Yes, I know -- very light posting recently because I have been sick. As in REALLY sick. As in Fevers: The Sequel. Blech.
We did go see Clifford The Big Red Dog at the Warner Theatre this weekend. It was fun and both kids were wide eyed through most of it. I just love bringing them to live theater -- even if it is Clifford -- because it is an important "arts" element for them to learn to appreciate.
More tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
The citizen outreach meeting
Yes, I went to the citizen outreach meeting tonight. I am so very sick right now but went just the same. I have actually been sick since Thursday, but spiked a fever Friday, through the entire weekend, and now I'm down to 100 degrees.
But I went to the meeting. To learn that this process is so VERY long.
This weekend I was buried with stuff for work but I managed to take some time Saturday to not only take Natalie to dance class but for all of us to go to the MCI Center to see Disney on Ice: Princess Classics. We all had a great time! Nicholas had just enough right after the intermission, and DH took him back to the car (inside the MCI Center parking garage) where Little Man fell asleep after about two minutes. Natalie, on the other hand, was enraptured throughout. And the second half of the show was all about Cinderella. My Little Princess was SO happy!
Sunday was me stuck working as well as Monday. Except I went to the doctors on Monday. Yes, I have a fever. Who would have guessed?? (sarcasm off)
Next up -- a few of us are planning a neighborhood egg hunt. If you have any tips on organizing an egg hunt, please send them my way!
But I went to the meeting. To learn that this process is so VERY long.
This weekend I was buried with stuff for work but I managed to take some time Saturday to not only take Natalie to dance class but for all of us to go to the MCI Center to see Disney on Ice: Princess Classics. We all had a great time! Nicholas had just enough right after the intermission, and DH took him back to the car (inside the MCI Center parking garage) where Little Man fell asleep after about two minutes. Natalie, on the other hand, was enraptured throughout. And the second half of the show was all about Cinderella. My Little Princess was SO happy!
Sunday was me stuck working as well as Monday. Except I went to the doctors on Monday. Yes, I have a fever. Who would have guessed?? (sarcasm off)
Next up -- a few of us are planning a neighborhood egg hunt. If you have any tips on organizing an egg hunt, please send them my way!
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Civic Association
We had an "emergency meeting" of our civic association board tonight. (I have some sort of title -- "Director of Communications" or something like that. Of course we can't even locate our by-laws, so we are in a little bit of disrepair. *giggle*) There's a proposal to tear down a small strip mall and replace it with 75% residential housing units (rental apartments) and a new shopping center. Of course we just happened to hear about this, and it was AFTER the public hearing last November. So next Tuesday there is a "public outreach meeting" to communicate what in the world is about to be festooned onto us. And we are going to be very vocal with our District Supervisor to let her know we are none too happy about how she begged and pleaded that the civic association be re-established so citizens would know what is going on the in the District, but then she does not even communicate anything to the civic association!
More later...
More later...
Saturday, February 11, 2006
The birthday party -- and first time skating
Natalie skipped dance class this morning so we would have an easier time making it to C's birthday party at the skating rink. Natalie has been talking about this birthday party for weeks. She was ready with her new Cinderella bicycle helmet, too.
I'll have to figure out a way to get the video I captured on the Treo onto the blog -- it was VERY fun. She did great -- mostly falling down, but she was LAUGHING through it all. Then she resorted to licking snow off her gloves! She was very proud of herself -- as well as she should be.
Next weekend we're going to see Disney on Ice with the princesses. I think she'll have a new-found appreciation for skating.
We are under a "heavy snow warning" until tomorrow morning. I had wanted to bring Nicholas to the train show, but I think we'll skip that and play in the snow instead. It's not like we have had a great deal of snow this winter. Actually, the last time we had snow was early December, which technically wasn't even winter!
Maybe Natalie will start skating lessons in the fall -- we'll see!
I'll have to figure out a way to get the video I captured on the Treo onto the blog -- it was VERY fun. She did great -- mostly falling down, but she was LAUGHING through it all. Then she resorted to licking snow off her gloves! She was very proud of herself -- as well as she should be.
Next weekend we're going to see Disney on Ice with the princesses. I think she'll have a new-found appreciation for skating.
We are under a "heavy snow warning" until tomorrow morning. I had wanted to bring Nicholas to the train show, but I think we'll skip that and play in the snow instead. It's not like we have had a great deal of snow this winter. Actually, the last time we had snow was early December, which technically wasn't even winter!
Maybe Natalie will start skating lessons in the fall -- we'll see!
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Kindergarten Information Night - Bailey's Elementary
Tonight I went to "information night" at Bailey's Elementary. Bailey's is "the magnet school" that everyone talks about in Fairfax County. So DH got home at 6:25 pm tonight so I could be out the door at 6:30 pm to attend the information session.
The school principal did a brief presentation and then said "anyone interested in full immersion Kindergarten, go over that way" into the corner. There must have been 70 people that were herded towards one of the Kindergarten classes. But they never made it clear that two of the Kindergarten classes are full immersion, and there are another SIX classes that are "plain ol'" Kindergarten classrooms. I think this confused lots of parents. It wasn't clear to me until over two hours later after Q&A with the principal!
We visited the various "labs" of the school. I am particularly interested in science education, as I think science education is getting shortened up right now thanks to Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL) and other "mandatory testing" requirements. The science teacher is amazing at Bailey's! What a fortunate school to have someone like her there! But she focuses on older children. So if we were to send Natalie there, I am honestly not sure how much she would gain from the school. Plus she would have to be out of her neighborhood (which is something I absolutely hated about going to a "gifted & talented" program when I was in 4th through 6th grade) and, since we are a household with two working parents, any playdates would be relegated to the weekends. And that is just not fair to Nicholas, either.
I think we are going with our neighborhood elementary school. Our Kindergarten orientation is in April. I think we'll just have to figure out ways to augment science education into "after school" stuff.
The school principal did a brief presentation and then said "anyone interested in full immersion Kindergarten, go over that way" into the corner. There must have been 70 people that were herded towards one of the Kindergarten classes. But they never made it clear that two of the Kindergarten classes are full immersion, and there are another SIX classes that are "plain ol'" Kindergarten classrooms. I think this confused lots of parents. It wasn't clear to me until over two hours later after Q&A with the principal!
We visited the various "labs" of the school. I am particularly interested in science education, as I think science education is getting shortened up right now thanks to Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL) and other "mandatory testing" requirements. The science teacher is amazing at Bailey's! What a fortunate school to have someone like her there! But she focuses on older children. So if we were to send Natalie there, I am honestly not sure how much she would gain from the school. Plus she would have to be out of her neighborhood (which is something I absolutely hated about going to a "gifted & talented" program when I was in 4th through 6th grade) and, since we are a household with two working parents, any playdates would be relegated to the weekends. And that is just not fair to Nicholas, either.
I think we are going with our neighborhood elementary school. Our Kindergarten orientation is in April. I think we'll just have to figure out ways to augment science education into "after school" stuff.
2 AM musings
Around 2 am this morning, my daughter was at the side of my bed.
"Mommy? Are you awake?"
"Yes, sweetheart, what's the matter?" I mumbled.
"Mommy, I only want to wear dresses at Walt Disney World and not shorts. Boys can't wear dresses so I want to wear dresses."
"Okay Natalie," I replied.
"Thanks, Mommy. I love you." And she kissed my cheek.
"I love you, too, angel. Go back to bed."
"I will Mommy. I love you." And back to bed she went.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Sparklers
We went to a belated "family-oriented" New Year's Eve party last night -- it was rescheduled from New Year's Eve due to the hostess having a pretty bad cold/flu thing going on for the beginning of 2006. We took Natalie and Nicholas out for a long ride before the party so they would sleep. (Little Man is a nap refuser on the weekend.) We all had a great time.
Natalie had her first experience with sparklers. Initially she was afraid of "fire" but after 10 minutes or so of all the children (including some 2 year-olds) holding sparklers with their parents, Natalie really liked it and was holding two sparklers at a time (with Dad nearby). Nicholas was not really interested in the sparklers -- much more into Thomas the Tank Engine. (No shock there.)
Nick was starting to get a little cranky, so we left around 7:30 pm, and then headed home to watch Herbie Fully Loaded. It was a much better movie then I thought it would be! I was a little hesitant to add it to our queue in NetFlix, but I'm glad we did. Even Nick was laughing hard in parts of it. Jeff Gordon was actually quite good in his cameo, too.
Natalie had her first experience with sparklers. Initially she was afraid of "fire" but after 10 minutes or so of all the children (including some 2 year-olds) holding sparklers with their parents, Natalie really liked it and was holding two sparklers at a time (with Dad nearby). Nicholas was not really interested in the sparklers -- much more into Thomas the Tank Engine. (No shock there.)
Nick was starting to get a little cranky, so we left around 7:30 pm, and then headed home to watch Herbie Fully Loaded. It was a much better movie then I thought it would be! I was a little hesitant to add it to our queue in NetFlix, but I'm glad we did. Even Nick was laughing hard in parts of it. Jeff Gordon was actually quite good in his cameo, too.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Jacob Robida
Wow -- the whole Jacob Robida thing is way too freaky.
1. His mother is the sister of someone I went to middle school/high school with. (I saw her when visiting my parents a couple of years ago -- I had brought my daughter to the local park and "S" was there with a little girl 2 months older than my daughter -- except it was her GRANDCHILD.)
2. DH went to middle school with a "J" Robida (back in the early 70s), who "got into trouble" because he had a Nazi flag on the end of his pencil. DH thinks that "J" is the dad.
This whole thing is frightening. Doesn't help that the parents are clueless idiots.
1. His mother is the sister of someone I went to middle school/high school with. (I saw her when visiting my parents a couple of years ago -- I had brought my daughter to the local park and "S" was there with a little girl 2 months older than my daughter -- except it was her GRANDCHILD.)
2. DH went to middle school with a "J" Robida (back in the early 70s), who "got into trouble" because he had a Nazi flag on the end of his pencil. DH thinks that "J" is the dad.
This whole thing is frightening. Doesn't help that the parents are clueless idiots.
Friday, February 03, 2006
All Thomas or cars, all the time
Nicholas is big into Thomas the Tank Engine right now. He sleeps with one train in his right hand and one in his left hand. When he wakes up, he wants to know where Thomas is. If it is not Thomas, he wants to know where his cars are. (He has roughly ten of the small 64 scale cars.) It's all Thomas or cars, all the time.
He's in the toddler classroom and has not moved up into the 2's room yet because there is no spot to go to yet. (The plague of a December birthday.) But today, one of the children in the 2's classroom was out, so Nick could go "visit". He spent the morning all the way through lunch there. He got to serve himself his lunch. He played with all sorts of new toys. He set out his own cups and plates. At nap time, he went back to his classroom for a rest. He told his teacher all about the things he did -- playing with fire trucks, and puzzles, and books, etc. He was all excited!
My little guy is such a big boy now!
He's in the toddler classroom and has not moved up into the 2's room yet because there is no spot to go to yet. (The plague of a December birthday.) But today, one of the children in the 2's classroom was out, so Nick could go "visit". He spent the morning all the way through lunch there. He got to serve himself his lunch. He played with all sorts of new toys. He set out his own cups and plates. At nap time, he went back to his classroom for a rest. He told his teacher all about the things he did -- playing with fire trucks, and puzzles, and books, etc. He was all excited!
My little guy is such a big boy now!
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