Kate meets the Tooth Fairy (and other shenanigans)

I went to meet Kate at the school bus stop the other day, and was greeted with this smiling not-so-toothy grin...

Kate's little bottom front tooth had been hanging by a thread for a while now, and every day she'd beg someone to pull it out for her since its loosedness was getting in the way of tasks such as eating her favorite treats. None of us could do it (well, Travis offered but then she would change her mind!) but finally while eating a snack at school, it fell right out on its own! How exciting to lose a tooth at school, right?

Her teacher gave her a little treasure box to put her tooth in.

I remember when that little tooth first poked through those little baby gums of hers...

And, actually, I know they say kids grow up fast and all of that, but really I'm certain it wasn't all that long ago. Those little teeth sure don't last very long. Five years? Hm we should've gotten a warranty on those things!

Well, she was super excited for the tooth fairy to make her appearance that night and swap out that little tooth for some big bucks, and I was excited too, and also, well, curious as to what we might expect in terms of the amount the tooth fairy might decide to leave her.

So I did what any "curious" mother would do. I consulted facebook.

There I was informed by many experienced parents that the tooth fairy has in the past left amounts of money varying from a quarter to $50! I was glad I asked since, um, I was just wondering.

Since it was a first tooth, and a front tooth, the tooth fairy ended up leaving $3. Just for future reference.

Selling her teeth is not all that Kate has been up to, however.

Her folder came home filled with some of her work the other day, and I just had to take pictures of some of it. It was so endearing. (Warning: This is another dull portion of the blog that you might want to skip if you are not a grandparent. Grandparents, there will be a quiz later.)

Kate was asleep while I was going through her work, but I didn't need her to explain because since having a kindergartner, I've become an expert at translating early phonetic writing.

(Um I guess teaching first grade helped a little with that too.)

However, the next morning she showed me how to UNFOLD this piece to read it so I wouldn't have to take multiple pictures of each side, like an idiot.

They're learning ordinal positioning, so for example, the flaps that are the covers of these pictures say "FIRST, NEXT, THEN, LAST"

Translation: I brush [my hair]

I try to hurry

(this cracked me up because YES this is exactly what we do in the morning! Right after she brushes her hair. That's pretty much all I say until she gets on the bus, I think.)

I go to school

I go home

 Next subject: Science

(Travis was glowing with pride)

 [No translation needed, since there are pictures!]

I loved that her teacher had to help her out with the common English word for "solid water."

This one was excellent.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the children were encouraged to pursue their own dreams.

Kate's dream is that she "went into the TV" (that's our TV armoire she drew)

Look out, Kardashians!

Um or maybe I can pretend that she meant she went THROUGH the armoire into a secret magical world, like Narnia.

Yes.

Then here comes the piece de resistance.

This discovery among the papers in her backpack just validated every moment of her difficult toddlerhood. If you don't remember, you can read about some of it here. Or here. Or here. I KNEW one day it would all be worth it.

And finally that day has arrived.

Okay, to be fair, she did say that her mom LOOKS like a queen, not "is" a queen or "acts" like a queen or maybe even "dresses" like a queen or "should be treated" like a queen...

I just look like one. Must be my short red hair that gives me that Elizabethan look...

(Actually later she told me that was a veil, like a wedding veil)

Also to be fair, her class is studying the letter Q this week, and I think she was asked to use the word "queen" in a sentence.

But still.

She picked ME!

She does love me after all I guess.

Coming up this week...

Her 100th day of school party!

I had no idea this was a big deal until I became an elementary teacher myself and the 100th day of school arrived and I was told to celebrate it. The kindergarten students were asked to think of a "100" project that involved something to do with 100. Kate wanted to use lollipops. And when I asked what she wanted to do with the lollipops, she said she wanted to make them into a heart. So then I helped her devise a way to relate this all to 100. (There are 100 of those lollipops, by the way. The girls counted them. Then I recounted... about 8 times, because turns out it's actually pretty hard to accurately count to 100! I came up with a wide range of variations in totals. In the end, the girls' count was only off by 2) In retrospect, I should have had her count 100 lollipops into a plastic ziplock bag. Then later she could hand them out to her friends. Easy!

My next blogging goal is my progress on the house. I am only putting it off because it has been embarrassingly small. Today I was talking about it to my new friends - you know, how I've been preoccupied with "MOVING IN" and then I remembered... well actually it's been 3 weeks now... No more excuses! That was our family theme for last year, as our New Year's resolution, and I like it so much I think I want to carry it over.

No excuses.