First Day ... Again

XiaoXiao started in her new class. This classroom is reported to be "the loud room," but the main reason she's been switched is that this room has a much more established immersion program. The volume factor sounds like a good fit, too.

XX marched in, said good morning to the receptionist, her teacher and a boy in her class. She took her teacher's hand, said a quick "see you later, Mum" and was off. Her teacher took her to the playground, then came back to report that XX had asked to meet her Mandarin teacher, then promptly went off to chat in Chinese.

We're going to a picnic with all the kids and their parents tonight, a sort of meet and greet. XX is excited because "I don't know all the kids yet and now I can play with everyone!" We're looking forward to meeting everyone in this new group as well.

This Week

I took XX out of school this week to attend art camp. She spent the mornings exploring different art forms, singing songs and making new friends.

The first day was a little scary for her, she wasn't sure she wanted to let go of me, but after weeping for a few minutes in my lap, she allowed one of the teachers to take her. When I came back after lunch, guess whose voice I heard? XX was talking about what she liked about the day, then went on to explain which medium worked best and so on.

We had no problems after that, just a cheery, "G'bye, Mum!" each morning without even a backward glance.

She enjoyed it so much that she asked for a T-shirt from the place. She asks for stuff all the time, but is used to hearing 'no' as the answer. This time, the request was different. Not sure how to explain it, but I knew she really wanted this and that it meant something special to her. She's on Day 3 of wearing that shirt, day and night. I'll have to wrestle it off of her.

We were lucky to have Sebastian visit one evening this week.


He was fantastically patient. He played Frisbee with XX, who has zero aim and no ability to catch yet. He swam with her, racing under bizarre rules. She is still quite the bossy girl, though she is trying to curb this. It works like this though: she knows good play means everyone has a say so she will ask if you would like to play with "her" rules or, if you would like to play that she is the boss. Progress, however slight.


When Sebastian would suggest a game, XX would say, "No thank you. We're not the same so you play your way, I'll play mine. We're all born different." Sebastian would look up at me with a "what's going on" face, then laugh and say, "Okay."

Ariel often has this look on her face. (XX playing "baby turtle" and Ariel is supposed to be the mama turtle. Ariel is patient, but she never quite understands.)


Violin lessons took a big leap this week. Now that she has a bow, XX is able to make sounds and she loves it. She doesn't always practice what she's supposed to, but at this age, the fact that she loves to pick up her violin is everything and so her teacher and I agree, she should play, her "toys" being musical notes. The dogs seem to take turns coming in to listen to practice and XX loves that they are such good audience members. She always says to Ariel, "I know you like to listen to me play and I wish you could take violin lessons, too, but I'm sorry, you don't have 'opposable fums.'"

Still, she's also working on technique. One of her lessons this week ran over because as she picked up each new bit, her teacher fed her more. They were both so excited and it was really wonderful to watch. (This is for Suzie and Steff.) She is supposed to watch the teacher for the last bit, which is why she is looking at my "bowing."

What a week!

Father's Day

Since my blunder last year, we have been saying "Happy Father's Day" to John every Sunday.

XX loves every week, but I told her this was a "big" Father's Day, so she was excited to tell him her secrets this morning: she can ride her bike without training wheels and she'd written two stories for him. She actually kept the bike secret all week and the books for a few days.

Her first attempts at creative writing were ... creative. She illustrated them as well and Daddy loved them both. One story was about how much Daddy loves her and she loves Daddy, and the other about how Daddy saves a worm and they both are happy afterward.

Everyone came for lunch later. Uncle Dave grilled for us and we all enjoyed a great afternoon.


XX did not want to miss anything, but she was tired so she took her nap outside. Happy conversation doubling as white noise and perfect temperatures meant she slept well.


Later, she showed Daddy her biking skills. She's great but not ready to ride without the safety of me running behind her. (I am not ready either as her steering is not always on target.) So after she was done, Daddy hooked up a new trailer so that she could sit when he and I went out on our bikes, our first trip as a family.

Both Jamie and Brad called and that made it all complete.

A happy family on a Happy Father's Day.

Summer

It's not even officially summer and there is much happening. First, a couple of "firsts."

Friday, XX had her first "special day" at school. Because of construction work in the classrooms, the children were outside all morning in the sprinklers instead of the usual work periods. XX loved it!

But did she wear her sunhat? No. Did she drink water? No.

So she came home with a fever and her first headache. As usual, she didn't complain, just said her head hurt inside. I felt terrible, there wasn't much to do but give her water. She drank it dutifully. Yesterday, she did some preventative drinking, even though she loudly voiced her preference for milk. I said milk would be fine, but she had it in her mind that water would keep away the headache so poured away, being sure to give me a glass every time she had one.

She is ever my milk-loving child. There are occasions she'll ask for it in a tone that's near a growl. Her voice changes, her body droops slightly. At those times, if at all possible, we stop immediately and get her that beloved white drink. My milk addict.

She attended two birthday parties Saturday. More outside time. Her fever spiked again by night, but thankfully, she was fine the next morning. But after an outing yesterday to the nursery, she got her first bloody nose. A gusher. Again, no complaints, just some surprise.

Throughout the weekend, she continued to help me with the dogs, laundry and the house and asked me continually if I had a job for her. She worked hard on her manners, especially Sunday. Somehow, Sundays have worked, without ever saying anything officially, into Manners Day. Last week, she took a few sheets of stickers around and offered them to anyone she saw after asking their names and either complimenting them on names or wishing them nice days. She told a few people that they'd made a good choice. I think she's working on some sort of political career.

Yesterday we started work on a surprise for Daddy. And surprise! For the first time, she didn't tell him about it! She told him she had a surprise and started several times to give him clues, but was able to stop herself from even doing that. Growing up.

(I love seeing her self-control grow, but lament ever so slightly, the disappearing babyishness that has her blurt out a secret the moment she knows it.)

Beyond that, she's learning to knit.

She got to climb at the County Fair. She didn't care so much about going up as she did about "flying" down.

She continues to practice her swimming and now has so much more fun playing in the pool with her new-found confidence. The water is also much warmer this year as John got rid of the dying trees that formerly shaded the pool.

The pool, of course, means XX is sleeping and eating plenty. There are days I see her getting a plate of leftovers for herself mid-afternoon. "I'm hungry." This extra meal appears a couple of times a week. (My dad would say that the voracious eating and milk drinking were par for the course for the girls in this family. My sisters and I were often accused of sizable appetites and we loved our milk!) The other days there are two hour naps.

We spend lots of time outside learning why YeYe loved his yard so much. We put in an herb garden yesterday.

And there are a few signs that the rest of our garden is doing well.

XX is excited about her chard.

Daddy's excited about the grapes.

And I always love seeing peaches on our little Charlie Brown peach tree. (Our tree that produced so abundantly last summer had but a single peach this year and a squirrel got that before it ripened.)

There were some blueberries, though we had only a few that reached "blue-ness." XX grabbed most of them when green and tossed them back. She tends to enjoy the more tart fruits, and picks strawberries when they are half white. Any that make it past her eyes to ripen fully are given to Daddy.

The tomatoes and squash are, well, not thriving. But we still hope. XX and I got a peanut plant yesterday. Apparently, we do nothing but water and watch. That sounds about right.

We have hummingbirds.

XX spent one day pouring glitter on the patio and sweeping it around to make the place sparkle.


And John finished tiling our eating area. We'll be able to dine al fresco all summer long.

Can't believe there's still a week before summer "really" starts!