School Daze

Gaz has now successfully completed her first week of preschool. Best of all, we managed to survive it.

Getting to school was only an issue twice, and then only because Gaz frequently refuses to believe how cold it is outside and so refuses to put on her coat. You'd think she was a Yukon nudist or something. After I explained that we weren't leaving the house without her coat on, and if she never put on her coat she would never get to school that day, she grudgingly complied. I didn't even make her put on a hat most days (though I brought hat and mittens every day, in case she wanted them). I suppose as problems go, that's the kind you want to have. And I know in a few years that whole "if you don't obey you can't go to school" thing won't work quite so well. I'm milking it while I can.

Coming home from school is a very different animal. She really doesn't ever want to leave once she's there. Day one there was a screaming, sobbing tantrum all the way through lunch (fools that we were, we thought going out for lunch would perk her up) and all the way home, to the tune of about an hour and a half. Day two we didn't go out for lunch, and just screamed and cried all the way home. Day three I bribed her with Halloween candy. It worked much better than I expected, and she was so very compliant (and I was so wiped out) that I took her out to lunch. Day four the candy worked again, though there were tears about not getting hold the black bear. Day five I bribed her with the promise of a special treat (Dunkin' Donuts is on the way home) but she was still mopey about not being able to bring the pink floam until we started collecting a family of bright yellow maple leaves that had freshly fallen on the sidewalk. I was glad to have taken hand sanitizer with me so we didn't have icky leaf hands when we got our treat.

While at school, Gaz is apparently a joy. I have yet to hear about her having any difficulty at all, and yesterday when I stopped in to get her, the program director came up to me with Gaz's file (oh no!) to give me a printout she made of some goofy face photos of Miss Gaz (whew!). They had been taking the kids' pictures to put with letters to Santa and Gaz made a lot of silly faces. She's definitely my kid! So we've got bonus pictures. I love 'em. We've also got school pictures coming up soon. I'm excited to see how this goes.

In other school-related news, Gaz and I journeyed forth to River Forest last week to entertain enlighten some psychology students as to the workings of a four-year-old girl's mind. She said a lot of things that made my little nerd heart glow with pride ("What do you want to be when you grow up?" "A Transformer! Or a fairy that transforms into a scientist!") and some that made me groan a bit ("What animal would you like to be?" "I would like to be a pig, because pigs don't have to poop in the potty."). It turns out that that pig comment, according to the professor, represents thinking on a higher level than most four-year-olds, though, so I guess that's a win. What a way to prove your mental prowess! Gaz was a champ with the interviewing, and even wrote her name on the board (and I quote: "AGAAAA"). We had a good time and want to thank Auntie Abby again for inviting us out to her class. :)

Happy Halloween!

Thorn & Mr. Lizard Mummy
Originally uploaded by georgiegrrrrl

On Friday we went to the community Halloween party at Welles Park, where Gaz had oodles of fun playing games, winning prizes, and, most importantly, starting her candy collection for the year. She was not disappointed! She even ate most of the apple they gave her for breakfast this morning.

Today she woke up late and wanted to go trick-or-treating immediately. We delayed with meals and art projects as long as humanly possible, then got her dudded up to hit the shops in Lincoln Square. We didn't notice any trick-or-treaters out in our neighborhood, and I figured the safest place to take candy from strangers would be at easily-sued places of business. It turned out to be everyone's good idea to stroll the avenue and collect candy there, and Mom even got to duck away for a bit and have some coffee while Dad and Gaz concentrated on the serious business of sugar acquisition.

This year's obscure costume (Thorn from Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost,, if you'll recall) was actually recognized by one lady, who even sang a bit of the Hex Girls song! So if you're ever in Lincoln Square, throw some money at Hanger 18, and tell them it's because someone behind the counter there recognized the costume. :)

We're doling out the treats very conservatively. Can't start down the cavity path when we've had such wonderful dentist visits so far.

The other big news is that Gaz finally starts preschool on Monday. She's been moodier than usual lately, and I expect this to continue until she's settled into her new schedule. For now, she's excited but nervous. I think she'll do fine after this adjustment period. Waiting an extra two weeks for things to get started didn't help, I'm sure, but it's a brand new program and they needed a little more time to get things ready.

Creativity and Questionable Influences

Yesterday, Gaz said a number of things that had me laughing and/or scratching my head.

First, she had a little plastic Stitch (you know, from Lilo and Stitch) who had been playing with her little plastic Sue (you know, the big ass T-Rex at the Field Museum). She brought both of them over to talk with me, and upon seeing the numbers on my keyboard, Stitch remarked "I can't count all the way up to zero because my nose isn't as good as T-Rex's." I still don't know what that's supposed to mean, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's a mixed metaphor.

Then at bedtime I heard some singing coming from what I thought was a sleeping Gaz. It turns out she was singing "Hush Little Baby" to Stitch, only she made up some new words. I listened quietly as she quietly sang:
"Hush little baby, don't say a word
Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird
And if that mockingbird don't sing
Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring turns brass
Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass
And if that looking glass gets broke
Mama's gonna buy you a lollypop
And if that lollypop makes you sick
Mama's gonna buy you a poke in the eye
And if that poke in the eye starts to hurt
Mama's gonna buy you a billy goat. . ."
Somehow I managed not to howl with laughter during her performance. I checked with her this afternoon (in the presence of Auntie Aaaiiieeeee), and Gaz confirmed that she had indeed sung about the lollypop and the eye poke. We were both amused and confused.

At dinner she sang again, this time with Mark listening in, and he confessed that the poke in the eye thing was his fault. No one can remember all the original words to the song, so he made some up a couple of weeks ago when he was on bedtime duty. Lucky for us all, that's the line that stuck. The lollypop one was all hers, though, and at dinner she also created some more verses based on items found on the dinner table. My favorite was ketchup, but I can no longer remember what the ketchup was supposed to do. That is probably for the best.

I haven't taken pictures of Gaz in her full Thorn get-up, but stay tuned. There's a nice black and red wig involved now, and as soon as I figure out how to restrain all the blond hair, she will look so much like a goth rock chick, you won't recognize her. Unless you've watched that Scooby-Doo movie as much as we have.

Mark it on the calendar

This evening, Gaz has been reading. A whole pile of animal names, a few verbs, and even an article. Tonight in addition to reading *to* her, we're going to try having her read a bit to us in one of her "pre-reader" books. I think she's technically read other words before now, but I didn't make a note anywhere as to what she read or when, so I could be misremembering. But I'm pretty sure she read something while we were out in recent days.

All was well until she tried to write the letter K. But we've got a plan to get up early in the morning and work on that.

Five days remain until she starts Pre-K. She's very antsy for the schooling to commence. I hope her enthusiasm continues!

I know, I know

It's been AGES! And I have no good excuse now that we're all reasonably healthy. I still have this nagging cough, but that's nothing a little Delsym can't handle.

So what's up with us? First, let me direct you to the Flicker link o'er yonder, which I have just this second updated to go to the set for this Gaz year. Whee! There's not a whole lot there yet (we left our battery down in Evansville during the last trip), but there's her birthday party and assorted madness.

Gaz has been feeling fine, but unfortunately her follow-up urinalysis showed bacteria again. We pumped her full of antibiotics before she had a chance to get really sick again (woohoo!) but it looks like she has some imaging tests in her future. We're just waiting on word from the doctor as to when she wants them done. In the meantime, we've got a little collection of empty specimen jars to facilitate the process of keeping tabs on how much bacteria she's growing. On the up side, she's back in the land of the toilet trained and has been having no problems remembering to get to the bathroom in time. We've had only one nighttime accident (apart from the one when she was sick, which doesn't count IMO), and she's quite pleased with herself over her progress.

School has started through MidWestWorld, but we languish on waiting lists. Things may be looking up, though, so Gaz might yet make it into preschool this year. Keep your fingers crossed.

Let's see. . . Gaz can write her name, though she sometimes gets the letters out of order or runs out of space on the page with her giant letters. We do a lot of pre-reading workbook activities, and she follows directions from books much better than she does for me (isn't that always the way?). She's covered in stickers that didn't come off in the bath as well as I had hoped. Which is to say that some of the picture parts came off, but the sticky stuff lingers and is covered with fuzz from her blanket.

This weekend we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum and discovered that she doesn't like art, because it's boring. She did like watching the "wings" close on the building and the little markers and watercolors I got her at the gift shop, though. She was mildly impressed with her first visit to The Safe House. I expect that will change as she gets older.

So that's the general update. More news as it happens (and I remember to blog).