January 2008

That was the fastest January! We spent a lot of weekends up in Big Bear and luckily haven't got caught in any winter storms.

Last week we had our first parent-teacher meeting. It was great. Overall, it sounds like Cliona is very like Stephen when he was that age. One of Cliona's teachers, Yessika, went through a report card that covers all aspects of Cliona's delevopment. I was amazed at how much attention they actually pay to each child - she was able to tell me all about Clio's abilities and personality at school. I was interested to hear that Cliona has never gotten into trouble at school - she must save all the boundary testing for her Mommy and Daddy! She's got her numbers, letters, colors, animals and shapes down but isn't too keen on drawing or painting. She's always willing to share her toys and take turns but tends to ingore her teachers when they call her to a new activity. She loves to sing ABC song at circle time and plays better with the other children indoors. She is very tidy, cleans up after herself at lunch time and knows where all the toys go. She rarely offers up conversation to her teachers but when prompted is well able to verbalise exactly what is going on. She still has a little separation anxeity, some days are better than others but the tears only last a couple of minutes and then she is fine.

The last couple of times I have picked her up, she has screamed across the classroom 'Mommy!! I pee-peed in the potty!!!'. It is SO cute. She is so proud of herself! She insists on big girl panties in the mornings now. Still no pooping in the potty but that's ok. It'll come.

On thursday it was culture day - Cliona was an Irish Cowboy. We got the oufit together at toys r us and I was suprised when she refused to try it on when we got home. After a bit of nudging it came out that she remembered the day at her old school when they brought in a pony and they dressed the children up as cowboys and took their picture. She was really concerned that she was going back to her old school. She didn't like that idea one bit and I had to do a lot of reassuring that there would be no pony and we weren't going to the old school. Once that was sorted out she went to bed happy and the next morning was all into the cowboy outfit. There was a lot of Yee-Ha'ing before school.

Oh and the new thing for January is Stephen and Cliona taking showers together. The hair-washing is so much easier and she loves being in the shower with her Daddy.

I put all the January photos together HERE