Tonight we all went to a fall festival at E’s daycare. It was a nice way to meet other parents and to let the kids dress up in their costumes. Each room had a different activity. E liked her room the best because that is where you could decorate your own cookie. You see, the cookie is just a small plate for the real food, frosting. Below you can see a picture of Mom helping E put some sprinkles on top. Sprinkles are pretty and all, but they do get in the way of the frosting. E was a very dignified little flower. She would dab her spoon in the frosting and then lick it off. Eventually this was identified as too slow though and she had to fall back to the fingers.
The PE is finally over (at least until I get the results). If I don’t pass, I’ll be taking it again in the spring. I took the 8 hour (2x 4 hour) test today in Raleigh. It is the first time in about 12 years that I’ve taken a test with more than 300 other people. I will admit that it was pretty exhausting. There’s not much that I can say about the actual problems though. The group controlling the PE has you sign forms stating that you won’t talk about questions on the test (under the threat of legal action). I read that to mean .. “You just studied a long time for this test, if we catch you talking about the problems, we’ll throw your license in the garbage” I’ll play it safe. They are extremely afraid that the questions will get out for general consumption. Without getting into specifics, my qualifier was a shorter exam (~6 hours) , but 3x harder. I won’t get the results for 10 weeks. It is going to be nice not to have to study anymore. I moved all the reference books off the dining room table yesterday. It felt pretty good. I hope that I don’t need to move them back in January.
It had been about a week and a half since E had her fever. She had some bumps afterwards, but the doctor said it was just a rash from the fever and would go away in a few days. There was no startling name associated with it, just “a virus”. Liz took E for her flu shot last Thursday. The shot was delayed when she had the fever earlier. I wasn’t at the appointment, but Liz said that E knows the doctor’s office. She cried hard when she got the shot. Within about a minute, though, she was done and ready to move on. You can see the fancy band aid that she got in the photo above. E is currently working her way through another battle with pink eye. It’s not bad. Liz and I have learned to spot it early. It doesn’t bother her, but she hates when we put the drops in her eyes. Another piece of news is that she has several molars coming in. She is happy most of the time, but she can get crabby if her gums get irritated.
Aside from these little things, she seems to be getting smarter. She seems to understand words that we say about things that are outside of her current focus. She repeats much more of what we say now too. She is also starting to know what is ’supposed to’ and what is ‘not supposed to’. This morning she went into her room, searched for her binky from outside the crib, reached in and grabbed it and then spun to see me looking at her. She knows that her binky is for sleeping, not for during the day. I said, “E give me that please.” ….. After thinking, she spun and trotted off to the bonus room. This room has an expandable gate so E can only go so far. She ran/trotted to the edge and threw her binky over the gate. I guess she didn’t want me to have it either. I didn’t think that an “all or nothing” gene existed. Whatever it was, I give her a lot of credit because it was much better than just crying.
We’ve been starting a new nightly ritual. We tell E its “It’s bathtime!” and she drops what she is doing and starts for the bathtub. I think she has a lot more fun with it now. To see a video of E crawling upstairs, click here.
Baby girl loved her evening walk before bath time tonight. You can see her new teddy bear, dressed up for Halloween, that the Lewiston clan sent. Thank you! She did get a little carried away, however, so teddy found it difficult to stay in the stroller with her.
Daddy kept sneaking up on her and “scaring” her. He got some crazy pictures of a girl having lots of fun!
The weather is just beautiful these days– 70s and sunny during the days and 50s at night. Really nice. We did turn on the heat last night, finally. It’s going to be an expensive winter….