So now with Natasha starting school in the mornings, I really wanted to spend a bit more one-on-one time with my little-bear, aka Veronika. Ideally, I was thinking of teaching her to recognize all the capital letters of the alphabet by sight. Recently I watched some old YouTube videos of ours and realized that Natasha had her capital letters down cold by 28 months, and Veronika will be 30 months in a few days. Um, about time!

Of course, it’s was a bit trickier to teach Veronika because Natasha always wanted to “help” by giving out the answers, so Veronika did not have to think much. But today we spent about 20 minutes learning 5-6 capital letters, after which she declared: “I am so tired, this is so hard!” and ran away to the living room. She is too funny, but we’ll try again the next day. But she caught on pretty quickly which is great!

It’s hard to believe my little girl has entered her 5th year. She’s grown up so much and is a joy to be around. She had a fun birthday, but very low-key being as she is still recovering from being sick, but she enjoyed playing with all her new toys (3 of which were not delivered on time UGH, so she’ll get more next week.)

She loved her 3D choo-choo cake I made her (which was the hardest thing on the planet – not the baking, but the decorating), but it was worth it – she loved it! Happy 4th birthday, Natasha!

I feel like with school starting, I haven’t posted much about our little cupcake who is now almost 2 1/2! Veronika is growing up and I am getting comments that she is reaching her sister in height, but I think there is still quite a bit of difference between the girls.

Veronika is… fearless. Determined. Strong. And smart. I am very partial and biased, but when she is around children her age, she acts much older than her age!. Just her speaking skills and how she understands and interprets everything amazes me. She can have full blown conversations with Natasha without any issues. And lately, she is starting to get over her shyness of strangers (by hiding behind me), and actually answering their questions clearly.

She keeps reminding me that when she is bigger, she too will start attending school and taking dance classes like Natasha, but while she is little, she will do gymnastics. She is also a very caring girl and can sense sadness or negativity and gets very upset and emotional during those times. But at the same time, she is very a affectionate girl and needs closeness and the feeling that she is not alone.

And while being a big, big troublemaker, she is a great girl!

While I fully expected Tasha to get sick once she started attending school, I did not expect it to happen this soon. She attended classes Friday of last week, and officially started Monday, Tuesday… and that’s it. The poor child came down with fever, cough, runny nose.. the full works. I have no idea if she caught it in school or during gymnastics and dance, but the poor child was utterly miserable. And of course Veronika came down with it too, that’s always the case. So I’ve had to deal with two sickies and poor Tasha’s week was shortened to only two days instead of five.

But on a brighter note, her 4th birthday is coming up this Saturday and she is very excited about that!

My big girl, aka Natasha, had her first official day of Kindergarten today. It was really stressful for everyone… but Tasha. The child was calm, collected, and excited to start the day. She’s grown to be a very brave and independent little girl. I did not sense any traces of fear from her as she was about to begin this new experience.

She and Veronika patiently waited for the yellow school bus in the morning

And it arrived right on time. We asked a big-kid to keep an eye on Tasha.

And at noon, our sweet girl came back, even happier than when she left.

She’s sooo brave! She told me about her fun-filled day of having a puppet show with turtles, dogs, and cows… of a tea-party with her school mates, coloring (her fingers were all green), and playing with the classroom’s big choo-choo train. She also ate really well.

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Aside from school, she also started a jazz/acro/ballet class today which she really enjoyed, and both girls did gymnastics on the weekend!

Natasha’s first day of Junior Kindergarten went really well, which is a huge relief considering she stayed home with me for the past 4 years, and aside from her 1-hour long sports classes, she has never stayed with anyone but family. But she proved to be a very independent little girl and had a fantastic first day! School is 3 hours, Monday-Friday.

She told me they played with trains and other toys, as well as had a tea-party with her teacher and the other kids. Her whole face was lit up when I picked her up, and her teacher remarked on how much she loves trains =) She was not scared at all and really enjoyed her first day. She even finished her entire snack I packed her and happily told me that she finished her entire snack and that I should be proud of her. It was really cute.

Of course, Monday still worries me a little as she will be taking the school bus for the first time, but I am hoping the ride and her day will go as smoothly as today went. It was really fun listening to her explain everything she did today, she was so happy.

Getting ready to leave

Waiting for the bell to ring (another new experience).

Classroom
 

Five days into the month, and it’s still hard to believe it’s really already September. It feels like only a few weeks ago we were excitedly looking forward to the warm summer months, but that came and went by very quickly. But this is the first September in a long long time that I have to think about school again, except this time it’s for my little girl and not for me. But aside from school, September just feels crazy busy… we have so much planned!

September 8th – we meet Natasha’s teacher! I am really excited about that. It feels weird to be the parent and not the child… The tables have kinda turned. I also have about a million questions to ask her and I am trying to figure out how to squeeze them into our 15 minute time slot with her! Ugh…

September 10th – Natasha starts her first ‘unofficial’ day of school with a few children. They slow-transition them into the program so they don’t end up with an entire room of sobbing kids (their words, not mine). I just can’t picture Natasha sobbing, but we’ll see how she does…

September 11th – both Natasha & Veronika start gymnastics! This will be Natasha’s 3rd year and Veronika’s 1st. They are both very excited and Natasha keeps reminding Veronika that she will show her around and explain where everything is, particularly the best thing - the trampoline! :)

September 12th – we are taking the girls out for their first ever movie in the theatre! And it’s a Thomas movie, and they are thrilled beyond words.

September 13th  (morning) – Natasha’s first ‘official’ day of school with the entire class. And also, most likely first time taking the school bus, but I still have to inquire about that and get the schedule and such.

September 13th (afternoon) – Natasha’s first dance class! She is starting a new dance school since I wasn’t very happy with her previous one. This one is actually walking-distance from our home which is another pro. She will be doing acro/jazz/ballet and we already bought her a cute uniform for it. I hope she likes the class.

September 18th – Natasha’s 4th birthday! So bittersweet. Where did my baby go?

September 25th – my sister-in-law’s wedding! We are all very excited for her and both girls are looking forward to dressing up all pretty and being ‘princesses’. Especially Veronika, the child loves anything involving dressing up pretty. We can’t wait! :)

Okay, phew. Just throw in some additional shopping I still need to squeeze in. A haircut or two. Snacks for Natasha’s school. Some random odds & ends. How do you spell ‘busy’???