Valentine's Party

We went to music class today and Lily did really well. When asked what a certain scale was Lily said, “pentachordal scale.” We have been practicing saying that at home, but I was still impressed. We also did patterns: star, moon, sun and then gave each picture a letter. Lily was very good at knowing what would come next in the pattern and when we went last time, two weeks ago, the teacher (Ms. Kim) told them that the star was “A” and the moon was “B.” When she asked this week Lily remembered and was able to figure out that the sun would be “C.” She loves sitting right next to Ms. Kim during the story time and had a fun time today. But the best part is that she got a big Valentine heart cookie after class and that made her very happy. 

At preschool they had their Valentines Party. Lily was so excited to give her cards away and we even had a photo of herself that she gave, which she was happy about. She carefully put each Valentines in her classmates bags and when she came home she was thrilled that all her friends gave her Valentines in her bag. She had to know who gave each card and which candy they gave. Jeff went to the Valentine’s Tea Party, which I was very grateful for because it meant I didn’t have to wake Ryan up and drop him off at a friends. 

Here is Jeff's account:

Lily’s school hosted a Valentine’s gathering today at her school, and she was able to invite one guest. I did not anticipate going, but learned that she repeatedly asked her mother if I could come. It being a work day, I was unsure of my schedule, but it opened up. When I relayed this to Tiffany, and she told Lily, there was an excited voice in the background. Tiffany said she had been praying for me to go.

The event was very cute. We were all sitting at tables as the children walked in. 

Lily was looking around for a familiar face. I yelled a whisper of her name in her direction, and she turned and caught my eye. She waved, and then stopped, and then started walking towards me. The kids behind her were a bit confused, and initially stumbled into one another before stopping. As she changed course, the child immediately behind her must have thought, “I’m not going to get out of line,” and he turned course after Lily. Pretty soon, the entire line was coming towards my table, until the teachers headed them off and pointed them back in the right direction. Other kids decided it was a good idea to walk towards their parents too. I think Lily started a bad trend, but I’ll take the blame for that one.

 Next, the kids recited a scripture, then a poem, and then sang two songs. I stood up to film the endeavor. Lily gave a funny, focused, serious face during the numbers and seemed somewhat distracted with the entire affair. But she did great and was excited. I recorded the event.

After, Lily said to me, “Dad, you do not leave your seat to watch me, okay?” This would have been a great time to tell her to keep in a strait line, but I accepted her correction.

Lily brought me a red carnation, and sat down next to me. She was kind of shy at first, but was happy to be there. We ate some treats and then had our picture taken by the photographer. I had brought a camera as well and took a very nice selfie of the two of us.

I then handed Lily the camera and told her to take some pictures of her friends. So Lily went to each table, and took pictures of all of her classmates. And they turned out pretty nice. She knew all of their names. The kids were very willing and the parents were smiling at Lily’s efforts, saying, “She’s going to be a photographer when she grows up.”

Amari

Hayes

Nolan

Lena

Torie

Zander

Maddie

Lexi

Porter

Liam and Ms. Marissa

Sophia

Lexi

Daddy

We finished by climbing up the little rock wall together, which caused a bit of trouble again, as very quickly, every child was trying to climb up the fake rocks. All in all, I think we had a good time. And I hope she appreciated it ;)

Ryan was just as excited about Lily's valentine treats as she was.

Ryan gets an energy when Jeff comes home. He is always beyond excited to see him. When we went downstairs he was jumping with so much enthusiasm in the bouncer, what a great workout! And then Jeff put up a curtain in Ryan’s room (we’re hoping that might help with the cold) and Ryan took the extra rods and was using them like a light saber and then hiding under the curtains (along with Lily). He has so much energy and everything is done with an exclamation mark. He jumps off the couch or ottoman into my arms, whether I’m ready or not and just wants to do everything. This morning Lily mentioned she wanted to ballet dance. I worked on getting her dressed and noticed Ryan had left the room. I went out to find he had put on her tap shoe, he knew she’d be tapping for us. And when we emptied the dishwasher together he likes to put the silverware in the drawer and even knew where the cutting board went.

Lily put on her mermaid outfit tonight and I heard her talking about Prince Eric sporadically. Then she sang Rapunzel’s healing song and was in her own world. It’s so fun to see her using her imagination and to hear what she comes up with. She loves the doctor kit I got her and when Winnie the Pooh was sick she hugged him to try and comfort him and wanted me to give comforting words when she had to give him his shot. It was very sweet.