1st Grader!

Comparison pictures of the first and last day of kindergarten:

Sophia has learned so much this past year – from addition and subtraction to reading and spelling.  So far, she’s been an excellent student.  I know it’s just kindergarten, but she’s exhibiting great discipline on getting her class work and homework completed on time and properly.  She usually asked me to practice her weekly spelling words with her so that she would have a better chance of getting 100%.  I’m assuming these are all signs of her caring and wanting to do a good job.  Hopefully this flows into everything she does!  Here are a few pictures from kindergarten graduation and lunch afterwards.

So now she’s done with kindergarten and will be a first grader in the fall!  I’m hoping that she will transition smoothly to the new school and make new friends and still have the confidence that she’s always had in the class room. 

At 5 1/5, she still loves her naps.  Usually during the ride home/to grandparents’ house after school, she’ll fall fast asleep.  Some days she’s happier than others when we wake her up from her slumber.  Other days, she’s just a grumpy/cranky whiny baby if you wake her up too soon.  I hope that is not a sign of what’s to come during her teenage years!

At her last dentist visit, we discovered that she had a couple of cavities.  We also confirmed the fact that she has zero pain tolerance – either that or that she easily gets overly nervous, which causes her to not be able to withstand any thought of pain.  When she had to go back to the dentist for her fillings, she was crying even before they had to start drilling.  In fact, she was already crying when they started administering the laughing gas and then she was crying so much once they did start drilling that the dentist eventually recommended that we go to a pediatric dentist to finish the job.  At the pediatric dentist (which, in Sophia’s defense, was not a very kid friendly environment at all), we had to have multiple pep talks, prayer, threats of needing shots if we have to come back again and YouTube videos of Elena of Avalor in order to get xrays and one filling.  What an ordeal it was.  I think she’ll be brushing and flossing regularly and thoroughly from now on!  This was a picture of her before trying to get the x-rays.

Another noteworthy thing to jot down so that when she reads this in the futures, she can see what she was like when she was a kid:  She is such a sore loser when it comes to playing games.  Every time a board game gets pulled out, you’ll hear this conversation:

Me: Ok, why are we playing this?
S: For fun
Me: Ok, and what happens if we lose?
S: Don’t cry
Me: Why?
S: Because it’s just a game.

I think I need to revamp my lines or something because surely enough, she’ll end up whining/on the verge of crying if she’s losing and complaining that Matthew did something that wasn’t fair or that he somehow cheated.  However, if she wins, it’s all smiles and giggles and “gaw gaw, it doesn’t matter that you lost because it’s just a game” comments. 

Anyways, despite this, she’s still our little sweetheart that still loves pink, her arts and crafts and is currently infatuated with bunnies and asking if she can have a pet bunny.

Teacher's Pet

Sophia is such a sassy little fashionista who thrives on compliments of how well behaved she was or how she was a great helper or how her handwriting is neater than her older brother’s.

She is doing great in school and was even selected to be the kindergarten student of the month back in January.  Her teacher always comments on how well behaved she is and how she's always helping other students in class, even though she's one of the youngest.  Mrs. Trexler also commented on how she’s always using Sophia’s work to show the class an example of how something should be done.  During a parent-teacher conference, I asked if Sophia gets whiny because she seems to do it a lot when she is home but her teacher said she’s never seen her whine before.  I asked Sophia about that one day when she was whining a lot – I said “Why do you have to be so whiny?  Can you save some of your whining for school so that I don’t have to hear it all the time?”  And her answer to me?  She said “NoOOoooOOo!!  I don’t want to move my name down [the behavior chart] at school!”  I guess I just need to find the right motivation for her!

She still loves arts and crafts but the strange thing is that her favorite subject at school is music and not art.  However, the school work that she brings home is so cute.  She's drawing a lot of pictures and the latest thing she does is label her drawings:  

She’s also starting to learn a lot more words and knows enough to start reading on her own now.

She still loves her sleep and can still nap anywhere and instantly if she's tired.  

She tends to have many whiny moments but when she's not whiny, she's a funny, happy, little chatterbox that loves watching Elena of Avalor.  

Here's a video of the fruits of her 6 weeks of gymnastics that she took (but didn't want to continue).  Capped off with a bit of her happy silliness!

Happy 5th Birthday

“I want to invite 5 friends and go to Airtime for my birthday because I’m turning 5.”  The girl knows what she wants!  

Weight: 38lb 4oz (42nd percentile)

Height: 3' 5.75" (37th percentile)

Kindergarten!

We have our second kindergartener now.  She was excited to have the same teacher that her brother had in kindergarten and she likes riding the bus to school.  She also loves doing homework, always asking if she can do more than what's actually assigned for the evening!  Her first friend that she made in kindergarten is Kyra, which happens to be the sister of a girl that was in Matthew's class.  Mrs. Trexler has called us to let us know what a joy it has been having Sophia in her class - so proud of our little girl!

She's been doing pretty good considering she doesn't get a nap anymore now that she's in kindergarten.  She'll have her cranky moments when she's tired, but that's pretty normal for most kids.  The good (or maybe not so good?) thing is that she can fall asleep anywhere if she's tired.  Anywhere. (L-R: grandparents couch, cafe at Universal Studios, wedding)

Since becoming a big sister, she's matured a lot in many ways, but still our little girl.  She loves being a big sister but will still be a shrieky, whiny little baby when she doesn't get her way or if she loses at a game that she's playing with her brother or if her baby sister unintentionally scratches her.  But for the most part, she loves to help out and will always ask me if she was good helper if she thinks she did something helpful.  

This summer she surprised us by swimming in the pool and by going tubing by herself.  She doesn't like swim lessons at all and makes a big fuss when the instructor tries to make her put her entire head under water.  But for some reason, when she's in the water outside of swim class, she really enjoys it!

This summer we also signed her up to "play" soccer.  She actually told me that she wanted to play, but when we would get there, she would either be very cranky because she's tire d from not wanting to nap during the day or complain that it was too hot and that she didn't want to get sweaty.  One time she even told me that she didn't want to join them for the warm up because she didn't want to run too much!  But overall, I think she enjoys kicking a soccer ball around. I have a suspicion that she's pretty athletic, but she's going to be a little lazy about it or not want to get sweaty!  Truly a little princess!!

Pre-K Graduate

Come September, Sophia will be a kindergartener.  Our second kindergartener!!  Where did the time go?!  Just for the record, during her Pre-K graduation celebration, she told everyone that when she grows up, she wants to be a princess - consistent with her September 2014 wish to be a princess when she grows up!

She has grown and developed so much since the first day of pre-K.  Mrs. Holt said she is definitely ready for kindergarten, despite not turning 5 until October.  I will take a minute to be that proud parent and brag about how well she's done in school and how the teachers usually ask her to help finish up class projects because she is able to complete them quickly and with minimal oversight.  She's also learned to stand up for herself and become more of a leader rather than a follower like she was at the beginning of the school year.  She's become quite the artist too!  The first picture is something that she would draw at the start of the school year.  The rest of the pictures are things she draws now.  You can see how much more detail there is now and how it actually looks like something other than a one eyed alien! :)

We have such a sassy, smart, caring little girl on our hands.  I wish I could freeze time so that we can enjoy this stage forever and not have to worry about the hormonal teenage years!!

Observations

Pat's been watching a lot of basketball recently and one day while watching, she asks us "Do you have to have dark skin to play basketball?"  That's quite observant for a 4 year old, if you ask me.

End of Year Update

Where do we begin?...

Let's start with school. Originally Sophia was suppose to repeat preschool because she wouldn't be able to start kindergarten in the fall of 2016 due to her birthday being in October (Michigan passed a law requiring students to already be 5 prior to starting kindergarten) but when we found out that we could sign a waiver and have her tested to see if she can start kindergarten in the fall of 2016, we decided to have her move up to preK this school year.  That was definitely the right decision because at a recent parent/teacher conference, Mrs. Holt said she is doing great in school even though she's the youngest in the class.  Mrs. Holt said she helps other kids zip/button up their coats, she's really good at following directions and she's always one of the first to finish her work. Mrs. Holt even has to prepare extra stations for her and a couple other students because they finish all the regular stations so quickly.  The classroom assistant also mentioned that Sophia's so good at putting puzzles together that when it's time to clean up, she always asks Sophia to help with the puzzles because its so much quicker when she helps.  Here are some pictures from school - first one is from their classroom halloween celebration, second one is a more recent picture of her in her school uniform, followed by one from a class field trip to the apple orchard (can she be any sassier with her pose?), and the last one is of her at her "best friend's" (Stella) birthday party.

Sophia loves her arts and crafts.  Our family room coffee table has become her arts and crafts table.  I think she's there at least once a day working on her masterpieces.  She's drawing, cutting, glueing, taping, coloring, writing, and creating all types of artwork and gets mad when she finds any of her stuff in the recycling box.  With attitude, she'll say "Hmmph!  WHY did you recycle my picture?!"  Here are a few pieces of her artwork:

I'm not sure when this conversation took place, but Sophia has a very sensitive side in her.  She was working on another one of her masterpieces when I asked her to do something (can't remember what exactly) but she responded with much attitude "Why do I ALWAYS have to do something for you?!  You NEVER do anything for me!"  I was a bit angry with how she responded to my request and probably reacted a little harsher than I should have but I basically told her that I do everything for her (cook, clean, drive them to school, give them showers, buy them clothes, help them with homework, etc etc) and that she should not respond like that to me or daddy or anyone in our family because that is disrespectful.  She ended up leaving and going up into her room.  After about 10 minutes, she was still up in her room so I went upstairs to check on her.  I apologized for being mean but explained to her that what she said really hurt my feelings because I do a lot for her and that she was being really selfish with her attitude.  I had to explain to her what being selfish meant and at the end of our conversation, she started to cry - keep in mind, I was very calm and not angry when I had this conversation with her.  I asked her why she was crying and she sobbingly said "I feel bad that I hurt your feelings."  I was extremely surprised that she was so cognizant of the fact that she hurt my feelings!...and felt terrible that she felt bad for it.

Earlier in the month, we went to Genesis House with our church to spread some Christmas cheer with the women and children at this shelter.  We were sitting next to a mother and her two children - a boy who was a little more than 1 year old and a little girl that was in second grade.  I brought some of Sophia's coloring activity books and markers with us because I knew she would be able to sit through all the songs and sharing and praying time.  Sophia was nice enough to share her stuff with the little girl that we were sitting next to.  At the end of the evening, I had suggested to Sophia that she should give her markers and Hello Kitty coloring book to the little girl because they don't have much living at the shelter.  I could tell she really didn't want to do it because Hello Kitty is her favorite but I explained to her that these kids don't have a lot of toys and that it would be very nice of her to give this to the little girl because it would make her so happy.  She took out the page that she had been coloring and asked me if it was okay for her to keep just that page and then proceeded to give the rest of the book and markers to the little girl.  I was so proud of her being so giving!

Because I'm not diligent enough to post more frequently, I could go on and on about this silly, sassy, smart and sensitive daughter of ours but instead, I will leave you with some videos and pictures (first one is our "Anna" from Halloween and the second one is her dressed up for her school Christmas concert).