Friday, October 29, 2010

Friday Focus- Roo

I am so proud of Roo. Since I last had the Focus on her, she has done SO many new things. She really just doesn't let her difficulties stop her. People used to think that she was a lot younger than the other Pink Ladies, but it's becoming obvious that she's two just like they are. :) Definitely some sassy attitude and backtalk going on in that department, much to her momma's dismay. Her vocabulary is getting quite extensive, partly thanks to Ms Julie at speech therapy. You gotta work hard for a lady who says eating a ring pop is therapy!!

They've been doing a lot of work on strengthening the muscles in her mouth so things like milkshakes and lollipops are actual exercise- helping her form her lips correctly and not drool and stuff like that. It's fun to get to spoil her a bit too. She's drinking from a straw consistently now and the first time she realized it was fun was because I let her drink my strawberry shake. :)

Roo has received an official diagnosis of cerebral palsy in the last few months, which allows her to get more equipment at school to help her out with various things. The therapy ladies are currently working to figure out which type of trainer will assist her best in learning to walk. This one was the first one we got, and they've since decided that she's a little too advanced for it. It makes her sit down more and they think she can focus on standing and stepping a lot better with something else. But here she is trying this one out. She was not too excited about it at first.


She definitely wants to stand though. This is one of my favorite pictures of her. She's got a death grip on the gate, and she did fall straight over like a tree after I set the camera down, but she was excited to stand there!



She's having a great time painting and doing art with the other girls too now, and constantly wants to go outside. She doesn't care if she gets dirty or if bugs bite her. She just wants to be out there doing everything she can physically do today, while figuring out how to do something ELSE tomorrow. I love her spirit.

As soon as the back door opens, she is out like a shot. Doesn't care about skinning her elbows on the porch or getting muddy or the fact that she can't climb up the slide alone yet. She can reach the handle of the stroller to push the babies around and she has a BLAST.

Roo's acquired an annoying repetitive habit that we have to fuss at her for constantly, just like everybody else. :) I think she digs it. Just grins when we drag her away from the fridge OVER and OVER and OVER. Now that she's learned to open it and get her milk out of the bottom shelf, she spends half her life refrigerating my kitchen. In a weird way I like that she's getting in trouble. She's decided she's going to stand up for herself and do what she can do. And she'll go far.


Oh, and during our Big Red Barn work this month, I was noticing that she was doing weird sounds for some of the animals and mixing them up, so I asked Kanga. Turns out, the way to say "pig" in Thai sounds just like "moo". Awesome. I guess that's the downside to being bilingual. I kept thinking she just wasn't getting it, but actually she's getting it in TWO languages and trying to school the rest of us!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Friday Focus- Aurora

It's been since April that the Focus was on Aurora, and I'm amazed at how much older she looks just in the past few months. The Terrible Twos are actually some of my favorite times, just because it's new and different every day, and even though some of the days are awful and take forever, the weeks and months fly by. There's so much going on developmentally- she's learning and playing and TALKING. The things she comes up with are hilarious.


She's currently in the "I can take my clothes off by myself" stage. It's to the point where before we tuck her into bed for her nap, we have to put a piece of duct tape across her diaper tapes, or else we have a streaker and a big mess to clean. We're constantly looking over and asking, "Aurora, where are your pants?" or "Hey sweetie, we wear clothes at school. Go get your shirt." I do kind of hope she grows out of this soon. But yay for motor skills! She also raises the entertainment factor at lunch. She was done eating and decided to take her shirt off, but being buckled in impeded her progress... her one arm got stuck in the shirt and she was trapped. It made her mad, but it made me laugh and I had to take her picture before I rescued her.


She's completely obsessed with the plastic kitchen food right now. There must be a pink donut or some fake corn on the cob within reach every.single.minute or we hear about it. "WHERE MY DONUT GO? WHERE?!?!?!" She bops around in the little kitchen area, moving her food from the microwave to a plate and back again, and carries it around with her to have close by during story time or singing.

Aurora's emotions run high most of the time. If she's happy, she's delighted. She bounces, she jumps, she claps her hands and laughs hysterically. If she's sad or angry, she is prostrate on the floor, kicking her feet and screaming. Everything is very terrible and she loses all her many words instantly in the face of her anger. :) We don't take her nearly as seriously as she'd like us to though, and her fits never last long when she doesn't get an audience.

Do not mess with me. I am very serious about this.


Oh, wait! Art! Muddy piggies! Life is all better!

The upside to this is that she's not very physical- just to keep balance in the universe I guess, I've noticed that there are two kinds of kids at this age. You have the weepy ones, and then the ones who haul off and slug you. We've got strategies to help them through this stage either way, and it's interesting to see which way they fall. You can't always predict by their behavior as babies, but we nearly always have a split pretty evenly down the middle. It's just so hard to learn to control yourself when you're two. Sometimes you have to yell about it, and sometimes you have to push your friend.

But back to Aurora... she loves to find little cubbyholes to hide in. The other day she was calling me and I couldn't find her for a minute- then I realized she was under the table, but lying on top of the chairs. :) Silly girl.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

2010 Schedule

Everybody was given a copy of our schedule, but I know how things are. :) You put it in a very safe place, never to be seen again, and then you can't remember whether daycare is open or not. So. Here is our 2010 schedule. Since the holidays are quickly approaching, I figured a refresher might be nice. Kanga and I will work on the 2011 schedule soon and you should have it by Christmas of this year.


Giant Steps: Noteworthy Days for 2010

In addition to our paid holidays for the year, we also reserve the right to take 4 paid personal days. Any additional vacation days we take will be of no charge to you. If you are on vacation, please remember that you must continue to pay to hold your child’s space.

Friday, January 1: paid holiday for New Year’s

Friday, January 29: paid personal day

Friday, April 2: paid holiday for Good Friday

Monday, May 31: paid holiday for Memorial Day

Friday, July 2: paid personal day

Monday, July 5: paid holiday for 4th of July

Monday, September 6: paid holiday for Labor Day

Tuesday, November 23: 4th annual daycare feast lunch for parents- come and go, 11:30-1:30

Wednesday, November 24: paid personal day

Thursday/Friday November 25/26: paid holiday for Thanksgiving

Thursday/Friday December 23/24: paid holiday for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

Thursday/Friday December 30/31: paid holiday for New Year’s Eve/ New Year’s Day