Trip

Well, I haven't really mentioned this here lately, but Sasha and her dad are going on a big trip! They're flying out to visit my husband's family in Montana (especially his mom, Sasha's Grandma), and to hopefully get a job out there so we can move. Cassie still has school so we can't go with until school is out.

Today, we spent a good part of the day getting ready. It was very hectic, with Sasha's 2 1/2 year pediatrician exam, her crabbiness after her shots, and trying to get everyone packed and ready.
After Sasha woke up from her afternoon nap, I took her to her preschool program so that she could play with some kids her age, and so that my husband could pack and nap if he needed. As always, she had a blast! There are so many toys to play with, and kids and activities. She made an arts-and-crafts project, did some pretend play with the kids (they pretended they were grocery shopping). The teacher always has a story time, and Sasha sat well for story time, and participated by answering questions. The story was about birds, and the teacher (Chris) would point to a bird and would ask the class what color it was, and Sasha was quick to answer.
Then it was Open Gym time, where the kids got to play in the school gymnasium, with bikes and balls. Sasha still can't quite figure out how to pedal a tricycle yet. She sat on one for a few seconds, gave it a half-hearted attempt, then ran off to play with her beloved toy car instead.

We left a little earlier than usual so that we could get Sasha home in time for an early bedtime. Her flight tomorrow is VERY early, so we'll have to wake up about 4am, much earlier than her usual 9-10am wake-up time.

Driving Miss Sasha

We were at the Early childhood program at our school system again this week. I think we'll try to do it every week because it's so good for her. She gets lots of interaction with kids her age, and while I think that's great for her development, it fascinates me to just sit back and watch her. She's got some great interpersonal skills.
She has a special way of approaching other children. When she sees a child that she wants to play with, she slowly walks towards them. She stops short right in front of them and stands there while trying to make eye contact. Then she very very slowly steps forwards into the child's personal space. She keeps inching herself forward until she gets closer. She leans in to them and tries to get eye contact. If she gets it, she bursts out with a cheerful "HI!" and a wave. I wish I could get her process on video because it is really charming.
Somehow, her magic seems to work on even the most selfish of bullies. She brings out a protectiveness in other kids, especially in older girls. I've seen quite a few older girls (like 3-5 year olds) protectively mother-hen Sasha.
Sasha is great at sharing. If she is playing with a toy that she likes, I've seen her try to offer the great toy to other children that she likes.
I've never seen any child try to hit Sasha. Like I said, she somehow manages to charm even the bullies. I have seen a few kids snatch toys from her hand. When that happens, Sasha gets this bewildered look on her face, as if to say "Now why would you do that?". But she doesn't try to take it back. If another kid takes a toy away from her, she doesn't really care about the toy anymore. The child has her interest more than the toy and she'll watch that child for a while instead.
I love how nice Sasha is. She's just a sweet child. I hope that she stays as nice. I'm sure she'll go through her phases, but I just want to believe that this is her true personality.

During gym time, the toy cars are like the toy that all the kids want to play with at the early childhood program. Eventually Sasha did get a turn with the car (her favorite). She took my car keys and discovered that they fit perfectly in the car's "ignition". I found it amusing.
There is a little boy that Sasha gets along with very well. He is as sweet and charming as she is, and they share with each other. They took turns with a riding toy together. Sasha sat in the seat and the boy (1 month younger than Sasha) pushed her around the gym. Then after a little while, they swapped roles. I thought it was adorable and tried to get a pic, but they were too fast for my cell phone camera, hehe!

Sasha's House

Here is one of the toys Sasha LOVES whenever we go to her little preschool program. It's an old toy though, not available for sale anymore. It's a Little Tykes play house. She loves to open and close the front door. The mailbox opens and closes and there is a plastic envelope that can go in the mailbox like little fake mail. There's a little garden with plastic carrots and turnips and stuff that she can pull out. There are flowers and spinning birds. And even a doorbell. She mostly just opens and closes the door, and opens and closes the mailbox repeatedly, never getting bored of that.

Most of the time she spends at the Monday preschool program, she spends defending her house. Sometimes other little intruders try to come inside but she stands her ground. She doesn't push them. They might try to push her, but she stubbornly stands firm and eventually they go away and leave her to her house again. Now that's my girl!

Baby Fun!

We found out that our local school district has a preschool program for children ages birth through 5. So I decided to check it out. They have daily activities, a classroom open to the kids that is chock full wall to ceiling full of toys, story times, open gym. They have a toy library, where you can check out and borrow cool toys. Plus they have other stuff like classes for parents, field trips, arts and crafts. Wow!
I took Sasha to her first fun filled evening. She's not really used to interacting with anyone outside the immediate family, so this should be great for socializing her. At first, Sasha went into a very quiet, observing mode. They started out with story time and they had all these little chairs. I sat Sasha in a chair and she literally just sat there on that chair for like 20-30 minutes straight, just staring around and trying to make sense of what was going on:

After story time was over, she still just sat in that chair. The rest of the kids moved on to arts and crafts and playtime. Eventually I was able to coax her off that chair and into arts and crafts:

They made a turkey out of a paper bag stuffed with crumpled news paper, then they had each child 'decorate' a paper turkey feather. Sasha did just fine decorating her little feather. Go Sasha!

She warmed up to the classroom and played with toys for a while. They opened up the school gymnasium and put a bunch of balls, bikes, and outdoor-type toys in there. I took her to that and she ran around and pushed the bikes around. No she wouldn't ride them, she just wanted to push them:

After she got tired of that, we went back to the classroom of toys. Did I mention it was stuffed floor to ceiling with aisles of toys?

We stayed until they closed up the classroom and kicked us out. What a blast. Sasha made a little friend with a boy a month younger than her. Actually, they just stood in front of each other and stared, but when it was time to leave they said 'bye bye!' to each other, which was really cute.
There were actually lots of kids her age there. I think the interaction with other kids her age should be good for her. We'll definitely be doing this again. Especially during the winter months to keep us from feeling cooped up. I love this program