Autumn Arrives

Sunny and bright first day of Kindergarten!

So the new school year is under way and things are going fantastically well for Jordan!  As we mentioned in the last post, there is something new and different about Jordan in the last couple of months and it is really starting to show to people outside of the family too, especially at school. Jordy is now a kindergartener!  He still refuses to dance and sing at music time, but one thing he is starting to participate in is "What did you do over the weekend?" each Monday.  He sometimes needs a little prompting from Daddy, but he always says something.  Dad says there was quite an ovation on the first day he did it.  And when I went to pick him up from school that first day every adult that was there for music time mentioned it to me; they were all so proud of him.  His teachers say he participates very well in class, his pre-school teacher approached me last week and mentioned that she was observing his class and she was just astounded by how much he was talking.  And then, of course, we were very excited to read this note from his teacher in his daily agenda on October 1st:

Even his occupational therapist's most recent assessment shows an improvement of leaps and bounds over even June of last school year!  It's amazing to see Jordan blossoming.  In addition to school, we currently have Jordy in private swim lessons.  We decided that we really need to get him learning to swim so that we can maximize his enjoyment of the lake next summer.  The kid clearly loves splashing in the water.  We skipped the local rec centre lessons however, because 1) public pools are extremely noisy and 2) we think 1 on 1 instruction would be most beneficial to our little guy.  It is a lot more expensive but it really is the right thing to do.  He still doesn't really want to put his whole face in the water but he is improving a little bit every week and looks forward to each lesson.

Jordan isn't the only Little Dumer who is learning lots!  I've really been trying to take Cygni to Strong Start at least twice a week.  She really loves painting and gym time.  And I love letting her do all the messy crafts there instead of at our house!  She has a very high opinion of the teacher who runs the program, immediately stating when she got her new Dora The Explorer slippers that she wanted to show them to Miss Julia!

Besides Strong Start, Cygni is back in dance class on Tuesdays and doing great!  Miss Annette says that for the next cycle in a couple of weeks, she recommends Cygni step up to the next level of dance program!  This is very exciting as it means Mommy has to wait outside of the class room and doesn't get to come in until the end of class when the dancers present what they have learned.  It will be a big adjustment for little C but I am confident she will be okay with it before too long.

 Cygni's first ride without Mom or Dad!

 And in further effort to ensure Cygni is adequately stimulated, nearly every Monday we get together with Auntie Michelle and Cousin Isabella for activities together.  Sometimes we go swimming and other times there are new activities like going to Fall Funland.  It's been really good for the girls' relationship to each other, they are more friendly now.

Lest you think everything is roses, we are going through some potty-training blues at the moment. Just after this trip to Funland Cygni peed in the potty for the first time.  I had been hoping that once she did it the first time she would see how easy it is and it would be smooth sailing from there on, but it has been harrowing.  We are very happy she has made this break-through but while she is reluctant to pee in her diaper (good!) she also hates going on the potty (bad!) and will hold it for HOURS, and (I mean 7-9 hours!) until she is crying and upset and ready to burst.  Keep your fingers crossed for us, everyone!  And all those people that said potty training girls is SO much easier than boys, you know where you can go...

At any rate, Jordan eventually found out that Cygni got to go to Funland with Isabella, he was a little jealous, so we took him out too before Thanksgiving.  It's not called Funland for nothing!

Cygni holding some horse-chestnut conkers,

The playground near Jordan's school is like a reverse mine-field this time of year, 

with conkers dropping from the trees at random and 

getting frighteningly close to conking one's noggin!

 Sporting Cousin Isabella's witchy head-gear

 

We got to have TWO turkey dinners for Thanksgiving this year!  We went to Nan Lynda's, that's Auntie Michelle's Mom, because she had too big a turkey and hardly any guests.  The kids had a lot of fun playing with Cousin Isabella.  They entertained us with Singing and Firefighting (watch the video above.)  Incidently, Cygni is very into fire-fighting right now.  She says she wants to be a firefighter when she grows up, well sometimes she says she wants to be an astronaut, but she comes back to firefighter more frequently.  Her third birthday is coming up soon and we are throwing her a Fireman Sam birthday party.  But I digress, I was talking about turkey dinner....  anyhow, the next day we hosted a Thanksgiving feast for our own family plus four other guests and we had a lot of fun doing that too. We are very thankful to have our family and friends.  And pumpkin pie.

I have a fun story about this pumpkin:

Last spring, Jordan was playing out front and picked all of our neighbour's tulips just after they came into bloom.  When I found out, J and I had a little talk and I told him that those flowers were very important to Sandy because she is an avid gardener, and that he needed to apologize and do something nice to make up for it.  So we went to the garden centre together and chose a new planter full of tulips.  While we were wandering around, Jordan spied a display of seed packets and said he also wanted to give Sandy some pumpkin seeds.  I was a bit skeptical about how successful she could be with pumpkin seeds, but this was something Jordan genuinely wanted for her so I wasn't going to say no.  We gave the gifts to our neighbour and promised that when it was time to re-plant the bulbs, Jordy would help.  Well, last weekend before our Thanksgiving Feast I was gobsmacked to see Sandy at our door that morning to present Jordan with a small pumpkin, the lone fruit of the seed packet he gave her last spring!