Firsts

We've had a lot of firsts in our family the past two weeks. Of course, the biggest one was Adriana started kindergarten today. That really deserves its own post, but I'm going to lump it on the end of this one to make sure I actually blog about it in a timely manner. (OK, so I started this post in a timely manner, but here it is five days later and I still haven't finished. I'm determined to stay up and get this done!)

Last week was the first time I took a person's temperature and read a 106 on the thermometer. Adriana and Miriam both had a nasty virus last week. Miriam had it longer, but Adriana was sicker. When I took Adriana's temperature and it read 106, at first I was sure my thermometer was broken. I took her temperature three times to be sure, and mine to get a baseline, and it really was right around 105.8 degrees. Yikes! Afterward my sister-in-law informed me that brain damage doesn't occur until 107..... hmmm, that's comforting? I was glad that the first day of kindergarten got moved to this week. Adriana would have been devastated to miss her first week of school.

For the first time I collected 60 large and 98 cherry-sized tomatoes in one day from our garden. I love fresh tomatoes! This week's project is canning pears.

First time I've seen those numbers on a scale in over a year. Woohoo, only eight more pounds to go! I'm proud of where I am right now, with Darren only four months old. Especially when I consider that I gained more than 40 pounds with this pregnancy (20 of those in the first 18 weeks, when I was throwing up constantly and often couldn't keep down even water--yuck). It took me two years after Miriam was born to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm hoping to get there a lot sooner this time.

I don't know if this would be classified as a first, but last week Darren had his four month check-up. That boy is tall! At 26 inches, Darren is in the 90th percentile in height for boys his age. I guess it's not a mystery who gave him those tall genes and ginormous feet. So much for those cute dress shoes he was going to wear for Uncle Daniel's wedding that he has already outgrown (both of his sisters could still wear size 1 shoes at a year). Darren's height, like his daddy, is mostly in his torso, which would explain why he can wear some 12 month onesies already but wears 3-6 month pants. His weight was 13 lbs. 8 oz. (30th percentile), and head 42 cm. (50th percentile). This is my new favorite picture of Darren, that I took when we went berry picking a week ago.
Miriam had her three year well-child check-up the same day. Her weight was 27 lbs. 2 oz. (in the 15th percentile, but only 4 lbs. lighter than her big sister), height 37 1/2 inches (60th percentile), and head 48 cm. (40th percentile). We had Miriam's lingual frenulum clipped at this appointment. It was so short that she couldn't stick her tongue out of her mouth, and she couldn't even touch the tip of her tongue to the roof of her mouth. No wonder her articulation is atrocious. I've been putting peanut butter on the roof of her mouth to help her strengthen those tongue muscles she's never had to use before. It's surprising how much clearer her speech is after just one week. While I'm glad I probably won't have to bring her in for speech therapy this year, I confess that I'll miss some of her funny misarticulations.

Speaking of Miriam, her exciting first this past week was starting preschool! She loves having her own school and preschool friends and teachers and proudly showing us all of the fun things she makes each time. I'm doing a co-op again this year using the Mother Goose Time program. It was hard to get her to hold still long enough for me to take a picture, but here is Miriam excited to start her first day of preschool.
The biggest first, of course, was now we have a kindergartener! I'm almost embarrassed to admit that Adriana starting school involved a "first" for her that probably should have happened a long time ago. For the first time in her life, I took her to a store and had her try on new clothes to buy for the beginning of school. Up until now, all of her clothes have been given to us, presents from grandparents, or I've found a few at garage or estate sales. She didn't even know what a dressing room was, although she quickly warmed up to the idea of getting to pick out several of her "favorite" outfits. I think the shirt she picked out for her first day of school looks like something I would wear. Can you see a resemblance between us?
I actually handled dropping Adriana off at kindergarten better than I thought I would. Yes, I did say good-bye to her at least four times and I was teary as I walked home that first day, but it really wasn't too bad. Having Adriana do pre-kindergarten this summer helped me feel like we've been able to make this transition in small steps. Knowing how much she had loved pre-kindergarten, I wasn't worried that Adriana would enjoy kindergarten as well. In fact, her first words when I came to pick her up that first day were, "Kindergarten is so fun!" Here's are some more pictures of my proud grade schooler on her first day:

Outside Adriana's classroom door.



Ready to work.

Already made a new friend.
I thought they were adorable with both of their backpacks.
I think that's all for now. I am so relieved to finally be done with this post!