October was a long and busy month. I feel like I want to write things, but then there is no time. Even now, I am procrastinating on writing a test or two and two letters of recommendation, plus some long overdue emails. I also really need a nice long nap, but I digress. What did we do this month?
To say the weather was warm would be an understatement. The first weekend of October saw record breaking highs. It was 100 degrees here at least one day, and in the mid to high 90’s the rest. Keep in mind we do not have air conditioning, only ceiling fans. When it’s 85 degrees in the house with no wind outside, things can get very uncomfortable. So, we went to the beach almost every weekend.
First, we had a visit from Matt and Anastasia, whom Fiona LOVED. We went to the Getty Villa in Malibu. It was Fiona’s first adult/art museum experience and she really enjoyed it. She didn’t even spend much time in the children’s room, and was fascinated by the video of how a mummy was made in one of the exhibits.
Fiona making her own art by drawing on pottery:
I remember this statue from last time I visited this museum, almost 20 years ago:
It used to be outside on the way into the museum, in a sort of open air room (the entire museum was closed for about 10 years while undergoing massive renovations and expansion). Even though I am the same size as I was 20 years ago, it seemed so much bigger then. There are a few other pieces I wanted to find, but did not. The Getty Villa used to be my favorite museum in the world.
Fiona liked the koi pond:
Among other things, I saw one of my current students at the museum. At this point, I feel like I can’t go anywhere without running into someone I know. John saw a co-worker of his who volunteers at the Getty Villa.
The following day, after a tasty brunch, we went to the beach, where we saw a friend of mine, Matt was stung by a wasp, and we watched my friend and a lifeguard save a man’s life. A couple of weeks later we saw the same friend at the same beach and I asked what happened. Let’s just say that drinking and swimming do not mix well.
Fiona was tired and lay down in the sand:
She later complained of sand in her ears and on her face.
This month we learned that Fiona can do the monkey bars. She brought home a certificate from school. The following weekend, she demonstrated:
Here is a video:
We took family photos on a very pleasant evening. We decided to stay out late and have dinner. The sunset was beautiful and Fiona was very well behaved. She tried a brownie with ice cream for the first time. Her comment was “It’s soooooo good!”
One of our Sunday school classes was at a community garden. Fi had a blast:
Another visit to the dentist:
Her teeth look great. She loves going to the dentist. I wish John loved going to the dentist as much as Fi and I do. Sigh.
Fiona’s school was closed for a week. She spent a couple of days playing my friend Nicole’s sons:
She spent a day with her grandparents and went to the zoo with John. All in all, she had a great week!
Fiona helped me with a beach clean-up, then came home and we played beach clean-up at home:
The game consisted of Fiona spreading out all sorts of toys and junk on the floor, and then the three of us (Fiona, John, and I) took turns picking it all up and putting it in a bag.
Fiona graduated from medical school and immediately started practicing on her dolls:
There was a school field trip to a farm:
And a preschool barbecue. Fiona was ready:
Fiona read to me while I was making dinner, then read to her imaginary class:
Fiona likes to play hair salon when she takes a bath. She washes, cuts, and styles John’s hair:
He loves it.
Fiona discovered playing princess with John. This is as princess-y as she gets, and John as Prince Charming:
Making popsicles out of lemonade:
It was so hot earlier in the month that we bought some popsicle molds and put lemonade in them, then froze them. We ate them every day.
Fiona does all sorts of “enrichment” activities after school. She takes a dance class and informed us that she can now do a passe (pronounced pau-say) with a twirl. I had to have her demonstrate because I had no idea what a passe is. She also takes an art class and the teacher focuses on a different artist every week. One week, Fiona came home and explained to us who Piet Mondrian is, the next it was Jasper Johns. They did self portraits like Van Gogh, and last week it was Georgia O’Keefe.
She takes a cooking class and loves it, and every week comes home with a paper bag that she writes her own name on. The photo on the left is from the beginning of October and the photo on the right is from today (November 2). I can’t believe how much her writing has improved. She is in a class that is mostly self-directed, so no one is pushing this on her. We certainly aren’t.
Still putting her dolls in her old baby clothes and shoes. I came home to this one day:
Fiona drawing herself and me in chalk on the sidewalk:
We celebrated Halloween. Fiona was a bunny. We decorated pumpkins using Sharpies because I didn’t feel like carving. Fiona’s pumpkin is first, mine is second, John’s is third:
Fiona took the photo of John’s pumpkin.
She arranged the pumpkins on the wall and called them “A family of pumpkins”:
We got her ears and a tail, and I painted a nose and whiskers on her:
We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. We started out fairly early, after an early dinner. After what seemed like a fairly short period of time (an hour maybe), Fiona decided she wanted to go home to hand out candy. She also wanted to eat some of her candy. She did not collect a lot of it, but she was very happy with what she got. Here is the only photo I have of her handing out candy because I’m slow with the camera. We turned on lots of lights, so even though it looks like she is sitting in the dark, she really isn’t:
My friend Nicole and her family joined us for dinner last night. It was a blast. Fiona took the first group picture and Nicole’s son Caz took the second:
Speaking of taking photos, all of the following photos were taken by Fiona in the last few days:
I’m sure there is a lot I am forgetting. Like I said, it’s been a long month. We started a reward chart to help reinforce good behavior with Fiona and so far, she loves it. We call it her Star Chart. It’s laminated and has Velcro stars so we can reuse it every week.
Fiona still loves to paint:
Fiona’s robot:
Fiona is starting to give up her nap. She still has to have quiet time in her room even if she doesn’t sleep. She reads to her dolls and does other things: This is what happens:
She was teaching her dolls how to swim. We knocked on the door and Fiona answered, telling us that there was a big mess in the room. She wasn’t kidding. Luckily she cleaned the mess up fairly quickly with only a little bit of help.
October was a very hot month. Hoping November is much cooler!
No comments:
Post a Comment