Swimming Lessons!

This week, Tessie is taking swimming lessons at the local pool. Mostly just frolicking in the water, the "lessons" consist of an instructor lobbing pool toys over the kids' heads, then urging them to "scoop" (i.e., dogpaddle) their way toward them. Tessie enjoys it quite a bit, even though it was very cold in the pool today. She was shivering, but resisted all attempts to get her to come out and warm up until the lesson was over.

Even then, she refused to take off her new goggles!

Variations on a theme

On our rather drizzly commute this morning, Tessie was amusing herself by coming up with new lyrics to "The Wheels on the Bus," such as:

"The bees on the bus go 'buzz buzz buzz, buzz buzz buzz, buzz buzz buzz...'"

and, somewhat less comprehensibly:

"The honey pot on the bus goes 'honey honey honey, honey honey honey, honey honey honey...'"

But my favorite has to be this one:

"The Daddy on the bus goes 'I love Tessie too, I love Tessie too, I love Tessie too...'"

Tales from school

Every day at pre-school, Tessie's teachers provide a report on her activities of the day: what she ate and when, timing of nap and potty visits, and a free-text comment. Some recent extracts from Tessie's daily reports:

4/15: "While we were playing we saw the garbage man and before he left Tessie said, 'Thanks for the show.'"

4/16: "During Kitchen Creation we made cookies. Our friend Sophie left early, so after I put the cookies in the oven, Tessie came to me and said, 'We need to save a cookie for Sophie.'"

4/24: "In the Hoppy Store we were shopping around with the cart. Tessie said, 'I'm going to buy some money.'"

5/6: "During Balance and Coordination, Tessie was playing with cones. She said, 'I'm building bowling things.'"

5/7: "During Kitchen Creation we played with play-dough. Tessie rolled her play dough and she said, 'I made a burrito.'"

5/8: "During Hoppy Store we made lunch for Mommy. We asked Tessie what she made and she said, 'Tea and bread and food, that's what I work with.'"

5/13: "During lunch, Tessie's hair blew in the wind and she said, 'Miss Joanna is blowing my hair. No, silly, it's the wind blowing like crazy.'"

5/18: "During circle time we asked what do you put in the trash? Tessie said, 'Garbage.'"

5/19: "Today we made a trash-eating monster. We asked Tessie what kind of monster would she have? She said, 'Green monster.'"

(Posted rather belatedly -- didn't realize I created this draft ages ago and never finalized it.)

San Diego

[...continuing with the overdue updates...]



In February, the Presidents' Day long weekend gave us the opportunity to visit some friends in San Diego. There's lots to see and do in that area, but we started off with a walk around the neighborhood.



With that exploration under our belts, we headed into downtown to see the new New Children's Museum. (That's not a typo; it's called the New Children's Museum, and it's new. When it's old, it will still be New.) The museum is housed in a new building, but it has the feel of an old warehouse that's only half full. Because the museum is new (Getting tired of that word yet? I am.), it's possible that they just hadn't filled up all the space yet and plan to add more exhibits, but we were underwhelmed by its sparse layout. There's just not a lot there.



Still, the museum is meant for children, and Tessie found things to do. Creativity is encouraged; in fact the museum may be more properly thought of as a large studio space with a variety of artisitic media available. Tessie added her contribution to the chalk wall:



Then she donned an apron and started painting. That's a Volkswagen Beetle she's standing next to, but it's so caked in paint that it's hard to recognize:



The museum also provides lumps of clay and tools with which to work it, and will even let you take your creations home:



The museum's most in-demand attraction (there's a line-up to get in) is not artistic; unless there's a subtlety to pillow fighting of which I remain unaware. One corner room on the top floor is lined with mattresses on the floor and walls, and tire shaped pillows are scattered throughout. Chaos ensues:

Sign of the Times

Tessie's reading and writing skills are improving. She knows her letters very well, and can recognize the names of her friends and classmates. She's still not quite reading, but she's sooo close. And she can write her own name:



Oh, and she can count to twenty. In Spanish.