So much to say, so little time

Lizzie's world is changing so quickly these days. She's started Montessori school for 5 mornings a week and she absolutely loves it. I think its the perfect match for her personality because she's independent but also gentle and sensitive. The Montessori curriculum emphasizes independence, self reliance, and respect for others.

We have a new part-time babysitter, Monika, who comes over 2 afternoons each week. Basically Lizzie gets up from nap on those days and has snack and goes to the park with Monika. They get along great, so its working out very well for everyone. Lizzie is teaching Monika lots of signs and Monika shows her how to climb on all the jungle gyms at the park. Liz says "Monika" quite clearly. It is one of her best pronounced 3 syllable words, and one of the first names she has learned for an individual (other than Mama, Dada, etc.). Just to make sure Monika does not get too high on her horse, remember that Liz has named cats for a while now (Abby, Ginger, Spot, etc.). Sorry, she doesn't know any dogs' names.

Lizzie has gone on her first bike ride, on the back of my road bike. We had to overcome many tantrums to get her in the seat, and then many more to get her helmet on. But once we got going, all we heard was “more bike,” “yay,” and clapping. Then there was a tantrum when we stopped the ride, and one every time she saw the bike but couldn’t get on it in the next week. She seems to have forgotten about it now, but we should go on some more rides soon. I need to adjust the seat – it is way too far back on the bike, rendering the bike a bit unstable.

She has some new tricks at the park, including getting up on the spring mounted motorcycles and horses. She can almost get down. She climbs up the chain net/ladder thing up to the top of the jungle gym, and then goes down the spiral slide. She can even climb plain old vertical ladders with no problem. Getting down requires a bit more help.

Popsicles and Signing Time continue to be her big vices. Sometimes she gets up at 5am, and we go downstairs and she wants a popsicle. I think I convinced her that it wasn’t appropriate to have a popsicle when it was dark out and 55 degrees. So she asked to watch Signing Time…

She’s becoming more independent every day and certainly Montessori is encouraging this. She wants to pick out her own clothes, put on her own shoes, and choose her own food. She’s remarkably good at dressing herself, and has better taste in coordinating outfits than I do. Sometimes she gets her shoes on the wrong feet, but that’s not a big problem. She’ll even go up and down stairs standing and without any help. Usually when I offer her my hand she helps me by placing my hand on the railing.

We have some visitors right now, in the form of Grandma and Grandpa Blanchard. Lizzie is happy to see them both, but I’m not sure she really understands why they are here. Cricket is coming, soon, very soon. Lizzie gets that there is a baby in Mommy’s tummy, but I think that’s about the limit. I don’t think she knows how her world is going to get turned upside-down. She has proven herself to be a very adaptable and sensitive kid, so we are optimistic.

Speaking of which, I should get myself organized before my world gets turned upside-down.

Talk to you later.