Peg’s Journal

Today Aric, Summer, and I attended Ashlyn’s preschool graduation. I know, it sounds ridiculous….a ceremony to commemorate the completion of preschool (PRESCHOOL?!) If you told me before I had kids, I would be totally rolling my eyes. I mean, that’s right up there with strollers for dogs…absurd. But having seen how much Ashlyn has learned and grown, today’s graduation was a much celebrated event.

july 2005 - august 2006

Our main objective when starting her in preschool was for socialization. If she learned some things along the way that helped prepare her for kindergarten…well, all the better. We never expected her to know all the things she knows now. In the span of 13 months, she can write the alphabet, numbers 1-100, her name, my name, Aric’s name, Summer’s name, our address, and sight-words unassisted. She knows her shapes, colors, days of the week, months of the year, and how to tell time. She can cut, paste, and color within the lines. She can read at a near 2nd grade level. She can do simple math (double digit addition and subtraction). She can tell money (pennies, nickels, dimes, etc). She can recite the Pledge of Allegiance. She learned tons of new songs (in English and Chinese). She can problem solve. She has learned to speak/understand Chinese (what I’m most proud of and excited about). As well as formed friendships with her teacher and fellow classmates.

When we first enrolled Ashlyn at Miss Judy’s, she didn’t know that much (aside from the alphabet song and counting to 15). I only have the teacher to thank….afterall, Ashlyn is by no means a child prodigy of any sort. She can be quite lazy at times.
Miss Judy is an amazing teacher and person. She is extremely patient, loving, nurturing, encouraging, and focused. We will miss her terribly!

Hopefully Ashlyn won’t find kindergarten boring in comparison.

The graduation ceremony was the cutest thing. The students gave a performance…singing 6 short songs and 2 chinese songs. Ashlyn, along with two of her classmates, performed 2 dance routines.
I knew that Miss Judy’s daughter was teaching them a routine, but up until today I had not seen it at all. I was sooooooo impressed and delighted and proud!
After the awards ceremony, we had refreshments, mingled, and looked at pictures, classwork, and artwork of each student along the walls. It was so sweet…all the proud parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and gazillion cameras and camcorders.

Unlike Ashlyn’s classmates, who cried when their parents had to leave to return to work, Ashlyn kept prematurely hugging and kissing me goodbye.
Peg: “I’m not leaving yet.”
Ashlyn: “oh.”
Peg:
hehehehe

Congrats to my sweetie, Ashlyn!…you’re growing up so fast!

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update on Ashlyn. I find myself being a bit more protective of her privacy now that she’s getting older. Anyhow….aside from academics, Ashlyn has turned into a mini-teen already. Sometimes she’s as sweet as pie. Other times she’s sassy, huffy, bossy, and attitude-y…she argues back with one pointed finger and one hand on the hip. :lol::lol::lol:
I’m laughing because one time I told her not to do that, I caught a reflection of myself in a window…with the same pointed finger and hand on hip. :lol::lol::lol:

She’s into celebrities, movies, music, shows, and magazines that are a bit out of her age group. She’s vain…loving lipgloss, perfume, nailpolish, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, headbands, barrettes, and anything pink or flowery or frilly or sparkly or with butterflies. She’s fashion concious and insists on picking out her own clothes and accessorizes accordingly. I can’t tell you how many mornings we’ve fought over her choice in outfit and shoes. If she had her way, she would be wearing a pink top, denim skorts, and her fuschia cowboy boots everyday.
Oh wait, that IS her outfit everday…nevermind.
Ashlyn has become more sensitive and self-concious. She has also developed a fear of the dark and going upstairs or bathroom alone. She has an amazing memory. She has a great sense of humor. She’s generous. She loves playing games on the computer. She talks too much. She’s silly. She likes to help with the dishes and laundry. And as always, Ashlyn is the most loving, patient, and protective big sister.

I never realize how mature she is until I’m around other kids her age. That realization is a good reminder for me to go easy on her. hehehe

Wow…I can’t believe she’ll be starting kindergarten in a couple of weeks. *cry*

Ashlyn in mock-horror (taken October 2005)

In the last couple of weeks, Ashlyn has gotten up 5 times in the wee hours of the morning due to nightmares….running into our room crying hysterically and wanting to sleep in our bed. Our bed is not that big (a Queen), so I take her back to her room and lay with her until she falls back to sleep. Tuesday morning she ran in after another episode, but I was so tired that I just let her stay in our bed. Why are kids such bed-hogs??? Why do they sprawl out, arms and legs fully extended??? With Ashlyn in the middle, I slept with barely any blanket, one ass-cheek hanging off the bed, and my arm as a pillow…and if that wasn’t bad enough, some time before she got up for school, I got slapped and kicked in the face. Rough night, rough rough night.

Yesterday I woke up with upper back pain and a stiff neck. My neck, in particular, was in really bad shape. My head cocked forward and slightly faced the right…and it was frozen that way. I looked like Dustin Hoffman in “Rainman”. Whenever I needed to turn to look at something, I had to turn my whole body. It was comical really. A couple of times I paid dearly with the worst pain ever when I had forgotten and moved my neck suddenly. *whimpers* In my desperate need for pain relief, I slapped on not one, but TWO Salonpass strips. Lemme tell you, I smelled lovely the whole day.

After the kiddies were in bed, and a nice hot shower, I laid in my iJoy lounger for over an hour. I LOVE my iJoy! LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! It worked out most of the kinks, and today…I can move my neck again! *YAY!*:grin:

As for Ashlyn’s nightmares, I hope this is just a phase. She seems rather sensitive to things lately…and scared of everything. Afraid of things that never bothered her before, like getting something from another room alone or the dark. These days she’s always asking me to accompany her to the bathroom. If I’m busy, she’ll go…but doesn’t flush, wash her hands, or turn off the lights before running out. I’m not even sure what she’s afraid of…she doesn’t watch anything on the telly aside from The Disney Channel and Nick Jr. Over the weekend, we ate at Jerry’s Famous Deli. The restaurant showcases large posters of plays on the wall: “Phantom of the Opera”, “Evita”, “West Side Story”, etc… She got freaked out by the “Hamlet” poster..a picture of a man with his mouth open (singing). But she thought he was screaming and she didn’t like it. She told us that she doesn’t ever want to go back. Please let this be a phase.

The other night I asked Aric to pick up some Powerade/Gatorade on his way home from work. When they got home, Ashlyn excitedly showed me a magazine that she got to pick out at the grocery store: “Life Story - Jesse McCartney”.
I was shocked and amused by her selection….but after seeing the price on the cover, I was just shocked ($9.99)!!! :shock: WTH?! I chided Aric for Ashlyn’s impulse buy, and he said that he had no idea until after it rang up, and by then our mini-teen was clutching it with sparkling enthusiam (or so he said).

Man oh man…I’m in trouble. Aric spoils the girls and ALWAYS gives into their whims. As much as we love and spoil our kiddies, I try really hard to keep them grounded with simple pleasures over grand materialistic goods. Especially living in here (in the OC), where keeping up with the Jones’ is the norm. With a hubby like Aric, I’m so losing this battle. At this rate, Ashlyn will soon be on her way to having her “My Super Sweet 16“. *zoiks!*

Ashlyn is such a little teenager already…the way she talks, the way she acts, the way she selects accessories to compliment her outfits (I no longer get to pick out what she wears anymore), and her passion for lip gloss, nail polish, and bling. *sigh* But it’s so cute and she’s so much fun. Well, maybe now with her own magazine keeping her busy, she’ll give back my “OK” magazines.

Anyhow, the girls are still battling the stomach virus (the runs). I’m finally over it. *whew!*

Happy Friday! Have a good weekend!

Last Friday, we went to Best Buy in search of something to redeem for Aric’s giftcards. Ashlyn spotted this:

…and went to play with it. A couple of seconds later, we heard her say, “Cool…how do you use this Jessica Simpson phone?”
HAHAHAHA! She really cracks us up!

Our weekend went by too fast. Other than Lauren’s birthday party, Aric and I had fun hanging out with our kids, running errands, grocery shopping, and cleaning up around the house/garage/backyard.

Ashlyn: “Blame my sister”
Summer: “I didn’t do it”
:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
I saw these cute Now and Zen T-shirts at Target and had to get them…it’s so fitting for my two little troublemakers.

Hope you had a good weekend. Oh, did I mention my parents are coming to visit for a couple of days? We’re very excited!

Weeks of excited anticipation from the kiddies finally ended last night.

This was Summer’s first time participating in the grand Halloween tradition of begging for candy. I took her to join Ashlyn and Ashlyn’s classmates trick ‘o treating around Miss Judy’s neigborhood. Summer absolutely loved it! She insisted on walking all by herself and followed the big kids up to each door. She learned to say “tree-tree” (trick-o-treat) and would marvel at each piece of candy that landed in her basket. It was so cute.
All the kids in Miss Judy’s class looked so cute in their costumes…and I had so much fun tagging along.

Afterwards, the kiddies and I headed over to Ed and Sue’s for pizza and to trick ‘o treat with our friends. Once again, Summer was raring to go. We covered a few cul-de-sacs, and she walked nearly the whole time. *sigh* She acts like such a big girl sometimes.
The kids had a great time and looked absolutely adorable (we had one Cinderella, two Sleeping Beauties, two Tinkerbells, an Angel, a Yoda, a kittycat, and a chubby little cow). They all made out like bandits with their baskets full of loot.

Aric missed out on all the fun last night…poor guy had a midterm for school. But he joined us as soon as he could, and we hung out at Ed and Sue’s till pretty late.

Summer experienced some sort of night terrors due to all the excitement from the evening, she woke up crying every 10 minutes last night. Poor baby! So she ended up sleeping in our bed. Ashlyn , on the other hand, was out like a light…probably with visions of pixie-stix, jolly ranchers, twizzlers, snickers, and sweetarts in her head.

Needless to say, the lucky girls have more candy than I’ll ever allow them to consume. hehehe