She's Doing Well in Preschool

Samantha transitioned fabulously to preschool. She was ready. She was ready for art projects. She was ready for more social interaction. Her preschool teacher is impressed with how much Spanish she knows (this is a Spanish immersion preschool), and how much she is talking in general. Her attention span is also impressive. The teacher did a story and puppet show and Samantha sat down and watched the whole thing. That's great for a 16.5 month old!

The other day a went in to pick her up. She ran away from me and said, "NO!" Grabbed a toy train and rolled it on the ground saying, "Choo-choo!" She didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay and play. I was not upset by that at all. In fact, I was delighted about it, because it meant that she was happy there, and we made the right choice moving her from the babysitter to preschool.

"Uh-oh, shoe!"

We took Samantha to Target yesterday. She was sitting in the cart, happily playing for about 10 minutes. Then she wanted "uppies". She says this when she wants me to carry her. I took her out and carried her, leaving the cart behind because it was empty. She kept saying "uh-oh, shoe. uh-oh, shoe," except she doesn't make the "sh" sound quite clearly yet. It's more like a "dzh" sound. I didn't quite get what she was saying, so I kept walking, showing her things in the store. She kept repeating herself. Suddenly it dawned on me what she was saying. I looked down, and sure enough, one shoe was off. We ran back to the cart and found it.

I am just AMAZED at her communication skills!

Transitions...

We had a great babysitter for the last 11 months. I had known her for 6 years, and asked her if she could babysit when I was still pregnant with Samantha. She only lives 2 minutes from my work and I could nurse Samantha (back when she was exclusively nursing) and visit her at lunch. She was great with Samantha - gentle, loving, patient - totally worth the $1,000/month that I was paying her. In the last few months, things started to change.
More than once, I would go to her house after lunch or after work and Samantha would be in her high chair. Not eating in her high chair, just in her high chair, hanging out. I was not okay with that. I'm paying you $1,000/month to care for Samantha, not put her in her high chair so you can clean your house. Clean your house on your own time.
The other day, I asked her if she took Samantha to her library for story time. Her response? "No, I was too busy." WTF? I'm paying you $1,000/month to be busy WITH Samantha, not whatever else you're doing.
We already had the feeling that Samantha had outgrown her care. Samantha is ready for more. But we weren't ready to move on yet because Samantha is so comfortable with her and we didn't want to disrupt her routine. Until Tuesday. That's when M asked me for more money, because Samantha demanded a lot of her attention. Samantha wants to follow her around and see what she's doing all the time. HELLO!!! Welcome to life with a toddler. She had two kids of her own...she knows what it's like. She just didn't want to treat Samantha as her own. Still, I wanted to try to make it work. I offered her $10/hr. That would end up being $1200/month. That wasn't enough. She had to "think about it."
Whatever. I can't afford to pay her any more.
Sooooo...tomorrow, Samantha starts preschool! It's a Spanish immersion preschool where she will have movement and music, art, literacy, outdoor time. I think it will be great for her...but I'm so nervous about the change. Wish us luck!

A Great Day at the Bay Area Discovery Museum!

I'd totally get a membership to this museum if it was closer to where we live. Samantha really enjoyed all the activities. Well, all the ones that were appropriate for her age. They have some activities for bigger kids too!

Splashing

Little frog instruments. You take the stick and rub it on the frog's back and it makes a cool "croaking" sound! There were different frogs with different textures (and sounds).

A HUGE tree for the kids to walk through.

Making music

Drawing. This girl loves to draw.