Preschool

I went to a parent/teacher conference at Maria's school, my first.  It's funny, I know I am in denial about being an adult because when I think about a parent/teacher anything, I never think that I am parent, I think about my Dad and Mom, ha!  Oh, they love Maria at school!  It's really nice to hear, I mean, she drives me mad daily but I really do see all the good in her, I swear, but it's nice to have it confirmed by an outside person.

Her teacher said she has two good girlfriends at school, Paige and Josie, but that she is willing to play with other kids too.  She said she is extremely empathetic and kind and that she avoids conflict.  She said Maria is the only one in her class who will put on her own coat and that they are working on zipping it up.  She said they call her the Walmart Greeter at school, because she stands by the door every morning saying hi to everyone and announcing their arrival.  She is doing fine motor skills wise.

She's perfect, of course, but ay yi yi is girlfriend sleeping badly!  I think she eats too late at night and I am trying to not give them too much to eat for an afternoon snack so they are hungry for dinner.  Typically Maria gets hungry around like 4:00 and eats a bunch and then doesn't want dinner, but DOES want a bunch of crap right before she goes to sleep.  She has been having "spaghetti dreams" as my friend Leslee used to call them, waking up in the night, etc.  She told me the other morning that she had a dream that Felicity turned into a bird and flew away.  Anyways, as usual, we are working on it.

Disney on Ice

I took Maria to see Disney on Ice Princess Edition, or whatever it's called, today. My friend Katie had two tickets, and she was nice enough to invite us and BOY it was a treat! I didn't tell Maria until this morning that we were going, because I can only take so much. She would have hammered away at me about it, freaking out every day that it wasn't time to go yet, and I just knew it wouldn't end well. So anyways, off we went, we had a great time. She wore that dress, Laura gave it to her for her birthday and she seriously loves it. LOVES. IT. Laura has always been a good, thoughtful gift giver, but she really hits it out of the park with my kids and I appreciate her for it.

Oh, she was cute at the show! At first, she was sort of shy with me about it, kind of glancing over her shoulder at me to see if I was seeing what she was seeing. Then she started to get into it, and by that I mean, she peppered me with questions about what was happening. Unfortunately, she kept facing the action to talk to me and I was sitting to her left, so I didn't hear many of them. And actually, that was probably best, she was treating it like a movie, and by that I mean, hammering me with questions about what was going to happen. We watched about Princess Tiana and the Frog, then Cinderella, and then Rapunzel. Then for the big finale, they brought out ALL the princesses and their princes and I thought she would explode from the happiness. She was dancing, and so, so cute.

I said it on Facebook, and it's true: we have so many firsts with Maria, it's really exciting. Anthony would have probably not wanted to see Disney on Ice anyway, but who knows? It is fun to see a cute show with your child and have them really get into it. It's even fun to buy a $12 sno cone in a souvenir cup! She is always good when we are out, up until the time we leave. We never ever leave anywhere without her crying and screaming. It sucks and I hate it. I told my friend Marta the other day that it happens all the time, and she said (her kids are older) that I can expect it until she is five or six. But then, I told her, I have to get through it with Veronica and Felicity too? Six years? Six years of dragging some kid through the museum exit, the library, the store, everywhere? Sheesh.

Confidence

Thank God for Maria - she doesn't have any confidence problems, does she? If I was given an option, if someone said to me, she could keep all her confidence AND her volume, or she could quiet the hell down and leave you alone sometimes, but not have such confidence in herself, I'd go for the former and wish for deafness. I'm that good a mother. Ha! She really is amazing. She marches in to the 'haircut shop' today, as she calls it, and picks out her chair, the lady combs and wets her hair and she just sits there, pulling her head this way and that so she can see the mirror better. She kills me.

Here's my Maria story for today: I told her that she could go to the store with me after Mike got home because Veronica couldn't go. Veronica was b-a-d all damned day and I had had it. So she goes to BLEAT to Veronica "Veronica! You can't go to the store cause you bad!". I said, shhhh! You don't have to say anything to Veronica, just worry about YOU! (I say this 1200 times a day). So she WHISPERS it: veronica! you can't go to the store cause you bad!. I said NOOOO! SHHHH! Do not tell Veronica anything! So she walks over and kneels down next to Felicity and she says, super sweetly in Fifi's ear, "Felicity! You know what? Veronica can't go to the store cause she baaaaad". I give! I give!, I want to cry, several thousand times a day. She is killing me.

They don't have school until Monday and I told someone today, I am getting so mad at the preschool for having off for two weeks I want to go and take my Christmas present back, ha! Oh well, tomorrow V has speech and we might get together with our neighbor in the afternoon, then Thursday maybe we'll go to the Y and Friday we are having a little Friday ballet playdate for Maria's birthday. She hasn't asked for a big party so I am not doing one. We're just going to have Emma and Charlie here, her girls from ballet, and their brothers and mothers and we'll have lunch and cupcakes. Maybe we'll go order them tomorrow. It is very challenging to take Maria where she wants to go and still let Felicity nap and hate the car like she does, AND workout AND shower. How I wish there were boarding preschools, sometimes. Kidding! I AM KIDDING!

Lame

I was making our Christmas cards the other night and I realized I have SO few pictures of Maria.  I ended up using one from August!  What can I say, it's been busy.  But Maria is ever present, don't you worry.  Lately, Maria:

• has taken to demanding to know the schedule for not just the next day, but the whole week.  Lucky for ME, she only knows four days of the week.  So we talk about Monday, she go to school.  Tuesday, she go to school.  Wednesday, she go to the library AND lunch, and Friday, she go to ballet.  She doesn't know Thursday, and do you want to know why?  Because we don't have anything scheduled on Thursday and therefore it doesn't exist.  
• is doing very well in preschool.  Her teacher's name is Miss Stacey and another parent told Mike last week that she always thinks of Maria as "Miss Stacey Jr." because Maria stands by the door in the morning and announces which student is coming in.  "Good Morning, PATRICK!", she'll yell.  And then she says "Miss Stacey!  PATRICK IS HERE!". 
• has been enjoying ballet, but she's not too serious about it.  I notice the teacher telling other parents that their student is starting to do well, to maybe move up, but the teacher always just says hi to me.  Ha!  I don't care, she loves it and it's inexpensive.  Today she told me she'd like to do tap dancing, so maybe we'll do that some day in the future.  FARRRR in the future.  
• gets along well with Veronica.  They are mostly pretty sweet together, still.  
• loves the baby.  
• loves to talk on the phone.  We call my mom, my dad, and Mike's mom pretty often.  She asks my mother the same thing all the time.  "How's your new red car, Grandma?" is big and also "How's Grandpa?".  She tells them about 'her baby' and about school, and ugh, just everything.  She is hard to understand AND she holds the phone about two feet from her ear and mouth so it's interesting.  It's not what old Alexander Graham Bell intended, that's for sure, ha!  
• is enjoying the iPad and Netflix.  She likes Strawberry Shortcake, which Mike and I think is the dumbest thing, ever.  

So, she's doing well, she's almost four.  We talk a lot about Christmas.  We have an Elf on the Shelf that we are all having fun with.  She's fine.  She's the least AND the most of my worries, ha!  

Cinderella

She was a perfect trick or treater. She looked great, she was polite, she loved to give out candy. She was just perfect!

Teeth

So she fell out of bed last week and her teeth were loose and we were worried that she'd lose them, or have to have them pulled. Then on Tuesday of this week, she was swinging at school and she knocked one out - or almost out - Mike took her to see the dentist and I guess they walked in and the dentist just yanked it out from where it was hanging. I wish she would have done it and then maybe we wouldn't get charged for an extraction, ha! Maybe we won't anyway, who knows. She was upset the day it happened, but mostly because she couldn't go back to school for lunch. She has been fine and FINE ever since, she is a real trouper, I'll give her that.

They are both driving me crazy about this baby. My GOD they are loud and all they want to do is push their dirty fingers in her eyes and mouth. It's hard, but I'm assuming it won't last. It's hardest on Mike, because in the evening, I usually have the fussy baby in the sling and although I am hands-free and you'd THINK I could help get them in their pajamas and whatever, I really can't because they have to yank the sling off the baby's face, so they can JAM their fingers in her mouth. Oy. It's bedtime right now, if you couldn't tell.

Maria has had a good week, they must be working on letters at school, she knows all about what words start with what letters. She can count to infinity, she is really getting into books, she dances like a crazy person. Lately her thing is stepdancing and oh, my Lord, it's hilarious. She is a funny girl, she drives me mad but mostly I just love and like her a lot. She is one tough cookie.

Neglect

Poor Maria. I assure you I haven't been neglecting her like I have been her blog. Here she is enjoying a bedtime snack with old Veevsalah Voo. The other night she fell out of bed, BOOM! it went, around midnight. I was downstairs with the baby and I thought either one of them fell out of bed or someone dropped a big bag of bricks in their room. Mike went in and I heard Maria crying and crying AND crying, so I went up to see her. Mike was just putting her back to bed, she had busted up her lip and was still crying but went back to sleep. Then Mike took her to the dentist on Tuesday and lo and behold, her two front teeth are loose and might have to come out! We are praying and praying that by giving her soft food and her staying off them, as it were, she will be better in two weeks and won't have to have her teeth pulled. That would be a long time to go without front teeth and I am loathe to think about getting her a flipper or whatever it is they use on Toddlers and Tiaras.

We felt terrible that we didn't know it was more serious but the thing is, she is so tough you just wouldn't know if there was something wrong. She wouldn't miss school for anything, so we can't ever find out how she really is.

She's so cute and funny, though. Mike said she was super brave at the dentist, he got her settled in and then had to go with Anthony and she was fine by herself. I had some friends come over this week to see the baby and she just chatted away with them, told them she poops on the potty but Veevsy doesn't, but Anthony does, etc., etc. She's gross but charming! She's so good with the baby but unfortunately Veronica isn't, so I have to run and go save Mike. I'll be glad when this baby is old enough to punch those little hands away from her face!