September and October

Wow, I've really been lagging on these posts. Now I have to try to go back over the last two months!

Most of September passed without much excitement. Brigid goes to school, comes home, does homework.... Tuesdays we go to the library after school. She's allowed to check out ten books, and she does, every week! In her class, the kids have "Read Aloud Charts" that we fill out at home. Every ten books we read (which really means I read to her), she gets a little round sticker on the paper gumball machine with her name on it on the wall of the classroom. We are on the 9th week of school (as of time I am writing this) and Brigid has 12 stickers. We seem to have slowed down a bit, because she had 10 after 5 weeks! There are some kids with no stickers yet! Breaks my heart! Anyway, school is going okay. I'm not a fan of the curriculum, and she doesn't seem to be challenged enough. But she likes it. I guess that counts for something. They are working on word recognition now.

Okay, a few main highlights- September 19, in the morning, Brigid finally got the free uniforms. We went to Mum's house in the afternoon, along with most of the family. Mum was so excited. She decorated the little area under the tree in the back yard to be Brigid and Kiran's restaurant. The kids had a blast serving drinks and snacks to everyone, all for a quarter each. We even had them serving beer from a mini keg. It was so funny! Mum is paranoid about me putting that online, afraid of getting busted! It was a really good day. It's fun to hang out with everyone. Cam, Brigid and I spent the night so that Cameron could install can lights in the living room for Mum. Old house, old wiring, plaster ceilings. Not as easy of a job as he thought it would be. We ended up going back again the next weekend. Mum was thrilled to have Brigid spend the night two weeks in a row.

Next came October, and Brigid's birthday. We bought "Llama Llama Misses Momma" for her class present. On Friday the 2nd, they celebrated her birthday at school. Five kids stand around her as candles while the rets of the class sings Happy Birthday. Then she got to "blow" out the candles, and the kids all fell down. It was adorable! All day, she got to wear a birthday crown and sit on a special mat.

Saturday was her actual birthday. She opened presents from us and that had being mailed to her in the morning. We had the party at 2pm. I was really nervous because I had invited both families, and all her friends. That's a lot of people to have in a house with only one bathroom! But the weather was perfect, and everyone had a great time. At first, I couldn't get Brigid to join the party, don't know why. But after a little while, the kids were all running around playing. It was a great party!

On Wednesday the 7th, they had picture day at school. I haven't seen them yet, I don't know when they give them to us. But I wasn't thrilled with the fact that she said she took her glasses off for the picture. I thought she should keep them on since that's how her friends are used to seeing her. But what can I do!? She got a flu shot in the afternoon. She was NOT happy about that. Screamed like she was being killed! We are still waiting to see if we can get her the swine flu vaccine.

On Sat the 10th, Mum took Brigid and I to see the play of "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" at the Lewis Family Playhouse at Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga. Brigid's first play. She really liked it. She was a bit of a brat at first. She didn't want to sit and wait for the play to start. I pulled her out and talked to her about how I did not like the way she was behaving and how Mum was so excited to take her to a play. After that, she was much better.

The next weekend (October has been seriously busy!), Cameron's cousin Chad was getting married down in Oceanside. So we went down in the morning and stayed at his Aunt Susie's house. Susie took Brigid and I to get our nails done. It was nice to have some girl time! Then we just hung out at the house until it was time to go to the wedding. The ceremony was really nice. Brigid danced like a crazy child at the reception. She wanted to take a bunch of pictures, but I had forgotten to charge the camera battery, so she only got to take a few. I think she took more with Susie's camera. The photographer even gave her some pointers! We stayed the night there, and on Sunday, Aunt Debbie came over with a box for Cameron. There are old pictures and letters that belonged to Grandpa Al, his dad adn uncles, and even some things from his grandparents. Unfortunitely, few of the pictures are labeled. But we have been going through everything trying to organize it all. I've been scanning all the pictures,and trying to get a family tree put together. A few years ago, we found an unrelated AL and Joanne Edelmaier in Northern California. They sent us all the family tree stuff they have. So I'm trying to get all that on our tree, and have found some stuff that I will send back up to them once we get it all together. Its hard work, but fun! Once we've finished with what we have, and get any more info that we can from family members, we will probably start requesting legal documents (ie birth certificates) to confirm what we have and to dig deeper. But it will take quite a while!

On Wednesday the 21st, they had a Kindergarten Family Night at Brigid's school. We had pizza there, and went around to all four kidergaten classes to see a sample of the different things the kids are working on, adn get some ideas of what to work with them on at home. I was really disapointed. If I had known about it before, I would have tried to get Brigid in the K-1 class, so that she would have more advanced work available to her. Before her birthday, when she brought some invites to school, she was talking to her teacher, and Mrs King turned to me and said, "Have you heard of the gifted classes?" She said that it is obvious, not just because of Brigid's vocabulary, but her comprehension skills, that she is gifted. But the gifted classes don't start till 3rd grade. I'm worried about her getting too bored before then.

This last Saturday night, we went to Jill's house to celebrate the family birthdays from August and October. Brigid had so much fun playing with all the boys! Then, on Sunday, we had Amanda, Chad and Ella, and Dan come over to carve pumpkins. I made a turkey breast and roasted potatoes. It was so good! Ella was so dirty! She painted little pumpkins, but I think she got more paint on herself than on the pumpkins! The girls had to take a bath before dinner. Yesterday, Brigid and I carved a couple more pumpkins.

This week is Spirit Week and Red Ribbon Week at school. Today was crazy hair day! Tomorrow is socks, Thursday is "Lei Day", and Friday they can wear costumes to school. I'm going to bake pumpkin cookies for the class party on Friday. I will definitely make sure the camera is charged for that! I'm still not sure what we are doing for Hallowee. Last year, there were only a few houses on our street giving out candy. But I don't really want to go somewhere and not be home to give out candy. Someone should on this street! Plus, we have the porch all decorated, it would be weird if we didn't participate! We'll figure it out...