Isabella has had a wonderful month, in what has most decidedly not been a wonderful month for the rest of us, what with the stress of the move, my new teaching gig starting, and the everyday insanity of life with twins and a three-year-old. She has her moments, as all kids do, but seriously, she has breezed through the transitions to preschool, to her new house, her new room, and the various other small upheavals that have been thrown her way.
Thank you, baby girl. Mommy needed this.
Isabella loves preschool. Actually, "love" isn't strong enough of a word. She adores it. She's excited to go every Tuesday and Thursday morning, and barely notices when it's time for me to leave her in her classroom because she's so absorbed with rolling Play-doh or threading string through cardboard. When I pick her up from school, she comes running toward me (dismissal is via the playground) yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!" with a huge smile on her face, and she cannot wait to show me the art projects in her bag. I am kicking myself for not enrolling her in the three-day program. She would have done just fine going three days instead of two. We'll definitely do three (or more) days next year.
Her new room (which is palatial in comparison to her old room and also when compared to any bedroom that I've ever called my own-I think it was actually the master bedroom at one time, and my bedroom was added on at some point) is lavender, and Isabella keeps telling me she does not like lavender and wants the room painted red. She is definitely more of a primary colors girl than a pastel girl. But painting her bedroom red scares me a little. I'm planning to paint our living room and kitchen brick red, but I don't think this color will work for a bedroom. We'll have to work on a compromise (not pink) so she can have a room color she likes and I don't have to shade my eyes every time I walk into her bedroom.
Drawing and painting are definitely her passions, and it's been very cool to see her work evolve over the past year from scribbles to lines to circles to actual, recognizable objects. She draws a pretty decent sun, dogs with exceptionally long tails, and even faces with eyes and mouths. And she is very, very proud of the paintings and projects she creates in preschool. Isabella will not let me give any of them away, even to her most favorite relatives. She wants each of them mounted on a corkboard on the back of the basement door. I want to get something like this and hang it on a wall in my kitchen. Anyone ever do something like this for their kids' artwork? Or something different? Now accepting suggestions!
We've had a lot of fun doing fall-related activities, including apple-picking, visiting some local farms for cider and doughnuts, and a hayride to a pumpkin patch for gourd-and-pumpkin- picking with her preschool peeps. Isabella's had a blast, and I've decided that three is my most favorite age yet. She's having so much fun, learning a ton, (Isabella: "Are there seeds in gourds like there are in pumpkins?" Me: "Uhhhh...let me get back to you, okay?), and is fun to be around (except when she pulls out every bedtime procrastination tool in the book).
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Current Likes: Hide-and-Seek, "dance parties," and made-up stories about her dentist
Current Dislikes: Grapes, sharing the twins' toys with their rightful owners
Thank you, baby girl. Mommy needed this.
Isabella loves preschool. Actually, "love" isn't strong enough of a word. She adores it. She's excited to go every Tuesday and Thursday morning, and barely notices when it's time for me to leave her in her classroom because she's so absorbed with rolling Play-doh or threading string through cardboard. When I pick her up from school, she comes running toward me (dismissal is via the playground) yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!" with a huge smile on her face, and she cannot wait to show me the art projects in her bag. I am kicking myself for not enrolling her in the three-day program. She would have done just fine going three days instead of two. We'll definitely do three (or more) days next year.
Her new room (which is palatial in comparison to her old room and also when compared to any bedroom that I've ever called my own-I think it was actually the master bedroom at one time, and my bedroom was added on at some point) is lavender, and Isabella keeps telling me she does not like lavender and wants the room painted red. She is definitely more of a primary colors girl than a pastel girl. But painting her bedroom red scares me a little. I'm planning to paint our living room and kitchen brick red, but I don't think this color will work for a bedroom. We'll have to work on a compromise (not pink) so she can have a room color she likes and I don't have to shade my eyes every time I walk into her bedroom.
Drawing and painting are definitely her passions, and it's been very cool to see her work evolve over the past year from scribbles to lines to circles to actual, recognizable objects. She draws a pretty decent sun, dogs with exceptionally long tails, and even faces with eyes and mouths. And she is very, very proud of the paintings and projects she creates in preschool. Isabella will not let me give any of them away, even to her most favorite relatives. She wants each of them mounted on a corkboard on the back of the basement door. I want to get something like this and hang it on a wall in my kitchen. Anyone ever do something like this for their kids' artwork? Or something different? Now accepting suggestions!
We've had a lot of fun doing fall-related activities, including apple-picking, visiting some local farms for cider and doughnuts, and a hayride to a pumpkin patch for gourd-and-pumpkin- picking with her preschool peeps. Isabella's had a blast, and I've decided that three is my most favorite age yet. She's having so much fun, learning a ton, (Isabella: "Are there seeds in gourds like there are in pumpkins?" Me: "Uhhhh...let me get back to you, okay?), and is fun to be around (except when she pulls out every bedtime procrastination tool in the book).
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I only wish I had more time to spend one-on-one with her. The twins are so high-needs, and now that they're basically mobile, I can't leave them unattended for much longer than 30 seconds, so they're getting 90% of my attention.
It's my goal this month to find time for her. Yes, my life is insanely busy with work, unpacking, and trying to keep my head above water, but as so many of you have told me, my kids are only going to be little for a very short time. And I need to enjoy the essence of my amazing daughter as much as I can while she's still willing to let me.
Current Likes: Hide-and-Seek, "dance parties," and made-up stories about her dentist
Current Dislikes: Grapes, sharing the twins' toys with their rightful owners
It's just amazing to watch Isabella grow up month after month with your posts. I am so slacking on this point with my boys. (I do keep private notes on them every week/month on my computer, but they're boring like rambling sentences about the baby sleeping in the swing or about using the snot-sucker.)
It's also cool to think Isabella and my boy are going to school the same days. And exactly like you, after a few weeks I was also wishing I had opted for him to go three days a week.
Could she have a white room with red decals or a red stenciled border? Red and white are cool together.
I must have missed the news about your new teaching job! Are you teaching writing?
I was just going to suggest a clothesline solution when I clicked on the link (and obviously you can do that yourself - no kit needed). What the etsy photo doesn't show is that it's really easy to layer artwork on a clothesline. One of my friends adds her daughter's artwork layered on top of each other for the entire year to a clothesline in her room - it makes the packing away/trash part much less traumatic when you can wait months and months.
It is amazing how much she's growing up. I would ask at the preschool about switching to the three day program at the first of the year. Preschools often lose kids through attrition--weren't ready or moving, etc., and have openings. The director of our preschool told me long ago that at 3, the kids don't really pay a lot of attention to who is in the class and who isn't, and it's not a big deal if someone joins in in the middle of the year. If they have an opening, you might want to grab it.
How about one red wall? Jacob's room is one wall blue, one wall red, one wall green, one wall yellow--all bright, primary colors. You may not want to go that far for Isabella's, but one wall might be a good compromise.
I have a friend who is blessed with lots of doors in her house. She wrapped a thick ribbon from the top of one door, all the way around like in a big circle. Then, she uses clothespins to clip her artwork to the ribbon. It looks very cool and it displays the artwork. I would highly recommend however you display it that you pick an amount of space you're comfortable with and when it's full, it's full. Stress that you'll have to take one down to make room for another if you have to. Otherwise, it can get completely out of control.
Tell us about the job sometime.
Isabella is awesome. Good for her with preschool.
For the bedroom I vote yellow walls (if she likes yellow) with white and red accents. Thus recreating my favorite bedroom in college :) I'm a red girl too, but too much in a bedroom can be too much.
I agree with what others said that maybe one red accent wall would be great, or white with red decorations. I love white with red and teal blue...it looks better than it sounds!!
Funny I was just poking around for some art display options, and a friend on facebook sent me this link. She said she made it herself with stuff from the craft store:
http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=3144&f=397
Currently we tape stuff on our walls, and basically my house looks like a preschool. I don't mind that, but we are eventually going to run out of wallspace. I think I'll take on this project after the first of the year!
Since Isabella is so artsy, I bet you could come up with a really cool way to do her walls! I love Holly's idea of white walls with some sort of red on them... maybe I've watched too many episodes of Design Star on HGTV, but you could get some sort of giant stencil and make some cool design on her wall.
She seems like such a neat little girl. :)
Aw, I'm glad she's had such a great month! And I feel way guilty. We've only got two kids, and a move (not 3 kids, a move and a new job!) and I haven't taken Little Elvis to any fall activities! I'm hoping to hit up 3 or 4 next week, but still...
It is so funny how I feel I could be the one writing half of your posts. Except you writing is much more eloquent than mine.
Charlotte also doesn't like giving the twins toys to their rightful owners. In fact, she thinks that their new birthday toys are for her. Go figure. Love the hat Isabella has in the last pic. She is such a beauty.