when you woke up….
….
“Oh my gosh, Mama, I’m a fourth grader!!!”
🙂 What a wonderful transition we had from summer to 4th grade!!!
You made the School District’s Welcome Back to School video! Check you out HOPPING off the bus in your beautiful first day of school dress!!
We had a ball – just the three of us – you, DJ and me
A list of our highlights:
* As soon as we arrived at the house we rented, you ran out on dock and jumped in – clothes and all; soon became a skinny dipping experience 🙂 You’re the best!!
* Biking trails; you biked, I ran along a magical path that led to “Tom’s Point” You were so proud of the distance you biked, and we LOVED the nature we saw!! A treasured time for me for sure!! (Then we jumped into the lake 🙂 )
* Watching fireworks from our dock
* Ice cream for breakfast – DJ said “Of course, it is vacation after all.”
* We finished Ever After High, book II (extended story time – in the cabin, on the dock and finally by the fire)
* We met a parrot named Bella who only says “Hello”
* We laughed SO HARD tubing without a boat at Pete and Linda’s cottage!! My tummy hurt!!
* Bought matching sweatshirts at Chautauqua Institution – bright orange ones!!
* Went to church with Pete and Linda at Chautauqua Institution and bought them a copy of Wonder!!
What a ball!! Can’t wait to do it again!!
Pete and Linda
Today you are presenting your findings from your first research project for school. You were assigned Japanese art – your second choice (food was your first choice). You were very sad and frustrated, because you really wanted to study food. I suggested that we look into what you were assigned a bit more to see if you might have some interest in that. “What is Ikebana?” Neither of us knew.
We googled it and guess what we found – Ikebana is JAPANESE FLOWER ARRANGING!!!
We laughed and celebrated!! Holy cow, there could NOT have been a better fit for our flower girl!!! You are outside almost every morning in spring (and have been for YEARS) picking flowers and making arrangements – for me, for your teacher, for whomever you could think of!
After weeks of research, writing, practicing, and revising, here we are. The day of the project presentation.
I just dropped you off with all of your supplies, your arrangement and the trifold you made with Daddy last night. I will join you for lunch and your presentation later today.
Here are some pictures from this morning:
I wasn’t sure…
I wasn’t sure part way into this night that all of this was a good idea…
In fact, not until everyone else left did I know that it was, indeed, a very good idea.
So, let me back up…
Tonight I picked Halle up 5pm – then Great Northern pizza and salad (which you have been asking for many times in the past 3 weeks) – and then we picked up you. You were hanging with Julie, Dan and Madeline at Julie’s this afternoon, because I had an intense deadline and you weren’t feeling the best.
I took you and Halle and the pizza to Highland park – by the most AMAZING garden of flowers!!! You were sort of into the pizza, you were sort of playing with Halle, you were sort of aware of me, and I was ze-zausted from my intense, emotional workday. I’m thinking, “Well, I’m not sure this is a good use of energy.” That said, you two did climb trees, have jumping contexts, and create many skits that involved both of you rolling down a hill.
Then we headed to the Hyatt downtown (7 minutes away) for the
“Super Cool, Back-to-School Swim Party”
that I had
planned!! Given the choice of many 3rd graders or just Halle, you chose just Halle. All good.
You weren’t having the easiest time being generous with Halle to “push the button” in the elevator, open the door with the key card (though you were better with that), etc. We went down to the pool, and you were still out of sorts – sometimes happy with Halle, sometimes mad at the world, and I thought – What have I done?!?!
I want to raise a grateful, humble, generous child – and now I bring her to a nice hotel, and she isn’t grateful? I am not helping her!!! Beating up on myself for being a bad mom by giving too much, we ended the night by going up to the room.
Here’s where the story gets better. After creating skits with Halle and me (I think 4 of them – all requiring someone to hide in the closet), you and Halle read your Big Book of Why. We walked Halle and Daddy Jim to the car, and you and I came back up to the room.
Everything changed.
We painted nails.
We told stories.
We were totally silly.
We sang Kelly Clarkson.
We read Harry Potter.
Then we read Horris, Morris but mostly Deloris – and you did all of the dun -dun-dun-DUNS at the appropriate points in the story, and we giggled some morel
We snuggled in bed – as you reminded me that you are going to “try” to go to sleep but you were not sure how successful you’d be. I held you and reminded you that I didn’t just meet you. You snicked and fell sound asleep within minutes – maybe even seconds.
Precious time.
Truly precious time.
You are you now snoring away in the king bed that awaits me.
I so love being your Mama….
The day started:
Our neighbor rang the doorbell. Ariel, who did not take up the “need” for first day clothes, looked Maya up and down and said slowly, “ready for school? Wanna shoot some hoops?”
🙂 Love it
Bus driver was late, Maya’s bus assignment was messed up, but nonetheless, we’re off!! Third grade (Maya), eighth grade (Dan) and tenth grade (Madey), here we come!!!
From our phone conversation tonight…
Mama: How was your first day? I’m dying to know!!!
Maya: Great.
Mama. Did your shoes make it the whole day?
Maya: Yup.
Mama: What was your favorite part of your day?
Maya: Recess
Mama: Okay, what was your favorite class?
Maya: Reading. We read the 1st day Jitters.
…
(great book by the way if you haven’t read it)Mama: Did people tell you they liked your shoes/outfit?
Maya: Some.
Mama: I showed a million people your picture from this morning, and they all thought you looked awesome!! So cool!
Maya (without skipping a beat):
I’m glaring at you Mama.
(I so love your wit!!)
Hi Baby Girl –
So, I’m recovering from my hysterectomy – had “Lima,” my uterus, fallopian tubes and cervix removed. Ugh and sigh… It’s been hard – the surgery went smoothly, but they took out a bunch of stuff – and so, there is recovery and healing to be done. And that takes quite a bit of time…
So I am going to try to use some of my time to catch up on blogging to you.
Easter was a very special day – starting with a beautiful service with our church. I tried to sing sitting in front of choir (hard for me to stand). Daddy Jim sang, and you sat with Julie, Madey and Dan. We left a little early from church because I needed to, and we came home to have lunch. Then Mad, Dan and you scootered around the block. It’s so fun to watch the 3 of you play together… you are all so special to each other.
When you got back home, you all hunted for the special treats (baskets and eggs) the Easter Bunny hid all over the backyard… so fun! Finally, we sat on the back patio for the beautiful afternoon and chatted – you, Madey and Dan carved and whittled sticks into spears, while all 5 of us, and soon Julie joined us, chattied. What a beautiful day – weather and otherwise! Here are some pictures from the day:
You were so amazingly endearing tonight as you ran down the stairs –
“Mama, come quick! Mama!! I think I have a wiggly tooth… but I can’t find it all of a sudden…”
Yesterday or the day before (I can’t remember), you were complaining of your front tooth hurting when you chewed. I smiled at you and responded, “You know what I think that is, don’t you?”
Confused, you asked, “What?”
“A loose tooth I bet… I bet it will start wiggling soon.”
Your eyes got so big!!! “REALLY?!?!?!?!”
“I bet so” I answered.
Today I stuck my finger in your tiny little mouth, and sure enough – “Right here, Sweetie. Here is your first wiggly tooth.” 🙂
You were so excited, you couldn’t stop smiling. You couldn’t wait to tell Madeline and your Dad!! Every 30-60 seconds in the car ride, you would say
“Guess what?!?! I have a wiggly tooth!!”
After I said goodbye to you at your Dad’s and headed out to take Madeline to voice lessons, you pulled open the door again, and with the hugest smile and the strongest voice, you said,
“Mama, I hope you have a really great voice lesson and a really great night!!! I love you!!!”
You were gushing – it was so fun to be near you!!
As I was looking at you sadly today, telling you that this is the last day I get to be a Mom of a wonderful 5-year old and asking if you would still love me when you’re no longer my little 5-year old…. you looked at me very seriously and responded:
“Mama, tomorrow I will be the same person – just a different number.”
I could truly not love you more than I do.
When I dropped you off at school today, you decided to try on a crabby independent side of you – with very little warning. We pulled into the parking space… you gave me a look and got out of the car, slamming the door, flinging your hair and marching toward Cobblestone’s back door… (I sat in my driver’s seat and decided to wait and watch what you do.) After about 10 steps, you flipped back around, stomped back to the car, crawled in the back seat, grabbed your huge Tinkerbell backpack (practically the size of you), re-slammed the door for effect and stomped back up to the door. I continue to watch you totally intrigued by this very strange behavior.
You got to the door and unlocked it. I still watched wondering if I should drive away should you continue on the clearly-directed path. After you got the door open, you paused for what felt like a minute, and finally turned around and looked at me, waving enthusiastically for me to join you inside. I melted. Back to my 5-year old… Whew… that was kind of scary 😉
It’s so very fun watching you grow!! Develop. Become.
You say things like “this is excellent” describing food; “I would prefer that Daniel come her” when you want to let us know your desires, “that was hysterical” when you encounter something that tickles your funny bone and you still call me “Mama”… which I so love.
I’m trying to remember the highlights of being 5:
You learned to whistle after many, many weeks (maybe even months) of practice – you were so proud.’
You are and self-identify as an ARTIST! You spent much of this year coloring, and sometime near Christmas, you asked that we switch to full-fledged crafts where we construct something. It’s been a ball learning right next to you. At school, you are also doing amazing art investigations and art work!!
You took OFF skiing.. staring the season doing the bunny hill and ending the season confidently doing blues and trick hills/moguls. Crazy.
You are still TOTALLY a nature girl who loves being outside, picking flowers and climbing trees.
You are quite the singer / actor – so much drama and you can sing quite well… now let’s see if you choose to get past the “shyness” to share these gifts with someone besides Mama.
We still snuggle every night until you fall aslepp.
We spent most of this year measuring time in “Peeps” – the 15 minute cartoon you used to love.
You are trying out new vocabulary all the time – both in service of day-to-day communication “You are hysterical Mama” or in service of being “cool” and having attitude – which is CRAZY for me to watch/hear: “uhhhh… yeah!! (with eye roll and saunter in the opposite direction.” You tell me you learn these things from Daniel. Hmmm… the benefits and challenges of having older siblings 😉
I love being your Mama, and I could be more proud of the wonderful girl you are becoming. Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!
So a couple weeks ago (7/25 – 8/1), we had a wonderful week with the Luehmann family at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch. You, Mad, Dan and I flew from Rochester NY to Rochester MN on Sunday, and Uncle Mark was there to pick us up. After a short drive to the ranch, we got to see EVERYONE else – Elisabeth, Hakon, Amy, Oma, Opa, Gabriela, Moises, Niklas and Bianca… the only person missing from the group was Daddy JIm who joined us the next day.
We had SUCH a fantastic time – riding horses, collaborating our way through crazy challenge courses that made us laugh, swimming a lot, using sling shots and playing archery, sliding down zip lines (you weren’t quite ready for this yet), 3 meals a day as a family with songs for grace, campfires with skits, camp songs and s’mores, and SO MUCH FUN FAMILY TIME.
Daniel wrestled with Moises in the pool. He didn’t win, but he didn’t seem to mind that much.
You and Elisabeth made the world’s longest chain of pipecleaner rings.
Grown-ups sat up late in the night talking.
Oma and Amy compensated every bump, bruise and tear with handfulls of M&M’s.
Board games, tattoos and arts & crafts including the painting of pet rocks.
Grown ups played sand volleyball, which made your Mama very, very happy.
We had a whole family “game” of softball.
Lots of pictures, of course!
Hakon, Moises and Daniel did “guy things” like basketball and football while the rest of us swam.
Amy, Oma, Opa and Bianca took many hikes with you, Niklas and Elisabeth out to hold one of many baby bunnies, pet a lama or baby sheep, see the dear and the peacock at the mini-farm.
You were pretty much STUCK to Auntie Amy, Elisabeth or Oma the whole week. I saw you every once in a while ;), but you were much more interested in adventuring out away from me. It was so fun to watch you so joyful and adventuresome!
Here are some fun pictures to remember the event:
Bi & Mark’s family arrived first:
Today your Mama was the very proud, honored and humble academic advisor for 22 masters students and 4 doctoral students who walked across a stage to receive their diplomas. I got to tell their daughters, sons, spouses, moms and dads how brilliant, accomplished and fantastic each of them is!! What a wonderful job I have… I am so grateful for the things God asks me to do.
Pete, Vince, Ellen and John – my first for doctoral graduates! I couldn’t be more happy or proud!!
At the end of this busy day – after singing with the Gospel, we went to see a friend of Madeline’s in a play at SOTA with Em, Christine, Madeline, Daniel & Julie: School House Rocks!
A small sample of senior Em’s amazing artwork:
On our way home, we stopped at our dear friend Jo Ann’s home for a quick visit…. She TOTALLY made Maya’s day by inviting Maya to pick WHATEVER flower she wanted from her GORGEOUS garden – check out the one she chose:
Thanks Jo Ann!!!
What a wonderful day – we were both so tired when we got home… you fell asleep in my lap while rocking. How precious. I treasure my time with you.