Mar 2, 2021 | Sesame |
* Annabelle has gotten a very energetic second wind when it comes helping with dishes and laundry. She helps with both as some of her chores, but she recently said she was going to do all the laundry in the house and clean every dish. “I can get it aaaalllll done because there are 24 hours in this whoooooole *waves her arms around* day.” The optimism of youth!
* On Friday we drove my friend’s son Sammy home from school. He and AB were having a conversation about the behavior chart at school. The goal is to keep your clip on green the entire day. Sammy frequently gets moved to light green or red. Annabelle is terrified of doing the wrong thing in school and has never had her clip moved down. Sammy didn’t believe her so she showed him the calendar in her book where each day of school without her clip being moved is colored green. Sammy said, “Bruh! You never get off green? You’re so lucky!” Annabelle stared at him in disbelief. “It is NOT luck.” Don’t be crediting luck when she’s worked hard for those greens!
*From the back seat: “How many gallons of water can a baobab tree store in its trunk?”
* “I wish there was a way to cuddle with you when I’m not home so we could cuddle forever.”
*On Friday night we went to Mellow Mushroom for supper. We had a reservation but thanks to the general lack of competence in every area in this town, there was an issue with getting our table. After nearly 45 minutes of waiting and back and forth with the hostess, Christopher went in to get some info and/or say adios to you and your poorly run pizza joint. Annabelle knelt on the ground and prayed we’d get in soon, right there in front of the potted plant. Imagine her surprise when, at the very moment she was done praying, Christopher came out and said our table was ready. She could not believe God answered her prayer so fast. Unfortunately, she didn’t pray we’d actually get our pizza soon because when we sat down, the server said it would be at least a 40-minute wait until we saw our food. We knew it would be more like 60-600 minutes so we got up from the table we waited nearly an hour for and left. But the point of the story is that she knelt down and prayed in public and it was very touching.
*When we were playing a game with pretend names and Christopher said he’d be Christopher David. “Take your reality somewhere else.”
*”I’ll help you paint my room” translates to: putting handmade posters on the walls when everything needs to be off the walls, sticking her head out of the open window and yelling to the neighborhood, asking me to watch her jump off the ladder several times in a row, banging on the drum, asking for a snack, discussing her stuffed animals new names, throwing pillows (“But they’re called THROW pillows”), asking me to put Mr. Potato Head’s eyes back on and rolling herself up in the plastic I put down to protect the floor.
*Yesterday was silly hat day at school but hair envy day in my heart.
Aug 26, 2020 | Sesame |
Annabelle’s first week of school was a little rocky.
She got in the car on the first day very disappointed. “We didn’t get to play or interact. All we did was talk about all the rules and I can’t remember all the rules and we didn’t do anything fun because we only talked about rules and I’ve never heard so many rules in my life.” I don’t know why she talks in run-on sentences because it’s certainly not from me because I am always succinct and precise and do not blabber on. She didn’t cry when I dropped her off, but she’d cry a few times during the day. Every single morning she says she doesn’t want to go but she doesn’t make a fuss about it. She says it more in a ”just so you know where I stand on this, I wouldn’t be upset if YOU want to go back to sleep and I skip school today” kind of way. She expected there to be more playing like she did at preschool and it never occurred to me to clarify that ahead of time. I think once she adjusts she’ll really enjoy it. She told me on Thursday that she played with a girl named either Delilah or Alana, she couldn’t remember which. On Friday she confirmed that it was Delilah and they played together again. Having a friend has made this week a little easier.
I’ve had to learn how to operate the carline. The drop off line goes so much more smoothly than pickup. Even with each car stopping so they can take the child’s temperature, things move along and everyone is friendly. By three o’clock these people are driving like they’re trying to be on the last helicopter out of Vietnam. It’s much more aggressive. I have to leave the house an hour early to get a good spot in the pickup line so I bring a snack and book to entertain myself. There are unspoken rules that everyone but me seems to know about merging and signaling and I broke all the rules the first few days. My go-to reaction if I don’t know what to do while driving is slump down in the seat and make myself as small as possible.
I’m proud that AB does a good job of reporting the classroom gossip happenings. She’s terrified of being corrected by the teacher but gives me a report each day on everyone else’s behavior. “Nolan K had his clip moved to yellow but I didn’t. I’m serious, Mom. I didn’t. But Payton didn’t listen and had to do laps during recess.” It’s become clear who the class troublemakers are.
Speaking of driving, I took advantage of my precious alone time hours to visit the DMV. I made an appointment online but surprise, surprise they couldn’t find me in the system. The lady asked if I was sure I already had a Georgia license. There are few things I am sure about these days but knowing which state my license is in is one of them. My most recent Massachusetts license photo was spectacular. I seldom compliment photos of myself but that one was a real winner. Not to toot my own horn, but TSA people would comment on how good it was. My first Georgia license picture wasn’t great but it wasn’t the worst. This trip would be my chance to redeem myself and recreate the Massachusetts glory. Last time I was there the photos were taken in a little room off to the side. This time I had to do it in front of the entire waiting room. There was no privacy and it felt like everyone was watching. It was very awkward. I was barely in position before the lady took the picture with no warning. I had no time to suck in all my multiple chins and look presentable. She printed out the paper copy without showing me the picture and said “This will be your license photo until 2026.”
Allow me to show you the picture I am stuck with for the next six years.
It is mortifying. I will be going into hiding as soon as I publish this. No one will ever be able to see that picture.
Aug 20, 2020 | Sesame |
One of my favorite children’s books is My Friend Harry by Kim Lewis. The little boy named James gets a new stuffed elephant he names Harry. They go everywhere together and slowly Harry gets worn and well-loved. On James’ first day of school, Harry sat in his car seat all day waiting for him to come home. On Friday, Annabelle’s worn and well-loved Hermione doll that has been glued to her hand for months sat in her car seat for hours while AB had her first day of school.
I don’t know how we got to this point in our lives that Annabelle is old enough to be in first grade. She was only born fifteen seconds ago! Here she is exactly six years ago this week, all soft and squishy and tiny. She was the cutest baby that ever lived. She holds onto Hermione the way she held onto Mr. Lion for years.
I liked homeschooling last year and loved all the time we spent together. Correction: I loved most of the time we spent together. Sometimes it was TOO MUCH TOGETHERNESS ALL THE TIME. There are several reasons she’s going to school this year and maybe someday we’ll go back to homeschooling but time will tell. I’m trying not to plan much these days because we don’t even know what stores will be open next week, let alone our educational plans for 2022. Going to school for the first time during a pandemic is not an ideal situation, but we decided that she’d still go giving the information we were being given. The many, many, many homeschool vs public school discussions Christopher and I had were very emotional and opinionated and usually left one of us in tears. Obviously, I mean Christopher was in tears. I am as stoic as Mount Rushmore.
I’ve spent every single day of the last 6.5 years with Sesame and I feel like I’ve lost a limb when she’s not here for hours on end. The first morning after we dropped her off I sat on the living room floor because I didn’t know what to do with myself. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my alone time. It’s so nice to pop in and out of stores with dealing with a car seat. I can go on long walks in the morning before the temperature hits 100*. I can decide at 10:35 to get my nails done and off I go. I need to make a plan for how I’ll balance house work/errands/appointments and me time while she’s gone. I assume the schools will be shut down in a matter of weeks and AB will be back home. I don’t want her to come home and I regret not spending more time on my own things. My hope is that I can get my things done while she’s at school so that when she comes home I can focus on spending quality time with her instead of saying “I can’t right now because I have to __________” when she asks me to play.
I was very proud of myself for not stating many opinions when she was picking out a backpack. I tried to steer her towards the cuter ones but she’s “not so into cute these days.” She picked a galaxy backpack which is very fitting for her interests right now. I picked out a dress that checked my cute box and her “patterned but not very patterned because I only want, like, a medium amount of pattern” box. I thought she might object to wearing a bow on the first day but she didn’t. Praise the Lord. She loves art so I got this big bow with an appliqued art pallet.
I also got us matching heart necklaces. The card them came on says “Here are two necklaces, one for you and one for me. We will wear them soon…when at school you’ll be! Wear it to school while you work and play…you will have my heart all day.” She hasn’t taken hers off since Friday.
I sat in the back with her on the way to school for the first time. I didn’t want her to be lonely back there; it had nothing to do with me wanting to be near her. All I could think about was when I sat in the back with her when she came home from the hospital.
Don’t think all I do around here while she’s gone is lay around eating bonbons. Yesterday I washed Hermione’s tiny clothes and washed out her matted hair. It was a full spa experience. There’s always someone to keep clean around here.
Jun 23, 2020 | Sesame |
Annabelle’s dance studio had a little tiny recital last week. Only eight girls from the original class signed up and one had to drop out on the day of the performance so it was a small group. I offered to take the spot of the missing girl but I was turned down. Each dancer’s family was given two seats in the audience so it was only parents and a couple of siblings.
She had two practices before the show and after I picked her up from the first one, she said her dance shoes didn’t fit anymore. We never wore shoes when we practiced at home so I didn’t know she outgrew them during the quarantine break. I had to track down shoes from a friend whose daughter is in another class. We did try the costume ahead of time but we couldn’t get the skirt to line up evenly. It always looks like a shirt badly tucked into pants. That’s because it was an asymmetrical skirt so it wasn’t supposed to be even. I believe the words you’re looking for are, “what a great dance mom you are.”
I love watching little dancers. They’re so precious in their tutus and very little idea of what to do.
The tap song was “Animal Crackers In My Soup” and the ballet song was a version of “Baby, Take a Bow.” At two points in the tap song she was supposed to do a wiggle with one hand on her hip and the other in the air. AB was SO embarrassed anytime she did it. I honestly didn’t know if she’d do it in the recital or not. The lyrics at those points were “who’s that bunch of personality?” and “here’s the future Miss America.” I showed her several times how to do a convincing Miss America move but she was never impressed. When she did it at the recital, she shrugged and stuck one arm up. It was the most minimal effort she could have put forth while still doing it.
If only she had looked to her mother for guidance. I’m very experienced with the hands-on-the-hip move.
Apr 25, 2020 | Sesame |
Everyone (by that I mean no one) has been asking how homeschooling is going. People are clammering to buy my soon to be released how-to book entitled Starting Strong on Monday but Phoning it in by Thursday, How to Homeschool in 386 Steps will be published.
Just kidding! It’s more like 586 steps.
I spent HOURS UPON HOURS in July making a daily schedule. My goal was to have everything written out in great detail so if I got pregnant and was too sick to teach, it would be easy for someone else to pick up the load and know what to do. My color-coded, alphabetical order loving self was so proud of my handiwork. It got lost in the move and I could never recreate it to its former glory. Then I got pregnant and miscarried which eliminated the original need for such a detailed schedule so I went to a basic schedule. We do math and handwriting first because any subject with large amounts of writing are a trial for both of us. It’s not that she can’t write, it’s that she likes to form the letters her own way. Handwriting usually goes like this:
Me: Pay attention to which letters go to the sky (the top line) and which go underground (the bottom line). Some only go to the top of the house (the middle line). Do you see what I’m talking about?
Sesame: Yep. Can I have a snack?
Me: No. You finished breakfast half an hour ago. Write the letters.
Sesame: does some questionable lettering
Me: What is going on here? The top line is right here.
Sesame: I thought you meant this top line.
Me: No, this top line. The one that’s above the line you’re writing on.
Sesame: Whoops! Sorry, Mom! I guess I’m not really paying attention. I thought this was the top line.
Me: What’s happening now? K has straight lines.
Sesame: I thought it would look good if I added some swirls.
Me: Add swirls on your own time. Start at the top and do it the way I said.
Sesame: Hi, Lulu! What are you doing? Do you wanna play?
Me: Lucy, it’s not playtime. Get off the table. Annabelle, do the K. Why is it going underground?! K’s don’t go underground!
Despite the very bumpy handwriting road, we’ve made some progress this year. She’s gotten to the point in reading and writing where she’ll sound words out and write pages of notes that are nearly impossible to read but so sweet. Our anniversary is coming up and she made this helpful gift chart for Christopher. No frogs. No snakes. Yes cats. She knows me so well.
The other day she lost the privilege of listening to her audiobook. She said she was bored so I told her to find something to do. She decided to write Classical Conversations Latin words.
We spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon doing a combination of grammar, geography, science, reading, history and art. Reading hasn’t fully clicked in her brain yet, but it’s getting better. Her new thing is to read the nametags of cashiers and baggers at the store then tell me their names in the car. It’s nice to know that all my hours of sounding out letters are sinking in.
I make as much of the learning as hands-on as I can. We do math and writing/spelling with chalk. We use acorns and pinecones for addition and subtraction.
AB has NO issues with drawing and art. She colors while eating breakfast all the way to drawing pictures when I read a story at night. She puts all her papers in a green basket and by the end of every week, we have to weed through because the pictures are overflowing. We’ve studied specific pieces by various artists then painted the same piece using acrylics or watercolor. She then paints her own landscape/still life/whatnot in their style. These are a Picasso head, Monet waterlilies under a bridge, and landscape.
For history, we read the American Girl looks and learn what was happening in the United States during that period. I found a website that has lapbooks for each character so we make those as well. So far we’ve read the Felicity, Kirsten, and Josefina books and next week we’ll start Samantha.
She also does swimming, piano, and ballet lessons all of which are currently suspended. My teacher’s paycheck is also currently suspended but I have access to the student’s father’s bank account so it should all even out.
