So, in full please-don’t-sue-it’s-just-a-kindergarten-project parody grandeur, I present to you, Hannah Tomtana.

Hannah Tomtana, originally uploaded by Brian McAlister.

Taylor and Hannah Tomtana, originally uploaded by Brian McAlister.

Taylor entertained herself in my office Friday afternoon by drawing on the whiteboard. I will add that no one helped her with any of this. The thought bubbles, the sentence, all of it was her doing.

We’re pretty impressed.

So - I stayed home with her Friday. Then had a mommy-daughter day on Saturday while Brian went and watched college football with friends. She was playing on the computer. I was on my keyboard with the headphones on practicing for Sunday. At one point, I took the headphones off, sighed and said, “I don’t have an offertory for tomorrow and I don’t like anything in these books!” Taylor turns around and says, “Well mommy, just play Jesus Love Me.. or some other church songs!” It just so happens, I have an arrangement of Jesus Loves Me so I got it out and re-familiarized myself with it.

Sunday morning comes. In particular, the children’s sermon. Our pastor asks the kids, “How many of you know Jesus Loves Me?” Having already told Brian the story, he & I look at each other and chuckle. I told our pastor about it after the service and he laughed too - thought it was neat that it was as if we’d planned it that way. I love it when that happens and think it’s even neater that it happened through a 5 year old!

Sunday afternoon was fun as well. At least for me & Taylor. Brian wasn’t feeling well that morning then got worse, so he holed himself up in our room while Taylor & I were downstairs throwing a jewelry party. Taylor was excited to be my Junior Hostess. She wanted to pass out plates and she modeled some of the jewelry. There were two pieces she really really really wanted and was upset when I said, “Um. No.” For starters, it wasn’t appropriate for a 5 year old (a choker with large silver and black pearls and matching bracelet) and most importantly, it was too expensive to be play jewelry! As it is, she got a ring that we’ve lectured her on being sure to put where it belongs and not lose it. She’s also getting a little necklace that is much more appropriate for her.

This would be the downside to my getting more into jewelry - she sees me wearing it more and wants to do the same. I also realize that, after yesterday, she will want to come every time I throw one of these parties and if I go to someone else’s party, I won’t be able to tell her that that’s where I’m going or she’ll want to come as well!

And mommy-daughter time continues as Brian’s 3 year “no-sick-leave” record is broken by this bug. I get to take her to dance tonight. I’m looking forward to it, actually. The room they’re in now has windows you can peek in. It’s also a tougher class - she loves it and is one worn out little girly when it’s over!

Update: It appears to have been a relatively easy fix. Links look like they’re working alright. Server farm transitions are never easy and always come with bugs, but this one will be worth the hassle I believe. Readers, meet Dreamhost. Dreamhost, meet readers.

Yes, if you follow that link, it’s a whole terabyte of disk space. That’s cool. What’s even cooler is the surprise I got when I signed up. I just happened to sign up during Dreamhost’s 11th birthday party, so I wound up with unlimited disk space for the life of my account. Now that’s really cool.

Side note, she LOVES riding the bus. She also thoroughly enjoyed riding it home the one Friday I was off work. She loved it so much that she told us that she wanted to ride it home again. We (I) frantically explained that she would be coming home to an empty and locked house - no! She suggested that she could stay at a friend’s house (the boy mentioned in the story above). Brian then told her that she’d miss out on all the fun things they do in her After-School program and I believe that’s what convinced her. (Phew!)

She likes the typical little kid music like Twinkle, Twinkle and Wheels on the Bus.

She also likes Classical and can sing snippets thanks to Little Einsteins. She remembers her first symphony concert and going to see Peter and the Wolf (and I plan to take her to more!). Side note: It was fun finding that link to the Little Einsteins theme song! We listened to it in Japanese, Spanish, German, and French!

She likes Christian (pop to traditional hymns) and dances in the aisle during rehearsals. I’ve already warned our pastor that we might get into interpretive dance in a few years (now that I think about that, I’m not sure how the Lutheran church - Missouri Synod feels about that. hehe).

Her favorite XM station is Flight 26.

She likes pop (Hannah Montana, Leona Lewis, and Natasha Bedingfield). I feel it necessary to add that when I started the Leona Lewis video, she hadn’t even started singing and Taylor was able to name the song.

Her daddy introduced her to Evanescence and she loves them.

And now, a “for a short time only” XM station that she likes and it made me proud when she told me to turn up louder: XM 51 Mandatory Metallica.

That’s my girl!!

Later, she told me that she wanted to eat breakfast at school. I said, “Okay. But you have to get white milk or juice - no chocolate milk.” She groaned and said she’d eat at home. Now, I don’t even know if chocolate milk is available at breakfast time - I hope not, but you never know. At any rate, I couldn’t help but smile at her innocence. It hasn’t occurred to her yet to say, “Yes ma’am.” and then get whatever she wants. I know the day is coming, but I’m enjoying the innocence while it’s still around!

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

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!

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.