To wrap up our crazy-busy week, we had Ava's preschool picnic and the Seattle Bloggy Bootcamp the same day, followed by an early morning appointment to help out at the Puget Sound Race for the Cure at the Seattle Center on Sunday.
After a couple hours of listening to great speakers and meeting other Northwest bloggers (including Vancouver, BC), I had to duck out of the all day boot camp to get to the picnic with other current and new families at Ava's preschool, which meant I missed lunch and networking. I was totally bummed about that, but knew several weeks ago when the school announced the date for the picnic and I realized it conflicted with the bootcamp that something was going to have to give. But I vowed to do as much as I could of both events. I'll write more about lessons learned there, but it was a very productive event and I strongly encourage others to hit the other BBCs in other cities this year.
Although I had to zip over to the park, I was consoled by being able to be out at least part of the day enjoying the picture-perfect weather with my family: sunny skies and heat creeping up into the low 70s.
Ava joined several classmates in getting her face painted with a butterfly, which slowly disappeared by the end of the night as she played with a small spray bottle given out as gifts by the teachers. They know their target audience: my parents reported that she played with it for HOURS, alternately spraying herself, the dog, and every single flower and blade of grass in their yard.
We also discovered her growing writing confidence after finding her name tagged all over the picnic area with the sidewalk chalk the teachers provided. Again: great give for the preschoolers and how cool is that for my little 3.5 year old to be writing her name?!
Having a short name definitely helps, but just a day later, as we read books before bed, she surprised me by reading each letter in the words on each page of her brother's toddler word book, only mixing up a few similar looking one, like lower case n and h and i and t.
After getting over my shock and glee and giving her high fives and hugs, we went to show J. who was equally bowled over and swept her up in a huge bear hug of kisses and tickles, sending her into giggling spasms. Holy cow! She on the road to reading! I'm so excited for her.
Meantime, her brother is now sitting down of his own accord and flipping through books and definitely understand more words than he can say. In the books with animals, he tries to blow the elephant trumpet sound when he sees one, and when he sees pictures of ducks, he says, "Cack, cack, cack." (quack, quack, quack). As Ava read the letters, when we flipped to the picture of a t-shirt and I said, "What's that?", he pinched the fabric of his own shirt.(!)
He's verbalizing more and his repetoire at 17 (nearly 18 months) is made up of ma or mama, dada, nana (whose name he says everytime we pull up to their house), adn dat (that). This past weekend while showing me something he'd picked up off the floor, he added his first sentence: "Ma, ook." (Ma, look). I love it! Especially the "Ma" for some reason. Perhaps it reminds me of those beloved Little House on the Prairie books, even though we are a decidedly urban family.
After getting over my shock and glee and giving her high fives and hugs, we went to show J. who was equally bowled over and swept her up in a huge bear hug of kisses and tickles, sending her into giggling spasms. Holy cow! She on the road to reading! I'm so excited for her.
Meantime, her brother is now sitting down of his own accord and flipping through books and definitely understand more words than he can say. In the books with animals, he tries to blow the elephant trumpet sound when he sees one, and when he sees pictures of ducks, he says, "Cack, cack, cack." (quack, quack, quack). As Ava read the letters, when we flipped to the picture of a t-shirt and I said, "What's that?", he pinched the fabric of his own shirt.(!)
He's verbalizing more and his repetoire at 17 (nearly 18 months) is made up of ma or mama, dada, nana (whose name he says everytime we pull up to their house), adn dat (that). This past weekend while showing me something he'd picked up off the floor, he added his first sentence: "Ma, ook." (Ma, look). I love it! Especially the "Ma" for some reason. Perhaps it reminds me of those beloved Little House on the Prairie books, even though we are a decidedly urban family.
Dylan with Papa and Nana.
Dylan letting it all hang out at the preschool picnic.
Because nothing says almost summer in Seattle like 75 degrees, ice cream, a diaper and Teva sandals. I think I saw an adult dressed like this in another part of the park.
Sunday, Ava and I were up and out by 7am to help coordinate a team from my job at the Race for the Cure, then met up with J. to pick up Dylan before heading off to meet up with our PEPS parents group and kids at a local park, where we saw several parents from the picnic and other friends. Sunny Seattle days bring everyone out. But the two days of early starts and chock-full days at the end of a chock-full week wiped me out: after returning home from the park in mid-afternoon, I went down for a nap with the kids. For three hours. And I'm not a napper, outside of long car or plane rides.
All in all, a lovely, busy, developmental milestone-y week that I don't plan to repeat schedule-wise anytime soon. Except the fun networking, sun, ice cream and napping parts. I'm down for those whenever.
