Winter Program Pictures

It's been a quiet winter, really. I do have a few pictures from Sam's spring concert at school. He did a great job, as usual. The music teacher always picks really fun songs that the kids like to sing, and there are plenty of actions. Here are the pics!

Sam's desk



Sam and Mrs. Simons-- she's due in May, so we had to get a picture in while we still could!



Sam's classmates in their first-ever "party pic"



Kate with friends Mitch and Grant from Stepping Stones (their big sis is a K student)



Being silly before/after the singing



It's the flu

Had a big no no at school yesterday. Kate told me on the way to school that her tummy hurt. I joined her in a quick trip to the bathroom, and everything came out okay (ha), so I left her and went on my way. It was my school volunteer morning-- one hour in the library and one in class. I was about halfway through class duty and got a call over the intercom. Wow. I knew this was serious. Stepping Stones had been calling me for at least 45 minutes to tell me that Kate had thrown up and was running a fever. I turned my phone off when I went into the school because it doesn't ring at all in the library and shouldn't ring in class. So much for that.

The whole point of this is to say that Kate is sick. She threw up at school but then focused mostly on the opposite problem, if you know what I mean. Poor thing couldn't even get a nap because she was up so much. So, Kate's sitting on the potty and she says, "Mommy, I think I know what's wrong." Oh yeah, what's that? "Miss Cindy told me at school. It's the flu." Well, probably. But funnier than that was later when I said, "Did you have more stink?" and she responded "No mom, it's not stink! It's the FLU!"

Opposites

So last night Kate asked me what an opposite was. It's kind of hard to explain without examples, actually. I said the opposite of something is the least like that thing. Kate says, "So the opposite of opposite is unopposite?" I said, "Well, kind of." So I gave some examples, like the opposite of night is day.

And then we tried a few examples together. I said, "The opposite of hot is..." and Kate would say "unhot". "Or?" And Sam said, "Cold!" After two or three of these, Kate said, "I'll try it. The opposite of cold is... " and of course we said hot.

Then she says, "I know! The opposite of poop is..."

I didn't respond. I mean, I could tell where this was going, but you know. Sometimes silence is best.

"The opposite of poop is PEE!" yells Kate. "See! I get it!"

Oh my. I guess this is why I'm not a teacher...

I'm not above bribery

I've decided it's time to say goodbye to the purple blankets. Kate sucks her thumb at night to go to sleep, but only when she's holding her special blanket. The blankets started post-hospitalization for Kate, around 8 months I think, and she's been loving them ever since. Naturally, we started with one, and when it was apparent she loved it, I bought a back up, like any good mom would do. Sam had two ba-bears; Kate has two purple blankets.

At 2, I took it away. I decided it was time for her to stop sucking her thumb, and would be easier quit sooner than later. Right. So, that was fine. She adopted a stuffed animal or two and was fine. Except she started biting her nails. Which was bad. And hard to stop. At some point, we thought that she bit less when she had her blanket, so we gave the blanket back. Then she found the second one. Then she needed it to watch scary movies. Then she needed it in the morning. So, now she's 4 and loves loves loves her purple blankets.

It's time to stop. She's a 4-year-old that looks like a 6-year-old (at least) except for that crazy blanket. Granted, it's only at home, but still. Quitting early is better, right? (Ha!) So, I decided the other day to arrange a trade:
2 purple blankets = immediate trip to the ice skating rink PLUS a ticket to Disney Toy Story 3 on Ice

It's a good deal, right? She's been watching a lot of ice skating and practicing in her socks on snow days, and was just begging to go, so I saw an opportunity for a little negotiation. Yesterday, she gave up her final blanket. I gave her until Friday to change her mind, and we looked at the schedule for the local rink and plan to go Sunday. Here's hoping...