Start of the 2010 Soccer Season

 Stella's 2010 soccer season started today with her first practice of the season.  She has 2 more practices and after that, real games begin.  Her team's name this year is The United.  Stella  got a #5 jersey which she wanted because she is 5 years old =:).  She was a little disappointed in the color of her team's jersey...gray and black.  She was hoping for pink or purple.  Oh well, better luck next year.

Stella goofin' around before the practice began.

Stella's got her game face on!

Here's Stella relaxing with Des during one of her breaks =:)

New Car Seat for Des

The new booster seat we ordered for Des finally came in today, and Dada installed it in the car as soon as he got home.  Here he is modeling his new big boy booster seat and getting some loving from his big sister.

Pretty soon, Stella will move her booster seat to the third row of the car in order to make room for the infant car seat, which will go in Stella's current spot.

Just for fun, I wanted to post this picture of Des when he first moved out of his infant car seat to the convertible car seat he has been riding in from Jun of 2008 till  yesterday.  What a baby face!  Oh, how I miss those cheeks!!!

Picking Stella up From School

I picked Stella up from school today by car.  The car riders all sit outside along the side of the school on the sidewalk by grade while the cars line up one behind the other to pick up the kids.  She was sitting with her friend Dally and Ashton.  When she saw me and my car, she was so excited and told Dally "Look, that's my mom, that's my mom!", pointing excitedly at my car.  It was so sweet and cute.  It won't be long before she will be embarrassed to see her mom at school =;)  Until then, I am relishing it.

My Little Desmo Bear

As much as I miss Stella, I have been having lots of fun with my little guy at home.  Since Stella isn't home, there aren't any constant fights and arguments over toys.  This makes for a very peaceful feeling at home and a very loving and sweet little boy.  It's just so fun to hang out with him, to listen to him talk, to hear his stories, and play with him all while kissing and hugging him as much as I can.  Since he is the second child, I never had as much one-on-one time with him like I did with Stella and it's nice to have that now.

The other day, after we finished breakfast, Des came up to me and said, "Mama, do you want to love on the couch?"  In Desmond's lexicon, "to love" means to snuggle and kiss and hug.  And that's just what we did.

Then, later on while we were drawing, the following conversation took place between the two of us:

Des:  Mama, I can easily write the letter H.  (And he writes the letter H on paper.)
Me:  That's awesome buddy!
Des:  Mama, I can easily write the letter L. (And he writes the letter L on paper.)
Me:  Good job bud bud!
(Then he writes the letter H again and turns the paper 90 degrees and says...)
Des:  Mama I can easily write the letter I.

No one has taught him how to do this, but he just figured it out all by himself that the letters "H" and "I" look similar to each other when rotated 90 degrees!

A few days later, when Des and I were driving home, he says the following to me:  "Mama, there is a number 9 on our house (9 is part of our house number).  If you turn 9 upside down, it looks like a 6!"  Again, no one taught him this.  I am very impressed by his street smarts, his practical sense of knowledge, and his ability to quickly pick up on things just from observation alone. 

That's my little Desmo Bear and I love him so very much!

Stella's 2nd Day of School

Today was Stella's second day of school and again, she had a fabulous day at school.  Here is a shot of her in the garage prior to leaving in the morning for school.

Dada drove her to school in the morning and Stella rode the bus back home.  She got off at the right bus stop, just like yesterday, and when I asked her how she knew where to get off, she really didn't have an answer for me.  Prior to school starting, we had coached Stella about where to get off by showing her her bus stop, the address of her bus stop, and by telling her, do not get off at any bus stop until she sees her Mama waiting for her.  In addition, on the first day of school, Dada wrote down Stella's bus stop address on the back of her hand, in case she forgot.

When she got off at the bus stop today,  I saw an older blond haired girl hanging out of the bus window waving and yelling "Bye Stella, Bye Stella".  When I asked Stella about who that was, Stella replies: "That's my friend Echo!"  I am assuming Echo is a fifth grader because of how old she looked and the fact that Stella's elementary school goes up to 5th grade.  The more I asked Stella about Echo, the more information I gathered about Stella's experience on the bus.

In summary, the following is what I gathered from asking Stella tons of questions:  On her first day of school (yesterday), Stella was sitting on the bus by herself and almost fell of her seat when the bus turned and that startled her and she started crying.  Yesterday, she had told me that she almost fell off her seat and that made her nervous, so I told her to sit all the way back in her seat.  So today she tells me: "Mama, I sat all the way back in the bus seat today like you told me to and I didn't cry at all."  I had no idea that she cried yesterday until today. Hearing that just broke my heart.

So Echo noticed Stella crying and asked Stella to come sit with her.  Echo consoled Stella and told her that it was ok, asked for her name, and asked her where her bus stop was and so Stella showed her the bus stop address that Dada had written on the back of her hand. Echo told her when her bus stop came up and told Stella where to get off both yesterday and today.  So if it wasn't for Echo, I have no idea what Stella would have done.

So Stella is not getting off because she sees me waiting at the bus stop.  She said that when she sits all the way back in her seat, she can't see the window to look out to see me.  And if Echo hadn't told her, she wouldn't have known where her bus stop was.  Nor does the bus driver announce each bus stop, which would help Stella because she has her bus stop address memorized.  Apparently, when it comes to riding the bus, they have absolutely no system in place to ensure that kids are getting off at the right bus stops.  It's absolutely ridiculous!!!!

During the kindergarten orientation, I found out about the systems they have in place for walkers, car riders, and bus riders from the elementary school side.  And since everything seemed so orderly and systematic, we didn't inquire about what happens once the child leaves school and gets on a school bus.  We just assumed that this too was all figured out since it is not the first year that they are using school bus transportation.  But after Stella's first day of riding the bus and she couldn't tell me how she knew where to get off, something wasn't sitting right with me and so I called the school bus transportation office to inquire more about the systems in place, only to find out that there is absolutely no system.  When I asked whether the bus driver announces each bus stop, the woman tells me: "Oh, no, there are far too many bus stops for the driver to announce.  It will take him about a week or more to learn each child's name and know where he/she is supposed to get off."  And when I said, "Then, I have no idea how my daughter knew to get off at the right spot", her response to me was "Well, you have a very smart child."  How is that an answer?!?!?!?  It is not an answer!!!  Again, it is absolutely ridiculous that they have no system in place to figure out where each child is supposed to get off, when I can think of several simple ways to do this off the top of my head.

So needless to say, from now on, I am going to be picking Stella up from school because she is too little ride the bus and there is no one to help her but a kind 5th grader who can be absent from school on any particular day.  I am very thankful that a sweet girl named Echo was kind enough to take Stella under her wing the first two days she did ride the bus.

Stella's First Day of Kindergarten

My baby, my firstborn, started kindergarten today and she absolutely LOVED it...and we knew that she would. In the morning, we all drove Stella to the school.  In the future, Dada will be driving her to school because the bus comes too early...pick up is at 6:42 am for a school that starts at 8 am!  

Unfortunately, we didn't take that many pictures because we were too busy videotaping Stella's first day of school.

Here is Stella showing off her Hello Kitty lunch bag in front of the entrance to her school.  She didn't have her backpack with her in the morning b/c her parents dropped the ball and forgot to pick it up the night before from the monogramming store.  Luckily, Stella coped with not having her backpack on her first day of school.

Here is my baby girl and I posing together just before we went inside the school.

Once we went inside her classroom, Stella quickly found her table and started playing with the Play-Doh her teacher had set out for her while I chatted with her teacher and the teacher's aide.

She had no tears or trepidation about us leaving, gave us all goodbye hugs, and was all set to go.  So I held back my tears and put on a brave face as I hugged my baby girl goodbye.

Later on in the morning, Dada went back to school to bring Stella her backpack and at that time, Stella was having lunch in the cafeteria.  So Dada went in to see her and took this iPhone picture.  Stella is at the far end of the table.

She told Dada that she is having a good day so far and even made a friend named Dally.  In fact, when she got home, she told me a lot of things about Dally like:  "Dally had more animal crackers (the snack I sent along for her) than me; Dally's having her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese;  I want to have my birthday party at Chuck e. Cheese".  It was so cute to hear all about her day and her friend.

In the  afternoon, Stella rode the bus back (which I was and am still nervous about).  But she got off at the right bus stop and I was very happy to have my little girl back home safely.

Des and I waited for Stella for about 20 minutes at the bus stop before the bus arrived (due to the fact that we got there 10 minutes early and the bus was about 10 minutes late)!  And it was very, very hot while we were waiting and poor little Des got very tired of waiting in the hot sun with no shade around.

Here are some pics of Stella immediately after she got off the bus.  Notice that she now has her backpack =:)

Of course, brother and sister were happy to see each other again!

And with that, another major milestone in Stella's life has come and gone!

Stella's Kindergarten Orientation

Stella starts school this Thursday on Aug 19th.  Monday, they had an orientation at the school for parents only and so, I went while Dada stayed home with the kids.  I got to meet Stella's kindergarten teacher (who I loved right away) and visit her classroom.
Well today, they had an orientation for the parents and kids so that the kids could meet their teachers and see their classrooms, etc. Stella was very excited about the event since she has been really, really excited about starting kindergarten.  Once again, I forgot the camera, so I had to rely on Dada's iPhone for pictures. 

Here she is visiting her classroom.

Here is Stella posing next to her designated coat hook (#22) with her name tag above it.

Stella did meet her teacher, Mrs. Miller, but I forgot to take a picture of Stella meeting with her.  You can see Stella's second missing tooth in the picture below, and since she had just lost her tooth last night, she wasted no time telling Mrs. Miller all about it.  At least she feels comfortable with her new teacher =;)

Stella Loses Her 2nd Tooth

Stella lost her 2nd tooth tonight.  Her tooth was so loose and in fact, her permanent tooth had already broken through the skin.  Yikes!  So we knew that  it was time to get this loose tooth out, but she was not too keen on wiggling it to get it out.  She was in fact scared of loosing the tooth and would cry about it anytime we mentioned to her that it was time to get her second tooth out.   So tonight, while getting ready for bed, Dada said that he just wanted to look at and he easily pulled her loose tooth out.

New House, New Sleeping Arrangements

Before we moved, we had decided that once we were in our new place, Stella and Des would share a room together.  We didn't know how it was going to work out, but figured it was the best time to transition into this new arrangement.  This was a big change for Des since not only was he gaining a roommate, but he was moving out of his crib into a toddler bed.  Well it's been a week and the new sleeping arrangement is working out just fine.  Des loves sleeping in his "big boy" bed as opposed to the crib and loves having a roommate.  My baby boy is growing up.  I guess he has to in order to make way for the new baby on the way! 

The picture above was taken on Dada's iphone...i still have to take a picture of the two of them with our regular camera or better yet, I should secretly videotape the two of them because, once the lights are out and we leave the room, we hear lots of chatter and giggling coming from their room.  It is so sweet and cute to listen to!!!!