An Email Newsletter from Preschool

This is part of the reason why I love being a Berkeley Mommy.  I love the thoughtfulness and the unapologetic political correctness.
……………

Good Afternoon Cedar Families,

Today's helper was x!
This weeks other helpers have been: x, x and x.

New Sign In and Outs

Many children have been very interested in how to spell their names. We have observed friends writing their names or practicing some of the letters of their names. Many children have also been looking around the room and finding some of the letters from their names in our documentation. 

Since we have seen such interest in names, we asked the children if they would like to write their own names on a colored piece of paper for a new sign in and out. Every child is at a different level of skill at this time but they all felt proud as they wrote. Ask your child to show you their new sign in and out. 

Love Power

What is this? It is a substitute for what was once 'butt power'. Many children were observed saying butt power through out the day and then giggling. When we asked what this meant there didn't seem to be an answer other than, it's funny. Humor is an amazing part of each child's personality but we are working on not using potty humor as much as possible. 

Teacher Sarah suggested to a few friends that we find a substitute for this potty language. "What could we say instead?" Love Power was the decided upon substitute. Love power is when we give each other a hug, high five or other friendly action to show our love for each other. 

Bottoms up "Tooty Ta" Song 

You may have heard your child saying bottoms up at home. In one of our favorite sings "Tooty Ta", we move out bodies in funny ways. At one part in the song we put our "bottoms up" in the air and dance. 

Food Drive:

Hearts Leap is hosting a food drive "Share Thanksgiving".  Today we talked with our class about how there are families who don't have a lot of food. We have been decorating a large box with different pictures of food to place out non perishable food items in. This morning we spoke to the children about what kinds of food are non perishable and would be great to donate. The children are very excited to add to the food box and share the things that they have brought with their friends. 

Role Play  and Modeling: 

As many of you have noticed, the cedar room has been very interested in airplanes and going on plane rides. This interest started from a conversation that we had during meeting about friends being helpers to their parents while traveling with younger sibling. The teachers acted out some behaviors and asked the children which behaviors were appropriate for the plane and which would be better for outside time.  

The children really enjoy when us teachers put on plays about different  scenarios. This is one way that we can help parents assist children modify behavior. We have put on plays about brushing teeth, helping with young siblings, riding on an airplane and sleep issues. Please email or speak to a teacher if their is a behavior that your child is displaying that we may be able to help with. 

Lunch Time Dog Stories:During lunch time, many of the children have been enjoying one of the teachers telling stories about their dogs. We have told stories of runaway dogs, dogs getting into grocery bags and other funny stories. 

Share Calendar:
This week we have had a lot of children bringing in share items. We are very happy that many children would like to show something that is special to them. Unfortunately we have not been able to share all of the shares that have been brought in. We will be using a share calendar starting next week. Each child will have a special day that is their day to share. If a child forgets or is absent on their share day, they will have another day the following month. We will not be having make up days because it takes away from the child who's share day it is. Shares include books, music, something the child has made, photos, etc. We discourage toys, and commercialized products such as Disney items. 

Thank you:

Thank you to all the chaperones and drivers who helped make our field on our field trip to the Pumpkin Patch a success.  

Reminders:

- Please check your child's extra clothes bag and replenish as needed

- Please have your child bring a jacket a coat or something warm to wear when we go outside. 

- Halloween costumes can be worn to school next Thursday.  Costumes will be taken off before we go outside.  Please bring a change of clothes or have your child wear his or her costume over their clothes.  

My Head

Let's all pretend that it hasn't been almost a month since I posted last, Kay?

If you do need some reason for my blogging absence, here goes...  I got a head cold.  Then I needed some gum surgery for an overgrown, infected gum.  (If anyone needs a great Periodontist in the Berkeley area, I now have one to recommend!)  My in-laws were in town which wasn't a bad thing, necessarily, but it was definitely an addition to our already crazed schedule.  And, then my jaw bone started coming out of my gums, so I had to go back to the periodontist yesterday to have my jaw bone filed down and tucked back into my gums.

Things are getting back to normal now (knock on wood, cross my fingers, whatever...), so I hope to get back to posting weekly or so. 

Is there Bacon in that Cheesecake?

It's a question I didn't think I needed to ask, but I guess I do because the answer was "yes".  

Review of Camp Mommy

Back in this post, I pre-worried about planned for Star's weeks off from preschool.  Here's how it went.

Week 1 - Jewish camp in the morning.  The camp itself was fine - not spectacular and not horrible.  Truth be told, it wasn't even a camp.  It was just their normal preschool which Star joined for a week.  I liked that Star got a bit of Jewish exposure here.  The other main positive to this week was that Star did great in an unfamiliar environment.  If there was an activity or a game she wanted to join in, she would observe for a bit and then find a way in.  She would introduce herself to other people.  I was so impressed with her social skills.

There were a bunch of not good things about this week.

• I dropped her off at 9am and picked her up at 12:30pm.  With parking and driving time, there wasn't a lot of free time for me.
• We ran into a lot of people from our past.  For instance, an ex-girlfriend of Scott's who knew who I was but who I had no idea who she was.  Running into people like this from our past wasn't bad, but it was a bit weird.
• I felt like the teachers and the parent community wasn't as good as Star's regular preschool.  Maybe this is because there wasn't enough time to establish continuity and connections, but it was disappointing nonetheless.  

Week 2 - Mommy Camp and Trip to LA.  On Monday of this week, Star and I had a playdate at Habitot with an old friend of mine and the 4 year old girl that she nannies for.  That was super fun.  Then, Star participated in a study at BabyLab - we did a few of these studies when she was younger.  On Tuesday, she had a Dentist appointment, and then we met friends at Crab Cove in Alameda where we participated in a program on poop!  We learned about different kinds of animal poop and then walked around outside looking for it.  It was a bit gross, but Star loved it.  Then, we had a picnic lunch on the beach.  

On Wednesday, we drove off to Los Angeles.  We stayed with cousins and Star got along wonderfully with her cousin who is 6 months younger than she is.  One day, Star and her cousin went to the cousin's day care together, and I took Scott to Orange County so he could see where I grew up.  The next day all six of us went to Disneyland.  This wouldn't have been our top choice, but our cousin is currently working at ABC so he gets free tickets.  The day after that, we went to breakfast with a Junior High/High School friend of mine and her family, and then went to the LA County Museum of Art with our cousins - the picture here is of Star and her cousin doing some watercolor painting at this museum.  It was a good trip.

Week 3 - Monkey Business Camp.  I had her scheduled from 8:30am-6pm so that I could have some nice long stretches of time to myself.  But, the problem was that she wasn't napping there.  So, if I pick her up at 6, she'd be horrible until she fell asleep.  By mid-week, she wanted to be picked up at 3:30pm when some other kids get picked up.  So, I cut my days short so I could pick her up at 3:30pm and let her nap in the car for 2 hours before we started dinner and our night time routine.  Other than the nap issues, I felt that this camp was OK.  It seemed like they did the basics to meet the requirements of camp - play, craft project, sing...  But, if I ever asked about how Star's day was, the counselors couldn't give me any specifics.  And, Star has said that she doesn't want to go back to Monkey Business next year.

Week 4 - I went back to work and Star went to her preschool's camp for a week.  It was nice to be back in a familiar environment, but camp even at our preschool, which we think of very highly, wasn't as good as regular school is there.    

Now, we're back to the work full time juggling madness.  Camp Mommy was an overall success - I'll change some things up for 2014, but I'm looking forward to Camp Mommy Year 2.  

Money

I'm a few days in to Camp Mommy.  I am taking unpaid time off from work to focus more on me and being a mom.

Hopefully, I'll write a post up soon about our Camp Mommy adventures, but this post is about MONEY.

(1) I decided that my 7 year old MacBook was about to die and take with it all the photos that are in iPhoto.  Backup solutions weren't working because my computer seemed too old to get its data somewhere else.

So I bought a 1 year old refurbished MacBook Pro.  It came yesterday.  I set up the Migration Assistant so my old computer could tell my new computer all its secrets, and 15 hours later, I love my new laptop!  It seems so smart and efficient.

$1,100

(2) I took my car to the shop.  The bumper was hanging off and I suspected it needed some sort of service.  They agreed to bang in the bumpers so that nothing would be hanging off.  I don't need it to be pretty, but functional.  And, my car was due for a major service.  We bought it 3 years ago and it was time for all its parts to be checked out.

$500

(3) While the car was at the shop, they discovered that the tread on all 4 tires was dangerously low.  One of the tires had 0 tread on it.  The others had 1, 2 and 3 units (?) of tread.  They said that I had to replace all the tires and it was dangerous to drive on them this way.

$600

The car is running great now.  Scott and I went hiking this morning, and the acceleration up the hills was way better than it used to be.  I think it was money well spent.  But, $2,200 out the door during my unpaid time!  Ugh.

The Royal Vagina Watch (also known as crotch watch)

I am obsessed by Princesses.  Not the Disney ones; the real ones. 

So, yesterday, I was hitting refresh on People.com and the New York Times until the royal news was announced that Princess Kate gave birth to a boy who is now third in line to become King. 

Before the birth, the official statement was that Kate's labour labor was progressing normally.  What does that mean when the vagina from which said baby will be emerging is a royal one?

Does it mean that Kate was swearing at the other women laboring in the triage cubicles adjacent to her?

Does it mean that a nurse told her that she couldn't make her labor progress by walking stairs?

Does it mean that the nurse who made that comment later apologized with a coupon for the cafeteria downstairs?

Is a normal labor one where a doctor demands attention claiming that he is the most important person in the room?

Or, is that only the normal labor experience for non royal vaginas like mine?

4 Days Away

The job that pays me money is as a Law Librarian.  I often feel lucky that I found this career.  In law school, I knew I didn't want to practice law.  After law school, I worked as a mediator for a number of years until I met a woman at a conference who was a librarian.  I started library school and the rest is history.

One great thing about being a law librarian, is our national association called AALL, the American Association of Law Libraries.  I used to be quite active in AALL.  I am the founder of the Gen X / Gen Y caucus, and I've always enjoyed the conferences.  But, the last conference I went to was in 2007.

Since then, I've focused on getting pregnant, being pregnant, having a kid, raising a kid, and getting back into my profession.

Tomorrow, I leave for this year's AALL conference which will be held in Seattle.  I am going without my husband and without our daughter.  Things that used to be normal, flying by myself, staying in a hotel by myself, are now totally foreign to me. 

I'm worried that I will miss my daughter.  I'm worried that she'll miss me.  I'm worried that she won't miss me.  I'm worried that she'll get hurt.  I'm worried that I won't sleep well without my husband beside me.  I'm worried that the conference food will not work for my specific eating habits.

I hope I'll be able to enjoy Seattle and enjoy my profession.  Star says that she'll text me pictures.  I hope she does.  I hope we both have a happy 4 days.