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Remember how reluctant I was about even putting Annie into pre-school last, and opted to only choose the 2-day-a-week-2.5 hour plan for her. This year I went crazy and signed her up for one extra day each week. Well, I've gone even more bonkers. As of Wednesday Annie is now signed up for 5 days a week for 5 hours a day. She will even be eating lunch at school each day. You may be asking, "What was she thinking?" The director approached me to say that they overlooked the fact that Annie turned 4 before September 1st. Apparently, this qualified her for the Pre-K/Kindergarten program they've got. It's more of an intense program than the one she was currently signed up for. I discussed it with Mike, and we were both sold on the idea. Within a day Annie's now practically a kindergartner, and she couldn't be happier. The minute she found out she'd be eating lunch there everyday she immediately asked if we could get her a Barbie lunch box. Where does she learn about this stuff? The Barbie lunch box was not purchased; instead we got a cute, unicorn one that I liked. I can't believe unicorns are making a comeback. I'll have to pull out those crystal unicorns, dragons, and fairies I've been hiding in the closet (I hope you know that I'm kidding--sorry if I've offended anyone who collects crystal figurines.)

Mimi is happy for her sister but also jealous of her school experience. She has been quite reluctant to leave each day after dropping off Annie. Ok, I'll admit I've had to actually drag her out kicking and screaming out of the school everyday so far. Does this mean that she doesn't look foward to one-on-one time with Mommy? I am hoping that we'll be able to focus on potty-training her now that Annie's not around to distract. It's so funny though how different Mimi acts without Annie around. She's very laid back and sweet. I noticed this while in Minnesota when Annie stayed with G'ma. My hope is that we can bond even more and that Mimi will be given the opportunity to flourish on her own without Annie. Mimi and I are enjoying our alone time. She's making progress on learning letters. I can confidently say she knows M, S, O, R, B, H, E, and A (in no particular order). I was starting to worry because she was really fixated on E, and every letter I asked her to name would elicit the response, "E". No headway yet on the potty front, but I'm not going to stress about it. It'll happen when it happens (despite Mike's rush to get her trained). I constantly give her the opportunity to try the big potty, but she's usually keen on going in her diaper. What can I say, if she finds a method she likes, she sticks with it;) As mentioned before, Mimi is quite smitten with Dora and Diego. One of the Diego cartoons that we have on video has him rescuing a baby bear. Mimi takes one of stuffed bears and will rescue it as it's hanging off the edge of something (countertops, couches, radiators). The kicker is that she comes to me first and says, "Oh no, Baby Bear is in trouble!" I then must say, "Go rescue him, Mimi!" Mimi will then go "rescue" the stuffed bear from its current life-threatening situation. However, if I don't give my rehearsed response, then I'm asking for trouble. The problem is that Mimi would love to play this game all day and everyday. Why do children not tire of doing the same thing over and over and over...?