Saturday, September 28, 2013

Mud Saturday

Today we went to a picnic for Scarlett's school.  Really it was a camping trip, but those unable to camp (or people who, like me, don't like camping despite being native Oregonians) could come just for the afternoon.  It's storming, and there was a torrential downpour when we arrived, so everyone stood inside the shelter looking sad and cold, staring.  But after a while, it let up and there were GIGANTIC PUDDLES (Scarlett loves the word 'gigantic'):



Also, pigskin:


Then we took a nature walk to the muddy river.  Scarlett had a rough day, she was tired and overwhelmed by seeing teachers outside of school, she couldn't decide if she wanted to stay or go, she wasn't even thrilled with mud or puddles.


The best part for us as parents, we got to meet Dabria.  Dabria is five and has been paired up with Scarlett as her lunch buddy and to show her the rope for the past few weeks.  Every day, Scarlett tells us how she had lunch with Dabria, and followed Dabria around the playground, and told jokes with Dabria.  Sometimes at home, we play a game- "Mama, you pretend to be me and I will be Dabria and it's the first day of school."  So we were able to meet the famous Dabria, in the flesh, and see how sweet she is with our little Scarlett.



The Dickerson Sweatshop

Charlie is teaching Hope to sew.  The little girls watch, hold the pin cushion, and play with fabric scraps.


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Our little preschooler

A couple weeks in, and Scarlett seems to be loving school.  Mostly, her daddy drops her off.  But I get to occasionally, and last week when I took her, we looked at pictures of frogs in the hallway before class.  Then she told me to put her down, so she could go into her classroom.

She sets up little 'works' at home, like they do at school.  If I ask, what activities did you do today?  She will correct me, tell me to call them 'works'.  At home she washes her own dishes, practices water pouring, sets up elaborate systems where she rolls a ball along a long strip of books on the floor.  Some days she waters the plants.  Some days she plays on a big hill in the playground.  She's working on buttoning her own jacket and zipping her coat.  I can see her mind expanding and her fingers working more decisively.

This week for one lunch she had oatmeal in her new frog thermos.  She had leftover pizza one day, one day a hard-boiled egg.  She has raw vegetables with every lunch.  It appears that she'll eat whatever we put in her lunchbox.  The school-provided snack might be oranges and green beans, or apples and crackers.  When I come home from work, she starts telling me what her snack was, even before I've opened the door to walk into the house.  I can see her little mouth moving excitedly through the glass.

In the past week, we've stopped putting her down for naps consistently.  If she's tired, she naps.  If she's not tired, we don't ask her to nap. So she's sleepier at bedtime, and going to sleep a little earlier and with less of a fight. 

I get warm fuzzies when I think about her school, I just love it and so does Charlie.  The community is really welcoming.  We were scared at the prospect of someone else watching our precious cargo, but Scarlett is thriving and the adjustment has been mostly pretty painless.  I wish I could tell the Emily of 6 months ago not to worry so much.




Saturday, September 21, 2013

Grandma and the Girls


followed by, everyone-hug time:




followed by, Scarlett-Grandma hug time:




Monday, September 16, 2013

Touche

Cuddling together this morning:

Scar: "mmm, I love you"
Me, kisses her head: "I love you too"
Scar: "I was talking to Arnie. I love you Arnie."

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Scar-isms

"Want to be boy dogs?  Want to lift up our legs to pee?"

She's also been making up words lately.

"I'm never gonna be done having mosh manushe.  Mosh manushe means having so much fun."
"Meesh is the walls in the bathroom."
"Arnie likes to eat a kind of leaf called kamwa."


Saturday, September 7, 2013

Frog Cake

Thursday was Scarlett's first long day of preschool.  Last week was just a test run, short days, with only the new kids.  This week, she stayed for lunch and left at 1pm, which will be the norm this year.
Lunch:
tea sandwich- with cream cheese and cucumber
mixed nuts
carrots from our garden
red peppers

She didn't say much about her day.  Except that she had a sandwich with cucumber for lunch (I know, honey, I made you that sandwich) and someone had a firetruck lunchbox.
Later we learned, 
She sat on a bench in the playground but didn't want to play
She sat by another girl at lunch who had a burrito and celery to eat
There were songs, she didn't sing them
She didn't go potty all day (why?) because nobody told me to.

Next week she'll start the regular 4-day routine.  


Here. celebrating her first full day of school with a frog cake and a big smile.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Neskowin

At the beach with Auntie Lauren and Lucas, Scarlett did the following:

  • Painted fingernails and toenails sparkly green
  • Built sandcastles until all nail paint had worn off
  • Pretended to be the evil queen, destroying the sandcastles by jumping on them
  • Played dominoes with Lucas until way past bedtime
  • Napped with mama
We hit up the beach three times in three days, which made her very happy, because Scarlett loves any opportunity to wear a bathing suit. 


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Cousin Conversation

I overheard this:
 
Scarlett: What are you having for breakfast?  Our favorite thing is eggs.
Esther: We like eggs.
S: OK!  We're coming over
E: Are you eating eggs at our house?
S: Sometimes when you're eating eggs at your house, we're at home eating eggs.

Vikings of the future

[Here is a post I wrote a couple weeks ago, and never posted]

Oh, the beautiful gloomy Oregon coast.  In two days, Charlie and I will be meeting up with our band of Vikings and running to Seaside.  A few weeks ago, Scarlett and I went to the coast for Erin's birthday.  So, here is the next generation of Vikings.