Nate and Tanja: School Start and Milestones

Summer quietly finished for us as we anticipated the start of the school year. Karina and Lydia were nervous to start Kindergarten and preschool. I had mixed feeling about not having Karina home during the day and having Lydia gone some mornings. Derek, on the other hand, has been clingy as ever, always wanting Mommy near him as he explores and gets into things.

The past couple of weeks have marked milestones for Derek. He started lifting his butt off the floor while doing tummy time. With the practice he has gotten, he should start crawling soon. He can also sit independently now. Sitting happened quickly. One day he would tumble down right away when he sat by himself, and then all of a sudden he got good at it. Now he can sit independently for minutes at a time without falling.

Last Monday Karina started Kindergarten. She was incredibly nervous. On the first day of school, we managed to almost miss the morning bus. I figured it would be late. We arrived at the bus stop 2 minutes early, and all the other kids had already boarded and the bus was ready to leave. By sheer luck, it hadn't left yet. I learned later from another mom that our bus driver consistently arrives 4 minutes earlier than scheduled in the morning. I fretted over Karina all day, also because I knew how nervous she was, and because almost missing the bus was probably stressful for her. Luckily, at the end of her first day or school, she ran off the bus with a huge grin:

Our very large bus stop has 8 kindergartners! They lined up for a picture, though one boy, who lives across the street from us, was missing:

Since I didn't get the pictures I wanted on the first day of school, due to our tardiness at the bus stop, I got pictures the second morning. The bus is crowded, even though it only has a few stops, which are all in our immediate neighborhood.

Lydia started morning preschool a few days later on Thursday. She attends the same elementary school as Karina, but the preschoolers and pre-k kids start later to avoid the chaos. Lydia was both nervous and excited. Lydia told me later that day that some of the kids in her class were crying, but that she didn't cry. Since Lydia is too young to take the bus, I will be driving both girls to school on mornings Lydia has preschool, and Karina will take the bus on Wednesday mornings and all afternoons.

Kindergartners weren't assigned teachers until after the first week, as some kids hadn't had their reading assessments yet and classes are assigned based on reading levels. So instead, the kids were assigned a color group and each group had a different kindergarten teacher each day. On Friday afternoon, she came home with the name of her permanent teacher. She liked that teacher when she had her last week, but Karina has been fretting all weekend, because she won't be in the same class as two of her neighborhood bus stop friends, Orly and Gabby. The boy across the street, Benjamin, will be in her class, and I hope that consoles her at school today.

Lydia was actually excited for preschool this morning and kept saying 'yay'. Hopefully Karina will be more enthused for kindergarten tomorrow when she knows which kids are in her class.

I made a bench for the foyer/entryway that I designed. I haven't decided what color to stain it (or if I'll leave it natural), and I am definitely going to add a cushion on top, but have not gotten around to making it yet. For now it is nice to have the entry more organized and have a place to sit.

Derek loves his jumperoo. He bounces hard and loves to exercise his little legs.

It is nice that Derek can sit by himself now without tipping over- it makes it much easier to entertain him, since he can finally amuse himself by reaching toys, chewing on them, reaching other toys, etc. Here he is sitting up like the "super cool little brother" that he is:

Here he is, not practicing crawling, but just being cute:

For his 6-month birthday on Friday, we celebrated by giving him food for the first time. On the menu was squished banana in a mesh feeder that he sucks on. He seemed ok with it. He ate, but did not react much one way or the other. I remember the girls being initially delighted with some foods, and hating others, but Derek was mostly indifferent the first day. Karina was a big help, making sure it didn't fall on the floor.

However the next day, he was incredibly angry at being offered more food and refused. He looked at me with hurt, angry eyes, as if saying 'how dare you try to put yucky stuff in my mouth'. The day after that was a repeat. He made it clear he does not want baby cereal, kefir, and sweet potatoes. Yesterday we decided to try bananas one more time. This time he utterly refused it and we have decided to wait a week before trying to give him solids again. He is just not interested yet.

Lydia, my cutie:

Lydia (and I) made a brontosaurus out of magnetic magformers. It has been her favorite toy lately, and we build all sorts of creations.

Karina with a triceratops:

On Saturday we made it out mini golfing. Karina tried to get her ball in the hole with the golf club, and Lydia decided quickly that tossing the ball into the hole worked better. Lydia would stand over the hole, throw the ball in and then shout "Yay Lydia!!". By the end, Karina was throwing her golf ball in too.