45 months

After what seemed like an eternity, J finally started school in the beginning of September. She adjusted to her new school and class just fine and settled right in. She had her first homework assignment in which we had to fill out a sheet about her and what she likes so that she could share it with the class. The class spent the first few weeks getting to know each other, the school and class rules (assignments and activities all based around these areas) and then dove right into the letters with the first week being all about the letter "A". The kids got to taste different apples ad J is now insistent that I buy yellow apples not red, of course she likes the more expensive apples! She really likes her teacher, mom is also impressed with her and what she is doing with the kids. She made a book of all the kids with their pictures (themed like the Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See book), so that the kids could bring it home and share it with their families to show them who all their new friends are. They have chapel on Wednesdays and when I asked J what they did in chapel after their first day going she proceeded to tell me "we stood up, we sat down, we stood up, we sat down", ha, and that is what you get when you have a kid who has never been to church and prays to the football Gods with us on Sundays! I asked the teacher what they do, they have a short sermon, the pastor talks to the kids and if there is anything special with the kids (birthdays, new siblings, etc) they get invited to the altar for something special, they also sing and are learning "This Little Light of Mine", more than just standing and sitting! Next month we get to go on our first field trip!

The girls spent most of Labor Day weekend with Nana and Pop Pop, while mommy and daddy had some time sans kids (we went brewery hopping in St. Pete with some friends). They went to the beach and played in their clothes (mommy didn't pack bathing suits as I thought they were just going to the park) and went out to dinner at Olive Garden, I was happy to hear they had more than just pasta! Since Nana and Pop Pop are living in temporary digs with minimal furnishings they got to have picnics in the living room (which I'm sure they thought were really cool) and a sleepover in Nana's bed! The girls are pretty adaptable as long as Nana has their toys to play with, which take up most of the apartment when pulled out of the closet!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for Grandpa's birthday. We celebrated with steak and of course cupcakes (strawberry by J's request even though Grandpa wanted chocolate). The girls got new Play-Doh and had fun playing with Grandma. Sunday when they were here we took a drive to St. Pete to visit some friends and had lunch at the Guy Harvey restaurant on the beach. The girls loved the giant aquarium that was an entire wall inside the restaurant (the size of an aquarium you would see in Disney or Sea World) and it kept them entertained during lunch.

She has been very inquisitive this month and is constantly asking us questions. My favorite question of the month was one day while sitting on the potty and going #2 she asked "mommy, where does the poop go when you flush the toilet?" I had to think for a second on how I wanted to answer the question, sure I could have given her a long drawn out answer but kept it short and simple and said "to the sewer with the Ninja Turtles and rats", I thought that was a good enough answer for a three year old! She now tells everyone that is where it goes. She is spending too much time talking at the table and not eating her food. She is taking forever to eat and even C is yelling at her to eat her food, if the little repeat is telling her to eat you know we have been saying it to J a lot!

There is no doubt that this little girl (and the other one) loves life. She loves to sing and dance is good at neither! We have almost a daily afternoon jam/dance session after nap time while we color and eat snack. We can't get in the car without the mini DJ requesting her music to which she sings at the top of her lungs. I offered to put her in dance class to which she replied "dance is for C, I am going to play soccer". I see her singing and dancing on the soccer field as she kicks her pink ball across the field. Speaking of soccer...

The month ended with J stating her first extra curricular activity. Daddy has been waiting for this day for almost four years and of course is the assistant coach for her soccer team. She is playing (or should I say participating) in an instructional three year old league to learn about  the game before we just throw her into play. Hopefully she will get something out of this and be ready for a real team in the Spring. She did pretty good the first day, they practiced dribbling and trapping the ball. I think we need to buy her a sports hat, her bucket hat is not cutting it on the field (just look for the white hat in the videos and you will find her).

Here are the pictures from the month.