New teacher and bikes

One and half weeks before the end of school for Christmas, Ryanne was moved to a different class at school. Apparently her school was overcrowded (20 new K students since August) and they had finally received approval from the district to hire a new teacher. They did and Ryanne was one of the ones chosen to move to the new class.

The difference is night and day. Ryanne is reading, coloring and, generally, being more pleasant at home. No longer will we have to console her about hurting unborn children's ears (something the previous teacher used to keep the class quiet). She seems much happier with the new teacher. The vibe I got was so much more supportive of children and their needs. She's experienced, but still new (5 years) and came with great recommendations. Other parents seemed apprehensive, but we were overjoyed. Ryanne received a 4 (the top score) on her progress report in her first week in the new class and the teacher said she was having no problems.

At home, Ryanne learned to ride on two wheels last month. She was using a 20" bike that a friend had given to us. She was riding pretty well, but still struggling with stops, starts, turning, etc. I finally convinced Chrys to take the training wheels off of her 16" bike and WOW! She's amazing. She's stopping, starting, turning on a dime. She's going to wipe out (and hard) pretty soon, but the difference in her confidence from bike to bike is definitely noteworthy. She's definitely a two-wheeling fiend now. Even the neighbors noticed the change.

Lost tooth

Ryanne has been playing with a loose tooth on the bottom for some time. Today, it finally fell out at school. She'd been hoping to lose it at school because she really wanted to go see the nurse and get a treasure chest to take it home.

In her own words:
"It was kind of weird when it fell out. She wrote me a note that I brought home from the nurse. (It was the pass to go back to class, time stamped 9:55.) I was moving it with my tongue and it suddenly fell out in my mouth. I was sitting up and getting ready to put my head down. When I got back to my classroom, everyone was going to the bathroom in my classroom. (I think they have toilets connected to the rooms.)"

The teacher was surprised that it just fell out. If only she knew how long this one has been barely hanging on.

It's her lower right front tooth. You can already see the adult tooth peeking through the gum. She really did hang on to the baby tooth for a long time. She got her pink treasure chest, though.

Out of the box

Ryanne participated in a language study at UT today. I got to watch part of it. They had a series of cards and Ryanne was supposed to describe the picture on the card. Most of them were pretty simple.

Researcher: The boy is standing on the bridge. What's he going to do?
Ryanne: Jump.
Researcher: Can you tell me the whole thing? He's...
RC: He's going to jump off the bridge.
Researcher: Let's see what he did. (Next card)
Ryanne: He jumped.

There was one that really got me.
Researcher: This is one glass. These are two...
Ryanne: I can't tell what's in them.
Reasearcher: It doesn't matter what's in them. This is one glass. These are two...
Ryanne: Glass... cups that are... unfilled.
Researcher: This is one glass. These are two...
Ryanne: Glasses?

Yeah...she doesn't like your box. Where are my papers to sign her up for TAG (Talented and Gifted) testing?

She knows us well...

I got our tickets to Walking with the Dinosaurs today.

Ryanne asks what they are. I point to the name of the show. She counts 4 tickets.

"Can Dani and Jori come with us?"
I asked how many people we had in our family.
She said, "Can Dani come with us?"
I asked, "What about daddy?"
"He doesn't like dinosaurs."

On turning 6...

Ryanne turned 6 one week ago. It's amazing to me that she's 1/3 of the way through her 'childhood' with us. It seems like it's been a long time and only a blink of an eye at the same time. She has changed and grown so much.

She had her well-check on 11/1. She's 45.25" tall and 45.1 pounds, still 50% across both. Her blood pressure was fine (98/52). The doctor saw no cause for concern and remarked at her reading skills in the office.

She's still dramatic. Everything gets a HUGE reaction. She's blossomed into a caring being. She's becoming more empathetic. She's showing huge leaps in her people skills. She still can be a bit shy in new scenarios, but is usually very outgoing.

Happy 6, little one. I love you!

Left behind

Today, I arrived at the school at 2:45 to pick up Ryanne from Kindergarten. She was not sitting with the rest of the students in the K area near the car rider lanes. I asked where she was. The substitute covering her class responded that "someone said she was still in the classroom". I asked who someone was, but before I was given an answer, another teacher arrived with Ryanne and said she had been found crying in the hallway because her class had left her alone in the room with the lights off.

I gave her a hug, acknowledged how scary that must have been. Another teacher (I think I remember her being introduced as the 'lead' for the K classes) said that she was sorry that happened. I could do nothing but stare confusedly at all of them.

I asked Ryanne what happened and she said that she hadn't finished packing her backpack when the class left. I mentioned to her that next time she should ask the teacher to wait or to help her finish versus staying behind to finish on her own.

My biggest concern is that the substitute knew that she wasn't out at pickup yet didn't go back to find her. She didn't express concern that she wasn't there because "someone" said my daughter was still in the room. This is the kind of person trusted with her safety during the day?

I'm so done with Wells Branch Elementary... I really can't get her out of there soon enough.

Tested

Ryanne took her tests at the school a couple of weeks ago. A week after she said she had the test, I still hadn't received any status from the administration of the school. I asked the counselor if I could get her results. She said she would email them to me.

Ryanne scored 54% on language arts and 68% on math. They say she needs 90% to advance even though the RRISD web site says 80%. Either way, she's not close.

Honestly, though, I don't think their results are accurate. I know that every mom says their child is brilliant, etc. My daughter is smart. Possibly not above average smart, but smart. Her language skills far outweigh her math skills, though.

I need to get with the counselor and ask to look at the exam because I'm really confused by the results they get.

Big girl

I just ordered a new car seat for my car for Ryanne. We're getting the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1. It's probably the last seat I'll ever have to buy for her.

Can she stop growing now?

More school woes

Why must there always be drama when it comes to my daughter and school? Seriously? Do I spawn it? Do I make it worse? GAH!

So...this year's thing is that the report every afternoon has been that school is 'boring'. This concerns me on so many levels. She has lots of friends in her class. She loves playing and art and ... why is she bored? It hasn't gotten much better. We're up to "I like PE" which is a step in the right direction, but still not "cool"! Am I really asking too much that she think school is cool at age 5? She loved mother's day out. It was fun every day. She loved her first week at the school which shall remain nameless. Why shouldn't kindergarten be the same? I know the first week sucks. I really do, but it's not getting better.

So...we talked to the teacher at Parent Orientation last Thursday. When should I worry? What are our options? Should we consider testing her for 1st? What can you do with reading? We were kind of brushed off with something along the lines of she'd have a better idea of where she was by October parent/teacher conferences. Again, seriously? Two months to assess her and figure out what to do? Two months of 'boring' before she gets something else? I asked if that was before the deadline for having her tested for 1st and she said we had 20 days and asked if that was something we were interested in. I said yes and asked, specifically, if I could come in today (9/2) and request that and it would be soon enough. She told me that it would be fine.

So...I call the office to schedule an appointment only to find out that I had to request the test, in writing, by last Friday. The counselor explains that there's nothing they can do since we missed the deadline. She gave me the party line on gifted and talented and working with her, but no specific time line on when any of that would start rolling. I am really worried that they have so much paperwork to get through that by the time they're rolling, she's already acting out and done.

Then, I went to the school (fueled by a pep talk from Chrys) and asked to talk to the principal. The administrator at the desk took notes on my conversation with her teacher relayed them to the principal and, suddenly, the principal could call the district and talk to them. Interesting.

Now, with that out of the way. I know that being a reader, by itself, doesn't make her ready for first grade. However, looking at what they expect to teach her by the end of the year, she's got everything except lower case letters. (Incidentally, I handed her a workbook on those and she's already a decent way through it.) I guess I need to thumb through "What Your Kindergardener Should Know" and see if we're missing anything else big.

I'm worried that I'm going to be one of 'those' parents. I don't want to be, but I really want what's best for my child and being bored isn't it.

I hate drama.

When I grow up

D: What do you want to be when you grow up?

R: I'm going to be a President and a doctor. On my day off of being President, I will be a doctor. When it's my day off of being doctor I will be president again.

M: What will you be president of?

R: The united states of Austin.

D: I wonder when we'll secede?

Final frontier

"The atom it was broken. I saw the guy fixing it. It was on my side."

We drove by a broken ATM.

At this point only long words slow her down. Nothing stops her.

Sneaky sneaky

I heard her bed squeaking while Amber and I watched a bit of TV. After it got louder and more prolonged, I went up to check on her. She had scooted herself down to the end of the bed, opened her door and managed to find and angle from the top of her bed where she could see the TV "to see what all the noise was."

Trouble.

In other news...

Ryanne finished her first video game. Disney Princesses was knocked out in solo play mode in 2 days, I think. I don't think she spent more than an hour on it each day (go accumulated chore credits).

When we got her that game a year ago, she couldn't do the minigames in it by herself, nor could she figure out the main challenge in each level. She was so frustrated. This time, though, she blew threw it, reading the directions and plunging through the chapters with ease.

I am so proud. Sniff.

Now we have to figure out what to get her next. She's already asking for new games and I haven't seen anything else that really seemed easy enough. Cars, maybe? Endless Ocean (should have gotten it when it went on clearance at Target, but she wasn't really playing things on her own then)?

More on books

Chrys and I think that summer has been really good for her reading. We've been letting her read in bed every night. She doesn't have a night light, but it's summer and doesn't get dark until nearly 9. We start bedtime at 7:30 so she typically has 30 minutes or so to read before it gets too dark.

She's read all of the early reader books she already had. The libraries don't have a great selection. Today at Target we let her pick up to three new books. (Mini rant - why does everyone's 123 system have to be different? She's a 2 in one and a 1 in another and in yet another I'm not even sure she would be able to get through 1.) She picked two new books and she will probably finish them in the next day or two. She's only allowed one per night ao that slows her down a bit.

I have really find memories of reading myself to sleep. Chrys wasn't sure about letting her start but I think he agrees it's been good for her. Yay for reading!

Reader

Ryanne has come SO far in her reading. She went from being able to recite books that we read to her a lot to being able to read some of the simpler Bob series to skipping the rest of the Bob series and being able to read early level books that we check out from the library with little to no assistance. All in the last few months. It's crazy how quickly it's progressed. She just hit this spot where she had to read things and she would be really unhappy when I tried to help her out. She's figured out some of the more complicated vowel sounds. She's enjoying things like Super Why on a whole new level. She's really getting into her games and shows like Between the Lions.

She's also starting to sing along to songs and jingles that she hears frequently - radio or the car CD or whatever. Yesterday she told me that she saw Dell (sign on a building) and wanted to go there because they were a "proud supporter of Sesame Street". Too bad Apple doesn't sponsor Sesame Street here. I suppose if we lived in Cupertino...

Last week, she decided she wanted to take her allowance to the pet store. We counted it out before we left the house, as we usually do. While we were there, she told me that she had enough for "that goldfish right there". We looked around and figured out that she had enough for the fish, but not all of the stuff that she would need to take care of it. Daddy has agreed to lend her his tank when she has shown some responsibility (she chose to be responsible by doing chores and keeping her room clean) for herself on a regular basis for an extended period of time. There are no strict limits and it's not that she has to keep her room clean for x weeks to get a fish. She hasn't been terribly regular about it and we've had several discussions about what would happen to the fish if she decided not to take care of it for a couple of days. She's agreed that the fish can wait.

As for allowance, she usually gets $4 a week. She can't spend all of it in one week. She usually sits on it for a very long time. She gets 1% interest on everything she has in her 'savings' the day before she gets her allowance. She likes it. She bought herself a pottery wheel during the after Christmas sales. I wouldn't buy it because it was 8+, but it's her money and she really wanted it so she saved up for it and got it. She's built a couple of 'rocks' with it so far. We'll see what else she does with it.

She is currently counting down until she's 10 (I think) so she can audition for Fetch! I think we would have to spend a summer in Boston. Right now, we're not squelching the idea. We'll see what she still thinks of it as we get closer to the 'deadline'.

My little girl is growing up. Quickly.

I'm ready for my MySpace, Mr. DeMille

Ryanne has been playing with her camera again. She's seen me take a 'self-portrait' a few times for some DITLs (that I never manage to publish on time) and decided to try some of her own. This one is pretty good and I *love* her facial expression. :)

I told her she was ready for MySpace and she was confused. "I'm ready for your space? What is your space?"

Birds and bees

Tonight, Ryanne explained to me that she didn't want anything to happen to Corin. I said that was sweet, and asked what made her say that.

R: "Well, if anything happened to Corin, you'd have to do lots of exercise to have another baby."
M: Looks at her very confusedly...
R: Looks at me very confusedly... "Mommy, you've been exercising more..."
M: "Whoa, Ryanne, babies aren't made by people exercising" (as I think in my head, at least in the way I think you're thinking of)
R: "Uh...They aren't?"
M: *sigh*

At that point, I launched into a brief, but matter of fact explanation of what happened. She didn't get weirded or grossed out. She asked if daddy put his penis in my vagina to make her? Yup. And her brother? Yup. I got an "oh" and nothing more. When bath time was over, we went to get the "It's So Amazing" book that I had stashed away for just this sort of thing. We looked at pictures. She asked some more questions - mostly anatomy related. I think she's more amazed by the way the body works than the emotional aspects - which is exactly where she should be.

*Deep breath* No amount of expecting it can prepare you for the day it actually happens.

Massage addict

Tonight, Ryanne's tummy was hurting during dinner. She didn't eat much at that meal, but had eaten quite a bit during the day so I wasn't too worried. I asked if she wanted me to massage it.

We rubbed her tummy in various ways that I've been taught and she said it felt a little better.

Then she said it might feel better if we massaged her back. So I did.

Then she said that it was feeling a bit worse and trying to tell us that her neck needed a massage. Hmmm.

Eventually, she ended up with about a 45 minute full body massage. She was one happy girl. She said her body felt all loose. It was great for both of us.

The other side

Ryanne crossed some sort of mental barrier in the last week or so. She's finally at that (probably soon to be rather annoying, but currently incredibly cool) state where she can't stop herself from sounding words out and trying to read. She's grasped the longer vowel sounds and is starting to pick up on some of the oddities of written English. She was playing with "know" the other day.
R: Kuh-now. Mommy, what is kuh-now.
M: The "k" is silent on that one.
R: Why?
M: I have no idea. It's just how it is. English is weird that way.
R: So it's "now".
M: Well, actually, the "ow" on that one says "o" so it's just no.
R: It says "no".
M: Well, it says know, like something that you understand. Like, now you know how to spell know.

I giggled at myself. I *think* she might have actually rolled her eyes. Figures.

Kinder Round-up

Today, we registered RC for kindergarten. I made it through without crying...until I got to see Janna (my hair stylist) and she got me going. I cannot believe that's she's going to be in Kinder in the fall. It's crazy.

After that, I took her back to "church" (her MDO is at a church) and we stopped to see the animals for farm day. They had these two week old baby goats that were so.freaking.adorable. One of them kept standing up on the cage trying to get RC's attention. She would lean down and gently pet it and then move to another area. It followed her. She says she drew a picture of the goat that liked her very much, but I haven't seen it yet.

This afternoon, we took her for a hair cut. Her fine hair gets so tangly and she's been wanting it shorter. She elected to have it 'on her shoulders' so that's where it is. It looks really cute, as always. :)

You must at least this obnoxious...

Most nights, after the kids are in bed, Chrys and I put away the laundry that was washed that day. Usually we end up getting to putting away the kids' stuff long after they are asleep. Tonight, Ryanne wasn't. I went into her room to steal hangers.

R: Mommy, what are you doing?
M: Getting hangers so we can put away your clothes. This is the kind of exciting stuff that mommy and daddy do after you go to bed. Put away the laundry.
R: Oh.

We said I love you's and I left. Chrys took clothes in.
R: Daddy, mommy already got the hangers.
D: I know, I'm putting away clothes that are already on the hangers.
R: Oh.

I took the next load in.
R: Mommy, NOW what are you doing?
M: I'm putting away the rest of your clothes.
R: Oh, have "fun" with that.
M: ...

I must confess to laughing when I relayed the conversation to Chrys. A lot.

Can't wait til we get to discuss vinyl...

R: Mommy, what's a video "tape"?
M: Uh, well... before we had DVDs, they used to put videos on magnetic tape and you would play them on a video tape player.
R: "Before"? we had DVDs?

Right...that's a totally foreign time frame to her. Oy.

Weather is confusing

Today we had hail... LOTS of hail. Big hail.

First, Ryanne was scared. Then, she wanted to go play in the snowballs. Then we let her hold one and she decided it was cold and hard and would hurt. No more wanting to play.

After the rain was over, the sun actually came out (damn Texas weather). She came to me totally freaked out. "MOM, the sun is coming out. We didn't go to sleep. It's morning. We stayed up all.night.long!" This was actually very concerning to her. We were going to be so tired, etc.

I explained that just because the sun was coming out didn't mean it was night; it merely meant that the clouds were going away. Chrys took her outside and explained how the sun comes up on one side of the house and goes down on the other. She seems ok with this now.

My eyes are perfect...

And that's a problem.

Ryanne has been wanting to go to the eye doctor for a while. She's oddly attracted to the whole doctor thing, in general. Hopefully I'm not generating a hypochondriac.

Anyway...

I took her. She tried on all of the kid glasses while we waited for her appointment.

She has perfect 20/20 vision.

Unfortunately, at her age, she should still be closer to 20/15 or better.

This means that she will need glasses, and probably soon. Her eyesight may end up worse than mine. Only time will tell.

She seems to have my bad ankles, too.

At least my teeth are good...