Preschool Yoga at Montessori

So today was the end-of-the-year final yoga class at Montessori, and Alia's teacher allowed parents to come observe. Let me tell you....I'm not sure if you have almost 5 minutes to watch this video, but if you do, it's quite impressive.

Alia started doing yoga when she was 3, when Mrs. Newquist joined Montessori of Laguna Beach. Since then, I've been so impressed with Alia's progress. Watching this final class today was truly impressive...the teacher didn't say one word throughout the "show". The children, most of them 4 years old, followed (without prompting) a pretty complex set of movements followed by a short meditation.

Alia Flips! Well, kind of.....

Amelie: T-ball and Mani-Pedis

A few weeks ago, Ajay took Alia to T-ball solo because sometimes when Amelie goes, it becomes a competition for Daddy's attention.

She even dresses the part! And this girl works it....

So in response to Alia's need for some of Ajay's undivided attention, Amelie and I headed off to get our nails done. And yes, I'm straight out of the pool here so please excuse my appearance!

And can I just say that Amelie was a dream. Little toes and little fingers were painted and she was so patient. She waited and waited and waited for everything to dry and in the end....

...there were some pretty cute little fingers and toes!

Tempranillo

Ajay's working 24 hours today. 

I took the girls to the hospital to see him for dinner.

On the way home, I told the girls I'd like to stop at the wine store for a bottle of Tempranillo. I asked both girls if they could say Tempranillo. They both said it in unison. 

Amelie asked, "what's Temranillo?" and I replied, "it's Mommy's favorite wine at the moment". Amelie responded, "why do you like it so much?" and Alia chimed in with, "Amelie. It's simple. You like bears. I like frogs. Mommy likes Tempranillo."

School Photos Spring 2013 by Gillian Crane

So although there's really no explanation needed, I'll make a couple of comments. Yes, I hot-rolled Alia's hair the morning of school photos, and yes, they are ironed and pressed and preened and shiny only because we were early to school and the photographer snapped the photos immediately on arrival, before paint, dirt, paste, water, mud or any other school-related stuff could end up on those clean little people!

Amelie, age  3 1/2

Alia, age 4 3/4 

And yes, at this age, those fractions matter. A lot.

T-Ball!

As our season draws to a close, I realize I haven't blogged a single time about the Auction.com Animals...Alia's first T-ball team here in Laguna Beach.

Well, the season began with Alia's little team of 9 or 10 boys and 2 girls. Turns out? The two girls on the team are very strong competitive players! In fact, when the big brother of a player accused him of playing like a girl, he quickly replied that Alia and Ella are strong players, so he'd take that as a compliment. Yes,  a 5-year-old boy came up with that one on the fly!

Among the highlights of the season thus far would have to be the time a ball was hit between first and second base resulted with a massive pile up. Every player on the field dove onto the ball. Including the runner between first and second. Talk about "you just can't make this stuff up". And who came up with the ball? Alia, of course. She's quite the little fielder!

When I ask Alia what part she likes best, throwing or catching, running or hitting, she replies with throwing, hitting and running. Catching is still a little scary. But this girl loves running the bases. She loves making contact with the ball. Oh, and applause. She loves applause.

I think this is worth reading....

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Tis the season...

So a few weeks ago, Ajay mentioned in passing that I am an idealist. I like things done the right way. I like the job done right. And sometimes the amount of effort I go through to accomplish my vision of a project, event, what have you, is astronomically higher than what it could be if I were more well adjusted and able to be okay with "OK".  But that spells slacker to you and me.

Today for example. I have one tree outside that I decorate each year. It has a dozen or so ornaments suited for outdoors, as well as  lights...simple white lights. Oh, and a beautiful gorgeous BIG brass Om symbol I got in Little India a fews years back, just to keep it real in my little haven.

So although the holidays got too busy and I never finished this post, here's a run down of how things went trying to hang a few for-the-love-of-baby-Jesus Christmas lights.

• got new lights bc one strand didn't work
• bought 2 instead of 1 just to be sure
• these have a hint of lavender instead of gold
• the front tree was already decorated with 2 strands of goldish lights
• The inside and most prominant tree was in need of one last strand.
• 4PM: realize lights don't match
• 4:01: decide we could make a stripe effect with gold/lavendar/gold lights on the indoor tree since outdoor tree is done.
• 4:45: have pulled all original lights off. Re-position new lights on tree every-other strand in order to get the "I meant to do this"effect. But I didn't mean to do it. And the tree screamed that.
• 5:00 Girls say I'm hungry. Lights everywhere. Some have stopped working. Amelie steps on one bulb shattering it
• 5:01:Make dinner...I have no plan...how about scrambleed eggs! With cheese! That's fun! Right?
• 5:15: Re-light in door tree with all lavendarish lights after pulling them violently from the outside tree.
• 5:20: Ajay walks in and says, hey! the tree looks nice.

Good he didn't notice the smoke coming from my ears....that would have been showing idealistic expectations!

Two little contractors

Amelie is 3.25

Amelie, sweet Amelie. All she wants is to be friends, make other people happy and included, and to be able to do whatever her sister does.

That's why at 3.25 years old, Amelie is taking evening Spanish lessons, swim lessons, and gymnastics in addition to 5 mornings a week at Montessori. She just wouldn't take no for an answer!

So, as I said, Amelie attends Montessori five mornings a week. She goes from 8:30 to noon, then returns home with me for lunch and a nap, which, I might add, is my favorite part of the day. I've taken to lying on the floor next to her toddler bed and listening as she fades off to sleep. This habit began when I noticed that the girls weren't napping at all during nap time, but instead playing and sometimes fighting the entire time. I put myself in the middle of their floor in hopes of being "A Cooler" and instead it became as much of an enjoyable part of my day as anything!

Amelie is extremely social. She is articulate beyond her 3 years. She loves being the baby of our family, but do NOT call her a baby. She's big. She will tell anyone who listens that she's big, she doesn't need any help on the potty, and never goes pee pee or poo poo in her pants. So there's that. Oh, and let's not forget her favorite pastime....drawing smiley faces!

In January, Amelie moved from the little bitty kids class to the pre-primary class at Montessori. She is currently the youngest student in her class, but she was ready for the change. Now she is exposed to so many new things in her short days there...yoga, music class, painting as much as she likes, art class, Spanish, tumbling...you get the idea. She's exhausted by the time noon rolls around!

Amelie is the definition of kind, gentle, and compassionate. She is empathetic beyond her years. I sometimes call her Little Maya (after her wonderfully social grandmother) because I notice a lot of times, the task at hand isn't the important thing to her, it's the connection with others during the task that she thrives on. Sure she could pay more attention in her gymnastics class, but then she'd miss out on making friends with each and every person in the room...including the teachers who are in love with her. Sure, she could probably swim as well as Alia, but she'd prefer to discuss things with her teachers. That said, that reminds me of something very different in Amelie versus Alia. She cannot be forced to do anything she doesn't want to do. Potty training, swimming, you name it. Anything that is challenging in the least bit, she will conquer on her own terms. You might as well save yourself the effort because when she's ready, she'll do it.

Amelie is growing up so fast. Although she's the youngest member of our family, it's amazing just how fast the first three years have gone. Watching her develop into a kind, thoughtful and hilarious little human being has been a real privilege.