When we came back from our date night last night, we checked in on the girls. They had decided to make a fort in Liya’s bottom bunk, draping blankets around the edges. An additional blanket divided the full bed into two berths—Liya slept in one, and Anya slept in the other. Cute!
We had a nice Sunday afternoon and evening here, wrapping things up with a neighborhood block party outside our house. Our Eastside friends the Pauls joined us as well. Anya and Liya had fun running around, although we’re not sure they actually had anything to eat. It was good to meet more of our neighbors, even if we do forget everyone’s names by the time of the next block party.
First day of school for Anya and Liya.
Since Anya had kind of freaked out at last week’s orientation, we were wondering how she’d do when Jan dropped her off this morning. Anya does much better with new things if she knows exactly what’s going to happen, so we went over the drop-off in detail with her last night. We also shared with her some kindergarten stories of our own, including one Jan told about his brother Chris.
As Chris remembers it, on his first day of kindergarten, his dad Mirek was walking beside him up to the school door. When Chris got to the school door, he turned to say goodbye to his dad—but his dad was gone. :(
The theory we discussed with Anya is that maybe Grandpa had said goodbye to Uncle Chris, but Uncle Chris didn’t hear it and kept walking. Jan promised that he would be absolutely sure to let Anya know when he was leaving. To demonstrate, Jan got right in front of Anya, touched his nose to hers, and said loudly, “OKAY, ANYA, I’M GOING NOW.” Anya laughed and laughed.
At the actual dropoff this morning, Anya already seemed more comfortable with the school since last week; perhaps our run-through last night helped. It also helped that Anya’s friend Zachary was there. Maybe it helped that Anya was clutching a stuffed dolphin she’d brought from home. (All the kids were asked to bring some kind of mammal, and this morning they were all clutching bears, lions, and so on.) Finally, it also helped that, when it was time for Jan to go, he got down in front of her, touched his nose to her, and said loudly, “OKAY, ANYA, I’M GOING NOW.” Anya laughed, turned to her new teacher, and Jan walked out.
Whew.
Angela dropped off easy-going Liya at her preschool without a hitch.
A classic Liya moment at dinnertime yesterday: Liya was crying for some reason (no one knew why) right as we sat down to dinner. She kept moaning as dinner began. Jan eventually managed to interest her in a big balloon that was floating nearby which was left over from her birthday party. Liya got down from her seat and talked a bit about the balloon in a pleasant voice. She then returned to the table and resumed wailing.
This afternoon Anya had her first soccer practice ever—followed immediately by her first soccer game ever. Five year-olds playing soccer basically means a moving clump of six children with a ball in the middle of it. Still, it was pretty hilarious. Anya’s friend Katie scored every one of the goals made by their team, the Jaguars. Anya did do a nice long breakaway run down the field with the ball, but at the very end missed the goal by a few inches.
This event, Anya’s first organized team sport activity, included some other firsts as well. It was the first time we stood around on the side of a field with a bunch of other parents, all of us yelling encouragement at our child.
It was also the first time Anya had to sign a liability waiver herself. Our girl is growing up! (Sniff!)
We had dinner over at the Tippetts this evening, and John grilled dinner out on their newly completed outdoor patio. For dessert he started a fire in their little outdoor brazier and we roasted marshmallows. The girls had smores for the first time! (We’ve been remiss in their education, but at least we’ve made up for it now.)
Today Bree bobbed her head towards my mouth. Then I kissed her cheek a few times. Bree laughed! Her first laugh! She then bobbed her head more towards my head. So cute! I think she is trying to kiss now, but I couldn’t get her to laugh again.
Time for the annual trip to the Puyallup Fair. We went down to Puyallup with Jessie for a full day of cows, pigs, goats, llamas, BBQ turkey legs, caramel apples, Ferris Wheels, gondolas, haunted houses, and giant slides. It was all fun as always.
Liya was up for a trip with Jessie through the (very small) Haunted House. Anya decided to wait to see whether Liya liked it before deciding whether to go.
Sabriya basically slept through the entire day.
Cozi recently signed a contract with Hasbro to build a Hasbro-branded edition of Cozi’s product. The Hasbro edition shows a Mr. Potato Head logo in the corner. In recognition of the new relationship, Hasbro sent Cozi a box of Mr. Potato Heads.
According to a Hasbro representative, one of the defining characteristics of Mr. Potato Head is that, “There’s no wrong way to assemble Mr. Potato Head.” Jan experimented with this, and produced a Mrs. Potato Head an arm coming out of her face, etc. According to Jan’s coworkers, this was clearly “wrong”. So empirical evidence suggests that the Hasbro representative was incorrect.
Today is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. And, happily, Sabriya spent a good ten minutes smiling and making “Arrr!” sounds. :)
We had the Danilchik family over for dinner—their daughter Maile is in kindergarten at Anya’s school (but in a different class). Anya, Liya, and Maile all hit it off.
Jan’s teaching Liya to walk on his back. Liya gets to play a game and Jan gets some deep tissue work for free.
ANYA LOST HER 2nd TOOTH TODAY!!!! After lunch recess, at circle time, Anya pulled her tooth out. Everybody said, “I want to look at the tooth!” The tooth came home with her in the cutest tooth envelope, accompanied by a tooth necklace. Wow. Tooth Fairy competition!
A visit to your local wastewater treatment plant isn’t a typical Saturday outing, but it’s certainly interesting. The local Seattle treatment plant offers free tours to the public, and Jan thought the girls might be interested to see where things that go down our drains end up. A group of our friends and their kids joined us: Mike McDonald, Joanna Power, Bill Rockenbeck, and Chris Zimmerman. The plant was huge, a bit stinky in places, and pretty loud in others. Anya decided she liked neither the smell or the noise, but Liya was pretty okay with all of it.
The tour naturally covers some odd topics, like a description from the tour guide of a giant four foot diameter ball of grease and hair that was found clogging up Bellevue’s system last year. (Ick.) Otherwise it’s pretty cool to see how clever they are in using simple mechanical and biological systems to treat a huge volume of wastewater. Anya was also impressed to hear that all of Seattle’s municipal garbage is shipped by train to landfills all the way in Oregon.
Anya did a community service project at a park near her school today. She had two 3rd grade buddies and together they helped clean the park. They shoveled bark from a big pile and put it around trees and bushes. Angela got to participate as a driver. Anya’s friends Zachary and Jane joined in the carpool to the park.
Jan heard Briya laugh for the first time ever today. He was holding her, and she was in a smiling mood, so he tickled her and she laughed. This lasted for about two seconds. Jan spent the next ten minutes trying to get her to laugh again.