NAEYC

Alice's school just went through re-accreditation for NAEYC  and got a fabulous report card

1. Relationships - 100 % Commended
2. Curriculum - 97 %
3. Teaching - 100 % Commended
4. Assessment - 100+ %* Commended
5. Health - 100+ %* Commended
6. Teachers - 100% Commended
7. Families - 100% Commended
8. Community Relationships - 100% Commended
9. Physical Environment - 96%
10. Leadership and Management - 100+ %* Commended

The scores earned on each of the program standards far surpassed the minimum necessary for accreditation. (Only a score of 80% in all areas is required.)
* A program can score better than 100% when it satisfies additional criteria categorized as "emerging criteria," criteria which are suggested but not required.

School Days

Alice with a stuffed animal

Alice still sleepy after a nap

Listening attentively with classmates

Alice loves to slide

Holding hands with a friend

It's puzzle time!

It's a First

We have been introducing the potty chair for a while now, but until now, Alice just sat there.
Today, Alice went tinkle in the potty!
We still have a long way to go, but its progress

The Difference a Year Makes

A year ago,I was still rocking Alice to sleep.
She was an accomplished crawler and could pull herself up to stand and cruise the furniture.  She was definately on her way to becoming mobile.
I miss that baby girl, but I adore my toddling sugar bear.

THEN                                                            NOW

The many faces of Alice

This is a sampling of pictures from November

Growing up

You know your little girl is growing up when she can have a hairstyle.

Obsession

Since Alice was little, we have been showing her movies by Hayao Miyazaki. 
We started with My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle
Graduated to Kiki's Delivery Service
and now, she is obsessing over Spirited Away

Every morning when Alice gets up her first words are "Away".  She wants to watch it morning, noon and night.  The difference with Spirited Away, is that Alice has begun to imitate and mimic the movie.

There are several scenes where Alice will copy Sen's movements and words.  The more she watches it, the more she is begining to understand it (we think....)

Yesterday and today, we saw a new development.  There is a scene where Chihiro's parents have been turned into pigs and Chihiro's is very upset.  Alice is now scared of this scene.  She starts to shake and cry along with Chihiro. 

This is very interesting and disturbing to us as parents, because she obviously understands this is an upsetting scene, and is sympathetic to Chihiro.  However, we all hate to see our children upset, so we will be forgoing this scene for a few years. 

We just hope that the scene hasn't made her afraid of pigs for the rest of her life!

Bobby

Although Alice can say doggie (goggie) and puppy, Alice prefers to call dogs she likes - Bobby. 

We think Bobby comes from Alice trying to say Bailey when she was younger, but the term has morphed to also encompass all cuddly animals Alice wants to hug.

Todd's dog Ginger has officially earned status of "Bobby"

Here, Alice is feeding Ginger (AKA "Bobby") a treat.

It's Good Luck - Right?

It is Sunday morning, and we are back from our family vacation from South Padre Island.  We take Alice to Terraburger to swing and play while Larry and I drink our organic coffees.  Alice sees all the birds (who are waiting for a free meal) and she wants to chase after them.  A while later, I notice something in Alice's hair.....
I've heard that a bird pooping on you is good luck, so I guess Alice is the lucky one today.

Finally Home

It is 5:30 pm, the day Alice comes home from spending 4 days with her Grandparents.

Vacations are tiring!

Pumpkin Patch

Today I took Alice to the Pumpkin Patch.  There were thousands of pumpkins in all sizes and a petting zoo too. 

We walked around for about an hour and a half and Alice finally picked her pumpkin.  Alice liked the smaller pumpkins she was able to pick up.

 

She spent about 20 minutes lining up pumpkins and putting them back, lining up pumpkins and putting them back....

Toddler Monday at the Childrens Museum

Since today is Columbus Day and Alice's school was closed for a teacher work day, I took Alice to the Austin Childrens Museum for "Baby Bloomers".  From 9-12 they are open for kids 3 and under.  My friend Sylvia brought her daughter Maddie along too. 

We first stopped at Mom's office - to park since it is right across the street from the Museum.  I took her up to the office to show her off and attend a quick meeting.  Alice was charming ;-) and told everyone BYEBYE in an outdoor voice when we left.

During Toddler Time, the Museum volunteers had story time (which was not interesting to Alice) and Sing-a-long - which Alice loved and participated - in a way I had never seen before.  She laughed, clapped and joined in on the hand signals during the songs for "Wheels on the Bus", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "If Your Happy and You Know it".

After we left the Museum, we headed back towards home. It was quickly approaching nap time. We stopped at Taco Cabanna for lunch. Alice and I shared chicken nachos. Then it was off to the the house for nap time.

It was a great morning.

Alice TV

Althought its not ALL Alice ALL the Time, its pretty darn great.  As mentioned in the top 5 reasons we picked Alice's new school, our new favorite past time is watching Alice play and sleep at school on the web cam.  Here is a sampling of Alice at school doing various things.

Alice Sleeping

Alice sleeping 1/2 off the mat

Alice Sliding

Alice reading a book

I don't know what she's doing, but look at how cute she is ;-)

I've been told I'm stalking my daughter, but until she's old enough to KNOW that I'm stalking her...I'm tuning in daily (along with other family members I know)

The Bluebonnet School

Alice started her new school this week. 

We decided on putting her in The Bluebonnet School of Cedar Park.  http://www.bluebonnetschool.com/index.html

There are several reasons we chose this school over others - including Montessori Schools.
1.  Each classroom has a degeed lead teacher and a teachers assistant.
2. The maximum teacher/student ratio is 2/10 at all times
3. Internet classroom viewing available free to parents and family.
4. They provide lunch (this was a big negative in the Montessori Schools)
5. It is close to home - not much further away than her previous school....so convenient!

Additional coolness factors were:
6. They have their own splash park for summer water fun twice a week (summer time only of course).
7. They have a windproof storm room to withstand strong winds and tornadoes.
8. The building is fully sprinklered (you'd be surprised, but this is not required by code!)
9. Quarterly parent conferences.
10. Spanish and Music class included in the curiculum.

From viewing the internet video, it is apparent that Alice is having fun at school. 
It makes us feel happy and confident that she is being well cared for when she cannot be with us ;-)

Alice Painting At School

Alice's new preschool has web camera access! I've really enjoyed my first day of being able to see her at school. This is a picture of her painting a picture with her teacher before lunch :-)

Alice has stinky feet.

Changes.....

We finally came to the conclusion this past week, that Alice needs to change schools.  The week before, I noticed ANOTHER bite on her arm.  We had not recieved any incident report on this one, so I was very concerned that it went unnoticed. 

I have been doing my homework in researching other options. We are checking out few Montessori Schools, and a couple of other Preschools.

We like the idea of Alice getting more learning opportunities and individual attention, as opposed to being warehoused with other kids.  We like the idea of her having an educated teacher, as opposed to a glorified babysitter.  We are looking for a balance of a educational, fun, nurturing, and loving environment. 

We may end up paying a bit more, or having to make some adjustments to our routine, but we all know that our Alice is worth it.



Stay tuned for more info!

Labor Day Weekend Fun

Just some pics of Alice having fun this weekend.

Alice likes to imitate mom's driving

Who knew a milk jug could be so fun???

Please

Alice Loves Cheetos!

Cheetos are the ONLY snack she routinely says "please" for, she even signs "please" while saying it to increase her probability of receiving one. This is so cute that she is guaranteed to receive Cheetos.

Of course the reason that Cheetos are around for Alice to request, are that her parents are also quite fond of the little snack :-)

BTW - Many Cheetos flavors are Gluten free, etc. Check out the info.

Chuck E. Cheese Trip #1

Alice sitting at her friend Cade's birthday table at Chuck E. Cheese

Cristy sat with Alice helping her know what to do and what to look at. There was a lot going on and Alice was eagerly absorbing it all. She wasn't scared of the guy in the Chuck E. Cheese costume, although she wasn't looking predisposed to run up and hug him ;-) She loved her piece of pizza and ate it for over an hour until it was finished :-)

Cristy's work friend Koleman and his wife Staci hosted the party for her son Cade, and we were happy that Alice got invited to help celebrate and have fun. Koleman took several good picture (thankfully, since we didn't remember to bring our camera) of which this is one.


Alice enjoyed the party experience very much. She went straight into nap mode when we got home and slept a long time.

One day after school

Alice had a fun day with mom and dad after school yesterday. The weather was not too hot (meaning it was just tolerable) so we all went outside for a while after dinner and to water the yard.
Alice decided that watering the yard looked fun and wanted to help. She did a fabulous job watering the grass and her clothes. Water is always fun and getting wet just means you don't feel so hot. Hmmm, now I'm thirsty....

Dad showed Alice how to drink from the hose. It took her a while to understand the concept of bending over so the water doesn't just douse your clothes, but she was wet anyways, so who cares!

Later, we went to the back yard for more playtime....sandbox, car rides, chalk art, sliding. Alice took some time to site down and have a drink every once in a while.

By the time it was definately time to go in for a bath, it was already after 8:00. She had stubbed both of her toes bloody, and had skinned her elbow, but she really could care less. She never cried about them or complained that they hurt. She's a super trooper!

Toy Box

Alice is deckout out in her retro sheik "wife-beater" shirt

contrasted with adorable embroidered jeans shorts.

Notice her matching socks and tennis shoes

that say "chase me daddy" :-)

Random Pics

Alice still plays in her cabinet, although not as much as she used to

I love this picture....she looks so sweet!

Look at those blue eyes..."anyone want a drink?"

Alice LOVES shoes...anyones shoes.

Pretty in Pink

Alice enjoying her morning breakfast.

Alice and Paw-Paw in the park

Alice doesn't feel so well...

Tonight, Alice started feeling sick. She wanted to be held, and kept wanting to go nite-nite, at 6:30. We tried feeding her dinner, but she really wasn't interested. She sat slumped in her chair watching Totoro - ocasionally perking up at certain parts of the show, but ate nothing. We gave her some tylenol and took her temp, and yep...it was 101.6 :-(
She sat on her dad's lap for a while, looking very pitiful until it was finally bedtime.
It's bittersweet cuddle time.

Swim Update

Alice jumped into the water all by herslf. Of course, she immediately sank, but we were there to bring her back up. She is also learning to hang onto the side of the pool, and loves the slide.

ByeBye

Alice has finally embraced the word ByeBye. We figured, up until this point, she just really didn't like goodbyes and just decided to not say Bye.

Leave it up to the Backyardigans to break through the no-ByeBye logic. Now when a show is over, Alice waves and says ByeBye. She has even begun to say ByeBye to Daddy when he leaves for work.

Swim update

Alice is up to 6 seconds underwater now ;-)

Alice loves the Backyardigans

The Backyardigans have become a family favorite. They keep Alice entertained during long car rides, they are the morning wake up show and after school milk and cookies wind down show. They play almost constantly during the weekend, so Alice can saunter to the TV room, sit down and have a few quite moments.

The Backyardigans are a Noggin show (Nick Jr.) The show is an animated musical-adventure series aimed at children between the ages of 2 and 5 (see - I told you she was advanced). In each episode, the show's five preschool friends—Pablo, Tyrone, Uniqua, Tasha, and Austin—rely on their vivid imaginations to transform their backyard into completely different worlds, in which they go through many sorts of stories and adventures.

This week, Alice recieved a set of beenie-baby Backyardigan stuffed animals. She was so excited to get them, she carted them around all day.

At first I thought Tyrone was her favorite

but the next day I thought it was Pablo,

but now I think it is Uniqua, because of her antenne - which she likes to chew on.

UPDATE 7/31/09

Her favorite is definately Tyrone......