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Catch up time!

Okay, so most everyone knows that our baby girl started Kindergarten. She’s also riding the bus (started on the 2nd day and didn’t so much as wave to us!). The downside to the bus is that it’s now arriving 15 minutes earlier than it did before. We really don’t want to have to wake her before 6 but this morning was a challenge to get her fed, dressed, and out there!

As for school itself, I’m excited about her music class. Bummed that it’s only one day a week, but oh well. The teacher is Orff-Schulwerk certified (here and here for more info). I studied this a little at Georgia College and if they have at least some of the equipment (or even if they don’t!) she’ll have a BLAST!

One of the things done involves xylophones with removable bars. The bars are generally set up in a pentatonic scale (black keys on a piano) and basically, anything the kids play sounds good together! There’s no such thing as “wrong” in this set up.

We’re also adjusting to her new schedule. She’s on the bus pretty early - about 30 minutes before we have to leave for work, in fact. The first day, we walked into the quiet house and I said, “Um… now what?” I had a similar reaction the first night we had her bedtime at a strict 8pm. I’m actually awake enough to watch TV or socialize with my husband! (at least for an hour - I’m usually asleep in the recliner by 9, much to his dismay)

We also started dance class back up and received some news that made us proud! Her teacher asked to talk to me after class and suggested that we move Taylor up to the next class! It’s a bit more challenging but the teacher believes she can handle it and noticed that she’s been paying more attention, etc. SO! Brian, who works for a wonderful employer, has adjusted his schedule for Mondays so that he can get her to dance class in time!

And I think that’s it! For now anyway

August 20, 2008, 12:31 pm | No Comments »

Mental Day

So I’ve twitted on this a little bit already. I took a “mental” day today because my house was making me mental. Additionally, Taylor wanted her mommy and promised to help clean and stayed home too.

She helped me start laundry then we went to her room. First, I introduced her to the joys of cranking up the music while cleaning. That was interrupted by a faulty CD player, so music’s on hold doggoneit. then, we cleaned up around her toy baskets and I proceeded to her closet. She is now discovering the joys of cleaning out the closet! She’s finding long lost toys like her Care Bears, Minnie Mouse, some of her pom-poms, and Duck-Duck & Bullup. I can’t find the original post on those, but they’re bath toys she had as a baby. “Bullup” was her attempt at making a frog sound.

And now - the sadness. She has changed Duck-Duck’s and Bullup’s names. Duck-Duck is now Smiley.
Bullup is now McCala. When I said, “Noooo!” she walked off with a “I’m not a baby anymore…”

Sadness indeed. Now back to work!

August 4, 2008, 9:06 am | No Comments »

Ten years

Tenth anniversary clock, originally uploaded by bmcalist.

Ten years ago today, I walked in the doors of al.com for the first time, wearing shorts and sporting hair way too long. It was my first time in the building, as my interview was done over the phone. My first task: typing up anecdotal information from all SEC football stadiums from a book. Cleaning out the junk closet recently, I came across the dated 3½” disk I saved it on. It sits here beside me, though I don’t have a single machine at my desk that can read it.

July 31, 2008, 2:15 pm | 2 Comments »

That’s my girl!

Taylor surprised us this morning. She knows and is excited about the fact that, when her cast comes off, she’s going back to the pool. So, this morning, we were talking once again of how she might be getting her cast off on Wednesday. Excitedly, she said, “When I get this cast off, I want to go to the… what?” Believing she was thinking of the pool, we started guessing things like the zoo, McWane Center, grocery store, and other assorted answers we knew would get a “No!” from her. Finally, we gave up and had her tell us.

“When I get this cast off, I want to go to the MALL!”

What?!?

Yep, the mall. While I don’t particularly care for the mall itself, I do like shopping and found it amusing that she’d pick shopping (essentially) over the pool.

Granted, I suspect that she’d like to go this weekend when her Mimi & Papa are in town because she feels certain that she could convince either me or Mimi to let her buy something in Build-A-Bear.

And yes, I realize she doesn’t have to wait until her cast is off to go to the mall, but considering I don’t like the mall, I’m not going to tell her that!

July 14, 2008, 4:36 pm | 2 Comments »

Another tooth!

We knew that that 2nd tooth wasn’t long for this world. Brian told me about her showing it to her Sunday School teacher last night (I won’t go into detail but suffice it to say, we knew it was coming out soon). So, this morning arrives and she begrudgingly gets out of bed and Brian starts helping her get ready. Suddenly! Commotion! “Mommy! Mommy! Look! My other tooth fell out last night!!”

And the search begins.. and continues… and continues. Meanwhile, I slip Brian a couple of quarters and he nods knowingly, or so I thought. I continue helping her get dressed while he keeps looking for the tooth. I get her to leave the room to brush her remaining teeth then go to him. Apparently, the Tooth Fairy knew that Taylor’s tooth had fallen out and she came last night and put money under her pillow! (Brian, “Oh!”). When Taylor gets done in the bathroom, Brian asks her for help in looking for the tooth and she discovers the money under her pillow. She believes her tooth fell out and landed under her pillow. Who are we to argue?

We suspect she swallowed it, but if it turns up, we’ll come up with something to back up the Tooth Fairy.

Oh! And we may’ve run into a problem. “Mommy! I lost TWO teeth and got TWO quarters!” Which implies a quarter per tooth each time one’s lost (.75 for 3 teeth, $1 for 4 teeth, etc). Um. No. Brian & Taylor recently counted 18 teeth. At that rate, by the time she loses all of her teeth, she will have amassed $42.50. $43.50 if you include the dollar for the first lost tooth.

So, she’s a snagglepuss - two missing teeth on the bottom middle. And no more loose teeth - for now.

July 11, 2008, 8:44 am | 1 Comment »