Kindergarten

Jessica started kindergarten today.

In typical Jessica fashion, this is how the preparation went: I had picked out a dress and tights for her a few days ago. I showed them to her last night and got her approval. It was an aqua dress and aqua tights.

This morning when I said it was time to get dressed, she immediately told me she wanted to wear purple. Whatever. I checked her closet and she had a short-sleeved purple dress hanging there. I took it down and gave it to her.

In typical Laura fashion, I didn't realize until we were walking to the bus stop that the purple dress had a spot on it. A rather large spot.

But other than a slightly dirty dress, everything went fine. I had planned to drive to the bus stop, just because I was going to take her brother to daycare immediately after. But she wanted to walk, so we walked. Daddy and Xander were with us. The cat decided to come along too.

At the bus stop 1 other kindergartner, a 1st and 2nd grader, and a 6th grader joined us. I wasn't the only one with a camera. The bus was relatively on time (apparently last year on the first day it was 20 minutes late). I was so busy taking pictures I almost didn't have time for a quick hug and kiss before she climbed up onto the bus. She totally took it in stride.

I'll admit, I was a bit worried about how she'd do. She's done a fair amount of crying and clinging at drop-offs, especially in new situations, and as recently as this summer at camp. She told us several times yesterday that she had butterflies in her stomach. Maybe it was just the hustle and bustle of getting on the bus, but whatever it was, I was so proud of my little girl.

At least there are no panty lines......

Author's note: this post has been 3 months in the making, partially because I kept getting new material to add to it.

Jessica has a problem keeping on her underwear. I first recognized this problem at a Memorial Day barbeque. I had laid out clothes for her to wear but somehow she ended up at the bbq sans underwear.

Of course, I didn't realize it till at least halfway through the afternoon. And it was at least half an hour after she turned fast and gave the bbq attendees an eyeful. I thought they were laughing because they could see her underwear, silly Mommy.

When I asked her why she wasn't wear her underwear, she told me I didn't put it out for her. Obviously the idea of asking me to get her some never occurred to her.

Several times after that, she didn't put on underwear again because she said I didn't put it out for her. I repeated she should ask me for it if she doesn't see it, not just to not wear it.

About a week later after Memorial Day we were at another bbq. This time she had an accident. Since I didn't have extra panties with me, she went without underwear for the rest of day. Unlike the Memorial Day bbq, however, she was wearing a much shorter dress.

Then there was the time I sent her to camp in her bathing suit. I packed underwear in her backpack for after swim was over but she didn't see it so when she got dressed, she just didn't put on any underwear.

Are you seeing a theme here?

Apparently, this lack of undergarments is quite memorable. Her friend Ainsley protested wearing underwear one day saying, "Jessica doesn't." Fabulous. That's what my kid is going to be known for.

"I'll be right back"

Jessica has a tendency to put her shirts and underwear on backwards. I always tell her to look for the label, but apparently that's advice wasted on youth. Yesterday morning I noticed her pajama top looked like it was on backwards because the collar was really high. I asked her if if shirt was on backwards and reached forward to look for the label.

She pulled away, peeked at the inside of the collar, then said, "I'll be right back," and disappeared into the bedroom. A minute later she was back. I could see that now there was a little applique flower in the center of the collar, indicating front was front.

She proudly said, "See! It wasn't on backwards."

Wow, I guess I was wrong. ; )

Random quotes

So Aunt Nutan gave me a great quote by Jessica from over the weekend (when she was in NJ and I was in MA and therefore didn't hear it myself):
"So, Kiran's done milking you?"

This made me think of some other funny things she's said.

Towards the end of the school year, apparently she developed the habit (this was told to me by her teacher), when a large group of kids got too loud and excited, of saying, "Okay, everyone, just calm down." On a related theme, she also likes to talk about "freaking out."

Finally, she's been telling me all summer about this boy the kids saw on the playground at camp. Only she refers to him as "skateboard dude."

It's amazing the slang terms they pick up.

Quote of the day

(while swimming at the pool) "Water hugs are the best."

Repost

I posted this on FB (that's Facebook for you nonbelievers), but it was so funny that I still laugh when I think about it, so I'm recording it for posterity in Jessica's blog.

A while ago, Jessica developed the amusing habit of saying "Alert! Alert!" when something was happening that she thought needed adult intervention. Well, a couple of weeks ago, Xander had a poopy diaper and ran upstairs when I told him I wanted to change it. Within a couple of minutes, we heard Jessica shouting from upstairs, "Stink alert! Stink alert!"

The end of an era

Jessica has, for several years, been obssessed with the colors pink and purple, to the point where she refused to wear anything else. I could occasionally slip in an orange or a cyan but for the most part, her wardrobe was P&P.

Today, we were at Target. They had T-shirts on sale, and she's outgrowing her 5's, so I decided to get a few for school. She was with me, so I grabbed the plain pastel pink top and asked her if she wanted it, as I was throwing it into the cart.

"No."

Scrreeeeeeech. It was like the sound of rubbing the needle against a vinyl record.

What? No?

She then pointed out a polka dotted purple shirt she wanted. Okay, that was within the accepted color scheme. Then she picked, gasp, a blue (and pink) striped shirt. I told her she could also get the pink shirt (they were only $4; what can I say, I'm a big spender). Still no. She told me she wanted the ones with patterns.

Daring to be bold, I asked if she wanted the polka dotted brown shirt. And she said yes!

Really pushing my luck, I asked her what she would wear them with. Would she wear them with jeans?

"Yes."

You all probably felt the earth stop spinning for that single moment.

Jeans. My girl agreed to wear jeans.

Of course, it's a big step from saying she's going to wear them and having her actually willingly put them on, but it's a good first step.

I'm not sure I like the territory we're entering

Last Saturday, Xander and Jessica's daycare/camp had a summer outing at a lake where the older kids go every day for camp. There were PONY RIDES, so of course we had to go. I, predictably, got off to a late start. The kids were at a playdate and I was reluctant to pull them away early. Then we got into the car and our extremely unreliable GPS wouldn't pick up a signal. I floundered my way through downtown Worcester before finally getting onto Route 9, and we were good.

However, the result was that we didn't get there till past 1:00, and the outing was from 11 to 3. I immediately put Jessica on a pony, because I wasn't sure how long the pony rides were going to last. We got some lunch (pasta salad, hot dogs, chips, the usual barbeque fare). Then we went to go swimming. As I was reaching into our bag, I had a very clear memory of telling myself to throw in Jessica's bathing suit. I had an equally clear memory of not having done it.

Fortunately, I knew there was a Walmart nearby. And just a few days earlier, I had mentioned to Hari that I needed to buy some size 6 bathings suits now, because Jessica would need them for winter swim lessons and I had a terrible time trying to find size 5 bathing suits in the middle of winter this past year. So I thought this was actually a good thing, because I'd buy her a size 6 bathing suit now, and she'd have it.

Now for the troublesome part. They were rather limited on size 6/6X bathing suits. Since I refused to buy a Sponge Bob bathing suit, that left us exactly one choice. So I bought it. First, it's a little big, which led to exposure issues, but even if it weren't big, it's extremely provactively cut. Why does a 6 year old need a provacative bathing suit? Argh!!!!!

Please, shoot me now

before Jessica becomes a teenager. I can't imagine this is as bad as it gets, but she's already driving me crazy.

For example, 3 days a week for 10 months, she told me that she didn't want to go to preschool because she hated rest time. It was as though, if she didn't have to rest, she would be perfectly happy and willing to go to school. But the law says she had to rest, and so I endured the complaint Every Single Day she went to school.

Okay.

Today she started church camp. I read over their literature and didn't see anything about rest time, so I figured we were in the clear. Not only that, I used it as a selling point this morning, when Jessica was nervous (understandably) about going to a new camp where she didn't know anyone.

"You won't have to rest," I told her.

"Well," she said, and I knew then that I was in trouble. "Well, I think I kind of like rest time, after all."

I repeat, please, just shoot me now.

My status is improving

Jessica likes to be a food critic. Usually I get one or two thumbs down. Sometimes I get lucky and get thumbs up. Well, this week I've been getting rave reviews, predictably in the dessert department.

First, I made this dessert pie off a recipe from the coupon flier. It had sweetened condensed milk, cool whip and frozen berries in a graham cracker crust. Really, how can you go wrong with that? I got TEN FINGERS up.

Then there was the monkey bread. I had never heard of monkey bread till a couple of months ago. I decided to try it while I was visiting Lisa, so I wouldn't be tempted to eat all of it myself. Ingredients: refrigerated biscuits, sugar (brown and white), cinnamon, butter and pecans. Again, how can you go wrong. I got 10 more fingers up.

Go Mommy.

Now if I could only get her to give me a few fingers up for something without sugar in it.

Quote of the day

"Mom, if you don't hear me say anything, let me know, because sometimes I don't listen to myself."

Okaaaaay.......

Maybe it's worth it.

I bought 2 dresses for Jessica yesterday. Yes, I have a serious problem but that's not what this post is about. This post is about what I discovered when I was taking the tags off one of the dresses today so she could wear it. This is what the tag says:

I have a problem with both the hand wash and the extremely complex drying instructions. Normally if it can't go into the washing machine and dryer, I won't buy it. But look at how cute she looks in the first of the dresses:


Maybe it's worth it.

"You take care of me."

The other day, I received a postcard in the mail from Jessica. It kind of baffled me. But there was no doubt it was from her. It had her trademark signature on it. I actually got it from the mailbox on my way to pick her up from preschool. When I saw her, I asked her about it. She said they had mailed them from school. I thanked her for it.

Then she said, "Well, I wanted to send it to someone who I love a lot. You take care of me. You do everything for me, Mommy."

It was actually really nice to know my 5 year old appreciates me!

Apparently bribery works

In the ongoing battle to get Jessica out of my bed (or, to be more precise, to get me out of her bed), I've had to use bribery. At first, I offered something abstract--a sleepover! She really wants to have one but I can't let a friend come over and then have Jessica yelling for me to come down to her room with her friend there.

That didn't work. She was excited about the idea, but when I reminded her of the reward in the middle of the night, it wasn't enough to get her back into her bed alone.

What worked? (so far): Barbie! The mermaidia fairytopia barbie to be exact. We had bought a Mermaidia movie months ago and it came with advertising for all the toys that related to the movie. Well, the movie came out over 2 years ago and the toys are no longer available, especially the one she really really wanted. I finally found it on ebay (where else?) and bought it to offer as a bribe.

So, in the last week or so, she's slept 4 nights in her bed. Now, on at least 2 of those nights, I spent some time in the bottom bunk with Xander, who still wakes a couple of times a night if he's not in bed with me (working on that too, believe me). But she thought I was in my room, so I think that counts.

That's my girl!

Recently Jessica has been lecturing me to "reduce, reuse, recycle" and she told me this morning how the landfills are "getting big." (I assumed she meant full). Her preschool is teaching her all about that. Yay!

Gag order

I knew this day would come.

Sadly, Jessica has become acutely aware of things I say about her to other people. While visiting Aunt Nutan a few weeks ago, we were talking about her infamous "I'll be pregnant" comment. Since then she's twice told me that she was "very embarrassed" by my telling other people about that, and has asked me not to tell other people about things she says.

I'm wondering if I can get by on a "don't ask, tell" policy: if I don't ask her, then it's okay to tell people about the things she says.

And it just figures that there's a pretty good story from this afternoon that she specifically told me not to tell anyone about. Since I want her to trust me when it comes to more important things, I'll honor her request. And then in a week or two I won't remember it and it will be lost forever.

Boy talk

It started innocently enough. Jessica said something along the lines of boys being yucky.

I figured might as well start talking about boys now, though with Jessica, you never know what's going to come out of her mouth.

I asked her if she liked boys. Her response was negative, but she did mention she knew who she was going to marry. Burning with curiousity, I asked who.

"Cooper." Cooper has the cubby next to her at preschool, I think.

"Does he know that?"

"No."

"Is he your boyfriend?"

"No." I could hear the duh in her tone.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

Smiling: "Dan." Dan lives near the post office. Jessica went to his house for trick-or-treating last year."

"Does he know?"

"No."

"Why don't you tell him?" She became demure. Then she said something about Peyton also having a boyfriend. Peyton's boyfriend is Troy. If Jessica could text, Peyton would be her BFF.

"Oh, that's just secret girl stuff."

I decided to stop the interrogation. It scares me that we may be having this conversation for real in about 5 years. (If it's less, don't tell me).

Quote of the day

"And it's a nose-picker alien!" (Sadly, in reference to her brother).

I hope she's never *my* dentist

Jessica is playing dentist with Xander. She's "Dentist Rosie." My dentists never have nice friendly names like that. Anyway, Dentist Rosie just did something to patient Xander's mouth. She concluded with "Now, don't eat for 2 days."

Wow, that's some procedure.

(eye roll)

As I watched my beautiful daughter playing with her Easter stash, I felt the need to tell her how much I love her.

Her response?

"I know that already! You've been telling me that ever since I was born."

Pardon me. ; )