Tayls of Life, Love, & Babies: January 2016

Our little girl is now "two hands old"....6 years!

Gabrielle started Kindergarten this fall - September 2015 and is doing great! She struggled in preschool all last year....not wanting to be there. She doesn't always claim to love school, she gets mad because someday Oliver and I get to stay home and she has to go to school, but she is in the top reading group in her class with 3 other kids reading 1st grade books, got nominated by her teacher to join the Math Pentathlon Club for her elementary school which meets after school one day/week and completes in the state math competition in the spring, and is doing very well overall. When she started K she couldn't really read at all, no she can pick up an easy reader book she has never seen before and just read it. She is getting better at writing independently everyday. When we went to see Santa this year, she wrote him a 3-4 sentence letter all by herself while we were waiting and though it wasn't perfect of course, we could read the whole thing. She enjoys gym class (has a female teacher and really enjoys her), and also really likes technology class. We haven't exposed her to a ton of computer/tablet stuff so she really likes that class. She was very disappointed in science class, which she was looking forward to most. It wasn't as exciting as she expected. She really likes her teacher, Mrs. Bartolacci and has two of her best friends from preschool in her class. There is already plenty of cattiness/fighting in K, but it's mostly harmless (though annoying to hear about). We had K conferences in November and we were a bit surprised how well she was doing. Her teacher said she is great at cutting, can count to 150+, count by 2/5/10, knows/writes all letters/sounds, and can recognize and create rhymes. She did perfect on all of the "testing" they did, so she was ready for school! The first day of school I took a couple of hours off, but she did her regular routine with the bus and I just followed along. Actually, G missed her first day of Kindergarten due to a lovely stomach virus :( But the second day she was there! Nick took her to the same place they've always gone for preschool./daycare, but now G is in the school age room. I drove there to see her get on the bus (so little!) and then met her at school to see her off the bus and walk her to class. It was great being there with her and she did great!
Is taking dance for the 4th year! Is taking 3 classes this year, a 5-6 ballet, a 7-8 ballet, and a K-2nd grade hip hop. At first she only wanted to take two ballet classes, but I talked her into trying hip hop at the last second and she really likes it! Bonus, we found out one of her best friends from school is in the class too. Her teacher was concerned she didn't like the 5-6 class since there were some "behavior problems" with the kids, but when I asked G about the class she said "no I love that class, I get to help teach the other kids, I've never gotten to do that before". It was so cute. I guess the teacher uses her as a leader/demonstrator a lot, so she really likes that.
Favorite colors are hot pink, bright purple, teal, silver, gold. She really likes rainbows lately too - she wanted a rainbow room for her new bedroom.
Foods she enjoys lately are ham, baked fish/pork, peanut butter sandwiches, oranges, apples, sour cream and onion chips, cheese breadsticks . She's been kind of picky lately but still eats well.
Kids watch mostly PBS - she likes Wild Krats, SciGirls, Curious George, Curious Crew, Sid the Science Kid, Clifford. She still likes Fresh Beat Band and Bubbles Guppies some times.
She learned how to cast her fishing pole this summer all by herself...finally got that timing right!
Gabs said "I want new dresses", I said "But you haven't even been wearing the dresses you have lately", and she said "yeah, because I don't have very may fashionable ones...."
Is still very interested in science, we do chemistry experiments at home. She knows so many weird facts about animals and bugs, she surprises me everyday. She made fun of Oliver sleep in his car seat and he had sweat on his upper lip....she said "Oliver's sweating like cow! Cows don't sweat, they breath out their heat from their nose, so Oliver is a cow." Along with the tone she said all this in, Nick and I though it was pretty funny.
She loves the city and says "I'm going to live in big city like Lansing when I grow up". She also told me she is going to marry a "city boy" when she grows up, or live with Kaylyn in Lansing. She said she didn't like the girl she sits next to on the bus because "she's not very city-like".......oh boy.
Really enjoys girl Lego sets. She loves following directions, so she has quite a few 7-12 year old girl Lego sets that she can build by following the instruction books.
She just started showering herself instead of taking baths with her brother. It is nice to just tell her to go take a shower and it's done!
Is 38lbs (13th%) and 42 inches (5th%) at six years old. Not a big kid, but healthy! She wears mostly 4/4 (XS) clothes from girls section or 5T and size 10 shoes.
She loves to swim, but can only swim underwater...we need to work on swimming lessons this year
She loves to write and spends lots of time writing little notes and stories.
She had her 6th birthday party at Preuss Pets in Lansing - her first real birthday party somewhere besides our house. It was a mermaid/sea life theme and it turned out great! We had about 15 kids attend and they did a great job. They had a tour of the whole store with education, touching animals, and feeding the fish. Then they had more education and petting right in the party room too. We had pizza and cupcakes, and everyone had a great a time!