On March 27th, we celebrated having Grace home for a full year with a trip to Pretend City as a family. It is crazy to think that a year has gone by already, and yet, looking at her, watching her talk, seeing how much she has grown in every way in that past year, I know that the time has certainly past.
Remington liked riding the little car with dad.
Blake was out of town for the 28th-30th, so I had a large chunk of time without him helping me parent. On Friday evening, I recruited my parents to help, and we all went out to dinner together. One of the things that Grace did while waiting for our food to come was go on the Merry-Go-Round for the first time. She absolutely loved it! She kept saying again. She went three times that night (and my dad brought her there another time since then). I decided to let Remington try it too after dinner, and he thought it was awesome too! Forgive my goofy face, I was trying to copy the expression he had the whole time. If I had to give him words, he would say, "This is so amazing! I am going up, and then down... and moving around in a circle too! Wow!"
That night was the worst, as we had a large earthquake (which I happen to be afraid of) on the night that I am by myself with the kids! Of course!
The kids slept through it, and my dad was kind enough to call and check on me, which helped me calm down from inwardly freaking out. Blake calls me a superhero because I ran up the stairs, as the house was shaking, to get to the kids (to rescue them or calm them, or whatever needed doing). But I just stood outside their doors, and watched them both calmly sleep through it.
Saturday I had Jami, my future sister in law (and a super awesome person) help me with the kids, and then Sunday I had another friend over, so the time passed relatively quickly and easily.
The next big event since the last post is my birthday celebration on April 6th. We went to the House of Blues for their Gospel Brunch. It was so much fun! I love singing, and harmony, and the five women were fantastic.
I got to be on stage for my birthday, swaying for my birthday rock, and then I decided later that you only live once, and joined their version of American Idol with a little sing off.
I didn't win... and honestly I didn't deserve to win! The first girl was just fantastic, and if I was voting, I would have voted for her. I held my own in the verse, but I seriously don't know how to ad lib, and besides I went a trifle off key at one point (bleh). But I had a lot of fun, and I think I am happier going up there, and trying than I would have been if I had just stayed in my seat and watched and wondered if I should have gone.
It was a perfect send off to my twenties, lots of good food, good friends and family and just a lot of good music too!
In other news, Grace has started her newest round of dance classes, and at least at the one I went to with her, she is doing a lot more of the motions with the class than she was last year.
We have also attended a few of our Waldorf classes.
Nobody seems to have ever heard of Waldorf when I mention it, and I have recently become borderline obsessed with it, so I will take a few moments to try to explain what I find so very appealing about this philosophy of teaching (and not about the history of it, or its foundation or any of that stuff that you can easily Google if you are seriously interested).
Their main focus, up until 1st grade, is on play. They believe that kids should be able to experience their childhood, and reject culture's push to have them learn letters, and reading and the alphabet younger and younger.
The toys that they think that kids should play with are those that allow for divergent play- i.e. they can be used in a variety of ways and push for imaginative play, like blocks, play kitchen, fabric, stuffed dolls etc. Also, they prefer children to play with handmade wooden, knitted, or sewn toys as opposed to plastic ones. Research supports the idea of kids using their imagination when they play and shows better results on future tests by kids who play with these kinds of toys as opposed to an electronic toy that has only one purpose (push this button, it makes this noise).
Waldorf schools don't even have kids reading until first grade (obviously not meeting common core/ standards) but they do hear lots of stories, mostly fairy tales at this age. They also recite poems, and sing songs with movements, all those typical things you would expect from a preschool/ kindergarten.
Lastly, they place a big emphasis on kids being responsible and given the opportunity to do things like adults.
So, in our Waldorf playgroup once a week, Grace gets to play with the room full of wooden, knitted or sewn toys, then we sing songs, watch a story acted out with puppets (beautiful handmade puppets), and then it it time for her to wash up for snack. We sing two songs before our snack, and then everyone enjoys the same rice and peas snack in little wooden bowls. When the kids are done, they are expected to fold their hands, and the teacher sings a song to dismiss them, and each child has to wash their own bowl, and leave it to dry, and then there is outside time.
I love all of it! I am also allowing some of it to trickle into home life. I am bringing in more fairy tales, and less academic stories to read to Grace. We are baking bread together once a week (on an around the world theme, more on that later). I moved her plates, cups, placemats etc. to a place where she is now responsible for getting them herself, and she has to fold her hands and be dismissed after meals at home too.
I hear a child stirring, so the rest of the pictures will be without descriptions.
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