Grandma Barbie had planned a walk down memory lane. Our last morning she asked her 4 grandkids to gather on the couch for some family time.
First she showed them pictures of her side family thru the years.
Look familiar Aunt Martha? That is my Grandma Mimi with Kurt, and me and our cousins Dan and Katy.
After the photos we ate breakfast and then we listened to cassette tapes of Grandma Mimi reading books to me and my brothers when we were little.
It was pretty special.
Please be sure to scroll all the way back to November 19. I have been working on catching up on the blog. Sorry to my Aunts and Gwei who read regularly and I haven’t posted in a while. Life gets busy. But I am still dedicated and committed to this blog.
Ally is really growing up. Not just her hair growing long, but she is growing up. It’s amazing how old 7 seems to be. But yet she is still just a girl.
This past week Becky and I met with Ally’s teachers for her Parent-Teacher conference. It was really lovely to spend 30 minutes talking with them about Ally and hearing about her academics. They had no social issues or concerns, so we really did get to talk about learning style and accomplishments. Now that Ally is in first grade we should start to help her with correct spelling in her writing. She is reading at grade level. Both teachers were thrilled that in the last month Ally has started to participate in class, raising her hand and volunteering. They asked that we praise her for that and keep encouraging her and letting Ally know that she has “interesting things to say and they want to hear it”. Ally seems most comfortable in small groups or one on one. No surprises there. We agree that in the last month Ally seems to be blossoming – she has become more confident at school and gymnastics and a bit more vocal and opinionated and adventuresome at home as well.
The most amazing thing at the conference was learning that Ally is an ace is spelling in SPANISH. I have been a bit frustrated with helping Ally read and write in English – Ally is smart enough to realize that sounding things out in English is a bit of a gamble – its not always right (and Ally likes to be right) so she is resistant. Luckily she is good at memorizing so once she gets the word she gets it. But still it’s a challenge.
But the Spanish teacher showed us Ally’s spelling tests in Spanish and it was amazing. She got really complicated and advanced words correct. The teacher explained that they call it “decoding” and Ally is really good at decoding (breaking a word down by sounds) and in Spanish its all straight forward. There is really only one way to make each sound. So if it’s a long e (ee) sound its always an i . Becky and I were stunned at the words Ally was able to spell, and it turns out the English teacher was a bit surprised too. So this week we have been talking with Ally about the need to try the decoding in English, but conceding that English is harder than Spanish and requires a lot of memorizing. Lots of praise and encouragement for Ally to keep up the good work. She works really hard in school, listens to instructions and follows directions well. She wants to succeed and tries hard too.
We are really proud of Ally.
Reading on the couch with mama.
Gymnastics – Ally is thriving there as well. She is the youngest in her class again, and now after 2 months of classes she no longer feels intimidated. Instead she is feeling proud and excited to be working out with the older sometimes much bigger girls. She is actually attempting a back handspring on her own now and is even getting braver on the bar. It has been great to see.
Saturday we had 3 pretty big events.
Ally and I were up early and went to a special early morning shopping event at our friend’s shop. Ally got a new hat and mittens.
1st up was ice skating. We asked Ally if she wanted to try hockey this year and she said no. But she did want to do more skating lessons. I sent a few emails out to get some friends to join us and it worked. Ally knew so many people at the rink she was thrilled; Xela, Alina, Dean, Max, Millie, Erik,Nicky, Liem, Khai and Rivka. Friends from school, from the neighborhood and summer camp. Ally got right out on the ice and skated across the rink with Max. All the way t o the other side and spent the entire lesson in the “advanced group” she is a bit stiff on the ice. We joked that she has great posture! I spent the hour chatting with friends too. It was lots of fun.
After skating it was the drive thru for lunch and then a stop at Target. We needed a few things at home, and Ally and I were shopping for our church’s Christmas project. All week Ally and I were talking about going to the store to pick out some things for children who needed stuff their families could not afford to buy. We picked out 2 coats, hats, and underwear. All listed as “highly desirable” in the needed list. Coats were higher than toys or even gift cards.
We came home and Ally was pretty tired, so she actually took a nap! I think part of it was to avoid having to take a bath. But I guess she was really tired because she slept for over an hour and I had to wake her up to get ready to go to the first of 2 Holiday parties.
We had fun at Mia’s house making yarn ornaments. We stopped for dinner at a local Mexican place on the way to Andy’s house for a dessert party. We brought cake pops and they were a huge hit. Ally had fun watching a movie and hanging out with her friends. Becky and I had a really nice time talking to our friends without Ally hanging on to us. (Growing up is great.)
This morning Ally was pretty cuddly and such a sweetie. She’s all hunkered down on the couch now watching a short movie.
Grandma Barbie bought us tickets to go on a Santa Adventure.
In the morning the kids had to write their letter to Santa. Ally asked for:
A telescope, an American Girl Gymnastics Set, and the Lego Friends House. Her cousins had a much longer list of things, so she did add in a Barbie Pool – but she admitted its not really something she wanted – she just had space to fill on the sheet.
It was really cold while we waited for the bus. Big thanks to my brother and Christine for sharing their kids with us. Ally rode to the depot with Meredith in the car with us, then on the bus she sat with Kaitlin and on the way home Jackson rode with us. It was special to have some time one on one with each of her cousins.
Can you tell how excited the men were?
After riding an open air double-decker bus in the freezing cold we arrived at the depot to decorate our own Santa hats.
Then it was time to talk to Santa. Ally was pretty happy to sit on his lap and tell him the 3 things she wanted. After each one had a turn we got a group shot. My mom was thrilled.
The adventure was that Jack Frost came to visit and he stole Santa’s magic hat. We had to go find the hat. SO we all got onto a tour bus and drove around the area looking for Jack Frost. Mrs. Claus transported herself to our bus via the toilet. And 3 elves rode with us and led us in singing Christmas carols. We saw Scrooge and even got to sprinkle magic snow on Frosty to wake him up. In the end we all used our Christmas spirit to enchant a hat for Jack Frost. Who really just wanted to know people liked him. When he got his own hat he gave Santa his back. Jack Frost is below.
Ally was so tired by the time we got home – and she looked so cute sleeping I took the picture above.
We left our house after school on Wednesday. It was an early release day for Becky and Ally so we did get an earlier than start than usual. But the weather was pretty bad, rain, sleet or snow the entire way and there was some traffic so the drive took an hour longer than usual.
Ally was a trooper and watched movies and did workbooks without complaint the whole trip. We were excited to finally get to Grandma Barbie and Grandpa Frank’s house. Ally was thrilled there was snow on the ground!
We spent the evening having some dinner and watching Ally’s summer camp performance with Grandma and Grandpa. The cousins were on their way – it’s a long drive from Cleveland and they arrived while Ally was sleeping.
In the morning Ally got gifts from her cousins – Birthday and Christmas! She got a great flashlight penguin (now named Snowy) and a Clarice reindeer! Ally was thrilled!
Grandma Barbie had a quarters project for the kids. One quarter for each state. But an even bigger hit was decorating the boxes the stuffed animals came in. Turns out the cousins picked Uncle Kurt up at work on Wednesday and they each got to pick out a B./uild a B.ear and Jackson suggested they get one for Ally so she did not feel left out (awwww) and they got her the Clarice one. Each cousin helped put it together, kissing, hugging the heart and filling it with stuffing.
Ally and Kaitlin had fun playing with my childhood toys – this was Fashion P.lates. And Jackson worked on the Etch a Sketch
Christine and Meredith made the mashed potatoes.
While Ally and Kaitlin wrote out and decorated the place cards. Becky repaired Jackson’s Ohio S.tate Bear, Brutus.
There was also some tasting of the potatoes. The girls settled in with their stuffed animals.
Becky bundled up in 2 coats and hat and mittens to supervise the snow ball throwing out in the driveway. It was frigid – I think the high was 15 degrees. But Ally wanted to paly in the snow. And her cousins wanted to play with her.
My mom did a great job as usual with the meal. Table was beautiful and the food was delicious.
After dinner there was old school computer-ing with the light brite!
Meredith made a bird. Ally watching TV on the ipad surrounded by cousins!
Ally had her 7 year physical today. I took her by myself this year. It was the first time ever Becky and I did not both go to this annual well-visit. But the most convenient time I could get was a a 230 appointment, which meant I would pick Ally up from school early and Becky would have had to leave her school early.
Since we had no concerns it seemed logical.
No surprise, Ally is in excellent health. She is holding strong in the 15% percentile (WHO chart, not US growth chart) and weighed in at 41 pounds and 45 inches.
She did need to get a flu shot, which was of course a dramatic scene of me holding her down in my lap with Ally crying hysterically. She had been clear she did not want to get a shot at this appointment, but our wonderful pediatrician over-ruled Ally and explained that coming back another time would be a bad idea and would expose Ally to sick kids.
We came home after the appointment and let her watch a movie.
Silly face girl. I love her so very much and am very grateful for her good health.
We thought Ally’s thank you notes were brilliant. She wrote the thank you and then drew a picture of the gift on the back of the card. Pretty clever if you ask me.
