Well, our little girl is now 4 years old.  I’ve had a few people ask me if she’s going to preschool, or 4K.  Shane and I talked about it, and are of the opinion that we’d rather send her to a Waldorf or possibly a Montessori school rather than standard public school.  When we knew we were moving to the Hudson area, I immediately started looking to see what would be available in our new area.

Unfortunately the nearest Waldorf schools where in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and other cities across the river from Hudson.  Then I looked at the Montessori schools, there is one in River Falls, but it’s a private school (as are the ones in Minnesota) rather than charter schools.  What’s the difference?  Well the private schools are quite expensive and charter schools are actually public schools and paid for by taxes which mean they don’t require extra tuition costs.

Shane and I talked about the tuition costs for the Montessori school in River Falls, and while it probably isn’t out of line, it is more than we felt we could afford.  It also meant that we’d have to drive her to her school every day, a bit more than we wanted to take on.  Instead we decided that for this year, we are going to find activities for Allyssa and I’ll work on teaching or homeschooling her this year.  We’re also looking to homeschooling groups and such in the area as addition places Allyssa can make friends.

So last night we were looking over the Woodbury Parks and Rec booklet, and decided to sign Allyssa up for their Wish Upon a Ballet and Fascinating Fitness programs.  ”Wish Upon a Ballet is a dance program for children that incorporates popular children’s stores as well as ballet stores to create a dance class that is more than ballet steps.  Using musical instruments, parachutes and scarves we will create a complete fairy tale experience while we skip, leap, jump and spin.  Children will learn an appreciation of dance and music while developing strength and flexibility.”  The class is 45 minutes in length.

The booklet also talks about Fascinating Fitness and says, “This class will be packed with high energy warm ups, games and fitness routines.  We will not only get our bodies moving but learn about healthy eating and exercise.  there is no doubt that being healthy starts when you are young.  Help your children be fascinated about fitness today so that they can be fascinated about fitness for life!”  This class is 30 minutes in length.

Part of the reason we decided to go with both of these is that they are one after the other in the same location which is only a couple of miles from home.  There is a 15 minute break between the two so plenty of time for Allyssa to have some water and a quick healthy snack if she wishes.  But not so long as need us to find other things to do between them.

Another part of our activities has been going to Storytime at Hudson Library every Thursday.  This has worked fairly well.  We drive in with Shane in the morning, spend time at the library as well as other places in Hudson, and then do our grocery shopping before coming home.

Allyssa had her 3 year check up last week, and her doctor said she is doing good.  She is about 52% for her height and her weight was at the 25 or 26%.  So she is growing steadily and is just a tall lean girl.  There was an entire questionnaire for me to fill out so they could determine if her development is on schedule and apparently it is.  One of the questions as whether or not she speaks in 3-4 word sentences and then they wanted examples.  Naturally I can’t think of examples off the top of my head so I went with what Allyssa says while we where there,  which included:  “Can I have Thomas and Percy back now, please?”  She had taken her Thomas and Percy engines in, and I was carrying them for her at the time.

We have been working on potty training, but for a while it was tough going.  So bad that one day she had been sitting on her potty for over an hour  with no success, and less than 5 minutes after getting up off it, she had an “accident”.  Needless to say, I wasn’t so thrilled with all of this.  It felt as if she was being deliberately obstinate.  We had tried telling her that if she went an entire day without any accidents we’d buy her some more big girl panties and/or go to the “indoor park”. Then suddenly last Thursday she just decided that it was time apparently.  She had no accidents on Thursday at all.  Shane and I were both incredibly proud of her.

On Friday, we had a long day planned.  Shane was autocrating the May Day Pie Snit aka Pie Snit III, in Taylor, WI on Saturday.  We had some shopping and two people to pick up that day before heading up to Taylor.  Since it was easier to spend the night on site than go up on Friday to clean it and back early Saturday for the event.  One of the things we did was purchase Allyssa some more big girl panties, while we were taking care of our other errands.  And while we had long periods of time while driving and doing other things where a bathroom wasn’t available, she did extremely well on Friday as well.  No accidents at all!  Another proud day for Shane and I.

With the event on Saturday, Shane and I were busy.  While I was needed indoors, Allyssa kept wanting to go on the play equipment there.  Luckily for her, there was a girl at the event who agreed to play outside with her.  On the flip side, because Shane and I were so busy it was hard for us to reminder her to go to the bathroom.  In fact at one time, when I went out to reminder her to try, she had just had an accident.  Later, she was coming to get me, didn’t quite get to mom in time.  Therefore another accident.  But I really couldn’t blame her, she was in the early stages of training, and did need reminding.  She also tried to tell me, but wasn’t quite quick enough.   But today has been good.

Well, May Day Pie Snit was a really small event.  We had thought we would have more attendance then we did since the Queen was there, but at the last minute a number of practices and moots and turned up in the areas where we would normally draw our attendance from.  Even though it was small event, I believe it was enjoyed by all who attended.

Growing up in a house with two geeks for parents, it comes as no surprise that that Allyssa is going to be one as well. When I walked out of the bedroom/office for lunch today, this is what I saw, and I just had to snap a picture of it. She is just sooooo cute!

So, what was she doing? Filling up the screen with the letters a and z, and of course screwing up the windows so Laura had to move them back where she liked. Yes, this is Laura’s computer, because my brand new Dell has a bad hard drive. You can read more about that and my fun with Dell Tech support on my GrandSlambert blog.

So, while we are on the subject of Allyssa, perhaps an update is in order. As you know she is 2 years and 2 months old now. She is still on the petite side but that it is OK, she is cute. She is also very smart and can recognize most numbers and quite a few letters. Her speech is still a little hard to understand, but she can say a lot of words now. Of course, I love it when she says “I love you”, even if only mommy and daddy understand what she is saying.

Yes, she is two, and believe me she is really going through the terrible twos something fierce. She is very demanding and wants to watch Thomas the Tank Engine all day long. When she does not get to, she throws a screaming fit that you would not believe. We are still trying to figure out how to deal with that, but we know that it is a phase, and we will get through it.

Usually offering to take her to the pool stops the tantrum, but we cannot always do that. She really enjoys going to the pool and has become quite the water baby. Though the pool we have here is not the best, it is large enough that we can enjoy it, and if we go during the day when most people are at work we have it all to ourselves. Unfortunately, during the day it is in direct sun, so we try to go later in the afternoon when the pool is in the shade.

I think we might be spoiled living where we are. Wood burning fireplace, private fenced in back yard, pool and walking distance to just about everything we need. I would have been a fool to leave, and I am so glad we are staying. I just wish we had more room here but it works for now. OK, back to school for me. I just started my second block of classes and have a lot of work to do.

Allyssa’s 9 month check up was today and it went well. She is 17 lbs exactly and 29 inches long. Her weight puts her at the 18% and but her height puts her at the 91%. She’s just long and lean. She is healthy and has good color so the doctor didn’t she needed to have an anemia test. The doctor also agrees with us that she will be walking soon.