Kasia's First Day of Pre-School

Kasia today went to her first day of pre-school. A little girl could not be more excited for a day to arrive, outside of Christmas that is. She has been looking forward to going to school since we first signed her up last spring. She was ready to go. She had her backpack all ready. She had all her school supplies ready to go. This girl was ready for school. That is, until we got to school.

Today has been a day of mixed emotions. First there was excitement (as seen in the picture above). Kasia was skipping all the way to the car as we were getting ready to go. Her friends were all going to be at her new school, and she was all ready to play. We got to the school and she was all excited. She hopped out of the car and ran up the stairs. Then suddenly, after we walked in, fear fell over her and she was no longer excited.
It's a little hard to tell from the picture (and I didn't want to take too many pictures of her not having fun), but Kasia was not feeling good about school. She was clinging to Mom and Dad with a death grip. In fact, at one time, she was holding on to me so hard she would have made an NFL coach proud. There were tears, lots of tears. She didn't want to take her backpack off. Her friends were there waiting to play, but she didn't care. We tried to calm her down and get her relaxed so she could have some fun, but it just wasn't happening. Then the teacher asked Kasia if she wanted to go see a puppy that they had in the next room. Kasia said yes, and away we went. Hopefully she'd have a better time when we were gone.

Apparently that worked. The teacher called us about five minutes later to say that Kasia was all smiles and playing great. I guess they went to see the puppy, and Kasia started talking about how she has a dog named Michelle. And then she kept on talking about dogs and puppies and what her dog likes to do. The teacher asked if she wanted to go play with her friends, and Kasia said yes and away she went. She never even asked where we went. She never noticed that Mom and Dad had left.
When I went to pick her up, Kasia was all smiles. I walked in the door, and she was bouncy and smiling. She came running over to me as happy as a clam and showed me all the wonderful crafts they had made that day. This was not the same little girl that I had dropped off just a few hours earlier. She was going on and on about about everything they did and how much fun it all was. She told me that she was extremely excited to go back to school tomorrow.

So while the day was a mixed bag of emotions, at least it ended with some happy ones. Kasia had fun and is looking forward to going back. We couldn't ask for anything more.

Two Peas in a Pod

When our neighbors across the street moved and rented out their house, I told them that the new occupants needed to have 1) a four year old child 2) preferably a girl and 3) a stay at home dad. Well, they tried their hardest, and they got two out of the three. A couple weeks ago, Kasia's newest friend moved in across the street, and the two have been inseparable ever since. Kasia's first thought in the morning is now what the fastest way is to get ready so that she can go out and play with Kalina.

The great thing is just how similar the two of them are. Their personalities compliment each other so well that they end up playing for hours and hours at a time without so much as a fuss. They love to play the same things. They get along great. It's awesome. And they both have a sixth sense about when the ice cream truck is coming through the neighborhood. The other day, they both came running through the house screaming "ICE CREAM MAN! THE ICE CREAM MAN IS COMING!!!" Kasia was tearing through drawers looking for money to buy some ice cream. I went outside with her and listened for that familiar music. All I heard was silence. Occasionally I could hear the faint sound of wind chimes from a neighbor's house, but nothing else. Then about thirty minutes later, sure enough, here comes the ice cream truck. I was floored. How did they do that? It reminded me of Radar from MASH. I'm not sure how these kids know, but they know.

Our Little Beach Bum

At the beginning of the summer, I was really looking forward to going to the beach with Kasia this year, because she is now finally old enough to really enjoy the beach. Now, while the crashing waves of the ocean are still a little too much for her, she is definitely enjoying playing in the sand a lot more than she was last year.

Earlier this month, we made a trip down to Salvo to visit Karlie, Bryan, and the girls again. We always have such a great time when we go down there that it's a shame we don't do it more often. Sadly, we haven't actually gone to the beach all that much this summer. But now that school is starting and the crowds down in the Outer Banks are thinning (and the water is warming up) we are probably going to head down a few more times in the up coming weeks. We were just down there this past weekend, and it was absolutely perfect. The weather was not too hot and the water was not too cold. Kara and Kasia walked the beach looking for seashells, and then Kasia and I built sand castles together (or rather, I built and Kasia stomped on).

Now we just need to teach Kasia to surf, and all will be good with the beach.

A Barbie Princess Party!

On August 14, Kasia went to a "Barbie Princess Birthday Party" for the birthday of a girl she knows from story time at the library. The girls were all decked out in various forms of princess costumes, and everyone had their Barbies for play time. Kasia was feeling a little shy though, and she had a hard time getting really comfortable around the other kids and having a good time. It's too bad, because as much as Kasia enjoys her "girl time," this party was all girl.

The most impressive thing in my opinion was the birthday cake (pictured above). This girl's mom baked a cake in the shape of Barbie's dress. She was up all night making the thing look perfect. That kind of made us feel bad because we just go to the grocery store and let Kasia pick out her own birthday cake. But since Kasia only eats the frosting off the cake, I don't see the point in putting that much effort in to a cake.