Mommin' It Up!

September 7, 2010

The Preschool Party has Started!

Well, I just dropped my baby off at preschool! It was much less traumatic than I expected it to be. She was READY. She wanted to leave the house at 7:30. She loved her new dress and shoes. She even posed for a few pictures!

When we got to school, she was alllll excited, but that was because she remembered they had a big play room with a slide right when you enter the building. So I immediately had to extricate her from the slide and get her in her classroom, get her hands washed, hang up her bag, etc. THEN try to get her to STAY there! I did get to snap a quick pic of her with her buddy Evan, Cortney‘s little guy.

Then I gave her a kiss and hug and ran away, letting her teacher be the one to have to keep her in the classroom! Sophie didn’t mind me leaving, but she wasn’t happy about the staying-in-the-room part. When Cortney emerged from the building, she told me Sophie was in the room, ummmm, how shall we say, letting her feelings on the situation be known.

Well, that’s my girl! She’ll learn to fall in line. Good luck teachers! I, like you, am counting down the minutes til I can go pick her up!

September 2, 2010

Take Good Care of my Baby

Next Tuesday, I am sending my baby girl off to preschool. And although I have been really excited about it allll summmer (I mean really! TWO WHOLE MORNINGS A WEEK to myself…you know, until December.), I am now in the throes of a panic attack. I know Sophie’s two teachers have probably “seen it all” – one of them has been teaching thirty years. But like every parent, I think my child is “special”. And I will admit, Sophie is pretty different from most kids she hangs with. So, dear preschool teachers, here is what I need you to know about my girl.

She is shy. Too much attention embarrasses her and makes her cry. Please don’t make her the center of attention! We don’t even sing the “Happy Birthday” song to her on her own birthday, because she hates it.
She likes to watch for awhile before she joins in. She doesn’t usually just “jump in” to activities she’s never done before. So it might take her a couple weeks to warm up to preschool in general.
She has a speech delay. She says a lot of things really, really well, and I can understand her almost all of the time. But when she wants to converse with you, her speech is often unclear. She knows what she’s saying, but you might not have a clue. She’s getting speech therapy for this and has made lots of progress. Be patient.
She doesn’t like to answer questions about certain subjects. If you ask her her name, or how old she is, she won’t tell you – even though she knows. But if you ask her what a certain letter is, what sounds it makes, what colors something is, or what shape something is, she will talk your head off about that. Because those are things she loves! She picks and chooses what she wants to talk about, and what she doesn’t.
She’s tempestuous and stubborn. Has been since she was a baby. She’s either happy or sad, there’s not much in-between with Sophie.
She has the most beautiful smile.
She is sweet as sugar and loves with her whole heart.
She is passionate about letters, McDonald’s Happy Meals, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, and watching her brother play Mario Kart.
She loves to sing, but she doesn’t want YOU to sing to HER. She may not be on board with all the singing that goes on in preschool, but she’ll come around. She deals with it at church!
She loves books, and after she knows a story well, prefers to “read” it to you.
She’s mommy’s girl, and I’m going to worry every minute those first few days.

So, please, take good care of my baby girl!

Oh, and, she tries to get away with a lot more when she’s with me than she does with anyone else..so you’ll probably be fine. Me?? I’m not so sure that I will be!

July 19, 2010

The Poop of Terror

So, not to go on and on and on and ON about potty training, buuut…Sophie’s doing really good. I pretty much consider her trained. She has yet to have an accident in public anywhere. This weekend we spent a day and night at my father-in-law’s and did not bring either her little potty or her potty ring to sit on, and she had no trouble. She’d just go into the bathroom and yell “POOOTTEEEEEEE” until one of us came and helped her get on the toilet. I was SO proud. And I AM so proud of her.

BUT. Or should I say “BUTT”.

Sophie has, like her brother before her, developed a fear of going poop in the potty. Why? I have no idea! What causes this? She was really doing just FINE with poop in the beginning, albeit there were a couple of times that took her for-ev-er to squeeze the deuce out. But then, about 10 days ago or so, she started trying to hide and sneak poops past us. And to add to the fun, she’s made herself constipated. (Also just like her brother!)

Her most preferred pooping place is during her “rest time” or nap in her room. I think she’s gone to sleep and then 10 minutes later she’s calling for me ’cause she’s got junk in her trunk. Last night she did this for the first time at bedtime instead of nap time, and it was fun cleaning her up after I’d already gone to bed. BUT(T) she wasn’t done yet. This morning she woke up with a full load in her TRAINING PANTS and it was deees-gusting. Yuck. I forgot how gross cleaning all the poo out of girl parts is.

With Joshua, I found that the only thing to do was wait this out. That, and sneak prune juice and flaxseed into anything I could to help him have to go. And since I’m confident Sophie won’t feel relaxed enough to poop her pants at preschool, I’m not stressing about it. BUT(T) I’d appreciate any tips you all might have about scooting past this stage sooner rather later!