Cake Shop

We had some neat boxes that lead to a wedding cake, which lead to a superhero cake, which lead to every toy in Gemma's room being covered with a cloth and decoration to become an amazing bakery. Check it out!

Oops, I thought I took more pictures! Doh. Well, there were a lot of cakes!!!

School

Doing better about going to school. She has a friend, and even though they got separated for talking too much today (about a spy mission and horse game they were going to play at recess) I can't help but feel happy that she has someone to be in cahoots with. Friday is library day, and she brings a book home. She has Primary Fitness instead of PE, and spends most of her day 'learning to spell new words, and coloring.'

I found this DVD set at the library, and we watched part of it today. Old school animation but its cute and educational. Some good vocabulary and sentences. We'll see if I can stick with it.

So frustrating!!!

"Mom? This really frustrating thing keep s happening at school. When we sing the ABC's the people in my class sing this one part wrong. They say it differently. Let me sing it for you; abcdefg, hijklmnop, qrstuv, w,x, ZED! Can you believe they do that? It is supposed to be (insert entire song here until the last phrase...) x, y, ZEE! How can I remember zee and zed?"

And this lead on and on to a discussion about missing Taiwan schools, American vocabulary, etc...

Pray for Gemma as she struggles daily to recall that 'zee' is the same as 'zed' ;)

Sick

And Gemma is out with a stomach bug. She went to school because she was feeling fine then, but by 5:00 she was crashed out on the couch. I hope she keeps sleeping, that's the best way to wait out a tummy ache.

Bathtub games

We don't have the same collection of bathtub toys as we did in Taiwan, so new games are required. In this game, Gemma fills all the little containers up with cold water from the tap, then dumps them on her head one at a time. It is like a gameshow:

"Which one should I do now? THaTS the coldest one!!! Ok, I need you to say, go Gemma go! A little louder! Come on, it's only fun if you're watching!!!"

And I always cringe because brrrr.... I can't stand cold water! And then she laughs even more because I am laughing.

Show and Tell

The redeeming factor for Gemma's Monday is that Monday is her day for show and tell. She chose to bring this pin she got from her ballet teacher last year because "it is my most special treasure, and Miss Tina is my most nicest and special teacher."

The rules for show and tell are:
1) it has to fit in your backpack
2) it can't be a toy

Since 90% of what Gemma owns is toy, I hope we don't run out of ideas. Any suggestions?

Shoes!

Gemma learned how to tie her shoes this week! I demonstrated it to her slowly (again) and it just clicked; she tried it and got it. Of course she doesn't get it everytime so there's lots of waiting and patience as we get ready.

I remember buying shoes for school when I was in kindergarten and my mom was adamantly against velcro shoes. She was convinced that if we had velcro shoes we'd never learn to tie shoes, and so I remember practicing over and over again. She even made a little cardboard practice board for me with two rows of holes punched in it like a shoe, and I would have to practice. My mom was tough about things like that, and I appreciate it now. (But I'm not tough on my own kids... I know I should be tougher but I'm not!)