February 2017

I really am awful at keeping up with this thing. I am trying to be better at it. I made it a point in my bullet journal to post in this blog, as well as my dance blog, twice a week. Yeah. School started up for me almost a month ago and can you guess how long it's been since I opened my bullet journal? Yeah. A month. Ha.

Things have been crazy around here. We have all been sick. Again. Back in October, I got some sort of cold and lost my voice. In December, I got laryngitis. Not sick or anything, but I had nothing above a whisper (as far as voice goes) for TWO WEEKS. I'd never previously had laryngitis so it was interesting. Since I love to sing more than almost anything else, this really sucked. It took around a month to get my full voice back. Around 4-5 weeks ago, I caught another awful, worse cold of some sort. I'm finally over it but in the process, I apparently coughed so hard, I bruised a rib. This happened around a week and a half ago and it's one of the most painful things I've ever had to deal with. I'm a dancer and this has definitely affected my ability to dance or, you know, function as a human being. Sleep is rough. Breathing hurts. Forget about lifting anything (like a 40lb 5 year old...or my giant purse/bag).

So yeah, you can say 2017 has been rough so far. But it could be worse.

Ariel is doing very well in Kindergarten. And in general. Would I love it if she would eat a wider variety of foods like, you know, fruits and veggies, maybe even meats? Absolutely. Yes, please. But she's doing well in just about all other areas.

She is bursting through her word lists given to her by her teacher. It's so wonderful to experience someone learning to read. Frustrating at times too. But wonderful. She is being read to every night (at least at our house. Can't say I know for sure about her mom's house, but I hope so.) She got her most recent report card and a note on it said that the teacher would like the kids to start reading beginner level books to US now! She is doing mostly well with that but does get frustrated easily, though I suspect that is probably normal. "She has a ball. She plays with her ball e...e...ev...IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!" "Sound it out." " "Eh...v...eh...r...yuh...IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!" "Every." "...every day." That's pretty much a daily occurrence, but it's coming along. She has a problem with "y." She pronounces them as "yuh" instead of "EE" and as much as we correct it, this has been a thing for months now. I'm not sure how else to help with it. Maybe flash cards with only "Y" ending words? Hey, I might do that.

This has been the month of saying goodbye to baby teeth. On February 6, Ariel lost her first baby tooth! She lost it while at school and the next morning, woke up to $5! I also printed out a "First Lost Tooth" certificate that I found online and hung it above her head while she was sleeping. She was so excited! Then, February 27th, she lost her second baby tooth. So cute with the missing teeth!

Side note: I always thought they lost teeth around 7 years old, not 5 and a half. It's so soon! haha.

The other morning, I went to wake up Ariel and she was soooo tired that she actually fell asleep sitting up on the coffee table. We were about to get her dressed for school and she just checked out right there. Of course I had to take a picture. The second picture is when she realized what had happened. She found it just as funny as I did.

Zzzzz

Yesterday, Ariel's school had Dr Seuss Day. Her favorite Dr Seuss book is Daisy-Head Mayzie so her grandma made her the cutest costume ever. Major props for that! It turned out adorable.

How cute is that?

Well, that's about all there is here. I'll try to come back sooner. I really am loving this age.