August was a big big month for us! She started preschool, gymnastics, and we may have found a Sunday School! She absolutely loves all of those things, which is so nice =) She comes home full of happy stories, although it takes me a while to get them all out of her. I can still hear her talking through the monitor about school today, and singing random bits of song like Twinkle Twinkle/ the ABC song, or it's a Grand Old Flag. (Her music teacher pointed out that Twinkle and ABC are the same tune, and they made up their own lyrics to that tune too.) She also keeps calling out for her new friends like they can hear her and will come and play =) Here is an excerpt from her journal and some pictures =)
8/17
Serenity was playing with her microphone today, and said, “I love you so much Mama, so I’m going to come over there so you can snuggle and kiss and hug me.”
She finds Donovan’s spit up hilarious, and as such has learned to spit herself. Her Daddy decreed that she could only spit in the sink.
She is mostly potty trained now. She usually goes in the potty on her own, and at least half the time without reminders. However, we still have several accidents a week when she gets too involved in her activities and doesn’t pay attention. Usually though she only gets her panties a little wet, and holds it to get the rest in the potty, so no puddles!!! And I haven’t had to clean poopy panties in two weeks, which is the best! She gets a skittle if she pees in the toilet and keeps her panties dry, and a starburst for poop in the potty. Now that it’s nearly over, I can say potty training, while no fun at all, was not quite as awful as I feared =) It was nice to get to work on it while Henry was here too, I think it helped a lot as Serenity became a competitive pee-er. If it was time for Henry to try on the potty she’d run in and try to claim the potty first. And it was nice to be able to discuss it with Jack and Patricia to try and figure out ways to make it work! She had sticker charts for the first few weeks, and I think they definitely helped with the initial motivation. And then she got rewarded with ice cream dates the first two times she FINALLY pooped in the potty. I was starting to get worried about that as she seemed to be either just going in her panties or saving it for bedtime when she had a diaper on. But it all worked out =) Now I think she’s trying to spread the poop out so she can get several starbursts in one day. Sneaky. =)
Some more quotes from school:
I love Lauren and Lauren loves me. She had a butterfly shirt and it made me really really silly!
Mama: Did you have library today?
S:Yes.
Mama:What did you read?
S: I like books!
Mama: I’m glad you like books, but what did the librarian read?
S:I Like Books!
Repeat for a few times until she finally says: “We read “I Like Books!” And “Books Books Books!”
Learned Hola and Me Llamo Serenity.
Learned about legs in science… Parts of the Body.
I’m a little sad. (why baby?) Because I left my school.
8/30/11
Serenity has turned us all into countries and states =) We used to pretend to be Backyardigans, now Mama is Venezuela, she is Peru, and Donovan is Ecuador. And then yesterday she was back into Stack the States, so she said, “Mama you’re Texas!” So I said, “Texas is a good state for Mama cause I’m big.” Then she said, “I’M big! I’m Alaska!!!” (Donovan is little so she decided he was Rhode Island. And Daddy is California. For many reasons. =) We also pretended to be a Jaguar family yesterday. She was baby Jaguar and Big Sister Jaguar when Donovan got up and became Baby Jaguar.
Tonight, instead of just calling for Mama or Daddy through the monitor at bedtime, we hear Serenity say “Steelllllaaa! Ayyyaaaan! Ishan! Lauuuuren!” She was calling all her friends from school to come to her house =) Hopefully it works =)
She loves to snuggle Donovan, and has started trying to play Peek-a-boo with him, which I think they both love. She really does not like him to take naps though. I explain that tiny babies need a lot of sleep, but she really wants him to play with her all day. She just does not understand actually wanting to sleep, probably because she never did =)
