Christmas in Baby Land

1st Day of School

Copper Jo had her 1st day of school on Wednesday! I had 5 glorious hours kid free. We had originally planned on starting her in school back in August because we were expecting a baby, but when that fell through, we didn't really feel the urgency to get her in. As time went on and she kept getting older, it really made sense to find something for her that let her play with other kids and have a little school style structure (and get her away from the television for an extended time). We only wanted her to go two half days a week and that turned out to be a little hard to find. Montessori schools do half days, but it's 5 days a week and costs a pretty penny. Other schools didn't have a spot available and others were too expensive. Then I came across Kidzapalooza. It's about a mile from our house, had spots available, was inexpensive, and offered complete flexibility. After a tour I deemed it acceptable for my child. Copper liked it too. It's not too fancy and I don't expect a huge amount of learning (it really is more of a day care, than a school), but that's okay. She's 3. This fall she'll start Preschool and then the real learning can begin. I dropped her off about 10:00 on Wednesday morning, just after snack and right before "Circle Time." She had no problem with me leaving and was making a block tower as I said my 10th good-bye to her. I was a little sad leaving her. I didn't want to walk away from her classroom. It was the first time I'd left her with strangers. However, that sadness seemed to quickly ware off as I ran some kid free errands and then worked from a kid free home. I picked her up about 3:30, just after afternoon snack. She had a great day. No problems. She didn't eat any of the school's lunch, but that was somewhat expected. I'll have to start packing them from now on. She was happy to see me and even told me she missed me. Transition to school was a success!

Santa Claus - Creating New Traditions

Aubrey and I decided that this was the year to figure out what our Christmas Tradition was going to be. Much like how I grew up, Christmas will most likely always be spent out of town. We'll have our personal family Christmas before we leave for Texas and those gifts will be from Aubrey and I. We decided that we will have fun with Santa Claus and put a little magic in Christmas. So Santa will come to wherever we are on Christmas Eve night while Copper is sleeping and deliver one present to her. It won't be the best or most expensive gift. That will be reserved to come from her most awesome parents. But it will always be a gift that she has asked for. This year it was a Lalaloopsy Doll. On Christmas Eve night Copper put out some cookies that we made and a glass of milk for Santa.  Sure enough there was a special gift waiting for her under the tree in the morning. It seemed to freak her out a little. Not too sure she quite understands the complex story of Santa and his travels.