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Fri, Oct 20, 2006 4:11 PM
Arden is well on the way to toddlerhood. In the coming weeks, she'll be transitioning into the toddler room at daycare. Sadly, they are breaking up "the troops" -- Arden and her friends Tayla and Isaac. Those three have been together since their first days of daycare. They greet each other with a kiss every single day. It's incredible to see them forming relationships with each other at such an early age. I do think that daycare has been phenomenal in terms of helping to build relationships and promoting interaction. All the books say that kids at this age will be "parallel playing" rather than playing together. It's evident to us though, that the kids are playing together. It's also quite possible that these three children are just fantastically advanced and in line for a couple of MacArthur awards (http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.959463/k.9D7D/Fellows_Program.htm).

As hard as it is to see these three separated, it is our understanding that the room Arden will go into is the one that Dora and I will be the happiest with. The two teachers have worked together for a long time and are great together. They've come to know us as parents that will speak up, and I think they know what we are looking for in terms of care. We're very keen on her getting education and it sounds like this particular room will be just perfect.

As a pat on the back, we made the discovery about a month ago that they were feeding the kids chocolate chip cookies for morning snack. This isn't something that we think is appropriate as a regular snack, and especially not for a 13 month old and especially not in the morning!! Arden no longer gets school snack. To be exact, we didn't realize she was getting it at all, because we pack her food, breakfast, lunch and snacks every day.

Now, they tell me each morning what the breakfast is and let me make the choice of if she can have it. Yesterday was french toast. I said okay, but not with the syrup. They have just recently decided, apparently, that they will no longer offer syrup to any of the kids! :-) One small step, right?

What kills me is that this is government sponsored meal planning and they get very little so they buy the cheap stuff. Arden goes to school with fresh fruits and veggies that take just moments to prepare. She takes cheese and wheat crackers. Those are no harder to set out for kids than the cookies, and such a better choice. But, we had a win with the syrup and hopefully soon we'll see them offering the other kids the healthy choices that we think they should have.

Last night when I picked Arden up, she dashed down the hall to the gross motor skills room. We played for about 30 minutes before I could finally coax her out to head home. She knows exactly what she wants, she knows how to climb into their push cars, to go up the stairs to go down the slide on her own (yes, I stand right next to her with my hands out). Case in point, I opened the door to the plastic car to try and get her to leave it and she grabbed the door and shut it. Hint hint. Her teacher told me today what a good kid she is and how well behaved she is. That's not to say that when we're at home she doesn't try to challenge the powers that be (ok, the rule makers), but overall I think we're raising a pretty fine human being.

Charlie's (future hubby) coming over to hang out with Arden tomorrow while Dora and I go to the annual human rights campaign (www.hrc.org) gala. I'm sure they'll find trouble together!

Erin

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Fri, Oct 13, 2006 8:56 AM
Well a month later the assumption is that Arden's noggin has healed. The black eye was gone within a week. She seems to have suffered no ill effects from the entire ordeal.

Her language continues to explode, and I owe this journal a list of her words. Last weekend she started saying her name, and this morning we said, we're going to school to see Tayla and she said "Tayla." Over and over. She's full of love and kisses for her friends at school -- Tayla and Isaac specifically. This morning we walked in and Tayla and Isaac were at the table eating breakfast. Arden walked up to Tayla first, gave her a kiss, then over to Isaac and gave him a kiss.

She prefers running to walking and she is working on another tooth (we're still at 4!). We went to the Topsfield Fair the first weekend of October and Arden had a blast. She loves animals so this was right up her alley. She also rode her first horse. She liked it. Let's not even talk about it, sigh.

On a sad note, Arden attended her third funeral this past weekend. Dora's grandmother passed away on October 5th. She loved babies and we brought Arden to see her in the hospital many times. We're glad we were able to provide her with some happiness towards the end with her 15th great grandchild.

We promise promise to get new pictures up soon!

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