Leila these days (circle circle dot dot)

Leila is growing up fast!
Here are some fun facts--
Favorite Color: Pink
Favorite Books: "Princess and the Frog" and "Katy Kangaroo."
Favorite Show: Dora, Diego, Wonderpets
Favorite Radio station: The Memphis City School station that plays gospel music and R&B.
Favorite Athletic Activity: Running with Mommy to the stop sign and back.
Saving her allowance for: Buckets and Shovels for "The Summer."
Favorite Snack: Wiggly Cheese (string cheese)--having just replaced "little cheese in a heart cup" (shredded cheese)
Favorite karaoke song: Pink's "So What." (Thankfully she seems to be making up all her own lyrics.)
She has refused to wear anything but "twirly dresses" and tights for almost a month now.
Favorite accessories: lip gloss, clear nail polish and Mardi Gras beads.
Favorite topics of discussion: Birthdays, swingsets, The Summer
Favorite Memphis Hangouts: Buck's House, the "new" swingsets, the Botanic Gardens
Best Friend: Savannah
Best Dog: Frida

This week at school they've been talking about teeth. When I asked her what she wanted to bring for show and tell she grabbed a letter T off of one of her puzzles and asked me to put her name on it so it wouldn't get lost.

Last week after President's Day I told her that Uncle Finch lives in Washington D.C. and that is where the White House is and she wanted to know if Uncle Finch was the president.

and . . .
She totally kissed a boy last night.
WHAT?!
Now we're going to have to have a long talk about cooties.

Welcome home Granddaddy!

Dad made it home safe this Monday after a year in the Green Zone in Baghdad.  Hooray!

Merry Christmas

thanksgiving

Maybe the Zoo

Today the family went to the Memphis Public Library.  Just as we hopped out of the car we noticed Daddy had left his keys locked inside.  Mommy and Leila went inside to play at the library for a few hours while Daddy took a bus home to get Mommy's car and some coat hangers.

After Daddy had given up on the coat hangers, the library had closed, and we'd all settled in to wait for the locksmith Leila announced that she wanted to go potty.  We had to tell her the library was closed so she wouldn't be able to potty right away.  Leila didn't like that answer so she frowned a bit and thought quietly to herself until she came up with a solution.

"Maybe the Zoo is open."

Thoughts on two months of Montessori schooling

• Mommy and Leila LOVE it. The schedule above has exciting events for the kids on a daily basis. There is a lot of art on the schedule which is great considering Mommy is an artist.
• Leila has gotten much more confident on the playground, is even more outgoing, and talks to strangers more. She was just turning two when she went in so part of that might just be natural development.
• She's mostly potty trained now, and amusingly this was the school's idea. They asked us if we were going anywhere for the three-day Independence Day holiday and when we replied in the negative they suggested we bring Leila to school on Monday potty trained and in normal underwear. We did, and that's going well right now.
• Their initial claim to "only watch TV on special occasions or rainy days" has proven false but it appears to be less than once a day and it's only stuff like Barney and Dora so I guess I can live with that given all the positives they bring to the table.
• Playground time has gone way up from the last day care - they appear to spend an hour or two a day getting mulch in their hair and learning how to swing.
• Leila's overall health is much better than it was at her old day care where she pretty much had a runny nose every day for 18 months. Perhaps this is a function of the kids' respective ages or class sizes, but I think it's also because the staff is more attentive.
• Student:teacher ratio is slightly better than our previous day care, but most important to me is the fact that most of the staff here appears to have a decade or more experience at this school which is a huge improvement over the tenure averages at the previous day care chain.

Levitt Shell Video

Here's a compilation video of the concerts at the Levitt Shell last weekend. The ice cream and cake dancers are in it!!! Pay attention around 43 seconds into the video!