First Day of Pre-K and Valentine's Day

This week really has kicked my butt.  I'm not used to being up and moving at 6 am and going all day long.  The kids have had multiple doctors appointments this week too.  I spent all day Tuesday in the car running kids to and from school and doctors offices.  Tuesday truly was as follows:  take Emi to school - get breakfast - pick Eriks up for his appointment - take him to doctor - return him to school - grab super quick lunch - get Emi from school - get Eriks from school - take both to Emi's yearly checkup - go home and make dinner.  Note to self, never, ever schedule a day like that again!

So Emi is a big girl and in school.  She's doing well but dislikes it when I leave.  Because of her separation/abandonment issues I have spent at least the first 30 - 40 minutes with her at school in the morning.  On Mon & Tues when I left, she was fine.  Yesterday and today, not so much.  She cried.  I'm thinking because her little body is not used to this routine and she's not really napping at school, yet (she has a 1 hr nap time but has not fallen asleep during it) she is tired.  When she's tired, she's super clingy and this whole school experience is new to her.  She also is just getting to know her teacher and the para-pros that work in the classroom.  With that being said though, in 3 days, I have seen how beneficial this is for her.

On Tuesday we got home after the insanely busy day and Emi was wearing jeans that had an owl on them.  She tapped me, pointed to her jeans and said, "owl".  After that she made the sign for owl.  She can say apple clear as a bell.  She is actually working hard to get clear b's pronounced.  In general she's just making these amazing yammering sounds.  Sounds you can tell she's trying to turn into letters.  Driving home from Eriks' dental appointment yesterday afternoon, she "talked" non-stop.  Her favorite word of the drive was apple.  She's also learning new signs at school so I'm having to keep up and that's a very good thing.  It means I'm moving in the direction of becoming trilingual.

As Emi and I are learning more sign (hoping Lane and Eriks catch up to us) it's amazing how much more I'm watching people staring when I'm communicating with her.  I guess it is pretty fascinating to watch people talk with their hands.  One of the things Lane and I told Eriks is that if he learns ASL, he will be able to talk to Emi without other people knowing what they're talking about.  I do speak to her out loud as I sign.  She needs to hear the words that go with the sign in order to learn to talk.  I can't wait to see how different she's going to be in a month.

Valentine's Day was no big deal in our house.  It never has been.  Lane and I didn't even exchange gifts until 11 pm that night.  We had a date planned on Saturday but our babysitter canceled on us about 2 hours before our big date.  It really stunk and put a damper on our night.  We were looking forward to getting some time away from the kiddos.  We'll make up for it this weekend with a new date night and some family babysitters.

So here is a photo from Emi's 1st day of school and Valentine's Day.  I could not get her to pose for the photo.  She just wanted to dig through her new backpack and lunchbox.  Forget looking at mom.  The kids also enjoyed the giant cookie we got.