parent teacher conference today

i had a conference with mrs. d, one of nina's preschool teachers. everything's great, but we all knew that already. she said nina is a delight to have at school, that she is friends with everyone, plays well, and just generally wonderful. mrs. d said that when nina plays with toys, she goes for the toy she wants regardless of which kid is playing with it too. meaning, if she wants to play with the blocks, she'll go over regardless who is there. she doesn't base her activity choice on which kid she wants to play with, it's based on which toy she wants to play with. this fits well with nina at home too. she's much more interested in what we're doing than she is in playing with any particular kid.

mrs. d also said that nina is always 100% aware of what's going on and what she's supposed to be doing. which of course is no surprise as well. she said that if the class is talking about, say, the weather, it's very common for a 3 year old, when asked a question, to say something like "my shoes are blue." and they say, "why yes they are, but what about blah blah blah." but not nina--if she's asked a question, she always answers appropriately. ah, i forsee nina's future, sitting in the classroom, teacher trying desperately to draw the correct answer out of another child, knowing that he can call on nina at any time and always get the correct answer.

mrs. d said that nina is much less shy than she was at the beginning of the year. at the beginning, nina was more likely to hang back and watch the other kids play. mrs. d said she would ask nina, "would you like to play with the blocks too?" and nina would nod. so mrs. d would say, "well, why don't you go ask if you can play too?" and nina would say no, she didn't want to. so mrs. d would take her over and ask for her. but now, and for a long time, she has just happily gone over by herself and asked to join in. so, isn't that nice.

maggie was with me, and mrs. d was very impressed with her too (little show stealer!). she said something to maggie at one point, and maggie looked up at her, and mrs. d said "oh, she's smart. she's very smart."

i think that's it! i'm so glad nina has so much fun at school. this week they're making vegetable soup. nina brought in carrots.

preschool playdate

on friday, nick joined nina at school for a playdate. how fun! only one of us could go, and no little sisters, so nina picked papa so i could stay home with maggie in case she needed to nurse. what a sweetie!

nick will be by later to tell you highlights of their day, but one very cute treat we got was a little story nina told the teachers about each of us. i'll transcribe them for you all because they are SO cute.

the nick:

his name is papa.
he's married to mama. actually, mama is married to papa.
daddy works at home on the computer.
his favorite books are german books. he speaks german.
he watches basketball and baseball and football on TV. he claps for his shows.
his favorite songs are ABCs and twinkle, twinkle.
watching television makes him happy. nothing makes him sad.
maggie and nina are his friends.
he teaches me how to write a "b."
he tucks me into bed.
he likes oranges, apples, and strawberries. and cantaloupe. and watermelon.
he plays with me in the morning. we play chasing each other outside. we run and hide. daddy hides behind the slide. in the afternoon, we play ball. we play catch. you throw a ball back and forth.
i like to draw with daddy.
i love him a lot.


and the mama one:
mommy's name is desiree.
she's 40.
she has nina and maggie.
mommy lives in new york. papa and nina and maggie live with mommy.
at home mommy cleans. she cleans everything like toys and balls. she cleans the table.
mommy drives a white car. she drives to the store and to school and to the movie theater.
she likes to eat bananas and apples. she likes to drink water.
mommy watches baseball on TV.
i like to drink with mommy. she drinks water and i drink juice.
me and mama make pictures with markers.
mommy takes me to maine on vacation. mommy reads the newspaper and she watches TV in maine.
i love my mommy a whole bunch.

she drew a picture of each of us to go with the descriptions. we love them!

preschool creations, part 4

here is a christmas tree. it was hanging on the outside of our apartment door for a few months.


here is the austrian flag. nina colored it for the international wine and cheese auction her school held in december. that was the party where they liquored us parents up and then had us bid on donated items, to raise money for the school. i got nina a kit kittridge american girl doll that night. nick drank beer with some of the dads.


nina's book of colors. i will spare you page-by-page snapshots, but each page is decorated in a different color. her first book!


a lion mask she made for halloween. it was attached to a paper towel tube so she could hold it in front of her face.

preschool creations, part 3

guess what this one is!


it's a paper plate, made into a thanksgiving turkey! it was supposed to be the centerpiece of our thanksgiving feast, but because nina missed the 2 days before thanksgiving, she didn't get to take it home until the next monday.


this one is titled "falling, falling, falling leaves."


here, one of the teachers traced nina, and she colored it in.


and this is her handprint. she gave it to us for christmas. on the back is a little poem:

here is my hand
so tiny, so small
for you to hang
upon the wall.
for you to watch
as years go by,
how we grow
my hand and i.

i cry every time i read that!

preschool creations, part 2

a lamp for chinese new year


pumpkin. jack o'lantern, really. goes without saying i suppose.


a snowman. you can see his hat, carrot nose, one eye (one fell off), a stick, and a snowball.


an apple tree.


paintings. she comes home with about 3 of these each week, but she won't let me rotate the ones on display. she says if i want to put more up, there's more space. don't need to take any down...

preschool creations, part 1

nina made this at preschool today. it's abe lincoln! that's a penny taped above her forehead. isn't that so cute? when i was picking her up, i heard all of the kids shouting "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABE LINCOLN!!" apparently they even had cupcakes. adorable. i asked her what she learned about abe lincoln at school. "nothing," she said. so forthcoming.

i have decided to put up photos of all her preschool arts and crafts. we'll see if i actually get to it all, there's a lot. but it's fun, she makes so many things at preschool.

and finally, jingle bells

to the left of nina is a classmate named nathaniel, a boy from pre-K that i don't know, then alexis, then zohaib.

we wish you a merry christmas

i was taking these little clips on our regular camera, which only records about 2 minutes of total video, so that's why i have such small clips. i ran out of space on the memory card while filming this one, so it's short.

if you like hanukkah

this one goes:
if you like lighting the menorah shout hooray (HOORAY!)
if you like lighting the menorah shout hooray (HOORAY!)
if you like lighting the menorah
and dancing the hora,
if you like lighting the menorah shout hooray (HOORAY!!)

more concert

felitz navidad!!

a christmas concert!

today was nina's nursery school sing-along! she came down with a cold yesterday, so we brought her in for the sing-along only. she did great! she did all of the hand movements/dancing and sang a lot. she is a bit out of it because of the cold and cold medicine (we gave her tylenol and benedryl) but had a wonderful time. maggie enjoyed herself too!

not so much new...

maggie is still up (it's precisely 7:51 right now) because she's getting closer to crawling and wants to practice. she can get herself onto all 4s and rock. she's loving it. if past milestones are to be any indication, she'll wake up at 2 in the morning and start crawling, get the whole family up to watch her for an hour and a half, and finally fall back asleep. i'm hoping that if i let her stay up and work on it now, she'll sleep until a more reasonable 5:20 (there's something about 5:20... maybe one of our neighbors sets an alarm for then or something.)

today we went to grand central station. there's a transit museum shop there, and they set up a big model train for christmas. not nearly as big as the one at kansas city, but fun. nick had taken nina last year, and she was very excited to again see ... the cool store next to the model train. we spent longer at this place than the model train. whatever makes the kids happy.

on friday nick and i went to the wine and cheese fundraiser auction at nina's preschool. it was fun! the first hour is just a wine, cheese and dessert social time. they loosen the wallets up with all the alcohol, that's the plan, and it works. but all of the money raised benefits the school, so it's for a good cause. i bought nina a kit kettridge american girl doll. only $80! it was a steal. and a good cause. her first american girl doll!!! aww....

maggie woke up while the babysitter was here, and she cried so the babysitter called me and i came home. nick stayed on to drink and hang out with other dads. the babysitter (nicole from apt. 6C) asked if maggie was talking yet. i told her she says mama but that's pretty much all. she said, "i thought she was saying mama but i didn't think babies her age could talk!" i felt awful that she was crying, but she cheered up quickly and was smiling at nicole and playing with her necklace by the time she left.

Nina learns a lot of songs at preschool...

...and sometimes they're ones we don't know. like, apparently there's song called "the old grass wagon" and it goes like this:

the old grass wagon, circle to the left
the old grass wagon, circle to the right

i tried looking it up online but i can't find any more lyrics.

well, anyway, nina started singing this tonight:

when you like kuronica (rhymes with veronica) stomp your feet
when you like kuronica clap your hands
when you like kuronica shout hooray (HOORAY!)

and nick and i were like, what the heck is she singing? chronic what? what are they teaching her at preschool? until she got to the verse

when you like kuronica spin your dreidel

HA!

nina learns a lot of songs at preschool

you all remember the farmer in the dell, right? nina must have learned it in preschool and has been singing it lately. it goes like this:

the farmer in the bowl
the farmer in the bowl
hi ho delario
the farmer in the bowl

i tried to correct her lyrics but she's having none of that. "no, it's hi ho de-LAR-ee-oo!"

ok ma'am!

back home from kansas city

sorry for not updating while we were gone oma!

we had a fantastic time in kansas city. maggie did wonderfully on the plane, as did nina. we left early saturday morning and arrived around 10 am. we spent saturday hanging out with vanessa, micah, ethan, and mom and dad, and on sunday went to the science museum and lunch at the big train station. monday mom and dad left and we went shopping (i tried to find jeans, to no avail. but i did order some online today from old navy for only $20. the $20 jeans streak continues! featured in glamour magazine too!)

then flew home tuesday and had another easy flight.

today was my parent/teacher conference at nina's preschool. mrs. rickert, one of her teachers, had nothing but positive things to say. nina plays well, listens well, knows everything they try to teach the first year (colors, reading and spelling her name, etc) and apparently has never once given them even so much as a devilish look. she's still a little shy there, though, so maybe they'll see the dark side when she finishes coming out of her shell. next parent/teacher conferences are in march, so we'll see...

on the maggie front, we made an appointment to see her pediatrician on monday. dr. russo will evaluate the head shape and refer us on the the specialists at presbyterian if she thinks a helmet is a possibility. apparently they have a whole department of cranial-facial specialists that deal with this kind of thing.

maggie is continuing to say mama at me, so i think this might qualify as her first word. well, i guess second, she was saying hello. and one morning it sounded like she said "good morning" to us, but that only happened once... still, i'll take third, i was like, nina's 10th word. as long as i beat out nick this time, i'm happy. :-P

oma comes to visit

oma is here (that's anne, nick's mom, for those of you outside the immediate family circle). she came bearing gifts for the girls (as usual) and chocolate and coffee (as usual) and cheese (not usual). the cheese is called geheimratskase, which translates to "secret agent cheese" (says nick), but nina calls it austria cheese. nina really likes cheese, it makes up about 40% of her diet. she's only 3, but she can tell her colby jack from her monterey jack. no big surprise, nina loves austria cheese.
nina is also learning about the days of the week and the months in preschool. (check out that link insertion. sweet!). i think she's getting a better concept of time because of this. or not. either way, she keeps asking when oma is going to leave, is oma leaving, is oma going to be here in the morning, and we keep explaining that she'll be here for a looooooooong time (2 weeks). yesterday at lunch we had the following exchange:
nina: is oma leaving?
me: no, oma is staying for a long time. she's staying monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday. that's a long time!
nina: when she leaves, will she take the austria cheese with her?

ha!

the inaugural post

well, nick and i have decided to start a family blog. the idea is to write often about the adorable things the kids do, to complain about things (like the viagra commercial playing on TV as i type), and other such blogginess.

we will take turns typing. you'll know it's me (desiree) because i don't use the caps key (why? it's a mystery. a hook, if you will, to draw in readers). also, i use exclamation points. a lot!

i'll get right to it with a little story about nina. she's in preschool now, and comes home singing new songs just about every day. last week she started singing
row row row your boat
gently down the stream
merrily merrily merrily merrily
your life is about a dream.

and that's why i've decided to name our blog about a dream.

so, enjoy!