Selena Ballerina

Selena started a ballet class at the Y a month or so ago.  She is enjoying it a lot and practices her tendu, releve, plie and saute's often.  She loves the terminology and is constantly asking me what each move is called and then in class loudly and confidently answers the instructors questions. She also enjoys going to the child watch at the Y.  She always seems to meet a friend and play games.

Preschool is also going well.  She seems to be enjoying it more now, despite the waking up early, and seems to be making more friends.  The preschool planned a mother's day performance and it was very sweet.  The kids sang some songs and recited some poems.  We signed her up for an afternoon program next year, but apparently she is the only girl signed up so her teacher recommended switching to the morning.  When I asked her if she would mind being in a class with only boys, she got very upset, and said she likes girls better.  So I guess she'll be waking up early again next year.  Now the dilemma is whether we should send her three days a week or stay with two like we had planned.

Her math skills are developing.  She is constantly counting things and is starting to add and subtract.  She is also always asking, "Is 60 more than 80? Is 80 more than 60?  Is 10 more than 30?  Is 30 more than 40? etc, etc"  or "What is bigger a house or a tree?  What is smaller a car or a river?"  The size comparison questions are hard to answer.

We went to the fire station and got the girls new helmets that fit well and since then Selena has been riding her bike a lot.  She's getting really fast on it, but still has a bit of trouble when the pedals land in a certain way, especially if she is on an incline.  Then she needs a little push.

She grew an inch!  She is now 37 inches.  I was starting to worry a bit because she hadn't grown in quite a while and after mentioning it to a few people a week later my sister-in-law said she thought she looked taller. I took her home and measured her and she was!  So that has eased my mind a bit.  Food intolerances are seeming to be identified more frequently now, so I start wondering if maybe she has some, but then I'm pretty sure both Floyd and I were probably just as small as she is now, when we were that age.  However I do think her bowel movements aren't that healthy so I'm going to keep an eye on that a bit more carefully.

She has been going to sleep at night a bit easier, and on my sleep in days, and her sleep in days she has voluntarily chosen to fall asleep on her own.  So that has been fairly nice.

When we go out her behavior is usually fairly good, but at home we are having some problems with her just being plain mean.  Mostly to Allie but also to Floyd and I.  Her random self-talk always seems to veer off to, "Allie needs to go to jail.  I'm better than Allie.  Allie needs to go away.  Allie's rude. etc, etc."  And she'll also randomly kick, poke, hit me or Allie.  Sending her to her room temporarily helps, but it is constant throughout the day, really aggravating, and it upsets both me and Allie a lot.  It mostly happens when she gets bored.  I'm developing a strategy to work on this but I really need to just start implementing it.  But I'm really tired and worn out so I just keep hoping the weather will get nicer and I can just send her outside.

Random stuff

• When her and Allie play baby dolls she is always the dad.
• She was telling me that white, right (as in correct), and right (as in right vs left) all sound the same but mean different things.  So I tried to explain that white, was with a W and had a slightly different sound.  I went to write it down to show her, and realized that write also sounds the same as right, but has a W but does not make the W sound.  Poor kids, how are they supposed to figure all this out?
• She is always climbing.  She climbs really high.  It's pretty crazy.
• She ran a 1 mile kids race, while I was running a half.  Floyd ran with her and was encouraging her to pass people.  When she caught up to them she turns to Floyd and says loudly, "I passed him."  But she ran a 13:22 mile and got first place for girls four and under.  She was really excited for the race and all week was talking about how she needed to get her race shoes, and her watch, and her stretchy running clothes all ready.  I can't wait till she and Allie are a bit older and we can run together.
• I've been getting a few plant and animal identification books, and I was looking through them and she was kind of bored and asked me to read her my plant book.  I read her a fairly complicated passage about plants growing in the canopy of maple trees.  She seemed pretty bored so I stopped.  A few days later we were walking on a trail and I pointed out some ferns growing way up in the tree, and how that was kind of weird, and she looked at me and said, "Yeah mom, your book said that the moss made dirt up there, so plants could grow."
• Bob the Builder is out and Diego is her new favorite show
• She is very logical and always nay says my fantastical stories.  For instance I couldn't get a hold of my sister and I was getting worried.  I said, "Maybe auntie has been kidnapped by alien's and that is why she can't answer her phone."  Selena said, "She probably just left it at the gym and that is why she isn't answering."