We Have A Preschooler

It’s really nothing new.  Dagny has been going to “school” for over a year now, but the fact that she is now considered a preschooler just really affects me.  She seems like she has gotten bigger over night.

The fact that she started at a new daycare, with new teachers, and new friends makes this seem so much more significant.  We tried to help her with the transition by taking her to her new daycare and having her explore her new classroom environment.  She truly seemed to love it.  This morning when I was getting Dagny ready I asked Dagny where are we going today, she replied “To preschool.” but, then she said “No, mommy, I want to go to my old school, the red school.”  Yikes!

As Craig and I dropped her off we were prepared for the worst scenario. I am not kidding you when I say she let go of our hands ran straight for the computer in her classroom. She never even turned back and looked at us.  We were so happy it was a good drop off.

I called to check in on her during the day and I was told she was doing great.

Here is our little preschooler.

Our Preschooler

Here is my girl after I picked her up this afternoon. Based on this photo I think she had a nice fun filled day.

Barbara

O Good Weather, Where Art Thou?

This is the question I asked all weekend.  This past week the weather was amazing, in fact, I’m dared to say it was really hot, like turn the A/C back on hot. All week I was checking my trusty Weather Channel App on my iPhone hoping it would change its mind about the cold front. It’s hard to believe when its 90 degrees that the following day it was going to be in the 60’s. That’s just not a nice thing of Mother Nature. I was really excited that the water in the pool was warming up all week, and the thought of going into the pool one more time this season sounded wonderful. But it was not meant to be, and as I found out nothing worked out just as I thought it would.  But I think it worked out for the better in the end.

One of the things we planned on doing this weekend was to go to the New York State Festival of Balloons in Dansville, NY. Saturday, we got in the car and drove all the way down there. We knew the outlook wasn’t looking good, when we didn’t see any hot air balloons as we were getting close to Dansville. When we arrived we asked the nice lady at the gate if the balloons were going to be blown up. She said she couldn’t guarantee that it would. We were so bummed hearing that. The reason we decided to go was to show Dagny the hot air balloons, she was so excited the whole drive down. Parent lesson #1, don’t tell your child you’re going to see something, you’re not 100% sure if you can deliver.

So, what to do? When we were driving down to Dansville, we passed by Letchworth State Park. As we were driving back to Rochester, Craig suggested we go to Letchworth. It’s been a long time since we have been and Dagny has never. I don’t know how we forgot how beautiful a place it is. As we were driving through the park, Craig mentioned that it looks like the Grand Canyon.  The funny thing is as I was grabbing the link for the park, the first thing it mentions is that it’s renowned as the “Grand Canyon of the East”. Because the weather was on the cooler side it wasn’t super crowded, which we all know we love.

Grand Canyon of the East

Dagny had a wonderful time. Once we got to the park, we told her we are going to see a waterfall. Thank goodness she was excited about that enough to get over not seeing the balloons.

Here are my two loves.

Here are my two silly monkeys.

Dagny enjoying the waterfall.

Mommy & Dagny playing

Taking a break.

Sunday, we stayed at home.  Only thing we did was take a walk around the neighborhood, which is always unpredictable.  As we started our walk, about four houses down from us a woman rushed out of her house with her husband and children following.  They introduced themselves to us.  The lady used to work with the previous owner of or house, and has heard about us and wanted to meet us.  How absolutely sweet of them. We have one addition thing in common, they adopted their daughter too.  This is yet another reason why I love our new neighborhood, you just don’t know what you’re going to experience going for a walk.

Today, we decided to go for a walk through Tinker Nature Park.  We really enjoy going there, it’s such a nice walk through the woods.  In the past when we walked the path, we never once ran into anyone, this time we ran into quite a few.  Toward the end there is a playground that we usually stop and let Dagny play.  I couldn’t believe how many kids there were.  I realized today that I don’t really like some kids.  There were a group of kids ranging in ages  3 to 8.  The eight year old was your typical bully.  He was pushing the kids, which the three  year old learned and pushed Dagny.  I didn’t witness this, Craig told me this later, which is a good thing because I don’t think I would have been so understanding.  What drives me crazy is that the boy’s parents were there while he was being a bully, and the only thing they said was “Boy will be boys.”  Really?  Nice parenting skills. Ugh.  I hate that we will continue to run across parents like these through Dagny’s adolescents. I get that is all a part of growing up, but I hate it.  Dagny is still young enough not to fully grasp any of what went down, but it breaks my heart to think someday soon she will and she will slowly lose the innocence that is a part of her at this young age.

So even though all weekend it looked like it was going to rain any minute, it never did while we were out and about. And even though our weekend was not as what we thought it would be, it all worked out for the best.

Barbara

Vegetarian Post

I know I promised more meat in my next post, but I just don’t think I can deliver.  At least I promise it will not be a vegan one.

Lets go way back to last weekend.

Saturday my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came through town.  They were going to Buffalo for a wedding and they dropped Emerson off at our house and stayed a bit before they headed out.  Dagny also had her first “daycare friend” birthday party to go to.  Emerson was nice to tag along with Craig and Dagny, while I stayed home and caught up with my family. After Dagny got back from the birthday party and woke up from her nap, we all went out to dinner to celebrate Emerson’s birthday that was back in July.  Hey, it’s better later then never!

Sunday, my brother and his lovely lady came back through town to pick up their youngest offspring.  We had a nice breakfast and did some more catching up before they headed back down to Long Island.  I can’t wait for our trip to Binghamton for the Annual Biro Bonfire later this month!

Because the weather was so amazing, we decided to dress up our little one and take some photos with the sunflowers.  This also seems to be an annual tradition.

Here is our little bumble bee.

Cute, huh?  I’d like to think so too.

Later in the week Dagny and I went to Jacob’s house for a play date.  Jacob has the greatest backyard with the biggest sandbox and pool in town.  Even though Jacob is few years older then Dagny, they got along lovely.

They decided to play in the smaller one of his two pools.  And, of course I dropped the ball.  I totally forgot to bring Dagny’s bathing suit.  Jacob was kind enough to let Dagny borrow some of his clothes that he has outgrown.

I promise not to wait a week before I write about this weekends adventure.

Barbara