Summer Recap - Racing

The girls did quite a few races this year.  There was a 5k fundraiser for Selena's school in May.  Every year we do the Swedish SummerRun for Ovarian Cancer research and we did that again this year. Selena was running around 33 minutes for most of her 5k's.  Pretty fast!  Allie isn't quite up for running a 5k but she did do a combo of running and walking.

The girls did the Mill Creek Kids Fun Run.  Allie did both the 1 lap and the 1k.  She initially wanted to do the 1 lap, but then it didn't quite seem long enough so she did the 1k too.  The combo seemed a bit too long though.   Selena did the 2k and looked good.

Selena also got really excited about doing a triathalon.  She had just learned to swim so she was super excited to do the kids tri.  It was at McCollum park.  It was a 25 yard swim, 1/2 mile bike ride, and 1/8 mile run.  The swim was the biggest challenge.  She can swim, but isn't quite able to do a consistent crawl stroke. She can do a crawl stroke, and flip to her back, then flip to a crawl, etc.  The race day came and she had had a fever the night before so I wasn't sure if she should do it.  I was worried if she did, she might get really sick.  She decided to at least go and watch and if she felt okay then she would do it.  She ended up doing it, but decided to just stick with a straight back float for the swim and did great on the other two legs--and she rested the rest of the day, and didn't get really sick.

The girls also did a community run hosted by my cousin's high school cross country team.  Selena did the 5k and Allie did the 1k.  I wasn't there, but heard that they did good.

Unfortunately we didn't make it to any of the all-comers track meets this summer.  We will have to remember to fit that in next year.

Lost Her First Tooth

Selena lost her first tooth!  She is seven and has spent almost two full school years watching all her schoolmates lose teeth, but all her teeth were staying stubbornly in her mouth.  She had even sewn herself a tooth pillow all by herself in anticipation of the event.

She lost it while we were on vacation, staying at my friends house.  It was really loose and I asked if she wanted me to pull it.  I tried, but it was giving me the heeby jeebies so I set Floyd to the task.  He pulled it out, and stuck it in a plastic bag.

I decided I needed to wash it.  My friend stopped me and told me to go to the bathroom and plug the sink. While I headed to the bathroom she was telling us about how she lost her daughter's first tooth by trying to wash it and it went down the drain.  Of course while she is telling the story I am rinsing the tooth.  It slips from my hand.  I panic and attempt to turn off the water, and hit the handle that was clogging the drain, which opens the drain, and the tooth goes down the sink.  It was April 1st so Floyd was hoping me losing it was an April Fool's joke, sadly it was not.

Luckily Selena is handles disappointing situations extremely well and assured me that a nice note to the tooth fairy would be just as good as the actual tooth, and she was right. :)

She also lost her second tooth a few weeks later.  This time she pulled it out herself, and I was not allowed to touch it. It stayed in ziplock so it could be safely put under her pillow.

Broken Arm

Maybe it was inevitable with all the climbing Selena does, but it finally resulted in a broken bone.  Her and Allie were climbing on top of the dresser and jumping onto the bed.  Selena slipped and fell and hurt her arm. It was almost bed time and she was in pain, but there was no visible signs of injury so we went to bed.  

The next day I kept her home from school and was trying to decide if it was broken or not and I made her a homemade sling to keep it propped. I called the nurse line towards the end of the day and she said it was probably okay to monitor it for another day.  The problem is, we only have catastrophic health insurance so every doctor visit we pay out of pocket.  While we do get the insurance adjusted rates, they are still unreasonably high.  We really didn't want to pay $500 to be told it was a sprain and to ice and elevate.  

The next day she said it felt better so I sent her off to school in her homemade sling.  Oops, talk about bad parenting. :S  When she got home it was noticeably swollen so we took her to an urgent care clinic in which they x-rayed and confirmed that it was indeed broken.  They said it was a buckle fracture.  

She got a purple cast that she wore for 4 weeks, and she just got it off and so she seems to be good as new. Though she didn't really stop monkeying around.  I'd still catch her climbing on top of stuff and swinging from her one good arm. 

When my mom asked if she learned anything from the experience, she couldn't think of one thing.  When the nurse asked her how she broke it and Selena said she fell off her dresser.  

The nurse said, "Dresser?".

Allie piped up and said, "It is really fun to climb on top of the dresser and jump on to the bed."

The nurse said, "So you probably won't be doing that any more?"

They both looked at her like she was crazy, and did she not hear the part about it being really fun.  

So hopefully we won't have to deal with any more broken bones, now that we got this one out of the way.  

Summer Golfing

Floyd's not-so-secret plot is to get the girls into golfing so he can golf more.  It is possible to take them both to the driving range with just one parent, but it is easier if we all go as a family.  The fear of them walking into someone's back swing or swinging while their sibling is nearby is still a worry.

They both received golf clubs as birthday presents.  Selena got hers for her 5th birthday, Allie got her's for her 4th.  Selena was pressuring Allie to ask for one because Selena was tired of sharing.  Both were used sets found at Play It Again Sports.  Allie's bag happened to come with a golf glove, so of course Selena needed one as well and she had some leftover birthday gift money from Nana that she used to go and get one.

After having gone to the driving range a handful of times throughout the last couple years, we all went as a family out to Battle Creek Golf Course and played their par three course.  I was a bit worried if Allie would be able to make it through the whole course without getting tired but she loved it.  She pretty much ran the course: swing, hit, run.  By the last hole both her and Selena were hitting the ball a decent distance and Selena was starting to get the hang of pace on the putts.  Selena was getting 12's on some holes, but she said it was kind of hard to keep track.

New Skills!

Selena is already half way through kindergarten.  I love watching her learn and I love that she loves to learn.  From reading, to math, to drawing she enthusiastically embraces every subject.  Her new skills include:

- Reading!  I started writing this post a couple weeks ago, and just in two weeks she is reading so much more.  I am impatiently waiting, and hoping, for the day that my kids want to read, and we can all just sit around and read all day long. :)
- Counting to 100
- Counting by 10's
- Counting by 5's
- Telling time

For a while she has mentioned wanting to learn how to draw better.  I had got how-to-draw books from the library, but they were kind of frustrating for me because she needed me to show her every single line to draw.  She found it difficult to follow the instructions.  I found Mark Kistler's site and both her and Allie started doing some of the free videos and they were a hit.  The improvement in her drawing is really impressive.

She loves making books.  She is interested in self-publishing, but so far she hasn't had the discipline to create enough content for the 20 page minimum.   We checked out a book on how to make books, and most of the projects seem ambitious and a bit too difficult for a five or three year old to master by themselves, but we did discover the very clever X-book which both of them can make with little to no help.

She played some indoor soccer at the Y.  I liked it because it was games only, so it was easy on our schedule.  She is still doing gymnastics and is improving. :)

First Day of Kindergarten

Selena was anxiously awaiting the first day of kindergarten. A week or two before she was having a hard time going to sleep. She informed me that she was too excited, and going to kindergarten was like a dream come true.

While she was super excited I have been worrying that the school will not meet my high-minded ideals. I really struggle with the educational philosophy I have used over the past five years, compared to what the school does. My biggest worry, oddly enough, is the lack of recess and physical activity. Half day kindergartners do not have scheduled recess, and the rest of the school only has half an hour. I've been told by other parents, that the school tried to completely eliminate recess 3 years ago. They are not allowed to run on the playground. The minimal amount of active play, combined with the high stakes testing schools face, I am not convinced it is a psychologically healthy environment.

Contrary to all my worrying, I have been impressed with how efficient Selena's teacher is.  There are twenty-four kids in her class, but Selena has came home with all sorts of rhymes and facts, from how to put her backpack in the locker, to what compound words are, to the best way to place glue on pieces of paper.  She really enjoys it, and is absorbing a ton.

Other than school, the summer was busy. We did a few more track meets, and she learned how to pace herself. Her second race was a bit slower than her first, but her last race she ran negative splits and improved her time. I was impressed I have only ran a few races with negative splits, and never for a faster time.

Selena and Allie started a gymnastics class. We've had two so far, and Selena said that it was hard work. I have been impressed with her beam skills.

I have finally got Selena to sleep in her own bed. She is still in our room, but she has moved to a bed on the floor. The girls just keep on growing and we ran out of room for all of us to fit comfortably on the bed. The transition was pretty easy, which is surprising because a few months prior, she told me that she was going to sleep with me forever, even when she was a teenager, and even when she had her own baby they would have sleepovers every night. I guess she was joking. :)

We've been attempting to read some longer books over the past six months to a year. Some books she has liked but many we didn't finish. However in the last few months she has completely changed her mind on chapter books, and now she is begging for them. We started with the Secret Garden. I forget how it came up, but she was talking about a secret garden and I told her there was a book. She hounded me for a few weeks to get it, and finally I realized it was free on Project Gutenberg. I was pretty sure she wouldn't like it to do the antiquated language, but I was wrong. She really liked it and was asking for it every night. After we finished we checked out two movie versions and she watched those as well.

Next Floyd and I were talking and Floyd asked when I thought Selena would be old enough for Harry Potter. I said that it was something she would probably want to read on her own. The stories can be a bit scary so I figured it would be better to wait for a while. She overheard this conversation and became very enthused about reading it. We have now got through the first two and a half books in the last month. Both girls have been pretending to be wizards, casting spells, and plan to be Harry and Hedwig for Halloween. Allie doesn't seem to care for the books, and tends to wander away while reading, but even she has picked up quite a bit of the story.  I'm unsure how much of the series we should read, most people seem to recommend stopping at book three for a while. I've read the entire series twice, but can't really remember what happened in each book. I haven't seen most of the movies because I thought they were kind of scary and darker than I had imagined myself. I guess I'll probably have to do more research. :)

Preschool Graduation

Selena is done with preschool. The school had a small ceremony where they handed them a diploma and announced what they wanted to be when they grow up. Selena said she wanted to study bugs.  She has been mentioning she wants to be a poker player like her dad, but bugs ended up being cooler.  One day she says, "I don't have to decide right now.  I still have a lot of time."  However I can't get her to agree that being a computer programmer might be fun.

She had a friend at preschool named Jacob.  Apparently Jacob is really funny and does lots of silly things and tells silly jokes, like eyeball jokes which apparently everyone in my family, except for me, but including Floyd, think are hilarious.  I felt sad that she wouldn't see him anymore, unless he happens to go to the summer camp.  She just shrugged and didn't seem too upset.

We've been reading some bug books, and made an earth worm home. We found this really cool book called Bug Zoo at the library.  It has all sorts of interesting bug facts, and how to take care of bugs you find.  Did you know that aphids can be born pregnant?

Floyd also took the girls to Willis Tucker and caught a tadpole.  Selena named him Party, because he stays real still and then swims out like he is saying, "Surprise" at a surprise party.

Took her to well child checkup and she is still very small, no rise in growth curves. She is in the second percentile height.  39 inches and 34lbs.  She tricked me one day by standing on her toes.  I thought she grew an inch, but then when I measured her a week later she shrunk again.  Apparently I shrunk too.  I always thought I was 5' 1", but apparently I am 5' even.

I begrudgingly vaccinate the girls, and usually do just one shot at a time, but she needed just two more for school, so we did them at once.  She was really tough and was almost about to cry, but was able to hold back the tears.  We did one shot a few weeks before and it wasn't a problem, so I definitely think doing just one at a time is better.

We took the girls to the Shoreline All-Comers Track meet a few weeks ago.  Selena ran the 50m, 100m, 200m and mile.  The 50m took her about 15 seconds, 30 seconds for the 100m, and 66 seconds for the 200m.  In the mile she took out a bit fast and pushed herself hard and improved her time by just over two minutes and ran 11:00.  She was so tired when she finished that she just lay down across the finish line.  I had to carry her off the track.  I was impressed, and kind of shocked at how hard she pushed herself.

We have been watching the Olympic Trials and she has enjoyed watching all the events.  She was impressed with the fact that I had done so many of the events in high school and college, and she wants to run and jump and do all the events just like her mom. Awww.  However it did make me feel old when I told her, "When I was in high school women just started doing the pole vault."  And, "I was the first woman at my college to run the 3000m steeple chase."  I had become the granny saying, "Back in my day..."

Selena has also been interested in math lately.  She was telling me to quiz her on addition and subtraction.  Then she asked me if there was any math with letters.  I started explaining Algebra to her.  She said she didn't understand it completely, but she thought it was hilarious that x would pretend to be different numbers. I also downloaded a Math Bingo app onto my Nook.  She could do the easy setting for addition and subtraction but she wanted to try the multiplication.  I didn't think she could do it, but she insisted, and she could!  I was amazed. She understood the concepts of multiplication.  She was counting out groups of numbers on her fingers.  She also understood the commutative property and how she could switch the order and it was the same.  Then she taught Allie the identity property of addition.

She also has been teaching herself piano, to read music, or more accurately the keyboard.  We went to the library to find books on learning how to play the piano and read music.  Unfortunately they don't really have anything good.  We did find a little tin whistle book that had all the letters labeled on the music, so she has been playing that and practicing the rhythms.

I love how she loves to learn.  I love how she embraces new subjects all the time.  I love how she demonstrates that self-directed learning works.

Also I have been practicing a pretty effective discipline technique.  I have the girls run to the end of the cul-de-sac.  If they are being grumpy and annoying everyone, or whining, or hitting.  I tell them that they are having a hard time controlling themselves and if they run they will feel better.  And it works!  Most of the time they come back inside and can handle themselves.  But sometimes it is a struggle getting them in their shoes and out the door.

*Picture was taken courtesy of Amy Stonebraker from Amy Stonebraker Photography.  Check her out!

Surprise Selena is Five!

Selena had her fifth birthday almost two months ago.  We threw her a surprise party.  She knew she was having a party, but she didn't know when or where.  She helped pick out the decorations and make a pinata (boy was that an ordeal) but she didn't know when or where the party was.  The day after her birthday I claimed that I was going out to meet with some friends and Floyd said that he was taking the girls to Costco.  Then he said I called and I locked my keys in my car and they needed to stop at Nana and Papa's to give me my keys.  Obviously our stories didn't match up too well.  I hadn't said I was going to Nana and Papa's, but Selena didn't notice.  Floyd brought Selena and Allie in, and Nana told her that she had a birthday present for her downstairs.  When she came down we were all hiding behind a corner and we jumped out and yelled, "Surprise."  She was very surprised.  For a moment it looked like we scared her and she was going to cry.  But she was able to take a deep breath and control herself.  Then she had a lot of fun.

It has been wonderful because lately she has been really helpful cleaning up and organizing around the house.  Sometimes she can even convince Allie to help.  It is wonderful because her helping is real help, not I'm pretending to help, but really just making it worse.  She sweeps, picks up, unloads the dishwasher.  It is wonderful!

She isn't really into anything at the moment.  She spends a lot of time coloring, drawing, writing, and playing pretend.  Her and Allie are dogs, cats, bad guys, good guys, etc, etc.  They play well together as long as Allie does what Selena says.

She's getting pretty good at writing.  She can spell Selena, Allie, Nana, Papa, dog, and probably a few other words without any help.  Her vocabulary is expanding too.  She sprinkles words like randomly, assume, and stressed in her speech.

Eating is still a struggle.  Supplementing with zinc has greatly improved her eating, but she has lost the positive attitude about trying new things.  She still prefers to eat only her favorites.  So we've been having lots of arguments about food, and it is annoying.  At least now I can get her to eat a few bites, whereas before she wouldn't even be in the same room.  However I had fallen into the habit of giving the vitamin to her right before bed, and the last couple days I have given it to her in the morning and she has been better, so maybe that helps?  I'll have to continue to do so and see if I notice a difference.

Sleeping has been better too.  She is in bed and asleep before 10 most nights.  Still pretty late, but compared to 10:30 and 11 I'll take it.  When it is 9:30 I'm thrilled.  I've been occasionally giving her a small amount of melatonin (maybe .2 mg) when we're spending the night somewhere, or when she has a few nights in a row of having a hard time going to sleep and staying up too late.

The real bummer around here has been Selena's teeth.  She was brushing them one night and she said something was stuck in her tooth.  I tried to help her get it out, but it wouldn't come out.  I had the horrible realization that it wasn't something stuck, but a very large hole in her tooth.  I took the girls to the dentist and she had 10 cavities and needed two crowns.  I was crushed and felt horribly guilty.  I haven't been the most diligent role model of oral hygiene.  I never had a cavity till I was 25, so I didn't really I believe that that sort of decay could happen so quickly.  To add insult to injury we don't have dental insurance, so it was about $2000 worth of dental bills.  Normally I would have gotten a second opinion, but the dentist came highly referred by multiple mommy friends, one of whom is a former hygienist.  Selena is super tough and the office has been really great at making her feel comfortable, so overall I don't think it has been traumatizing at all.  Her and the neighbor boy were comparing their metal teeth so I guess it is all good.   In order to feel less guilty I'm blaming the zinc on the tooth decay as well.  It seems that tooth decay can be a symptom of deficiency.

Tying Her Shoe

Selena has been up to quite a bit.  Her latest accomplishment is learning to tie her shoe.  She keeps asking to knit a pair of socks.  She's tried some knitting and crocheting, but just doesn't quite have the dexterity yet, so I told her she should learn to tie her shoe first.  She had tried tackling it a few times before and didn't have success, but this time she went and got some instruction from her dad and got really close.  Then she came to me and I suggested that she make smaller loops at the start, and then she did it!  She is super proud and now only wants to wear shoes with ties.

She's also getting better with her reading and writing.  We checked out the Cat the Cat series by Mo Willems and she thinks the books are hilarious and likes them because she can read them.  The words are in a large type-face, which I think really helps beginning readers.  The text is repetitive so there is some memorization going on.  But she loves that she can read Allie books at bed time.  She also can write her own name, Allie's name, and she sounds out some words and gets phonetic spellings of some words.  She did correctly spell nana and papa the other day.

Selena loves making things, especially for other people.  She is always full of ideas for projects and is always wanting to make presents for her schoolmates and classmates.  Her birthday is coming up and she is really excited to make a pinata.   Her drawing is amazing.  She drew a picture of Curious George the other day that was really good.

I switched her car seat from rear facing to forward facing and she has been super excited about that.  She is always telling Allie about all the things she can see.  Allie was a little bummed at first about not being able to do the same, but now seems to enjoy the narrative.

One day we were driving and she was trying to play a game with Allie where she said something and Allie would say the opposite.  But Allie wasn't playing along and she was getting really mad.  We told her that Allie wasn't playing because she didn't know what opposite meant.  Then she proceeded to teach Allie what opposite means--then she asks Allie, "What is the opposite of tree?"  Poor Allie.

She doesn't like princesses.  She gets upset because a girl at school always makes her play princesses.  She says she runs away from her so she won't make her play.  I said she should ask her to play something else.  Selena claims she forgets.  In California she played a lot with a little girl across the street.  One day they played dress up.  Selena said it was a lot of fun until she had to put on the big poofy dress (she was dressed as a pirate before that.)  I wasn't ever a fan of princesses or Barbie's either so I remember what it was like.

She did say she liked playing horses with the girl at school.  I asked her how they play horses.  Selena says, "I am the horse and she rides on me."  Then she is silent for a little bit and says, "We only play that when the teacher can't see us."  I ask her if they are allowed to play horses and she says, "I don't know, the teacher never said, but I'm not sure..."

Child With a Sensitive Sense of Smell

Extreme sensitivity to smells may be caused by a zinc deficiency.

I cursorily Googled child with a sensitive smell a while ago and did not come up with anything meaningful.  Selena's sense of smell was highly sensitive.  Almost all food smelled bad to her.  Bananas were the worst.  Every time Allie wanted to eat a banana she would freak out and run away (which of course Allie thought was hilarious and would proceed to chase her), but lots of other food caused problems as well.  She would frequently eat a different dinner at a different table than us.  Sometimes I would think she was overreacting and making it up, but she would smell stuff from another room, while not being able to see the food, that led me to believe she was not, so I tried to accommodate her.  Sometimes I wondered if something was wrong with her, but doctor Google didn't come up with anything, and I had forgot to mention it at her last doctor appointment.

Then I happened to come across a book called What's Eating Your Child?: The Hidden Connection Between Food and Childhood Ailments recommended via a blog I read.  (There is a new edition of the book coming out on April 23, 2013 renamed  Cure Your Child With Food.)  I had been looking for a book that might explain the prevalence of food intolerance's that seems to be going on. The title mentions picky eating as well, and I thought that might have some useful ideas, but honestly I didn't think it would say more than, "Make your child eat more variety."  Boy was I wrong!  This book goes into picky eating and identifies CAUSES for the picky eating.  If you fix the cause then the pickiness is easier to abate.

She tells you to not skip ahead to the chapters relevant to your child, and I tried not to, but she kept referring to chapter seven and I couldn't help myself (though I did go back and read the book in it's entirety).  Chapter seven is called "The Case of the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow" and is about ZINC DEFICIENCY.

The symptoms she notes are:

• Fifth percentile or lower for weight or height?  Selena is currently in the third.
• Growth trend going down?  For Selena she went from about 10th percentile to roughly 5th, gradually from age zero to two, so it wasn't a dramatic drop, but she was also born 3 weeks early and started off fairly short.
• Does your child rarely seem to be hungry?  Selena is hungry often, but hardly eats much.  A couple bites often fill her up.
• Is your child a picky eater? Yes!!
• Does your child complain frequently that foods smell or taste funny?  Yes, yes, yes!!
• Does your underweight child get full after a few bites (not counting dessert)?  How did you know?
• Has a bone-age test found that your small child's bone age is close to her chronological age?  Have not had this test done.

At this point I felt like I was really onto something.  Selena is very short (or little as she prefers to be called), and sometimes I worried about it, but at the same time I was always THE smallest kid compared to my peers, and Floyd was the same way.  Someone has to be at the bottom of the charts, and I figured that me and my progeny were destined to be the ones  (excepting Allie who is about 50th percentile for height.). Yet sometimes I would wonder if she was still even smaller than either my husband or I at that age.

The book mentions a solution you can take to test for zinc deficiency.  Apparently there are solutions you can get that taste like water if you are deficient and taste awful if you are not.  I was on vacation and couldn't order it, but I was pretty sure this is what was going on anyway, so I immediately went to the store and got a supplement.  She recommends 20mg for younger children 30mg for older ones.  (Note:  The multi-vitamin I have tried giving her, but which she wouldn't eat because it smelled and tasted funny, only had 2mg).  I could only find 15mg or 30mg so I went with 15mg.  Unfortunately it came in a capsule and has to swallow it, but so far she's managed.  *Update: Here is a 23mg chewable zinc lozenge that is similar to the one we use now. 

I told Selena that the vitamin should help her sense of smell so that food wouldn't smell bad, and that she wouldn't have to run away from Allie's bananas.  I also told her it would help her taste buds and make other food taste better.  She was as excited as I was. In four days we started noticing a difference.  Allie was eating a banana and Selena had preemptively plugged her nose.  I asked her to unplug it and just see if the vitamin was working yet.  She was so surprised, she couldn't smell the banana!  A few seconds later she is asking if she could try eating the banana.  I handed the rest of Allie's uneaten banana to her nonchalantly, internally my jaw hitting the floor, and she scarfs down the whole thing, AND asks for more!  Amazing.

Since then life has been so much easier.  When we go out, she doesn't refuse every available food item, which usually left us with nothing at least somewhat nutritious to feed her.  We have seen the following positive changes:

• She now eats and requests meat.  Before I could cajole her to eat a bit of chicken or a bite of homemade teriyaki beef maybe once every two months.  Now she requests it.  She chose to eat chicken strips over macaroni and cheese when were out for dinner!  I jokingly asked her if we should have chicken or steak for dinner and she said, "Both, that would be so yummy."  My eyes almost popped out of my head, and of course we did have both.  When we were eating the chicken, she complained about it being messy.  Normally this would have ended the meal right then.  This time, however, I wiped off the messiness and she ate it.
• She now will eat the multi-vitamins I had tried giving her before and is also taking spoonfuls of fish oil mixed with smoothie.  She says that it tastes bad, but she just grimaces and deals with it, instead of freaking out.
• I haven't heard one peep out of her about our food smelling bad.  She can sit near us while we are eating something she doesn't like and it doesn't bother her.
• She doesn't seem to have as much of an issue with different foods touching each other.
• Usually if a food didn't look "perfect" she wouldn't eat it. Any variance in color, texture, or seasoning would cause her to refuse the meal.  Now she will comment on it, perhaps out of habit, but she still eats it.
• I'm not positive, but it seems that her appetite is a bit larger and she is eating a bit more at each sitting.  Hopefully this continues.

I honestly did not expect to see such a vast improvement so quickly.  I love stories about how a change in diet can prove dramatic results, and this is an excellent example.  (When I stopped eating cereal was another.)   I am optimistic, and so is she, that she will continue to try and find new foods that she likes.  It will be interesting to see if her growth accelerates and she climbs the percentiles as far as height.

I highly, highly recommend this book (I have not been sponsored in this recommendation in any way though the links are Amazon affiliate links and I will get a small portion of the sale).  There is a wealth of information I have never heard of including how how to combat ear infections, ADHD, stomach aches, delays in speech, among other things.  If your child is a picky eater, this book may help point to a cause of the picky eating, because she notes other causes besides zinc deficiency.   I just wish she had an adult version of this book that had solutions to acne, headaches/migranes, etc.

Reindeer Are Not Filled With Hot Air

Fall has come and winter is almost here, and thus it is cold, windy and dark much of the time.  We're getting outside less than I'd like, but we've got a good routine of all of us going to the Y.  Both girls enjoy going in the child watch and so it works out for all of us.

Selena is always planning and plotting and implementing projects.  She writes songs, stories, and letters.  Paints pictures and coloring pages.  She designs new fashions and has me implement--lots of dinosaur applique.  But she has been doing a bit of sewing herself.  She has a good handle on the pedal while I help guide the fabric.  She is even able to stop sewing right when the needle is up.  I can't do that.

Christmas is coming up and we're working on delayed gratification by having her create her Christmas list.  A few months ago she was grilling me on the realities of Santa and his reindeer.  "How do they fly?  They don't have wings."  "Hot air baloons don't have wings," I reply.  "They are not filled with hot air."  Hmmm.  The last I heard she decided Santa was a real man who gave presents, but he didn't really arrive on reindeer.  But now that the magic of the season is here, she is very involved in the story and hasn't asked any questions, reindeer or otherwise.  She is ready to leave the reindeer two carrots on Christmas Eve, just as Santa requested when she talked to him at the Santa Brunch.

Selena's been more into games.  She invents her own games, making the game pieces out of paper.  But we've also played some checkers, chess and poker as well.  It is fun to see her start to develop some strategy.  She made up a game of colors the other day.  It is like rock-paper-scissors, but you use colors instead.  She had all the rules worked out so each color beat another color.  She didn't quite understand the simultaneous of rock-paper-scissors however.  In her game each person stated a color, of course whoever was last won.

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It's fun to read good stories to her.  When she hears a joke or story she likes.  Her eyes light up and she gets all giggly. Per the recommendation of a friend we checked out a bunch of Chris Van Allsburg books. Her eyes really lit up at the end of The Sweetest Fig.

We experimented with dairy free for a week to try to resolve some issues that are a little too-much-information.  But she really missed her macaroni and cheese and there was no immediate noticeable difference so the experiment was abandoned after only a week and a half.  I did try a vegan macaroni and cheese that was very tasty, though not really like mac and cheese, and very authentic looking.  Selena was so excited about the thought of it, but when it was served she refused to take even one bite.  She said she could taste it through her sense of smell and it did not taste good. :S

Selena as Galileo

Lots has been going on since the last time I posted.  Preschool has started.  She is going in the afternoons three days a week.  Going in the afternoons has been much better.  She likes it and seems to be more involved and aware of what is going on.  She is coaching Allie about manners and things.  She'll tell Allie, "At school we do it like this, so we should do it like that at home."  She doesn't remember many of the kids names, but hopefully that will come.

We also did a session of outdoor soccer through the Y.  Her Papa kept wanting her to sign up, but I told him I wouldn't sign her up till she was begging.  Well she started begging.  The team was co-ed 3 and 4 year-olds with a 45 minute practice and a 36 minute game for 6 weeks.  She was definitely into it, but did get pushed around some by the boys.  One practice she said, "Soccer sure is fun, except for the boys."  There were three girls on her team and they would frequently run off the field and sit and watch.  Selena seemed to want to play, but wanted to be with her friends more.  The first few practices and games she got pretty tired.  She said soccer was harder than it looked, but she would tell herself that she was tough and to keep going.  By the end of the season she didn't get tired and it was hard for her to come off the field, she was always on the verge of tears.  She scored a goal in the last game of the season.  She also had one game at goalie that I was very impressed with.  She knew where the goal box was and would come out of the box to block a kick, and use her hands inside the box.  There were other times when all the girls decided to sit in the goal, then they got distracted and didn't really stop anything. She was torn between signing up for indoor soccer or swimming, but she decided to do swimming lessons next.

We went to the Puyallup fair, as is our tradition, and she got to do Mutton Bustin after two years of waiting.  When she was two, she was too young.  Last year they said she was too small and pulled her off the sheep before it ran out the gate.  This year she got to do it.  She didn't stay on long, but she popped right up and ran out of the arena.  Her face was covered in dirt.  She said it wasn't what she expected because she expected to hold on longer.

She is still very much into dinosaurs and has seen almost every single Land Before Time movie and TV show.

Being a DIY'er has been backfiring on me.  Selena thinks that I should be able to make every single thing.  For instance she wanted to fly somewhere, and I said it was expensive, so she said we should build our own plane. Cute, until she starts throwing a tantrum because I won't.  So then she decides we should make a boat instead, a real one, that really floats.  And another tantrum.  She has grand plans for me to make her a long-neck costume for Halloween.  I don't know how that is going to work.

She definitely has a creative spirit.  She is constantly drawing, and making books, and cutting out cardboard to make things.  Often she recruits me to help her.  For instance I should color her picture because it is getting a bit boring for her.

Other anecdotes:
- I took her out kayaking to assuage her boat building desires.  She said it wasn't as exciting as it looked.  She also was very scared of the seaweed.
- One day we were driving to visit my brother and family and Selena tells Allie, "Allie did you know that the sun doesn't go around the Earth, the Earth goes around the sun."  Allie says, "No way."  Selena says, "Yes it does.  It really, really does."  Allie says, "You're kooky."  I have no idea where Allie came up with the word kooky, but I felt like they were recreating the debate between Galileo and the Church.

Selena's Riding on Two Wheels.

The big news around here is that Selena is riding her bicycle without training wheels.  I'm not exactly sure what inspired her.  Our bicycle trip in Idaho, or the neighbor boy across the street talking about learning, but she asked me to take off her training wheels.  We practiced a few times at the school in the play-shed and in the cul-de-sac.  The neighborhood kids tried to help and pushed her around, after about 5 or 6 sessions her dad helped her and off she went.  It was amazing how fast she improved.  Her braking ability was pretty much non-existent the first two days, but now she is a pro.  Immediately she had to take her bike off road to see if it was a dirt bike or a mountain bike, and sure enough it was.  She is now a speed demon and dare devil.  Working on going up and down bumps, riding without feet and has even attempted eyes closed and with one hand (not at the same time, and I asked to not do those tricks).

As well as cycling she's been running a lot.  We did an all-comers track-meet and she ran the 50m, 100m, 200m and mile.  She was a bit upset after the sprints because she didn't win, but when she heard there was a mile she was pumped.  She ran a 12:50.  We also did a kids fun run a few days ago and she ran the 2k.  It was a real cross country course and I didn't get to run it with her, but she said that lots of people cheered for her and her and another kid were going back and forth and passing each other but he ended up passing her right before the finish.

She's really into dinosaurs and has been making some wonderful dinosaur books.  She draws a different dinosaur on every page and then traces out a cover and back cover on cardboard and has us cut it out, hole punch it, and tie it with string.  Very professional.  She also comes up with wonderful hypothesis on why the dinosaurs became extinct.  Her latest is that they evolved into dogs.

Some recent Selena quotes include:

• "I make a lot of accidents sometimes.  I'm making some messes."
• One day she decided she wanted to make some camping food.  She mixed marshmellow, graham cracker, cheddar cheese, cumin and salt.  I ask her, "How's your camping food?" She replies, "I'm feeding it straight to Allie."  I say, "Have you tried it yet" She says, "No."
• "I'm going to be a dinosaur hunter and a shoemaker when I grow up.  I'll make shoes that look like dinosaurs and give them to all the dinosaur hunters."
• One day I hear her explaining to Allie why people's hair looks darker when its wet.  She says, "Because the government said so."  Then asks me, "What is the government anyway?  Is it twinkling stars?"
• "You sure do need a haircut dad."  Floyd says, "Why is that?"  Selena replies, "Well your hair sure is getting long for a short haired boy."

If there is a rock, and there is no sign, I need to climb it.

"If there is a rock, and there is no sign, I need to climb it," was Selena's quote the other day.  Rocks, trees, and everything else are fair game.  She is definitely getting in touch with her inner primate.  She is also doing great at the monkey bars.  Last summer she was really close and could do them alone sometimes, but now she can do them pretty consistently.  The other day she had impressed a group of pre-teens and they were cheering her on.

Preschool has ended and it has been wonderful.  She has been sleeping in till 9-10am and she is a lot nicer person.  There are far fewer outbursts of name-calling and mean behavior.  Now we just need to break Allie of the habits Selena taught her.  Her preschool teacher also called and said another little girl signed up for afternoon preschool next year, so we're planning on the afternoon again! :)  At the graduation ceremony she said she wanted to be a builder when she grows up. 

The ballet session ended and she has decided that she wants to sign up for soccer now but I think we are putting Papa in charge of that.
  
She's into dinosaurs right now and has watched many of the Land Before Time videos.  The problem is those movies are scary and sometimes sad.  At one point we were discussing what happened to the dinosaurs and I was explaining that many scientists think a meteor killed all the dinosaurs, but she got a bit confused and a couple days later she said, "I think a meat eater (meteor) like T-Rex ate all the dinosaurs and then he died and so they were all gone."  

We've been meeting more of the neighborhood kids and I enjoy it so much when they are all running around the cul-de-sac playing with the older kids accommodating the younger ones.  I just hope we get more opportunities as the summer goes on.

She's already starting to feel bad about her height.  The other day she sadly says to me, "I'm the smallest four year old I know."  I told her that she probably would always be the smallest of her age and that both her dad and I were always the smallest, but that sometimes being smaller is better because you are faster and can climb trees better.  She's also deduced from her dinosaur movies that if you are smaller you have to be smarter. I feel for her.  I spent most of my life wishing I was taller.

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."