Gabi & Bella: Autumn

Leaves in our front yard

Incredible -- Gabi found a leaf.

Sharing a bowl of popcorn and cheering on the Irish

While Bella takes an afternoon nap, Gabi has quiet time, during which she narrates stories for her books or makes up songs or otherwise entertains herself not-so-quietly. As you can see, this day she removed both pillow cases and used her doll blankets to make beds out of the naked pillows on the floor. After all Gabi's effort, apparently the dolls still preferred Gabi's bed. Can you spot Gabi?

Gabi's room during "quiet time"

Ah, one of those days when Gabi did fall asleep...

Gabi only naps about once every other week, and even then she spends most of quiet time playing before crashing at the end, not to awaken until we call her to dinner. One day when Mommy wanted to nap during quiet time, Gabi insisted on keeping me company. She discovered the doors on the bedside table could be percussive instruments if opened and closed repeatedly, so she played me a concert. Providing such musical entertainment must be exhausting work.

Snuggled in the bedside table

Anthony School
Each week at school, the three-year-olds study a different letter. This past week was "I Week," so tomorrow they will start with the letter J. They practice writing both the uppercase and lowercase, learn the letter in sign language, and read a story involving many words beginning with that letter. Here are some pictures of letter-themed activities:

On a bear hunt for "B Week"

Gabi caught a bear

Gabi in fishing gear during "F Week"

Gabi's class after fishing
Grey, Ernie, Ava, Issac, Ms. Laura
Sabrina, Nathan, Gabi, and Grant

A visit from a real horse for "H Week"

In addition to the typical letter-based curriculum (which is creatively presented so as to be enthusiastically received by the children, even for Gabi who already knows her letters), the teachers have added more surprising subjects. For instance, Gabi can tell me that humans have 206 bones, and the fingers and toes are called phalanges. We continue to be very impressed with all that the Anthony School has to offer, and we feel especially lucky to have such fantastic teachers who relate to the kids so well.

The girls by my Filipino booth at the Multicultural Event

The Multicultural Event did not go so well for us. Michael was at work that evening, so I was on my own with the girls. Very soon after arriving, we tried some foreign food at one of the other booths. Gabi is at a stage where she refuses to try new foods or even eat certain foods she has had before. I insisted that she at least take one small bite of something relatively familiar, after which Gabi decided to throw up her entire dinner on the floor. I cleaned Gabi up in the bathroom, and one of the other moms from Gabi's class agreed to handle our Filipino booth for the rest of the evening and collect all our items to return to us the next day. It was incredibly embarrassing, and we obviously had to leave, although I did not handle the situation calmly once we were home. Michael later reassured me that even good moms lose it sometimes.

Fortunately, the next Anthony School event involving parents (a school-wide ceremony last Thursday announcing the plans for a new park across Ohio Street from the school) went better. Unfortunately, this same day the teacher gave me the bad news that Gabi's classroom behavior warranted a time out and being sent to Ms. Kenda's office. On the bright side, she assured me that Gabi was normally one of the sweetest kids in the class and this was the first day that Gabi had to sit in time out. At home, Gabi and I had a talk, followed by some quiet reflection time for Gabi which she obediently observed. She came home the following day with a good report. Michael worked all night Thursday, so on Friday he tried to ask Gabi about her poor behavior the day before; however, Gabi redirected him -- "No, Daddy, today I was nice to my friends." (Kind of like when we tell her that Santa will bring her presents if she is good, and she responds, "I am a good girl!")