Just made some adorable Thank You cards from Shutterfly for the holidays. Isn’t this the cutest pic my mom took?
I am in awe of Kendal today. Not only is she ready for school, she is going to love it. We have been talking about going to school with her friends, Ava and Bella, all summer. We’ve talked about all of the run things she would do in school, and we’ve talked about how mommy and daddy will always come back for her at the end of the day. All that encouragement, combined with going to the gym and being left in the kids’ club, seems to have worked. We left her on the first day of school with no tears, not a single one.
After arriving at school and washing her hands she went straight to playing and reading books. We took a few more pictures, gave hugs and kisses, said goodbye and then we left. Amazingly, we left a smiling happy girl. And her friends were happy too. (Bella cried for a moment when she realized mom was gone, but she was quickly consolded by the teacher.)
While Kendal was in school I met Amy, Lisa and Megan for breakfast at Peach Valley Cafe. After our kid-free breakbast, we killed a bit of time at TJ-Maxx before heading back to pick up the kids from school.
As we all hovered around the door to the classroom, we watched the kids play happily with the teacher. (Singing Eitsy Bitsy Spider.) One by one they brought the kids out to us, and the teacher hurridly assured us that they had all had a great day. Nothing specific, just a good day. And then she stopped took a look at Kendal and said to us, “Kendal doesn’t like to be dirty.” We laughed because we certainly know that! Apparently Kendal wanted her hands wiped a lot. And just as we were talking about her dislike for being dirty, Kendal pointed out that she had markers on her hands that she wanted washed off! That’s my girl, just like her mama.
After school, we took Kendal and Ava to Chic-fil-A for lunch as a special treat. As we asked the girls about their day Kendal told us that they sang songs, played games (bouncy ball she told me when I asked her what games), and read stories. I asked about snack, and Kendal told me she had goldfish, water and napkins. (LOL).
The girls were all smiles, but exhusted 
After a long nap we met everyone for dinner at Carmella’s for a dinner celebration, followed by our regular Friday night ice cream cone (a yellow cone for Kendal).
This was a happy, happy day. I am officaly excited to take her back to school on Tuesday. I think this will be a great year for her, and I can’t wait to see what she learns.
My little girl is starting school this week. The same little girl who get’s clingy in new situations and needs her mommy or daddy to pick her up on a whim… I am supposed to leave her for the first time with strangers twice a week for three hours at a time. It’s a big day for my little girl and a big day for me.
The night before “meet the teacher,” I was a wreck. In my heart I know this will be a good experience for her, but I just can’t bear those tears.
But as sick as I was last night, I feel so at easy after after “meet the teacher.” Kendal was completely at ease as we walked in and explored the classroom. Meet the teacher was a lot like play time with mommy and daddy watching, and Kendal was a champ. She washed her hands, checked out the fish, played with the mailbox and cooked in the kitchen with her friends. All smiles.
Maybe she really is ready for this new adventure. If she’s ready, I am too.
Poor Kendal, she has now joined the ranks of several of her pals. She now sports a chipped front tooth.
We were in the playroom, and Kendal heard Daddy coming home. As usual she got excited and ran to greet him. Unfortunately, she tripped and fell. Lots of tears, but after some hugs, kisses and ice she was calm again. As we all sat on the couch, “recovering” I noticed a chip in her front right tooth.
Of course, since we are lucky enough to have a pediatric dentist next door, I called David up to see if I could bring her by. He confirmed my suspicions that it was just superficial and that there was nothing really to be done. We could buff it, but that would probably be more trauma to her… so she’ll just live with a chipped baby tooth. After all nearly every one of her little friends have a chipped tooth too.
Kendal continues to lover to cook in her kitchen. Of all of her toys, that has been the longest lasting most loved toy to date. These are a few of her current favorite things to cook:
Jump, Jump, Jump. Kendal loves to jump. She has loved to “jump” for a long time, but until this week it was just deep knee bends and rising to her toes – over and over. Suddenly, this week it clicked and we have liftoff. Now that she can gett up off the ground, she hasn’t stopped jumping since.
Mimi says that they jumped for about an hour solid at her house on Wed. She is so proud of herself! Bounce, bounce, bounce. Jump, jump, jump!
Kendal is a two-year-old backseat driver. Whenever we pull up to a light and have to stop she says, “Uh-o.” It took me a little while to figure out what the problem was, and once I realized that it was waiting at the light, I started explaining to her that we had to wait our turn. Every time I explained it, she would say, “Ohhhh.”
This went on for about a month or so, and then Bobby started explaining about red and green lights. So now every time we pull up to a light she says, “Red, Green, Go.” Only it sounds more like, “Ed, geen, o.” Every time we pull up to a light. Yep, every time.
It’s so cute!
When I heard that the Main Street Electrical Light Parade would return to the Magic Kingdom for the summer, there was no way I was going to miss it. This is my parade, and I couldn’t wait to take Kendal to see it. So, on the very last night our passes were good for the summer we headed out for an evening at the Magic Kingdom. We had a wonderful evening and Kendal was transfixed by the lights of the parade. Mom was disappointed that the new and “improved” parade was missing certain elements that I held dear, but it was a magical parade non-the-less.
I don’t think I have ever blogged about Immmac, but it is one of my fav Kendal phrases that seems to now be going out of rotation, so I don’t want to miss mentioning it.
Immmac is the result of me never knowing what to feed Kendal because while she LOVES something today, tomorrow she will inevitably want NOTHING to do with it. Makes Mama crazy! So, without realizing that I was doing it, standing in front of the pantry I would ask Kendal what she wanted to eat – Goldfish – no, yogurt melts – no, Ummm let me see… Apparently I say, “Ummm let me see” far too often because one day when I asked Kendal what she wanted to eat she started to say,”Immmac.”
Yep. Kendal seems to think “Umm let me see” AKA “Immmac” is part of getting the food she wants. She even makes a face like she is thinking about what she wants when she says this. It cracks me up. She was saying this all the time, but when she said it today I realized that she hasn’t said it in a while. So, I think this is a dying phrase. But I will always hold a special place in my heart for “Immmac.”
Kendal loves to count these days, we count everything. But EVERY time she counts, she skips 4. It is like that number just doesn’t exhist. We try to go back and stress 4, but she keeps right on skipping over it. Until recently, she also skipped 7, but I am happy to announce that 7 is now in Kendal’s count to 10 (within the last week). So, perhaps some day soon I will be able to report that 4 has made the list, but for now it’s 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10!
