Last weekend Sarah and Amy had a group piano class. This is a small, informal recital with the other piano students in attendance. Sarah had no interest in the games to get to know the other students. She wanted to play the piano! When it was her turn she announced each piece before she played it. After her originally planned pieces she wanted to keep going! Her teacher had to stop her from just going and going. She probably would have played everything she knew if we let her. We joke that when it is time for her recital we may need a long hook to pull her off the stage. When it was Amy’s turn, Amy had beautiful poise, grace, and presence. I had thought she might be nervous but she wasn’t at all. When she took her bow at the beginning and end, she took her time and made eye contact with her audience.
Sarah is increasingly interested in helping in the kitchen. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. Yesterday she heated left-over mashed cauliflower and mashed sweet potatoes, saying they were mac and cheese, and served them to herself and Amy. Earlier in the week she made scrambled eggs for multiple people for dinner. Carl was the supervisor in both situations. I think he is often a bit more relaxed about Sarah’s kitchen help than I am.
Sarah loves wearing pajamas and often wants to wear them to school. Her reasoning lately is that they are “comfy cozy comfy cozy.” When Grandma delivered the new pajamas she recently made for the girls (cats for Amy, pandas for Sarah) I kept the pjs hidden until Wednesday after school. I knew that if Sarah had them earlier it would have been impossible to get her dressed for school in the mornings. The girls love the pajamas and Sarah has worn hers for the better part of the last 82 hours. Hopefully by Tuesday morning she will be willing to part with them for the duration of her school day.
I think Sarah’s language is getting more fluid and specific, with longer and fuller sentences than she used to use. One morning she explained to me her delay in coming down to breakfast: “I’m getting the snot out of my nose,” and “I am throwing the tissue away in the trash.” Good to know!
Thanksgiving was lovely. We ate lots of good food and had lots of time to play games together. Amy and I played Catopoly to completion. The game is slightly different from Monopoly, but is basically the same. Amy beat me thoroughly. Sarah even joined for some Catopoly rounds and I realized that adding the total on the dice is a great way for her to practice math. Counting her moves on the board is a great way to count with matching a thing to a number. She is great at counting in general but there isn’t always a one to one correspondence to the items being counted. We also played SET, which is a bit complicated. Carl figured out a simplified, non-competitive version and Sarah was surprisingly interested and adept. SET involves making sets of three cards that have shapes on them. There are diamonds, squiggles, and ovals. They can be purple, red, or green. There are 1, 2, or 3 shapes per card. A given trait must be different on all three cards in a set or it must be the same. For instance, you can have 3 diamond cards in 3 different colors and 3 different numbers or all the same number. It is both easy and complicated. It requires really paying attention and looking at the cards, which are not always Sarah’s strongest skills. Amy found the game super easy at first so she was complaining that it was too easy. Then it became impossibly hard and she wanted no help and nothing to do with the game ever again. So it goes. We all have those moments in various aspects of our lives. I’m sure in the future Amy will be open to trying again.
Thanksgiving was lovely. We ate lots of good food and had lots of time to play games together. Amy and I played Catopoly to completion. The game is slightly different from Monopoly, but is basically the same. Amy beat me thoroughly. Sarah even joined for some Catopoly rounds and I realized that adding the total on the dice is a great way for her to practice math. Counting her moves on the board is a great way to count with matching a thing to a number. She is great at counting in general but there isn’t always a one to one correspondence to the items being counted. We also played SET, which is a bit complicated. Carl figured out a simplified, non-competitive version and Sarah was surprisingly interested and adept. SET involves making sets of three cards that have shapes on them. There are diamonds, squiggles, and ovals. They can be purple, red, or green. There are 1, 2, or 3 shapes per card. A given trait must be different on all three cards in a set or it must be the same. For instance, you can have 3 diamond cards in 3 different colors and 3 different numbers or all the same number. It is both easy and complicated. It requires really paying attention and looking at the cards, which are not always Sarah’s strongest skills. Amy found the game super easy at first so she was complaining that it was too easy. Then it became impossibly hard and she wanted no help and nothing to do with the game ever again. So it goes. We all have those moments in various aspects of our lives. I’m sure in the future Amy will be open to trying again.
We had a couple of walks in the woods on Friday so the girls could skate (in their winter boots) on frozen puddles. They had a great time. Lately it has been impossible to get Sarah out for a walk in the woods and the mere suggestion results in screaming and tears. Once ice skating was involved then our little bear couldn’t get enough of being out in the woods! Until she fell and bumped her elbow in a way that hurt. We took her inside. She was ok but had a lot of feelings about it. She cried for a long time. Then nurse Amy came to play and Sarah was happy and sparkly again, listening to Amy read an Elephant and Piggie book.
Grandma and Grandpa have been in Pittsburgh often over the past year and I have really loved having them around. My early Christmas present is that Grandpa will be here most of the time from now on. He bought a house that is nearby. Grandma will visit often, but still has work in MN so that will be her home base. I am thrilled that Grandpa will live in Pittsburgh. Last night I was thinking about how lucky I am with the extended family I acquired through Carl. I love my in-laws. All of them. That isn’t to be sneezed at. The girls are thrilled too. Whenever Grandpa arrives, Sarah lights up and zooms over saying “Grandpa!” and then wants to tell him something.
May you feel comfy cozy.
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