Adelaida's First Report Card

There have been a lot of Adelaida "firsts" that I've really enjoyed in the first year or so of our daughter's life; this "first" is one that I really didn't think I'd experience for several more years!

Adelaida's daycare is really a school, and we've begun to think of it as a school rather than daycare. Yes, the kids take naps and do finger-painting, but they also work on counting exercises ("let's count all the pictures of dogs in the room"), language skills ("let's say hello to our friends"), large motor activities ("let's climb up this picnic table"), and so much more, every single day.

And, like a school, there are parent-teacher conferences.

Dale and I met with Ms. Sandy last week for a run-down of our daughter's accomplishments and "areas of potential growth." I have to admit, I felt like I was ready to hear my own accomplishments and areas of potential growth! But I quickly settled the butterflies in my stomach and prepared to hear all about Adelaida, from someone who spends a lot of time with her and is not biased (or at least, not as biased as her parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, who all know she is the most wonderful little girl ever and that she couldn't possibly have any areas in which she could be any better than she is!).

Ms. Sandy started by saying that Adelaida is a joy to have in the class and is a very bright little girl. She was impressed with Adelaida's command of sign language (I promise I'll post some videos of Adelaida signing soon!) and with how quickly she learns new things (like choosing the yellow block when Ms. Sandy says "yellow").

She then showed us Adelaida's very first report card. The report cards are set up for kids of a certain age, and since Adelaida is 14 1/2 months old, she is right in the middle of the twelve month and eighteen month report cards, so Ms. Sandy filled out both for her.

The twelve month report card is here (double click on the image to see a larger view):

There are a few things here that Ms. Sandy has never seen Adelaida do, but that Dale and I have seen her do, like knocking two blocks together -- Adelaida actually started doing that when she was about six months old, and had largely given it up by the time she joined Ms. Sandy's class. She also copies sounds (a little bit) and actions (a lot) that we do, and definitely recognizes family member's names (Daddy, Momma, Maggie, and Murphy). Unless we count the repeated "da" syllables Adelaida makes when looking at her daddy (and the dogs, and the trash can, and her shoes), she doesn't yet say her first word.

Ms. Sandy said she wasn't quite sure about showing apprehension about strangers, but she does show fondness toward people she knows, so Adelaida's "apprehension" might just exhibit itself as a lack of fondness.

On the back of this paper, Ms. Sandy had written:








Ms. Sandy then gave us Adelaida's eighteen-month report card (below; double click on the image to see a larger view). Recognizing that Adelaida is only fourteen-and-a-half months old, I think she did pretty well on this one too!

Again, there are things on here that Ms. Sandy hasn't seen Adelaida do, but that we have, like solving problems by trial and error, saying hi, bye, and please (and thank you!) with reminders, and asking for something by pointing to it. And there are accomplishments that Ms. Sandy has seen that we haven't, like carrying a stuffed animal or doll and scribbling with crayons (she scribbles with my help, but when she has control of the crayons, they end up in her mouth).

We asked Ms. Sandy if there were any areas that we needed to focus on with Adelaida, like maybe her language and social skills. Ms. Sandy said that Adelaida is doing quite well, and every child develops differently, and she is certainly not lagging behind her peers. Then Ms. Sandy looked at the list, noticed that "seems selfish at times" is a milestone that Adelaida is still working on developing, and told us that we could, for example, encourage Adelaida's selfishness if we wanted, but that Adelaida would surely exhibit selfishness eventually and we shouldn't be worried that she isn't selfish yet. That wasn't exactly the milestone we were thinking of working to help Adelaida develop!

The parent-teacher conference was a good meeting -- it was reassuring to hear from someone less biased than I am that Adelaida is doing well and is a very happy, well behaved little girl, and it was good to know what milestones we might look for Adelaida to accomplish next, like speaking and acting out a familiar routine in play (which I wouldn't have thought to do with Adelaida, but now will).

I was pretty proud of my little girl!

A case of I-miss-my-momma-itis

I received a phone call from Adelaida's school today letting me know that she had been crying for almost an hour and nothing they could do would make her happy. They had tried feeding her, giving her a bottle, rocking her, letting her crawl, reading her a book, but still she just cried and cried. Most of you have heard me say that Adelaida is such a happy baby who rarely cries (and when she does cry, it doesn't last very long), so this was definitely unusual and probably meant that she was in some pain.


I of course left work immediately and drove to her school as fast as I could, wondering as I drove what could possibly be wrong with her (an ear infection? teething? hungry?). When I walked in, I saw Adelaida in one of her teachers' arms, crying. I walked up to her and said, "Adelaida, what's wrong?" She noticed me, broke into a huge smile, and waved to me.

She didn't shed another tear all day.

In a way, it made me feel good that all it took to make her happy was seeing me. And of course I was quite relieved that she wasn't in pain or injured or ill. She just missed her momma.

School Pictures

Adelaida's daycare recently had a professional photographer come in to take pictures of all the kids. When they came back with the photos, they convinced me (and I in turn convinced Dale) to buy the biggest package of pre-printed photos they had. This package came with the digital files of the images, so I thought I'd share them with you all. They took pictures of her in three different poses, with facial expressions ranging from super-happy to stunned. Here are the pictures







Aunts and uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents will all be receiving one of the photos soon. If anyone else wants one, let me know, as we have several extras.

Going to school

Since before Adelaida was born, I've been planning to put her in daycare and continue working while she's an infant, although the exact details of this plan have changed somewhat over time.

We looked at several daycare facilities before Adelaida was born and learned that none of the large, accredited daycare facilities accept children younger than six weeks old. If we really wanted her in daycare before six weeks, we could use a private in-home daycare, but we thought it would probably be good for me to stay home with Adelaida for a while anyway, so we found a great daycare (really more of a "school" for babies) and planned to start her in school around February 1.

Then Adelaida was born, and the thought of letting someone else care for her was just too much! So, we immediately called the school and changed her start date to April 1, so I'd be able to stay home with her for three and a half months. (I use the term "stay at home" loosely, as Adelaida and I have rarely stayed at home. Instead, she joins me wherever I'm going. Starting about the time she was a month old, we've gone out almost every day. Sometimes we just go to the grocery store or meet other moms and babies for a walk in Albuquerque; other days she goes to work with me for six or eight hours and plays at my desk while I work.)

At the end of March, I was scheduled to present my chemistry research at a national chemistry conference in Salt Lake City, so was working a lot in February and March to prepare for this presentation. Working so much meant that I wasn't able to spend as much quality time with Adelaida as I would have liked, so we decided to delay her school once again, until May 1, so I'd have a relatively stress-free month with Adelaida before going back to work.

May 1st was a Friday, and rather than actually leave her at school that day, I decided instead to take her to school and spend some time with her there, playing with the toys and checking out her school crib. We spent about two hours there, met her teachers and got to know the school room a little better, then Adelaida and I both left together.

That Sunday evening, I prepared everything I'd need to leave my little girl at school for a whole day. Sunday night, Adelaida woke up several times during the night coughing. Monday morning, she had a coughing fit that lasted several minutes and sounded awful. Rather than taking her to school, I took her to the doctor; she had croup and was ordered to stay out of school for five days.

I knew that kids who are in daycare have more illness than kids that don't go to daycare, but I had expected that she wouldn't get sick until she'd actually been in school for at least one day!

Anyway, we stayed home together all of her first week of school. I don't think Adelaida actually had croup; I think she just had a bad cold (which she gave to me, so we were both sick together). She's still congested and coughing, but she has been going to school for the past two weeks.

We're starting with about three days a week of school, and will slowly work our way up to full-time. The school is great -- they do a lot of activities with the babies and Adelaida seems to enjoy it. The only problem we're having right now is that Adelaida doesn't sleep very much at school-- usually less than an hour of sleep in a six- or eight-hour day (she sleeps about four hours in eight when she's at home with me!). But, she does sleep a lot in the evenings after we pick her up from school. Unfortunately, that means I don't get to spend as much time with her as I'd like!