I appreciate the thought but sometimes daddy just wants to be left alone.

So You Think You Can Dance

Here is Genevieve's performance after her summer ballet/tap course. Classes just started back for the school year and she couldn't be happier.