Two Teeth Down...

Marcos grabbed Gigi's first tooth out with needle nose pliers and yanked it out.  The next one came out a few days later at school when Gigi twisted it out during snack time.  She is rocking the gappy grin!

The World's Youngest Teenagers!

Although I know in my brain that Orion is 3 years old and Gigi is 5, I still feel like I'm raising the world's youngest teenagers.

(Yaaaaay....)

Here's the latest from the peanut gallery.

***

Orion: When I turn 4, I'm going to do whatever I want to do.

***

During a moment of intense frustration at Marcos and me...

Gigi: You... FOOLS!!!!

***

Gigi: (mumbles something inaudible)
Me: What was that?
Gigi: Nevermind.  What I said wasn't true.  I'm glad you didn't hear me.
Me: ...Okay...

***

At bath time when we reminded him not to do something dangerous...

Orion: It's my choice!  You can't control me!

***

Having a mommy daughter heart to heart about priorities and decisions that adults have to make...

Gigi: I want a nice house when I grow up and I want to keep it really clean and I want to make nice food and never eat...  What are those things we had on the airplane?  (This is half a year after our trip)
Metta: Uhhh... lunchables?
Gigi: Yes, lunchables!

***

Orion: Mom!  I'm going to be the new John Lennon in the Beatles!

Cookie Stand

Back in September, Gigi and our neighbor Michael finally had their big opportunity to live out their dream of running a joint venture.  Tutu was helping to organize a yard sale, and although there was already another kid lined up to do a lemonade stand, we decided to jump on board with a cookie stand so that the kids could experience a little piece of running a business together.

First up was cleaning the stand.  Michael's dad James had painted a cute stand yellow and blue but it was filthy so we put the kids to work.  

And then after baking and cleaning up the stand, the big day rolled around.  Michael and Gigi wrote the name of their bakery on the chalkboard on the front of the stand, and opened shop.  Unfortunately, business was slow and they found that running a joint venture was more complicated than they thought it would be.  Within the first hour, the partners were split and mad at each other, and Michael wanted to go home.  It was awesome teaching Gigi about welcoming customers and how to do sales though!

Oh well, first time for everything!

Peanut Gallery

The latest from the Peanut Gallery:

Gigi talking with Marcos about the time machine she is building with her friend Michael.

Gigi: I'm not really sure if I want to get that time machine working.
Marcos: Why not?
Gigi: Because I'm not used to all that success.

***

Gigi at the age of 5, talking about her future husband...
Gigi: I hope he'll be a democrat!

***

Gigi: At church it's always calm, quiet, calm, reverent.  My thing is fast, fun, loud!  That's why I don't like church.

***

I had read something sad and was having a sad moment, laying on the bed.  Marcos came out of the shower and lay next to me and put his arm around me.  Gigi and Orion walk in...

Gigi: Are you guys mating again?
Metta: (Stifling a laugh).
Marcos: What does that mean?
Gigi: It's when moms and dads get naked and smooch each other.
Marcos: Well, I'm the only one naked so I guess not.

Orion: You're a nice mama.  But you spank us sometimes and that's being a bad sport!

***

Orion: When I grow up, and I'm an adult, I can be a wonderful dad.

***

Orion: Mama, if you want to be a better Mama you need to fix yourself.

***

Metta: Orion, everything about you is just reminding me what a big boy you are!  You're holding your shi shi through the night, starting to brush your teeth and you can even take off your clothes and get dressed all by yourself!
Orion: Yeah, then I can drive a car!

***

Orion: Gigi, you're the best world in the girl!

First Day of School!

Maybe I'll change my mind someday, but I am definitely a mom who prefers the rhythm of the school year to the freedom of summer time.  I'm late, of course, in posting about the first days of school, but I'm glad that I waited because these two have really come into their own over the past few months and I am loving watching them in their school element - so happy and well plugged in socially!

Gigi is in her final year of Kindergarten at the Emerson Waldorf School, and although she started off the school year a little hesitantly, she is now fully in the middle of things.  She has a new little best friend named Donna Marie, and she loves some of the new boys in her class, especially Alex from Poland and Johann from Germany.  There were very few boys in her class last year and they were very high energy, and while she loved them, she couldn't match paces with them and they just didn't have much in common.  Now she has more of a spectrum of boy personalities to choose from and she has found a few very good boy friends.  

As a human being she is so different from the girl that she was last year - she is now more in her head and more thoughtful and more even-keeled socially, whereas last year she was the youngest and was such a class clown, trying to figure out social dynamics with a class of mainly older girls.  Gigi is definitely an artist with her head in the clouds, and sometimes she frustrates me because she can't follow through with two or three simple commands.  I tell her to go upstairs, get dressed and brush her hair, and I follow five minutes behind her to find herself in her pajamas, making faces at herself in the mirror, nothing accomplished.  But at other moments she directs her feet and her will, and I'll find that not only has she done what I asked, but she has prepared the toothbrushes and folded all of the blankets for both her and Orion's beds.  Her teacher Miss Robin says that at school she is no longer the little ray of sunshine that she was last year, but I'm getting used to the thoughtful, smart, powerful, joyous, and loyal friend that she is becoming.

And then there is Orion.  I was so happy that this year panned out exactly how I was hoping it would - We found a small yet lovely group of friends to do coop preschool with, so he has his "preschool" every Wednesday morning.  We rotate homes, and so every four or so weeks I teach all of the little guys at our home.  They are all boys, and there are only four, which has made life dreamy.  I remember my first year of doing coop with Gigi, there were 7 kids in the group and it was stressful.  Four is perfect.  This year my friend who is heading up the coop preschool insisted on also doing field trips, which has been such a treat.  Every month we go somewhere fun with our friends, such as the Observation Deck park at the airport to watch airplanes, the Fire Station for a tour, and in December, a care home for the elderly, to bring them some holiday music.  

I was worried that Orion would take a little while to warm up to me leaving while he is at preschool, but he didn't.  He used to be really clingy but he is growing into his independent self, and I love having a few hours each Wednesday to do something by myself in the morning.  Being a stay at home mom, it is a rarity to have those hours when my hands are liberated from having to tend to a child.  

And that is where we are!  In school, and very happy about it.  Yay!

Gigi and the ITP Episode

At the beginning of September some weird things started happening to Gigi's body - a bloody nose that wouldn't heal, big dark bruises that we couldn't explain, tiny reddish dots on her legs, and finally, sores in her mouth when I went in one night to brush her teeth.  And that was when it all came together for me - these symptoms weren't separate from one another, they were all related, and I realized that the inside of her body was bleeding.

After putting the kids to bed, I went straight to the computer and typed out her symptoms in a google search bar.  This can be a dangerous idea because being an internet MD has the power to make you certifiably crazy, but I actually found exactly what I needed, immediately.  Something called ITP ("Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura"), or... leukemia.  Fortunately, after climbing the mountain of fear, I was able to rule out leukemia because kids with cancer are extremely sick, pale and listless and in contrast, my Gigi was still bouncing off the walls.  So, it looked like the culprit was ITP.  ITP is an autoimmune disease that occurs when some type of virus goes through the body and offsets the immune system, causing it to identify platelets as enemies and then destroy them.  Luckily, the prognosis for kids is fairly good - although it can be dangerous, many kids heal without any intervention and the immune system is able to reset all on its own.  

So the following morning I made an appointment at our pediatrician's office, and then I went off to lead the Parent Organization meeting that had been planned weeks before.  Marcos took Gigi to the doctor's office and when I arrived, Dr. Goldbach had just finished making his diagnosis - it looked like ITP.  I actually was glad that Marcos was there for most of the appointment without me because he's better at stroking the male ego - he just listened patiently to Dr. Goldbach describe the symptoms and then quietly beat him to the punch - "So, you think it looks like ITP....?"  Dr. Goldbach laughed and asked, "Have you been doing your research?"  Marcos responded, "Metta has".  Good man.

After they took Gigi's blood at the pediatric office so that they could look at it under a microscope, we went out for milkshakes as a family and then headed home for a quiet afternoon.  Marcos was feeling under the weather himself, and it was relieving to have him home from work for a few days.
A few minutes into my rare afternoon nap, the phone rang and it was Dr. Goldbach.  He said that Gigi's platelet count was 5,000 and that we needed to head to the Emergency Room at UNC hospitals, where they would be expecting us.  A healthy person has a platelet count of 150,000 to 440,000 and our daughter had 5,000 with sores already in her mouth.  Since bleeding in the brain is the worst thing that could happen in this case, and she already had open sores, there was no other option but to take her in immediately to be treated.

After some rather dull hours in the Emergency Room, where I retold our story multiple times at differing levels of detail to every health care provider who came in, we were transported to our room in the Children's Hospital.  Gigi's blood had been drawn again in the ER, to confirm her platelet levels, and the result was 8,000 - definitely low enough that she needed treatment.  The treatment was called IVIG and it's basically the antibodies of thousands of healthy plasma donors.  For whatever reason, it helps to kick the immune system back into normal mode and it will often do the trick permanently, without any need for further treatment or thought about ITP.  Gigi was in good spirits in the hospital once we got to the children's floor - there was a play area, access to TV, and there was a pantry full of juice, cereals, Italian Ice and ice cream.  Walking around the floor to explore made it very clear that we were in the hospital with a jackpot emergency health crisis - although Gigi needed to be there for treatment, she was literally skipping down the halls, while very sick children lay still in their beds in the rooms we passed along the way.  We were really thankful that we weren't there for something worse.

That night we ate sushi for dinner, and Gigi received a very slow drip of the IGIV through an IV in her hand all through the night.  Marcos insisted on staying with her so that I could sleep in our comfortable bed, and I went back in the morning after a good night's rest at home.  Gigi had slept comfortably all night long, and was in good spirits, although she was mortified by having to pee in the "hat" catch in the toilet, so that the nurses could measure her output.  Around noon we were given the okay and were discharged from the hospital.  All in all, not a shabby experience.  I was slightly frustrated by the seeming lack of communication among the doctors and nurses - they all had different things to say about when we could leave, for example - but when I texted my friend Amber about my frustration, she told me to ask for the Attending Doctor if I wanted clear answers.  She spent many years as a nurse and I was grateful for the tip.  I hated to "I want to talk to your manager" the place, but when I asked for the Attending to come speak with us, he is the one who really gave us our answers.

The week after Gigi's treatment we went back to the Pediatric Hematology clinic at the Cancer Hospital (again, seeing the other kids there made me very thankful that Gigi was so healthy) and her blood was drawn again to see the treatment had made a lasting change.  From a platelet count of 5,000 one week before, she was up to 337,000 - well within the range of normal, and it was such a miracle!  I had seen her symptoms clearing over the past week and was hopeful that her platelets were back in action, but the confirmation was so relieving.  She was back on track!

So, now what?  I have been watching her body in case the platelets improved for a time but not permanently, but we are at the point where we are now in the clear.  It is very possible that we will never have to deal with this again.  We are thankful for competent health care and for this darling girl Gigi in our lives!

This Girl Looks Like She's FIVE

In April our big girl turned 5 years old!  It felt like she had been 4 for an awfully long time, and it was high time to move on.  Especially since she has been the youngest in her class this year, and age is such a vitally important thing to a Kindergartener, I think Gigi was ready to feel on par with the rest of the crowd.

Since her birthday fell during spring break, we did a lot of fun things that week and called them birthday celebrations.  On the morning of Gigi's actual birthday, we went hiking with Tutu at Johnson Mill Creek.  Gigi said, "I never want to come here again!" which made me think, "Wow, we really need to take the kids hiking more often".  (See how I did that?  Mean mom).

After soccer practice that afternoon (where we shared cupcakes with her soccer friends) and a sushi dinner out on the town per Gigi's request, we came home to presents!  That got an enthusiastic thumbs up.

But the celebrations just kept on going.  The week after Gigi's birthday we celebrated at her school, and the tradition is for parents and siblings to come and bring a few photos and talk briefly about their little one's life.  Gigi was very proud to show her school friends the photos from her infancy.  The kids baked a birthday cake for snack, there was a sweet advancing-through-life ritual, we brought fruit to share, and Gigi got to pick flowers in the yard and decorate her beautiful cake.  

I am so glad that Marcos was able to join us for Gigi's birthday celebration!  Since he is working a 9-5 type of a job, the parental presence at Emerson Waldorf School this year has primarily been my own.  It was fun to be there together as a family on a school day.

And then at the beginning of May we threw Gigi a birthday party!  It was in true Prieto form - cupcakes at Wilson park with a whole lot of people.  I tried offering her the "you can have a party... OR a really exciting, fabulous, super fun, amazing night as a family at a HOTEL!" trick, but she would not be swayed.  She wanted the party.  This was the first year that Gigi really wanted to do a themed party (some of her ideas were a blueberry party or a Marilyn Monroe/Pop Art party) but when I told her that we could either do a small party with a theme or a big party at the park without a theme, she quickly went for the big party.  Atta girl!

This was also the first year that we hosted not only neighbors and church friends and college friends, but the Waldorf crowd as well.  Only two of her classmates were not able to come, so we had a blast merging our worlds and the people we love!

With over 80 people and 5 varieties of cupcakes, I received a lot of compliments and awe for the time I had spent baking in preparation for the party.  But if any compliments were deserved it was simply for my talent at delegating - my sweet friends were happy to help out and brought goodies for the spread - we had chocolate cupcakes, red velvet, strawberry with homemade strawberry frosting, carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and banana muffins with chocolate chips.  It was a cupcake feast!  With a lot of other healthy snacks that friends had brought to share, of course.  

The main attraction after singing and cupcakes were the water balloons.  I delegated the water balloon games to Marcos, and he was awesome at rounding up the kiddos, as usual.  After some pairing up and fun back-and-forth toss games....

...either Marcos threw a water balloon at me, or I threw one at him, or someone threw a water balloon at someone else, and suddenly the place was a crazy water balloon fight.  Orion may have ended up crying at the end, but the other dozens of kids were thrilled, so life goes on.

After all of the hundreds of water balloons had been popped, Marcos led the kids in a traditional Jedi ritual of scanning the territory for pieces of popped balloon.  

And finally, here is Marcos with a few of his best buds from college, who came to celebrate Gigi's birthday with us.  It was such a fun party.  Thanks Gigi for making us such happy parents.  We love every little inch of silly little you!

And lest you think you can get away with reading a post of my children that doesn't contain any quotes, here you are:

Tutu: Thank you for having a birthday, Gigi!
Gigi: Don't thank me!  Thank mom and dad because they made me at just the right time!

One night when Marcos was doing bedtime routine and asking Orion to comply with some orders...
Orion: Poppy you are not the boss!
Marcos: Oh, then who is the boss?
Orion: Mommy is the boss!
Gigi: And you are the assistant, right?

One night, after we left the home of some close friends, Gigi was having a particularly quiet moment in the car...
Gigi: I am sending a message with my heart. I am sending a message to Kate and Amber's hearts.
Metta: Oh. What is your heart telling their hearts?
Gigi: Well there were some things that I forgot to say. Like, thank you for having me over and thank you for the delicious lasagna...

One day, just because I wanted her to know...
Metta: I really love your father.
Gigi: Thank you for loving him.  I really love him too.  We should all love him.

While planning out her future...
Gigi: Some day I will be a famous artist.  And I will work with my husband.  I will be a worker and my kids will go to daycare!

One afternoon, zero went the way of Pluto...
Gigi: Zero is not a number.
Metta: Yeah, I think it is, honey.
Gigi: It's a dwarf number.  It's really little.

:-)

Black, White and Grey

You know how I used to have lists and lists of great things that Gigi said?  Well, things are changing and although her imagination is blooming at the Emerson Waldorf School and she can play for hours in a pretend world, in other ways her understanding of the world is maturing and we're losing some of her quotables.  I even tried to do an interview with her a few months ago, and although her interviews used to be full of completely far fetched but confident statements and opinions about the present and the future, modern-day Gigi is seeing the grey areas of life instead of just blacks and whites.  When I asked her what she was going to be when she grows up she said something like, "I don't know yet" and when I asked her what color was her favorite she responded with something vague like, "I can't decide because they are all so pretty".

But every once in a while I am still running over to get my trusty pad of paper and pen to jot down word for word what spills out of her mouth.

Sometimes it's sweet....

"Why can't we just be close together like that so I can reach out my hand and comfort him?" said Gigi when her and Orion's beds were temporarily pushed together for vacuuming purposes.

And sometimes so classic 4-year old....

"The game's not FAIR if I can't win!" while losing a Memory game to a friend.

Futbol Soccer

This fall we signed Gigi up to play with Rainbow Soccer, one of our local leagues.  It was perfect - the four and five year olds only meet once a week, from 5 to 6pm on a Friday, and each week we brought a picnic dinner and enjoyed eating outside together on the field.  It has been such a nice connection time for our family.

Gigi has not demonstrated the same physical prowess and interest in balls as Orion has, but we were confident that she would warm up to the idea.  At soccer practice numero uno, things were not very promising - every ten minutes Gigi was over asking about eating a snack, and during the practice scrimmage at the end of the hour, she preferred to sit near the goal and chat with her new friends than to actually play.  But over the fall season she learned so much, thanks to the world's best volunteer dad coach - Eamonn Fitzgerald, who is originally from Ireland.  We really lucked out with him, because he was so energetic and well-prepared for the kids each week.  

And what comes next?  Well, I gave Gigi the choice of playing again next Spring, or taking a break and starting again next Fall, and she opted for Spring, which surprised me, since she's been kind of ambivalent about the whole thing.  And it sounds like Coach Eamonn will be signing up again to Coach the kids, so we may very well be doing this routine again much sooner than I thought.  Gooooo Rocket Dragons!

Gigi goes to Kindergarten

And so we've entered into a new chapter of life!  Giovanna started her first year of Kindergarten at the Emerson Waldorf School last week, and so far, I think things are going as well as could be hoped for.  Last night when I tucked her into bed she said, "I wish I could just be at school already!"

Kindergarten at Emerson Waldorf is a half day affair, so she eats lunch with her pals and then I pick her up.  The first few days she was definitely exhausted when I came to get her - I was hoping she would play on the playground so that I could get connection time with the other parents, but she was very ready to go home.  In her classroom there are 4, 5 and 6 year olds mixed together, and 8 out of the 12 are on the older end of the spectrum and will be aging up into 1st grade next year.  I think it stretched her to keep all of her little emotions together for an entire four hours!  Luckily, by day three she was relaxed and ready to play after school with her friends.  

Gigi's transition to school was aided by a good roll-out of fun events.  Prior to the first day of school, we had some good playdates with a few friends in her class, I organized a playdate for new families at the school playground, and the school organized a number of potlucks and a puppet show for the Kindergarten families.  On day 1, Gigi saw many familiar faces and jumped right in!  I left her and her little friend Olympia peeling carrots in preparation for their snack that day.

Here she is on Day 1, in front of her Kindergarten doors with her lunch, and in front of her cubby.  The kids play outside for a good chunk of time every day, rain, or pouring rain, or shine, so rain boots and jackets are kept in this little space with her name on it.

Our sending Gigi to Emerson Waldorf School has generated a lot of interest from friends and strangers who ask where Gigi is going to school.  It must be confusing that we are paying a private school tuition for a non-academic Kindergarten setting that is not about prepping her for college at age 4, but that is exactly what we are doing!  And I think that most people who visit a Waldorf Kindergarten see why - it is everything homey and lovely about childhood - play, work, recitation, helping and a wholesome environment.  (HERE is a good comparison of Waldorf and Montessori Kindergarten settings, since everybody asks how they are similar or different).  

And finally, a glimpse of school through Gigi's eyes.

Me: What have you enjoyed about the Emerson Waldorf School?

Gigi: Playing and eating lunch.

Me: What have you learned at school from your teacher?

Gigi: Some verses and poems.

Me: Who do you like to play with at school?

Gigi: Olympia and Serena, and Danielle.

Me: What has been your favorite snack so far?

Gigi: Porridge and the bread (they make it themselves).

Me: What do you wish was different at school?

Gigi: I wish we could cook in the kitchen instead of at the table in our room.

Me: What kind of person is your teacher Miss Robin?

Gigi: A nice person and a sharing person. 

But someone is a little sad about Gigi starting school.  Every day Orion gets a little pouty face and says, "I want Gigi!".  We're still adjusting to our routine without her...

Flying Children

Marcos made a group of really wonderful friends as a student at UNC, and we've been having regular, if infrequent, potluck meals with them over the past year or so.  We had his friends over this past week for dinner and in the warm summer evening we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.  Keith is a budding photographer and took some great photos of Marcos and the kids silhouetted against the darkening sky.

And then Shane got ahold of a few of the photos and decided to use his photoshop skills to make some tweaks.

But this one is by far the best.  Thanks for a laugh, Shane!

The Birthday and Graduation Celebration

At the very beginning of May, on a Saturday a few weeks after Gigi turned 4 and a week before Marcos graduated from UNC, I threw a joint party to celebrate these two loves in my life and their special occasions.  Since I have become the queen of easy parties, this was actually enjoyable for me for every second except the hour running up to the party when the charcoal wasn't getting hot quickly enough, per usual.  The elements of our happy party were simply: sidewalk chalk for the kids to decorate a Happy Birthday Gigi sign and a rented pavilion adjacent to a super playground and park...

...lots of good potluck foods because I have gotten to the point in life where I would rather have people bring food than gifts (we grilled and provided the kosher dogs, buns, condiments, drinks and cupcakes)...

...we had about 80 of our friends and family (favorite neighbors, ward friends, Marcos' school buddies and work friends)...

...a few frisbees and bubbles...

...and of course, CUPCAKES!  

Of course, as the hostess there is always some background gopher work to be done and I never get to talk with people as much as I would like to, but the weather was prime and the troops looked happy.  My only disappointment with the day's festivities was that I never found the opportunity to give a little speech I had been planning to give - to a special little girl who makes her parents happy and proud every day, and to a husband who, despite kicking against the idea of going back to school for many years, finally did so and ended up bringing to his studies the same enthusiasm, hard work, love for the people around him and magnetic zeal that he brings to every aspect of his life.

Happy 4th Birthday, sweet Giovanna Vitoria, and Congratulations Babe, for graduating from UNC!