Annika's First Day at Kindergarten

Our five-year-old joined the big kids today at Peterson Elementary here in Chicago. It's a four-block walk from our house--one small step for mankind, but a giant one for a little girl and her mother. Annika took it like a woman, though. I asked her last night if it was alright if I cried today. She said, "Moooom [in that teenage 'whatever' voice]. No, it's not alright. I have to go to school. This is how it works." I asked her where she'd heard that from.
"You," she said.
"I lied," I replied.
"No, you didn't. When Jesus comes back, you can ask him why it's this way," she said.

She is in Mrs. McFarland's class with at least one other seminary student's child. A few of the professors have kindergarteners this year, too. We'll be doing "ride" share. It's only half-day which is fabulous. At least I won't be losing my worldy-wise firstborn all day.

As for Lauren, she's been asking for a week, "How many more sleeps until preschool?" She's really looking forward to it and her teacher, Miss Erin who was Annika's teacher last year. We go for orientation on Thursday--what we're calling Lauren's first day of school so it's not as many sleeps away. She gets to play for an hour while we turn in paperwork.

Emily will then rule the roost for a few hours on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, although we're hoping she sleeps through most of it. It's hard keeping up with a 19-month old who knows how to use the stepstool to climb on everything! You can't childproof once the child can climb. She can get herself naked now--not necessarily a good thing. She throws tantrums on a regular basis--something Annika and Lauren never really did. Emily throws good ones, too--very thorough. We pretty much ignore them. She sleeps in Annika's bed--for some reason she stays there. Annika doesn't have any pictures left on her wall, but at least Emily stays in bed and eventually goes to sleep. So the toddler is sleeping in the twin bed while her preschool and kindergarten sisters fight over who sleeps in her toddler bed.

Megan is gnawing on everything and is finally willing to choke down a few small spoonfuls of rice cereal. She's still her happy self and is finding her tongue and her voice. Her legs have gotten strong enough to stand from using the walker and the activity center we borrowed from the neighbors. Her bald spot is gone and she slept until 8am this morning!




















Uncle John was here this weekend--we went on an adventure Sunday afternoon to a very cool 9-hole mini-golf course for little kids--they were allowed to climb on all the obstacles! And, on the way home from church and to mini-golf, Uncle John endured countless "why did the sea turtle cross the road" jokes with enigmatic punchlines. Attached are a couple pics and maybe a video if I can figure it out!