First day of school!

Okay, so I guess I should say "school." Having only one kid, I didn't feel like I could justify the cost of preschool here, so some friends from church and I formed a small preschool co-op. Mabes has more structured learning than she gets with just me, she's around other kids more, takes instructions from other adults, and I get some free time. It's great. We rotate the teaching schedule, and I'm even having fun planning my lessons--we'll see how that goes next week! Wednesday was her first day, and as you can see, she was very excited about it:

She's having a lot of fun so far, and was much better about leaving today than she was on Wednesday. ("I don't want to leave school! I want to stay at school all day!" Soon enough, kid...soon enough...) And I had fun getting my haircut and running errands by myself! I was surprised that I missed her a little, but there was no way she would have let me deliberate over plastic storage bins at Target as long as I did. Her only complaint about preschool is that she hasn't learned how to be a mermaid yet. Not sure where she got this idea, but she's quite set on it. That, and learning magic. I told her not to expect her Hogwart's owl until she's 11.


Mabes recently drew this picture of my parents, and at the risk of spoiling it, I'm going to go ahead and post it (Mom and Dad, you should be getting it today or tomorrow). Because I love it. For some reason, she's started drawing eyes and noses as huge circles, and it usually looks kind of weird. But on my dad, it looks like glasses. And next to his Mii, I think it's my favorite picture of him.


And yesterday while Mabes was trying to feel the baby kick, she observed that I always put her hand just below my belly button and asked why the baby was so low. Since she already understands epidurals and ultrasounds, I figured I'd go ahead and explain fundal height as well. I added that I was pretty sure that the baby's feet were up by my belly button and her head down low (given the odd sensations due to her hiccups the other night), and Mabes just started laughing. "You mean...she's upside down?!?!?" Yep, and hopefully she'll stay that way. "But...upside DOWN?" Yes, you were too, and that's good--especially when it's closer to the time to have the baby. "But olly bats like to be upside down! Our baby finks she's a bat!"


Perhaps Batman should be in the running. Unfortunately, now when I feel the baby kick, I just picture this in there:

(This is the best picture I have of those creepy bats at Animal Kingdom. I'm sure someone has a better one, but she still hasn't posted her Orlando pics yet...)

And it really creeps me out. Thanks a lot, Mabes.