school's out for...amelia!

so wes & i have made a risky but important decision: pulling amelia out of preschool for the year. (did you hear that, my heavy, labored sigh?). this decision has been a rough one, going back & forth between babying her & forcing school on her.

i guess the problem is that she's a young 3 year old. she is a bit shy, contains a few slices of mischief, & still loves to be snuggled. the preschool the girls are in focus on helping kids with certain developmental delays...& since amelia was a peer, aka a normal achieving student, she was expected to be following rules at the least.

& amelia hates rules. she will push them & dance around them & poke holes in them...i've been called many, many times to pick her up because she will either not follow rules or is sobbing for her mommy. & since this preschool is in an elementary school, well, they just can't let a little feisty 3 year old go rogue until she decides to behave.

soooo...long story shortened: we were in a pattern of amelia refusing to go to school up to 2 days a week & some of the other days i would be called to pick her up for the aforementioned infractions. so basically she was learning to dislike school & to think she could be sent home & get to hang with me if she misbehaves...or that going to school is a choice. so we pulled her.

egads. tough decision. the teacher, who is amazing & wonderful, offered a two day a week schedule for her--but we just can't predict what two days a week amelia would feel like going, right? maybe too much leverage for a 3 year old to handle?

anyway, so today is her last day of preschool for this year.

pajama party day, which is so incredibly fitting because amelia could permanently wear pj's & be content as ever.

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cookies!

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& school program!

somehow they invited all the a.m. preschool classes to the same location & then knowing how many guests were coming, only put out enough chairs for half. our teacher gave us the heads up to be super early & we had the first row *smile*

here they are doing a 'where is santa' song

(addy 4th from left; amelia furthest right)

& both grandmas came, along with the nannied baby boy & his mama. someone even offered to take a picture!

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& now, please tell me why i found it reasonable to vacuum & mop the other day...because now it has been raining cats & dogs for days & the floors are totally muddied. & our vacuum is nearly broken (we just need to drop it off at this certain store, who will send it back to dyson to fix it...but what am i to do in between then? a house with 1 lab, 2 1/2 young kids, & 2 sorta clumsy adults *needs* a vacuum).

yesterday i tried to start writing out christmas cards (yea, don't expect to get that until after christmas!). amelia & addy decide it's the perfect time to pounce on me with pens & pencils, grabbing cards to draw on & practice writing their names. then addy begins the spanish inquisition of the purposes of holiday cards, who these people are & how i know them, WHY WHY WHY about every facet of this tradition. then she sulks away when i give her a stern look, grabs a bag from the counter...which happened to contain a 6 pack of home brews wes planned to give some co-workers, shattering 3 bottles.

within 10 minutes of me getting out the cards, the house erupted into total chaos. it was totally incredible...