Parent/Teacher Conference

Last week, I had my first Parent/Teacher Conference with Ms. Aurora for Keira's preschool. There were lots of things that we discussed. Since Keira is still fairly new to being in a preschool, she rated 'satisfactory' for most topics. She still has alot to learn with most of it being adjustments to being in a more structured environment throughout the day. There are definitely some 'areas of improvement' that we spent most of the time discussing. We'll be working on Keira's issue with controlling her body. What does that mean? She can't keep still!!! They have circle time in the morning for about 15 minutes and Keira is completely antsy by the time around 10 minutes rolls around. She starts fidgeting, tapping her legs, getting up on her knees, getting up and running around. UGH... Other issues that she has are all related to the problem with her staying still and being so antsy, I think those will resolve once we are able to get a handle on the antsy-ness. How DO you work on that with a 3 year old? Any help and tips are appreciated!!!

On the other hand, she got rave reviews for being so advanced with her letter recognition and pronunciation. She knows all of her letters and can pronounce the sounds that each of them make, so she is just steps away from reading..which is wonderful. Alot of that, I credit to the Letter Factory DVDs that belonged to Max. Gigi gave me them when Keira was still little and it really helps with recognizing sounds that the letters make. Gigi swears by it for helping Max to read as well as he does. I highly recommend it for any parents with little ones to get them geared up for reading.

Wish us luck and like I said, any tips on how to work with kids that are antsy is greatly appreciated! :)

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Sorry that I haven't posted for a while. Things have been so hectic lately with my work schedule, with Keira' schedule etc. She is growing like a weed and has unfortunately been getting lots of time in the corner lately for her sassy attitude that she has picked up along the way with her terrible 3s. Yes, 3s can be terrible too LOL. Dan and I are very strict with her because she is very well aware of the fact that she is so darned cute and already knows how to work it to her advantage...complete with the posing and ' I know I'm adorable' looks...so from here on out until she is 30 NO ONE is allowed to call her cute anymore otherwise, she may BE in the corner until she is 30. LOL just kidding...

All in all though, in general, she really is a very well behaved little one knowing consistently to say please and thank you. She's a social butterfly that will wave and say hi to people until they can't help but smile and say hi back. She only does this though when Mommy and Daddy are right there and she is holding our hands knowing that we're right there with her. Daycare has been great for her, but her confidence has really blossomed since going to pre-school. She used to just play all by herself or wanted Dan and I to be the ones to play with her even when other children were around. Now, she makes friends everywhere she goes....


It really is something seeing our little girl growing up!

Chris Fisher- 3 Year Anniversary

We love and miss you Chris!

3 Year Old Check up

It has been so long since I've blogged! We've been so busy and so much has gone on, it's been so hard to get here. Keira is now in pre-school and having a great time. She is meeting lots of new friends and is as fun and active as ever! I took her to her 3 year old check up and she is doing great! She is 95% percentile for height (yes, she's a tall one) and is in the 50% percentile for weight! When we first brought her home, she was about 5% and was barely eating anything, now she eats everything in sight since she's just so active. She is still wearing size 3 clothes but they are starting to flood a little on her heightwise.

She loves watching "The Letter Factory" leapfrog DVD's that Kuya Max gave her. She is really understanding the pronunciations of the letters and is trying to read words by sounding out the letters. Dan has made her a bunch of templates that she likes using to trace out the Capital and lower case letters of the Alphabet. She LOVES to have story time and have us read to her. She loves trying to read to baby and her dolls. If I didn't know better, I would SWEAR that she really was reading Cat in the Hat since she knows all of the words just about! She loves trying to help me cook, help make Daddy coffee and loves to climb all of the fun things at the park that they built close to our house. She's talking up a storm and singing and dancing all the time. She is even practicing MC'ing where she stands in front of Dan and I and starts announcing the next show (it's pretty funny since she also makes sure we clap and respond appropriately LOL She's so bossy!) She loves playing with Amelia and giving her dog treats although I have to watch and make sure that she doesn't give her the whole thing. It's not like Amelia would tell me!

She is such a whirlwind and it's so fun to watch all of the changes happening in her world- I feel so blessed to get to be part of it. She's growing up so fast!

2 Year Anniversary!

On this day 2 years ago, we met our crazy little girl for the first time. Things are so different than on that day. Things were so new for her and she was very scared...believe me...Dan and I were just as scared as she was! I was so worried about whether I was doing the right thing taking her from the only family that she had known up until that point in her young life...worried about whether I would be a good mother...

My how time flies! Here we are...2 years later. I'm still far from being a perfect mother, but who is??? She is in pre-school now and talking up a storm! She loves to run, play, pretend to dance ballet and sing songs from Phantom of the Opera. She knows her name is Keira Jade Curry and she is from China. Daddy and Mommy got on a big plane to bring Keira home from China to be our baby...one day I will explain more of it to her when she is ready...

2 years ago today was the happiest day of my life...when we became a family.

Van Gogh Curry

Keira has been doing alot of drawing lately. They all kind of look like this... at least she didn't draw poop today! :)

Update- If you look closely at the picture...I think she DID draw poop! What is with this crazy girl's obsession??? LOL

Pre-School and Panda Bears

Dan and I have been checking out a few pre-schools to have Keira go to for a few months now. The price ranges for some changed significantly depending on whether your child is potty trained or not. Keira was potty trained but was still having some accidents when taking a nap. She sometimes takes a nap for an hour..other times, she'll be down for almost 3-4 hours! I would think this would be an issue if she wasn't sleeping at night, but on those days, she still would sleep through the night! She's now been potty trained completely through the day including her naps for a few months now so I thought she might be ready until she started having a few accidents here and there. We held off on pre-school until we were SURE that there wouldn't be anymore accidents and she is doing great again.

Dan and I went to check out a really great pre-school yesterday. It was decorated nicely and spotless which is always nice to see. I guess I feel that a clean place that doesn't look run down shows that the teachers and staff care more about things than just collecting a paycheck. I really liked the philosophies and their curriculum. While in the waiting area for the tour, they had a little table with paper for children that were waiting to draw and color. Keira LOVES to color and it amazes me that she completely stays within the lines when she does. Is that normal for a 3 year old? She will sit there for a very long time being very careful about it and granted, Daisy Duck will be purple, it's still so neat and precise! LOL Well, yesterday was the first time that I have actually seen her DRAW something... not color someting, but DRAW it. She always asks Dan and I to draw things for her, but this was the first time I ever saw her actually do it! "Mommy! Mommy! Look! A panda bear!" There it was! Keira's version of a panda bear. It looked very much like that weird Quizno's singing rat thing (see picture above), but it was her panda bear and I loved it! "Mommy look! Panda bear poo poo!" Sure enough, she had taken a brown crayon and drawn something that was supposed to resemble...well, you get the picture. I laughed and told her how wonderful her drawing was. She started on her next masterpiece. "Mommy...look! A doggie!" Wow! Another cute drawing...which also remarkably resembled the Quizno's rat (am I sensing a theme here?) "Mommy look! Doggie poo poo!" What on earth??? I told her that was nice, but she should let them go poo poo in private. I could hear laughter in the other room before a couple of ladies came out laughing telling me how little ones always seem to get in that stage where it just fascinates them to no end! Later on that day, she proceeded to draw several other animals doing their business for me. I know that I'm not supposed to encourage that, but I just couldn't help but laugh a few times! LOL

I think we're going to fill out the paperwork to register her tomorrow. I am going to have Keira go to be in a learning environment for 3 days a weekdays. 1 day will be with me and I still want her to stay with her current daycare 1 day a week. I want her to be able to have a day of just play play play and I also didn't want to take her away from friends and what she has known as routine with her regular daycare out of the blue. I figured it might just be too much for her. I'm really excited and think this will be a wonderful thing for her! Maybe they will teach her to draw something else...LOL

The Dentist

I finally got everything straightened out with my dental insurance and was able to bring Keira for her first trip to the Dentist. Since most people have a fear of the dentist, I just wasn't sure what to expect! She is a pretty brave little girl so I was hoping it wouldn't be too traumatic and I started preparing her a few days before explaining that she was going to the Dentist and little things about the procedures so that she wouldn't be caught off guard. I would ask her, "Keira, where are you going tomorrow?" She would tell me "I go Dentist, then open mouth look at teeth..then sticker!!!" She got the basics LOL

This was her playing in the waiting area. So far so good! She was laughing and playing with the toys and having a great time telling me about the pictures of the fish on the walls.

They called us in and she sat in the chair waiting to have her xrays done. I stood by telling her to go AAAAHHHHH and she did a great job. She got all of her xrays done without a problem.
After that, they moved her over to the chairs where she could have her teeth cleaned. They had pictures all over the ceilings for her to look at as well as Kung Fu Panda playing. Jack Black kind of drowned out the sound of one of the kids in a back room screaming bloody murder. YIKES! He obviously wasn't just getting a cleaning or a regular check up...at least I HOPE he wasn't!

Here she was being a good little helper. The paste was in a ring that Keira got to wear on her finger to hand to the lady cleaning her teeth. I didn't know how she would handled the tube that sucks the stuff out of your mouth. The look on her face was priceless...but after the initial weirdness, she didn't mind it.

Here she is! Stickers in hand and new toothbrush! She has healthy teeth and gums and did a great job!