Guess whose birthday was this week?

Amanda said, when I picked her up from preschool, "Mom, it's Green-Eggs-and-Ham's birthday today! Can we get him a card?" (Hmmm, where would we send it?) I took this pic while waiting to go in to see her eye doctor (surgeon) for a follow-up visit. He said her eyes are just crossing a little bit (I never notice), and no more than before, so we're good to go, with our next follow-up in six months. He also checked how her right eye goes a little higher when she's looking up, but said he's not worried about it.

This week seemed to go pretty slowly. Dance class Monday night was a lot of chaos. She tried to teach them a routine for a recital, and the little girl who is the tallest, and therefore would lead the rest, did not want to be there and was unhappy about leading, so that didn't help. The other little girls were going back to their moms or pulling on each other, etc. Amanda did a pretty good job of finding her spot in line and following directions.

I was going to go to Lincoln Saturday night to go out with my friend, with Amanda going to Aunt Barb's house. Amanda had received two invitations to birthday parties, one Friday after work and the other Saturday. I had planned to leave the Saturday birthday party a little early and head to Lincoln. When I picked Amanda up Friday, I found out that the party I thought was Friday afternoon was actually Saturday afternoon, and when I called the mom to say we wouldn't be able to make it, both girls were so disappointed ("best friends"). I called Lincoln, and both my friend and my sister were flexible, so we headed to Lincoln Friday night, and we hit both birthday parties today. It ended up so much better for me, and last night was fun. My friend & I went to a Mexican restaurant (margaritas!) and then watched a movie at her house, and Barb said that Amanda was really well behaved! Woo-hoo! They watched a Shirley Temple movie that Barb had on VHS, and she said that when Amanda saw the case for the video, she said the little girl looked like her. The movie was Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and the pic did look a lot like Amanda. Gotta love the curls!

Barb told me that she had complained of her left ear hurting, so she had her hold a washcloth soaked in warm water with Epsom salt, which seemed to help (good idea, Barb!). When we got home, she seemed hot, so I checked her temp - 99.6. I gave her some Tylenol and she was fine all night and woke up fine. Today she mentioned in passing once that her ear didn't hurt anymore.

This morning, we took a walk after breakfast. It was cool and rainy, but good exercise for me, and she got to swing a bit at the park. After her nap, we went to the parties. They were ok. The first was mostly a family party. One other little girl from school was there, and her mom, whom I knew, so I at least had her to talk to. There were no games or anything - the three girls just ran around the house for 30 minutes, then she opened presents and they had cake and ice cream. I felt a bit out of place, not just because I knew hardly anyone, but also because there was a lot of swearing in adult conversations, and seemed to be quite a few pregnant unwed gals there. I was happy to leave for the second party. That little girl, Carryonna (sort of like you would say "Carrie-anna"), was so happy to see Amanda. Her mom was very friendly and introduced me to her brother and her mom. Only one other gal came, so it was a small party. And no other girls from school came, so I'm really glad we made it! It was in north Omaha and Amanda & I were the only caucasians. No big deal to either of us, but I wondered if Amanda would notice that we look different than they do (she didn't). Wouldn't it be nice if we could all remain as colorblind as kids? Carryonna's mom had sloppy joes, chips, and a whole table (at kids' height) with vegetables and cheese and lots of snacking items. (The only negative was the loud (adult, but not bad) music which was playing constantly! Made it tough to have conversations. I surreptitiously turned it down a couple of times. (I know - I probably shouldn't have.)) We stayed about two hours. Amanda didn't eat much except chips and candy, so when we got home she had a peanut butter sandwich before we got ready for bed.

As of about two weeks ago, our house is TV-free! I cancelled cable, and don't have rabbit ears (and no digital converter box, but w/o rabbit ears, that wouldn't be any good anyway). I only watched a little bit each week, and mostly in the background, and I knew it was better for her if I just attended to real life instead of trying to follow the plot of "House" while eating supper, etc. So far, it's been no big deal. I sort of miss it while I'm preparing supper, but otherwise I'm just happy to be saving the money.

Bragging points:
Amanda can count to 100
and spell the words one-two-three-four-five-six-seven and cat
and can read those same words (kind of goes hand-in-hand with spelling them)
She is going to be bored in kindergarten!!

She spelled some words for Mom, and Mom looked at me in consternation and said, "Spelling is first grade work!" I just shrugged. I told Ms. Boidee that (and explained that my mom was an elementary school teacher), and she smiled and said, "Tell your mom that Amanda's teacher is from a foreign country and doesn't know any better." =) (She's from Venezuela)

This is an old story (six months ago?) that I've forgotten to mention. I thought it was just sort of amusing, but her teacher, Ms. Boidee, thought it was really funny. She had told the kids to write the alphabet in lower case. Amanda showed Ms. Boidee her paper, but the letters were in upper case. She said, "No, write them in lower case, you know, the little letters." Amanda came back a short time later and had written the alphabet in VERY TINY upper case letters! Cute.

This is not a big bragging point, but I mention because it's so interesting how one day, with nothing else different, suddenly they have learned something. Two weeks ago before dance class, I was trying to teach her how to skip, and she just couldn't get it. This very coordinated little girl was at class early and I told Amanda to watch her skip and try to do it, but she just couldn't even approximate the step-hop, step-hop of a skip. The next week, we're walking down the hallway to change clothes in the bathroom and she says, "Look, Mom" and is skipping like she's done it forever. No stutters, no hesitations. (Probably figured it out in school.)

Same thing with swinging last summer. In the spring, I'd tried to show her how to pump the swing herself and she just had no feel for what I was trying to teach her (good thing I didn't become a teacher like I'd planned when I was a kid - I am not good in the patience department). No problem, I'll just push you. Then one night, I was mowing and I told her I couldn't push her, so she was just playing around on the slide and the swings, and I looked over to see her pumping and getting herself to swing quite nicely. I couldn't believe it! They don't have swings at her school, so it's not like she learned while I wasn't with her. I mean, it's not that surprising - kids figure stuff out. It's just weird to see it change on the spot.

Of course, my kid is quite exceptional, so....

(Evidently it doesn't matter whether it's been 1 week or 4 weeks since I've last blogged - I just blather on and on for the same amount of space. Not as many pictures, though.)

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