On or Off

Most babies have several kinds of cries that vary in intensity from fussy-whiny to an all out howl. Isa is unlike most babies in this respect. She is a baby of extremes. Instead of starting to fuss a bit when she's upset or hungry or otherwise needs some kind of attention she goes from perfectly content and happy one second to screaming her head off with no warning. Then after you give her her binky or pick her up or give her a mouthful of cereal she'll instantly switch back to happy Gerber baby. It's amazing to watch her moods change so completely within the span of .05 seconds.


"Grande es mucho"

Abigail loves school. I'm not sure how much she understands while she's there, but that doesn't stop her from loving it. She goes for three hours every morning. Yesterday afternoon I overheard her singing to herself, "Grande... grande es mucho," ("Big... big is a lot") over and over. Must be from some song they're practicing. Pretty soon her Spanish will be better than ours!

Milestone

So... I'm sitting at home praying that Abigail is having a great time playing with the other children, is not freaked out, and hasn't wet her pants. It's the first day of school. Hopefully it's worse for me than it is for her.

She has been so excited lately about school even though until today she has no concept of what that entails. Up until this morning, all she knew of school was the green door that we pass by almost daily in the old city saying, "Look! There's your school where you'll get to play with Madeline and speak Spanish! Yea!" And she gets excited because we're excited.

This morning we ate A-for-Abigail pancakes and rushed around so that the whole family could go to drop her off. (Poor Isa didn't even get breakfast until after we'd dropped Abigail off and were recuperating in the café. I keep telling myself that the routine will evolve and I'll get better.)

She's in a class of 2-year-olds and seems to be one of the older ones. That's good, I tell myself. She was not intimidated at all by Sor Isabel, the elderly nun in black robes, who is her teacher. We turned in her school books, hung up her "pack-pack" as Abigail affectionately calls it, and put on her pink mandilon. (A mandilon is a smock thing that all pre-schoolers wear to protect their clothes and also serves as a uniform - pink for girls and blue for boys.)

Then we turned to the miniature toddler sized table and occupied her with a toy. We gave kisses and said that we'd be back later. For a moment I caught a look of confusion in her eye
and then Sor Isabel distracted her with the toy again. Abigail smiled and we headed out the door.

Three hours later, which is in about 46 minutes I return to pick her up and see how her first day of classes went. I'm still praying that she's having fun, not wetting her pants and starting to understand maybe some Spanish even on her first day. Well, I'm off to go see...

...And we're back. All is well.

I arrived at San Pelayo anxious to see how it went for her. There were a few parents at the entrance who had already picked up their children. I went in and down the long corridor to the stairs leading up to the classrooms. I picked Isa up out of her stroller and headed up the stairs. I was greeted by the director as I entered the classroom area. She assured me that Abigail did just fine. I nod and scurry down the hall toward her classroom.

Abigail hardly notices me as I come in the room - she's that engrossed in what she's playing with. Her teacher then tells me that Abigail did just fine except she escaped into the hall a couple of times to play in the playhouse in the hallway. I start to take off Abigail's mandilon and tell her that it's time to go home. This is when the first tears of the morning start. I promise that we'll return on Monday and she calms down a little.

We walk out with Scott and Shelley and their daughter Madeline and we take pictures of the girls in their mandilones outside the school. Abigail was exhausted when we got home, so she had a quick lunch and is now napping. We did it!

Abigail with Madeiline in their mandilones on their first day of school

Walking home from school

Eeeeeeeew!

Eeeeeeeeew!

The other day, as we were putting the girls in the strollers to head home, Abigail looked up at me and holding out her hand, said to me, "Mama, you take my booger."
Gross.

Leaving on an airplane

My mom left for the states today. This morning Abigail informed me that, "I get on the airplane with Abuela and go to America."

What a memory

Abigail has an amazing memory. Last night as we were getting ready for bed she related to me, "We get on the train and go to the beach and get in the water and make sand castles and Heather and Zach and the water is cold and the BEACH!" We went to the beach with them about three weeks ago, and she's still reliving the memory.