September School Work

Kennedy had to write a story about her summer vacation. I thought some of you might get a kick out of it:

My Summer Vacation

I had a great summer! I went to Theatre Camp, Deaf Camp, and I got a haircut.

I went to Theatre Camp to do singing, dancing, and acting. We are doing the play called Peter Pan. I am an actress now. It is at the Interaction Children's Theatre.

I went to Deaf Camp on August 3rd. It is in Fredericton. We played games, swimming, and crafts. I had fun at Deaf Camp!

I got a haircut at Wal-Mart. My hair got straightened. I got blonde hair. Marysa and Jenna came with me. I also got bangs. I love my haircut!

I had a wonderful summer! My best part was going to Theatre Camp, Deaf Camp, and my haircut. I hope I will be a good student in Grade five.

She also had to write sentences with conjunctions. For some reason, when she is told to write sentences, she independently does these long, rich, detailed sentences. When she is writing a story (as above), she uses more short, choppy sentences. That's something we need to work on but she'll get there. I had to have a good laugh at number 1. You can click the picture to make it bigger if you can't read it.

Pink Lady/Sleepover Madness

Well it's March Break Madness around here this week, where mom tries to get all of her school work done and the kids want to be run around here, there, and everywhere! Kennedy went for a sleepover at her friend Emma's house this past Tuesday night, where Emma's mom helped Kennedy get into the latest fashion trend with all the little girls around here: PINK HAIR. Yep, pink hair streaks in the front of the hair are all the rage lately, so of course Ms. Kennedy had to get in on it, too. I knew Emma's mom had the dye so I told her to go for it.
Here's some picture evidence:
Kennedy's Pink Hair - Side View



Front View:


Now she is dying for me to straighten it with a flat iron so she can see what it will look like straight. What a kid.

The one night sleepover at Emma's turned into two nights, as they live quite a way away from us and a nasty freezing rain storm took hold yesterday and we weren't able to go and get her. That meant a Wednesday night sleepover at OUR house with her other friend, Jenna, had to be postponed. Her mom & I decided on Friday night, which was okay because our dear friends Jeanie & MacKenzie from Nova Scotia had called on Wednesday morning to tell me that they weren't going to be able to make their previously scheduled trip this weekend.

Then, Jeanie called me on Wednesday night after I made the plans with Jenna's mom to tell me that they could in fact now make it and would be arriving the same time as Jenna on Friday night and staying until Monday. Soooooo, Friday night is going to be girls' night at my house with Jeanie, MacKenzie, Jenna, Kennedy, and myself. Graeme better run and hide from all those girls... (actually he is taking off to go four-wheeling with the boys on Saturday so he'll be able to escape for a little while at least!)

Oh yeah, did I mention my sister and her three kids are coming from Nova Scotia this weekend as well to visit and it's my sister's birthday and she wants us all to go out and celebrate??? I'll fit it all in somehow. I guess I better get off the computer and start studying for my two midterms next week, it doesn't look like I'm getting much studying done this weekend!

Pancakes, French Toast, and Toast with Crust!

All in the span of the past three days - Kennedy has eaten (and done very well!) with these three new foods. It's so exciting to see her eating different things and expanding her "gustatory horizons". This will make breakfast so much nicer for her; we can add lots of different fruit to the pancakes, she will get some egg/protein with her French toast and how about just regular ol' toast? She ate two pieces of regular toast today and her second piece with crust and all! Homemade apple and strawberry jelly from Nana B's farmstand on top, too.

Never a prouder mother was there today as I watched my blond curly-mopped angel scarf down that toast complete with crust. Oh and table syrup such as Aunt Jemima for the pancakes and French toast? Not a chance - she wants "this one, mama" - pointing and referring to pure maple syrup. A true Canadian kid...nothing but the best when it comes to maple syrup!

On another interesting food note, we are trying to move her to mashed foods for supper and some different things also for lunch. I had a meeting tonight so Daddy got her supper ready. Dad reports to me on the way home from my meeting that she did great with her mashed potatoes (a favourite of hers) and with the mashed carrots; however, when it came to the tuna steak Dad cooked for her and then just mashed up instead of pureeing it, Kennedy was not interested and had a good question for her father... "Dad, are you trying to choke me?"

I love this kid.

Today toast with crust, tomorrow the WORLD!
(or, maybe some ravioli)

Shortbread Cookies

I spent the day doing a lot of holiday baking - when Kennedy came home afterschool, she wanted to play outside in the snow for awhile. When she came in, she noticed the rolled out dough and shortbread cookies cooling on wire racks. She asked if she could have one and proceeded to gobble TWO down (with a bit of frosting on them). The next question was, "can I have that frosting in a bowl, mama?" - that's my girl, complete with sweet tooth! It was pretty special seeing her eat her very first holiday cookies! She was very concerned about which ones we should leave out for Santa. I told her we would save him a couple of the big ones. She is so excited and things are a lot of fun around here right about now.

22 More Sleeps!

The Holiday Madness has begun! Kennedy woke up Saturday morning bouncing off the walls to open her advent calendar. There's nothing like brightly coloured Santa & Reindeer waving in your face and the whiff of cheap chocolate to lull you not-so-gingerly out of your slumber. Seriously, though - the holidays are just too much fun when you are dealing with the energy dynamo that is my Kennedy. We put the decorations up this past Saturday & Sunday and though it's no winter wonderland by any means, Kennedy loves it all. She was just about busting with excitement as each of the large plastic totes were brought down from the attic by Daddy. It really is all about reliving things through your children's eyes. It's a lot of fun, even when I'm not 100% in the mood, with the impending doom of six cumulative exams hanging over my head.

This morning, another usual December tradition started...when Kennedy comes upstairs around 6:30am, ALL of the lights must be turned on: the little tree by the front door, the ceramic "North Pole" that sits on the coffee table, all of the little village houses on the mantle and even the candy canes and star in the big picture window. They stay on until Miss K is on her bus off to school. I don't know anyone who loves it all more than Kennedy, which always serves to get me in the mood, too.

Bounced Back and Singing On TV

Kennedy's surgery to close her button/stoma went very well. She was sore for a few days after (to be expected) but is doing great. Today was our city's annual "Empty Stocking Fund" - an all day televised type of fundraiser where local children/choirs go on and sing and people call in with pledges to provide holiday gifts for less fortunate families. It's now in its 71st year I believe. She had some tears prior to going on stage because Mommy forgot her lip gloss (bad mother, bad mother...). She did come around and sang well with her choir, though. Here is a photo taken after the performance:

The Insult Game

Strange title to a post, I know. Here's the thing, we have this whiteboard at the bottom of the stairs right near Kennedy's room. We leave a whiteboard marker attached to it all the time and I use it to write little notes to Kennedy. Well, sort of notes...I use it as sort of a silly insult board. There's nothing serious going on; it's just another way I get her reading longer, more complicated words. For example, I will write, "Kennedy is a spaghetti and meatball sandwich". She reads it, laughs her head off, erases it, runs upstairs and says, "I am not a spaghetti and meatball sandwich!!!" If I wait too long before the next "insult", she usually asks, "write another, mama?"

Today I went down, and to my surprise, Ms. Kennedy decided to get creatively involved in the game for the first time:
(I love the emphatic exclamation mark and BUTT in all caps)

Grade Three Portrait

As usual, the photographer taking Kennedy's school photos didn't take much time to get her to smile, her hair was messy by the time they got to her class, and the photos came back with a black spot right on her face. Needless to say, I didn't order them, nor did I send her back for re-takes. If they won't take their time the first time, they wouldn't the second time and I'm a firm believer in not partaking in activities which I believe are an exercise in futility.

I recently took a photo of Kennedy that I absolutely adored; however, we were outside in the evening at the campfire and she hadn't had her face washed in awhile, resulting in a dirty nose. Thanks to my handy dandy photo editor, I airbrushed the dirty nose and voila! the perfect grade three portrait (albeit at the end of the school year). I just ordered a bunch from Superstore and they turned out great.

Don't setlle for icky school pictures - you can take better pictures yourself!

Night Parties

Any of you fellow parents of a child with CHARGE, and most of you with children who do not have CHARGE, know what it's like to go without sleep. Sometimes, Kennedy wakes up at unbelievable hours and is clapping, singing, and just rarin' to go for the day; at 3 or 4 am, however, we are not. Even at 6 am some mornings (weekends, e.g.), it's just not happening. We decided on a new plan of attack this summer so we wouldn't be awake each day at the crack of dawn: a visual.

Kennedy is an excellent reader and LOVES signs, especially "rules signs" - she's the only kid I know who goes to the McDonald's Play Place to read the rules over and over and NOT get on the play equipment. She even likes to sit by them. There's just something she finds so appealing about those signs with a line through them representing "no smoking" or "no shoes" for example. If she isn't familiar with one, she has to know what it means.

Last night, she was up really late (and tonight again as well with the Canada Day fireworks), so I strung some tape across the top of the stairs with a note about when she could come up and get us. Tonight, when I was reminding her verbally and with sign, "don't come up until 8:30", she said, "I know, mama, we can put a string across the stairs with the sign again." Yep, she asked ME for a sign. What a girl!

So, Graeme and I made two loops in a string and put it across the top of the railing (which she can easily crawl under no problem) and put a sign on the middle telling her what time she can come up and to remember to close her door (that way, when she does want to get up and have a night party, put DVDs on, watch TV, play video games, etc...she doesn't wake up the whole house). She's very independent and doesn't get into anything, she just needs reminders when she wakes up and is super excited that everyone else doesn't wake up with quite the same "joie-de-vivre" as she does (to put it mildly). Here's our latest "Kennedy Visual" - the when-can-I-go-jump-on-mommy-and-daddy sign: