Fiona Goes to School

Last week, Fiona went to school twice. On Tuesday she was my date to the department meeting. I took her because I had no choice and I went because I am not going to the rest of the department meetings this year due to my classes at UCSB.  She made a little fuss, but not much, and enjoyed crawling under the desks and emptying little cups that had markers and pencils in them. The second time she went to school was Thursday. I wanted to meet with another teacher to get advice and feedback on a class I am teaching for the first time, and again, I had no choice but to bring her. She was in heaven! She crawled all over the room, under desks, played with books, and in true Fiona style, opened drawers and started emptying them:

Then, also in true Fiona style (and I know I am probably over sharing here) she had the biggest and stinkiest poop she has had all year, possibly ever. Holy moly was it a big one! She didn’t seem to mind, but I did. It was not fun to change that diaper!

She is probably thinking, “So many books! Which one should I open and flip through?”

One day I am going to look back at this picture and sigh because she will be sitting at a desk and not crawling under it.

Our Little Bookworm

Fiona clearly loves to read...or be read to. She obviously takes it very seriously:

 

 

Did Mr. Gumpy really let all those animals in boat? I don’t believe it!

She loves to turn the pages:

 

 

The plot must be a nail biter...will they all fall into the water? Will the chameleon find  color of his own?? Who is the little bird’s mother???

 

 

She even likes to read magazines:

She was flipping through last month’s National Geographic and getting very excited about the ghost bears.

Here she is “reading” to herself:

I don’t mind that she is a bookworm, I am too. I just hope she also has an appreciation for numbers (meaning math).

Here she is offering me a book, and then looking very serious:

Faces of Fiona

I’m soooo tired. Fiona has decided to stop sleeping through the night and last night, she was up twice. It’s killing me and I am afraid it is starting to affect my performance at work. I’m dreading classes at UCSB. Last Saturday (September 10), we went to my cousin Kaitlyn’s 11th birthday party. We swam in a very warm pool and ate ice cream cake. I wish my family lived closer so I could see them more.

Here is Kaitlyn on her birthday and a picture of her delicious chocolate and peanut butter ice cream cake:

Yes, she is 11 years old and almost as tall as I am:

Here are some recent photos of Fiona:

She was playing in the dirt and handed some of it to me. Thank you Fiona!

She examined her hands and pieces of bark mulch. Then a big yawn. Yeah, I’m tired too kiddo.

I know these two are dark, but I wanted to add them anyway:

Last, John’s wrist swelled on Saturday and started hurting. We didn’t have a splint so we improvised:

What you are seeing, besides John’s chest, is a ruler affixed to his arm using climbing tape. Hey, it worked. Wasn’t very comfortable to cuddle though. Good thing my parents had a wrist splint that they were able to lend us, the ruler was really pointy.

Hot and Hugs

This week has been so HOT! Temperatures have been in the 80’s and one day it was actually 90 degrees. No one has air conditioning because the temperature rarely stays above 70 for long, so when it is hot, we just suffer. Luckily, we have high ceilings, ceiling fans in every room, and double paned windows that help keep the house cool during the day. The other day we went to Lyla’s (Fiona’s friend) house to play with water in the back yard. There were some other friends there as well.

One of Fiona’s friends does the Mowgli walk (on hands and feet instead of hands and knees) and ever since then, Fiona has been doing it too:

Here she is in the front yard, waiting for John to come home and trying to take off her shoes:

   

She has been taking so many steps. Yesterday she “walked” to me several times. More and more she is preferring to attempt the walk instead of the crawl. It’s becoming a little easier for her, but she is still very excited when it happens. One day I will get it on “film”.

Looking in a pot:

Then putting dirt in the pot:

She likes to put her head in the pots and make noise so that it echoes.

She’s thinking, “This car needs a good bath.”

Is that Daddy? No, just another car. Ho hum.

I’ll just pick this little Fiona sized lemon instead:

Yesterday we went to the park with Nicole and Caz. I was too busy having fun running around to take photos. Fiona LOVES the swings and the slide and inched her way down when she got stuck. It was very funny. Caz is a good role model for Fiona and I am looking forward to them spending time together when I go back to school (Nicole will be watching Fiona while I am in class).

On other fronts, she is still up once a night every night, between 2 and 2:30. I think it is because of my returning to work because she wakes up for the day by 6 and before I went back to work, she wouldn’t get up until almost 7 or sometimes later. I think she misses the morning nursing because she didn’t have it at all the first week of school. She doesn’t nurse until afternoon otherwise, and once before bed (for a total of 3-4 nursings a day). She is also very obviously teething AGAIN! Ugh. We can’t catch a break. Her pediatrician thinks she may be getting more molars, and I am pretty sure she is also getting her canine incisors or her bicuspids. If her teething pattern holds, she will get 8 teeth at once. Here is why:

First, she got one tooth, then two teeth at once, then four teeth at once, so logically, the next time she gets teeth, she should get eight. But I really hope not. The discomfort, lack of appetite, refusal of most meats, and interrupted sleep have been going on for two weeks already. Cross your fingers for breakthroughs soon!

Last on the development front, she is getting very good at putting things back into the containers that she takes things out of. She also started using the little pop-o-matic toy, pushing the button that makes the balls fly around. It’s one of my favorite toys and I play with it all the time in her room, she is just now interested in it probably because she knows I like it and it entertains me. So thoughtful that daughter of mine. Today John reported that he told her to clap and she did, without a demonstration from him first. Then he showed me. We told her to clap and she clapped. She is very huggy and gives me hugs every day, wrapping her arms around my neck and squeezing or else hugging my legs when she is standing next to me.

I’m sending big hugs to anyone who reads this blog!