Skyler enjoying the playground

Skyler went to the Valley playground Thursday night. It was the first time he really "played" at the playground. Before this, he would just go on the baby swing and had NO interest in crawling/walking/exploring the rest. He had fun crawling back and forth where the blue bars are, he also kept crawling up & down the step in the top left pic, in between turning the blue wheel. He also went down the slide for the 1st time (besides a few times before where I held him as he went down) by himself, Shayna caught him at the bottom. He LOVED it and would laugh each time. Finally he went down on his belly feet 1st. It was hard to get any good photos because he was moving so fast!

Rubber ducky game

Shayna came up to me the other day and said "Mom, Skyler is playing the rubber ducky game."

So I asked "what is the rubber ducky game?" thinking it was something she had taught him.

She said "well, first he puts the rubber ducky into his walker (the part that opens up) and closes the door. Then he opens it up and takes out the rubber ducky. Then he sucks on the rubber ducky, anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. Then he puts the rubber ducky back into the walker."

Then he repeats this immediately, opening up the fold down section..and over and over. well until his baby ADD takes over and he does yet another lap around the house.

Oh and Shayna also added that HE completely made this up and she had nothing to do with it.

Just one of those things I probably would have never even noticed had Shayna not pointed it out!

Hurricane Skyler

No...not RITA nor KATRINA...we here in Bensalem have our OWN hurricane called "hurricane Skyler."

He hit us today and left a path of destruction everywhere he went.

Here is the list describing what he has done in just a few short hours. Hopefully the residents can pick up the pieces and begin anew:

1. cookie all over face

2. car in coffee (in cup, yes car was salvaged and coffee still enjoyed)

3. honey puff cereal permanently affixed to table

4. toys in trash, then watch in trash (one watch still MIA)

5. blowing in empty tin soup can

6. peanut shells all over floor

7. greeted at door by little boy holding giant sneaker

Highlights of a Gorgeous Saturday

1. "Men working in trees" sign

2. Cool looking all black professional Studio 5 for Walnut St. Theater acting class (think FAME)

3. Discovered who the famous thespian FORREST was ..and that in 1852 the expensive seats cost .75

4. Picked up script at Bucks County Playhouse...saw Frosty has lines of just "goo goo"

5. Saw and heard Joyce DeWitt (ie Three's Company fame) in "Gypsy"

6. Fed the multicolored ducks

7. Got "gigantic" custard cone

8. Went in tiny but cute candy store called "Candiland"

9. Saw sign advertising a bona fide "Witch Party"

10. Learned "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" sing along, saw Marvin use the Point of View gun on a fleet of Vogons (who then all collapsed saying "I'm soooo depressed"), learned about gene pools, Darwin's theories, Improbability, and more all on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy DVD

ShaynaPost

I'm not sure mommy wants me to write on her blog, but i just want to say Hi! everone who lookes at this blog of my moms about Skyler and I!!

Back to School Night at Valley Elem.

JOURNEY into the 3rd grade:

1. Here is the entrance to the 3rd grade pod. It was pretty comical having the parents sit in the child sized chairs while listening to the 2 teachers drone on about the too easy curriculum and hear the gasps of horror as they revealed the change to a new social studies curriculum which means they will be studying The History of Bensalem and the Leni Lenape Indians. I have already started my own home enrichment plan for Shayna to include ancient history, world cultures and current events (she will be getting national geographic for kids). The science curriculum (1st 2 marking periods) sounds more promising- they will be learning the scientific method, doing experiments, and studying water.

2. Shayna's classroom. Shayna's desk is on the bottom right, the one with the paper on top. They all left papers with "clues" and you had to guess which desk belonged to your child. I was just about to read Shayna's when Mrs. Olivar (Joaquin's mother, who I know from Shayna's preschool days) said "Oh, this must be Shayna's desk, she sits next to Joaquin." As I was leaving the school I found a basket of free chocolates the PTO was giving out so I grabbed two and ran back and put them inside Shayna's desk. On the bottom of the note I wrote on her paper, I said "Look inside for a surprise."

3. Shayna's photo on the AR (Accelerated Reader) board. They get points for the books they read based on the difficulty level and how well they do on the test. Shayna and Annamarie are at 10 points (Shayna actually has around 12-13 but it goes by increments of 5). Annamarie is one of the other 2 kids with Shayna in gifted/talented. I discovered tonight that I graduated the same year from Bensalem high school as her mom! Small world!!! Only one child is ahead of them, Eric, at 15 points. It happens that Eric sits next to Shayna. Another "small world" discovery: about 2 weeks ago Shayna brought home a school library book which happened to be VERY old, and when I checked the little card you sign when you take out the book, I knew someone who had taken out the book in 1978!! It was Jennifer Leiter, who graduated with my brother.

Homework Saboteur

Here we have direct photographic evidence of THE HOMEWORK SABOTEUR (AKA Skyler) at work. Note the victim (AKA Shayna) attempting to cut the newspaper before H.S. completely destroys it.

Cast Lists are IN!

I got the e mail from the Bucks County Playhouse tonight around 11pm. Shayna was cast in FROSTY THE SNOWMAN on November 19th and 26th!! YAY!

She will get her script and rehersal schedule this coming Saturday. There is still one more play to be cast, The Emperers New Clothes, and the cast list for that will be e mailed tomorrow (Thursday). So she may be cast in that as well.

ps- Since I did not see the e mail until around 1am, and it was e mailed at 11pm anyway, Shayna was already asleep so she will find out the good news when she wakes up tomorrow.

Reading to Skyler

Shayna got Skyler to stay still long enough to read him the book that she brought home from the school library today.

3rd Grade Wisdom

Shayna is making some new friends at Valley, her new school.

It was a bit tough coming from a school where she knew everyone and had established friendships.

She said this to me tonight, about one of her new friends, Danielle.

"Know how you know your friends with someone?"

"When you share your lunch with them."

Then she told me Danielle had shared her lunch with her.

Shayna then added "and I let her butt me." Which means she let her butt in line in front of her. Then she said "I know why its called "butting" in line. Its because when someone butts in front of you, you see thier butt."

She had mentioned earlier that she and Danielle had walked back to gym to get thier hoodies.


Shayna going to Musical Theater class on Monday

Auditions

Shayna had two auditions today.

The first was at the Bucks County Playhouse. They are casting for 5 Fall/winter children's plays. Shayna can do any of the 1st 4, the 5th one conflicts with The Velveteen Rabbit that she will be in on December 11th. She sang 16 bars of "My Favorite Things." We will find out via e mail on Monday if she gets cast in any of the plays. Here she is after the audition in front of the playhouse. Its in scenic New Hope right on the river. To the right of where she is standing is a creek that leads into the river, and there is also a small pretty waterfall if you were to look over the bench and look to the right.

The second audition was for Radio Disney. They are looking for "Kid Casters." Out of all those auditioning they will choose up to 6. A Kid Caster is a mini reporter and will go on site representing Radio Disney and will get radio spots, will interview and meet celebrities, etc. For that audition she had to read a paragraph of script (like something she would be announcing on the radio) and ask 3 questions that she would ask a star. Shayna was very animated and spoke very loudly and clearly. The lady even said afterwards that she was really great. It happened that the kid who auditioned before her (looked about 14ish) was wearing a "vote for Pedro" shirt and LOOKED like a Napoleon Dynamite type.

Shayna after the Radio Disney audition, about to wade in the fountain.

Bucks County Playhouse website:

www.Buckscountyplayhouse.com

Battle of the Cup

Skyler has started to get the concept of putting things away/into containers recently. for example, he now plays with his toy where he puts the blocks into the giraffe. Only he has spread this concept to everything, so therefore, he puts things into the planter, and he will put other things like foam blocks into his giraffe toy. Today he took the batteries out of the remote control and then put them into his giraffe toy. Also today, I found the purple container in the photo below (I use it to put his Honey Puff cereal snack) and a lid from another container inside the shape sorting block container. He kept putting his sippy cup on top of his purple snack container (see photo below), and I would put it back on the table saying "No Skyler...it goes here." Every time he would put it right back on top of the purple container again.
"but mom...this is where my sippy cup goes."

Fundraising Assembly

Shayna's Valley school PTO fundraiser began today. They had a big assembly with the entire school to tell the kids all about it. Shayna said they showed them a video which included how they make the chocolate "turtle" candies, and according to Shayna, a great soundtrack. The highlight for her was when the video played "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani (Shayna's favorite song) and she said that almost all the girls sang along, and that she was yelling the words!

Hollaback girl video:
http://launchtoday.launch.yahoo.com/player/default.asp?cid=1&ps=0&vid=18819277&tw=lmv&fs=0&redirectURL=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch%2Emusic%2Eyahoo%2Ecom%2Fsearch%2F%3Fp%3Dhollaback+girl%26m%3Dvideo%26x%3D17%26y%3D19&evid=undefined&referer=undefined

Pied Piper

Shayna is learning to play the recorder in music class at school. She brought home her recorder today and kept playing it. It reminded me of the Pied Piper. The music is attracting Skyler. Skyler is in a stage where he switches between crawling (maybe 5% of the time) and walking and he will still use his walker sometimes. 1st he wanted to use his walker:


a few minutes later he was walking down the hallway:
here he is walking towards me:

Why we can't light the fireplace this winter

This is where Skyler sometimes likes to sit. I also had to duct tape the fireplace doors shut because he kept opening them and leaving them open.

SIP

Shayna had SIP for the first time today at school. SIP stands for Special Interest Program, which is basically a politically correct way of calling the gifted/talented program in elementary school.

She was very happy and excited about it and it was the first thing she said as I met her at the corner today to walk her home (she walks from school all the way to the corner one block from our street).

Ms. Welch told them she would teach them logic, how to get out of things, and to be creative. She told them "easy is a bad word."

They did some "complicated" math problems; logic problems using blocks of various shapes, sizes and colors; and read a book together called "Catalog Cats" which got them into a discussion about how many words they could think of that began with "cat____."

They also chit chatted a bit and Shayna said they all felt a bit silly wearing "giant jackets" which Mrs. Welch loaned to them because the room was so cold.

SIP will be on Tuesdays and Fridays from now on. The only 3rd graders in it are Shayna, Anna Marie, and Timmy.

Eagles

Shayna and Skyler during the game tonight. Good luck Sunday Eagles!!!


future running back Skyler Lion

How long will this last?

The family room in its CLEAN toys put away state. Of course, tomorrow, Skyler will have it back to his preferred state within minutes. Notice the pathetic almost leafless plant behind Spongebob.

Skyler playing

Today Skyler was playing with these beach balls after we went swimming in the pool. I thought it was funny the way he was holding them and I'm sure you can get a good chuckle out of the various captions you could think of (ie skyler plays with balls, etc.).

Skyler playing with the toy he got from his Aunt & Uncle. He is good at putting the shapes in but still doesn't want to do it with the top on it, in fact he seems to think that the top goes in it too. He has finally got the hang of his toys where you put things in, like the one where he puts peek a blocks into the giraffes neck. Only he likes to put other things in there besides the peek a blocks it was made for, like his soft foam blocks. Then he bangs it to get it to make the sound effect. Manny and I are proud at any signs of intelligence we see at such a young age- the two latest were when he figured out how to use the boppy pillow to climb up onto the sofa and then reach to the top of the sofa where I put the box his new toy came out of; and when he crawled/walked right over to his baby swing at the playground.








The ambulatory hazard of our family room- basically the entire downstairs is like this- when someone enters the house it is basically: BEWARE- enter at your own risk! You can easily trip and must look before you step. Those home alone thieves would have been in trouble. In fact, just tonight I almost tripped over the rubik's cube on the way to the computer!

She got it!

The parts were posted on the BCDTA website today at 5pm. Shayna got the part that she auditioned for!

Her first "scene study" class is tomorrow night (in addition to her regular musical theater class, scene study is for those with speaking parts).

Obviously, as you can see by the above, her audition went VERY well yesterday! Beth (the owner and one who did the auditions) said afterwards that she did great and that she was very animated. She then said to Christina, who is the teacher of Shayna's musical theater 2 class, that she will LOVE having Shayna in her class.

The auditions were held upstairs at the "barn" where they have classes. Its a gorgeous building- kind of hard to explain but you can see some photos of it on their website. There is an area downstairs with a kitchen and bathrooms. They had an assortment of bagels, cream cheese, cookies, muffins and drinks.

Shayna's Fall line up

Here is Shayna's Fall activity schedule:

Monday: Musical Theater 2
BC Discoveries Performing Arts & Theater
www.BCdiscoveries.com
Velveteen Rabbit Show- Dec. 11th

Tues or Wed: Girl Scout Brownies (her 3rd and last year as a brownie)
troop & time to be determined

Thursday: Tap (dance)
Bucks County Dance Center, Bensalem, PA
www.bcdancecenter.com
This will be Shayna's 6th year in this dance studio!

Saturday: The art of the play- youth acting
Walnut St. Theater
www.wstonline.org
Sept. 24- Dec. 5th



Late Winter and Spring:

she will take a weekly French class sat. 12noon in center city, Phila. (in place of the walnut theatre class)
http://alliancefrancaisephiladelphia.com

and will add Jazz/Hip Hop dance at Bucks Cty. Dance Friday at 7pm (in place of musical theater)

Shayna's Audition

I have almost finished putting together Shayna's Fall activity schedule......

At the last minute I stumbled upon a wonderful local Musical Theater class here in Newtown. By taking the class, she is automatically in the "Theater Company" and will appear in the Winter Play- a musical called "the Velveteen Rabbit." I could not pass this up for Shayna, even though she is already registered for an acting class (the art of the play- youth acting) at the Walnut Street Theater in center city, Phila. This is because The Velveteen Rabbit is Shayna's favorite book, well one of them (of course after Harry Potter!). So I am enrolling her in "Musical Theater 2" and by being in that class she is in the "party scene" of the play and will dance/sing/act, and will be singing "Favorite Things" and "Sleigh Ride." The show is Dec. 11th if anyone wants to come see her perform.

Out of that class (MT2) ONE child gets an actual speaking part. They are choosing that child by audition. Shayna is auditioning tomorrow (Saturday). She has to:

1. recite a short monologue (she has chosen to do "This Land is My Land")

2. read a line cold from a script

3. sing a verse from any song (she has chosen "Down by the Riverside" which she has been practising for months).

Then on Sunday Beth (the owner) will post who gets the part on her website. The first class is this coming Monday.


Here is the website for where she will be taking the musical theater class:
www.BCdiscoveries.com

Hoppy

Shayna and I enjoy spotting and watching the bunnies we see in the yard. Usually if we peek out the dining room window to the back we can see one munching on the grass. Sometimes one or two will hop right by us as we sit on a lounge chair in the back. Shayna named this one "hoppy." Manny named one of the bigger ones "Thumper." Shayna says she wishes that the bunnies weren't scared of us!


Hoppy of Glendale Drive

Sippy Cup

Skyler has mastered drinking from the sippy cup by himself.




He hasn't mastered how to not throw the sippy cup on the floor. Here he is after we yelled at him for throwing his cup on the floor. He stopped crying about 30 seconds after I took this picture. He also has already perfected the "pouty lip face" when he gets in trouble.

School supply shopping

Shayna and I went to Walgreens last night (Monday) to get the rest of her school supplies (including 2 book covers which we found out she needed on wed. and thurs.). We found all the things she needed (YAY!) including the stretchy hard to find book covers (and 2 for $1.99.)

We also got a new lunch box or BAG for Shayna. Unbeknownst to me, lunch BOXES are OUT. Lunch BAGS are IN. and not only that, but Shayna is now TOO OLD for anything "kiddie." So I had to retire the beloved Madeline lunchbox, which served its purpose well from K to 2nd grade. ML has been relegated to a makeshift lost crayon box and joins the ranks along with the Barbie and Van Gogh tin boxes (Van Gogh sunflowers never made the cut- it was too small- very dega chic but extremely impractical). So now Shayna has a gorgous yet still girly (thankfully!!) lunch BAG. Very functional with lots of organized zippered sections. Manny commented at it still being girly (as in Skyler can't use it eventually) and we proceeded to inform him that girls don't stop being girly (even in high school, college, and beyond).

One of the items she still needed was a pouch for her colored pencils (she has I think THE most organized desk in the 3rd grade). First we found a nice soft plastic clear pink one for $1.99.Then I saw what to me looked like a more practical one, because when you opened the side it had a little "drawer" like bottom that slid out. It was also cheaper at $1.29. It was very similar to the other one, just plain soft plastic. Shayna didn't want that one. She said "that pencil case gives me the creeps." She explained that when pulling the drawer part out it gave her a sensation on her fingers that she didn't like.


Shayna with new lunchbag on Wed. Sept. 7th

Filipino Teasing

Teasing as an expression of endearment is common in the Phillipine culture. The tagalog language has a lot of words used in a teasing affectionate way. Manny likes to say them when appropriate. Here are some he uses most frequently:

1. PIKON: gets mad easily, grouchy

[peek-on]

Skyler growls a lot, especially when he is hungry or you aren't feeding him fast enough.

2. MADUME: makes a mess, or gets dirty

[ma-due-may]

Skyler throws his toys and whatever he can grab all over the family room floor.

3. BAHAG: like one wearing a loincloth, in your underpants

[ba-haag]

Skyer sometimes is in just his diaper and T-shirt (ie just before bed).

4. MAHAROT: playful

[ma-ha-wrote]

Skyler will be all giggly and excited or very energetic.

5. MABAHO: stinky

or MABAHO PWET/PUET: stinky butt

Manny would sometimes tease Shayna saying "are you mabaho or magunda?" and she would always answer emphatically "Magunda!" (Magunda means pretty)

6. BURUKA: messy hair, like Broom Hilda witch

[bar-oo-ka]

This is what Manny says when Shayna's hair is really messy!

7. MATIGAS: tough, stubborn, toughhead

[ma-tea-gaas]

Lavender & Tickle

Shayna had off from school yesterday. We took advantage of the hot weather (most likely the last high 80s day of the season) and went in the pool. There were 2 dragonflies that kept flying on top of the pool. They took turns landing on my hair, my toe, Shayna's hair, and a leaf if we held it out. When one landed on Shayna's head she walked with it on her head and sang to it. They were really pretty- one was a pretty blue color the other lavendar. So Shayna named them "Lavendar and Tickle." When we looked at them up close they looked like fairies with sparkly wings and even had a smile on thier faces. Since they did not wish to pose for a photo, Shayna drew this picture of them:

Artists Rendition

Maestro

Skyler discovered Freda & Ben's piano* yesterday. Here he is playing a tune:


*Freda and Ben are my grandparents, Ben gave Freda the piano as a present. Freda was a wonderfully talented piano player although she would never admit it!

Rainbow Girl

This is what Shayna wore to school today. When it was dismissal time and as Shayna was leaving the 3rd grade pod/room she did a little spin in front of Miss Blaswick. Miss Blaswick then said "oooo- rainbow girl!"