Smarty Pants

So, last Thursday I had my second Parent-Teacher conference at Ava's preschool. The first one was back in November - I had good intentions to blog about it at the time, but never did...so now I can roll it all together in this post.

What it basically boils down to is that my kid is a genius. Ha! Not really, but Miss Mary did emphasize that Ava is really smart. I do think Ava is smart, but she also does have the advantage of being one of the oldest kids in her class (the November birthday thing). Of course it's nice to hear, though! She also said Ava would probably do fine in Kindegarten next year if that were an option (it isn't). The September 1 rule is pretty solid around here - I did check awhile ago to see if they granted any exceptions - you are able to file for early admission in our school district, but even then the child's birthday needs to be before October 15th. So, any way you look at it, she is not eligible to start next year. Which I really do think is fine - it's kind of nice to not have to make the decision. I would hate to put her through early and then have her struggle. We have signed her up for the same preschool next year and she will go 3 days a week instead of 2.

Miss Mary started off the conference by reviewing some of the competencies they "graded" in the fall and compared them to how they are doing now.

Some of the comments from the fall were:
"Ava loves to play with others, is very social and friendly. Hugs friends."
"Excellent verbal skills" (yes, our ears are painfully aware of this!)
"Follows rules, a few times has challenged them by going to side of the room or not sitting where asked."
"Usually great during group time, sometimes needs reminder to not talk to friends. Once refused to sit where asked." (ONCE?)
"Ava is doing excellent in all areas and is such a nice girl."

This additional comment made me laugh out loud during this recent conference:
"Ava is very peaceful."

Ahh...well, I guess it's a good thing she acts like a completely different child at school than she does at home.

Miss Mary also commented on how much Ava loves books - she said she will sit in the book corner and look at books and most of the other kids do not do this on their own. That's my girl - I love that one! She also got high marks on drawing, large muscle skills and small muscle skills. "Ava excels in all areas! She is a joy to have at school!"

Here is the self-portrait Ava drew in the fall:

(it is labeled arms, pretty dress, and shoes)

And the one from the spring:

(it is labeled "that's me")

And then she asked if she could draw Reese too:

(it is labeled "that's my baby sister walking")

They also asked her some questions and recorded her answers. One of them was:
These are my friends at school...
"Alexandra, Grace, Ava S., Queen, and the other one in that room, Ryan, Alex, you (points to Miss Mary), Miss Joni, me, I like myself."
Ms. Mary said she got such a big kick out of that because in all her years of teaching, she never had a kid respond that they liked themself. She said "Good for her - look how self-confident she is!" Yep, that's our Ava.

March Madness

Whoa - I didn't realize it has been almost a month since my last update. I did "spring" up the page a little bit with some new pictures and background about a week ago, but haven't had much time for a proper post.

March has been crazy busy...(but what's new?)

*Reese has been sick twice and acquired 4 new top teeth, bringing her grand chopper total to 6
*Ava had a double ear infection
*Work for me has been ridiculous as our re-org was finally announced which will go into effect on April 5th...that has meant lots of extra work for me as I have been tasked with reviewing lots of new procedures and training the rest of my department on them - I'll be SO happy when this week is over!
*Scot just got home today from playing a pretend war for 5 days

So yeah, there hasn't been much free time for anything lately. We are going to Wausau this weekend for 3 or 4 days, so that will be a nice break. Hoping to hit the water park for an afternoon and maybe sneak in a date too! I'm sure Grandma is anxious to babysit! :-) Oh, and of course, play Easter Bunny!

Catching Up

As usual, life has been busy and blogging has fallen to the bottom of my to-do list. Especially given that the last few weeks gave us the Winter Olympics and a renewed commitment of mine to exercise. The baby weight is, ahem, over a year old now, and much to my dismay those last 10 pounds or so aren't going away on their own. I'm trying to exercise at least 3 days a week, which still isn't that much, but it's a reasonable goal for me right now. I've been doing Jillian's 30 Day Shred, which is a 20 minute workout that combines strength training, cardio, and abs. It's challenging. And it's 20 minutes. I can do 20 minutes, so I'm going to try and keep that up. Scot has been doing it with me too, which really helps!

We had a really great weekend - Ava had her final ice skating lesson on Saturday. I'm so proud of her and how far she's come! Glad we stuck with it. The weekend before I took the girls out to the outdoor rink again and Ava was actually pulling Reese in the sled on skates. We'll give it a rest now and probably sign her up again next winter for something to do. I really enjoyed getting back on skates myself, Scot bought some new skates too. It's a nice family activity we can do for many years to come.

After Saturday's nap, we took the kids over to Woodbury's Central Park, which has an indoor playground - Ava had a blast as usual and Reese thoroughly enjoyed her first visit. Just like Ava, Reese has no fear and will climb on pretty much anything.

After the park, I had a major craving for Angelo's, which is a local pizza place that delivered to our house in St. Paul - now that we moved, we can't get it delivered, so we went there to eat. And, oh my gosh, we had the best dinner out ever with kids. EVER. Ava colored quietly, she ate her entire plate of spaghetti (remember, she's the kid who doesn't eat pizza), Reese sat contently in her highchair, eating and flirting with the neighbors. At one point, I asked Scot, "Who are these people?" It was a HUGE small pleasure to have a night out like that - ha, yes we are sad.

Sunday. Scot wins The Bravest Dad award, as he took Ava downhill skiing for the first time. They had a special military day at Afton Alps, a ski hill about 10 miles or so from our house. His lift ticket was half price, Ava's was free, and rentals were $10 a piece, so it was a great deal. If it was going to be a disaster, at least it wasn't going to cost a fortune. And Ava LOVED it. She really, really enjoyed watching all of the skiing during the Olympics, so I think that helped her get a sense (albeit unrealistic) of what it was going to be like. And again, the girl has never had any fear, so we didn't anticipate that that would be a problem. It took her awhile, of course, to get used to the skis. Scot painstakingly tried to teach her how to snowplow and maneuver and that frustrated her (I hate it when Scot tries to teach me stuff too, LOL). So, he finally gave up and let her go and she zoomed down the hill on her own agenda and had a ball. Her favorite part was the chairlift and she's ready to go back. So, I think we can call it a success. I picked her up after a few hours so Scot could ski by himself for awhile longer. Hopefully they can get out more next winter, I think it's a great thing for them to do together.

Definitely a busy weekend and in the middle of it all, Reese got a cold and started cutting some of her top teeth. At almost 14 months, she still only had her bottom 2 teeth...but 2 of her top teeth finally poked through on Sunday. The poor girl has been a train wreck, between the pain of teething and the constant stream of snot running from her nose. I stayed home with her on Monday and Scot stayed home with her today. Not sure what tomorrow will bring - but I hope the sweet girl feels better soon! Daycare has been a ghost town because of colds - it has been just Ava and Michael (a 2 year old boy) there the last 2 days. Ava really misses her buddy Kayla, but at least today she got to go to preschool in the morning so she wasn't so bored.

Well, it's time for me to sign off. I had to leave work early today so I could relieve Scot at 3:30 - he had to go in and fly yet tonight at 7. So, I think I will fire up the DVR, watch American Idol and do a little work. Joy.