1st Tooth

Ingrid lost her first tooth this evening while we were taking baths.  It had been wiggly for oh-so-long, it sort of became second nature to see it hanging.  To be honest, part of me didn't want her to lose it; it reminds me that she's growing up faster than I want.  My sweet little girl with her closet of dresses is losing her baby teeth - meaning grown up teeth are coming.

Oh Ingrid - stay sweet for me!!!

And Erik - you are such a photo bomb. So funny, I love this picture.

The Birthday Girl Celebrates with Family

It was a quiet family birthday for Ingrid today.  After homework, the Chung gang waited until I came home from work.  Ingrid was asked what she wanted for dinner.  After a vague description, she grew tired of our puzzled looks and drew a curved rectangle on the white board saying they were yellow and you eat them with meatballs.  Finally, we figured out she meant spätzle with gravy.  I wasn't quite up for the task after work and without half the ingredients.  Second choice:  Peter Piper Pizza.  We arrived and found many of Ingrid's former preschool classmates there for a school fundraiser.  How lucky for Ingrid to see friends Ella, Lexi and Victoria on her birthday.
We had a lot of fun and turned in all of the tickets we had collected for the last six months - Ingrid got a Hello Kitty stuffed animal and a ribbon twirler.  Erik got binoculars, Morgan got a boomerang and Annika got a miniature pool table complete with rack and cue sticks.
We came home to sing happy birthday with cake and open presents and take funny pictures.

Happy 6th Birthday Ingrid!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Ingrid!  You are so full of life with your beautiful smile and contagious laugh.  I can't believe you are six years old today.  Where does the time go?  I hope you have a great day today at school with your friends and Miss D.  Enjoy the Dunkin' Donuts (what a treat!).

So Sassy

What can I say?  Another great ensemble created by Grandma!  We love it.  Isn't she the SWEETEST?

Who's Assignment?

We got a Facebook post on our wall from a friend who has a daughter in Ingrid's class.  She frequently volunteers in the classroom:

"I have to tell you that Ingrid was cracking me up today asking me how to spell Annika's name. She wrote it on her paper trying to confuse Mrs. Thompson, as if she needs any additional help. It was hilarious!"

We certainly would not have noticed anything was amiss without this FB post.  After reading the post, I went to our recycle bin to pull out Ingrid's papers that she returned home in her backpack from school.  Like any parent rummaging through multiple backpacks after school - we looked over Ingrid's work briefly, but neither Woody or I looked at the top of her papers.  Sure enough, they were all signed "Annika".  Two examples (click on them to enlarge):

We asked Ingrid about this and she readily confessed to signing the school papers as such.  She said she wanted to make her teacher confused.  We asked why?  She said she wanted her teacher to keep calling her Annika.  Again, we asked why.  She said when Mrs. Thompson calls her Annika, the whole class yells back in unison, "IT"S INGRID!!"  Ingrid said she laughs hysterically when she can confuse her teacher.  Poor Mrs. Thompson.

***To clarify, Ingrid has the same teacher that Annika had in Kindergarten and we all know how much Ingrid and Annika look alike!  Oh Ingrid, you're so funny!!!!

Almost There. And She's Excited About It.

Ingrid is decoding words, memorizing whole words and practicing phonics all in attempts to make the leap and join her sisters as readers.  We are very pleased with her progress from the extra help in summer school reading camp to her kindergarten class.  And anytime in between we're working with flash cards and reading aides to add to her learning.  Why not?  She is that enthusiastic about it.  Really.  Really.  Neat.  Grandma and Grandpa - get your webcam ready.  A "fancy" reader may be calling you in the very near future to read bed time books - TO YOU.

Ingrid decodes the words from the "an" family.

"Yuck. I just read the word "bug" "

Ingrid reacts after decoding her FAVORITE WORD OF ALL TIME

Pinkalicious learns the origins of her name.

Back Soon

It's been a crazy two weeks.  I will be back blogging this weekend after Annika's big Lego party.  In the meantime, here's a funny picture from Ingrid's birthday yesterday:



Ingrid's best quote from her birthday party yesterday:

"Ahhww. C'mon Guys!! A word book?? THIS. IS. NOT. EVEN. A. GOOD. PRESENT."

I'm still laughing at it.  Thanks again, Grandma and Grandpa, for joining us for dinner and cake by webcam!

1st Day of School

Photos Now - Description Later.  Ingrid's 1st Day of Kindergarten.  No tears, this girl is ready to go!

Update:  Ingrid had a fantastic day of kindergarten and was all smiles when she got into the car.  Morgan was "plucked" for school safety patrol since she was already trained and her permission slip was signed during Meet the Teacher.  That meant Woody had to wait another 15 minutes while Morgan does her duties.  By the way, school safety patrol at Jacobson is akin to valet services since all they are allowed to do is open and close car doors for the kindergarteners.  But to a sixth grader, I guess it's a big deal.

The girls are all excited to be in school and see their friends.  Morgan's friend, Josie, spent her summer in San Fransisco and Wyoming and brought back a keychain for Morgan.  Morgan brought her all kinds of Smokey the Bear goodies and a friendship bracelet from Cut Foot Sioux National Forest.  Each was equally excited.

Ingrid has her dresses picked out for the rest of the week.  Priorities....

All Girl - All Fashion - All Ingrid

Ingrid showing off her new outfit for the 4th of July.  This was one of those "take pictures of me, Mom" impromptu events orchestrated by my fashionista.

Kindergarten Entrance Exam

Shhh.  It's not a test.  We forgot to avoid the word test and made Ingrid a little anxious this morning over the KIST - Kindergarten Inventory of Social-Emotional Tendencies - test.  The KIST test is a way for Kindergarten teachers to measure the incoming flock of 4-5 year olds.  It's a bit subjective, but it's used primarily in aggregate, rather than individual.  However, I heard that a teacher friend, not at Jacobson, had a few screamers who clearly didn't make the cut for this year.  They were advised to wait a year.

Back to Ingrid.  Once Morgan offered Ingrid a purse for her Pinkalicious doll and a mini plastic gumball machine, all fears seemed to be alleviated.  I drove Ingrid to Jacobson, while Woody stayed with Annika, Erik and Morgan.  Ingrid was in great spirits when she met Mrs. Puckett, one of the the Kindergarten teachers.

All went well with the evaluation.  Ingrid only remarked that she didn't like the shapes test.  She said the picture of the diamond wasn't good because it wasn't colored pink with sparkles.  She let Mrs. Puckett know that it wasn't a diamond unless it was pink and sparkly.  Otherwise, it's not a diamond.  It's just something ugly.  That's truly an Ingridism.

Watch out Kindergarten - Fancy Ingrid's coming!!!!

Ice Princess

Little Miss Ice Princess, aka Ingrid Chung, took her first tenacious steps on the ice today at Polar Ice Arena.  A fantastic Groupon deal netted us summer lessons for Ingrid for a super price.  She was apprehensive at first, hanging on me until I backed off.  Her teacher, Kimberly, really stoked her confidence and Ingrid was full of smiles during her first lesson.

"Mommy, I looooooove it!!!!" she exclaimed (loudly) in the car.  And at 100 degrees outside, I love taking her.  : )  Actually, I remember skating classes in Minnesota and my Burnsville jacket with the USFSA skating badges sewn on the sleeve.  I'll have to get that back out for Ingrid.

"Read a Fancy Nancy Book, Please"

"OK, Ingrid.  But how about we let the author of the book read it to you?"

I got a heads up about a limited live web cast of Jane O'Connor reading her Fancy Nancy books and answering questions about the creation of Fancy Nancy along with Robin Preiss-Glasser, the book's illustrator.  We signed up and received a link and password plus two free coloring pages to color during the web cast scheduled today at 4 PM.

Ingrid was thrilled that Jane picked a book that she already had so she could follow along with the story.  We took pictures and attempted to record some of the web cast on digital video camera.  We'll see how it turns out after we download it.  Robin drew and colored a Fancy Nancy illustration asking the kids on the web cast what color should the hat and shoes be.  She will be sending it to one lucky child tomorrow.

Jane answered questions about the books, how Fancy Nancy was developed, what's coming up by way of books and all other things fancy. (hint: a chapter book and a musical).  Ingrid enjoyed it.

Ingrid colors a picture while waiting for the web cast to begin.

Jane O'Connor begins the book reading

Ingrid following along with the reading.

A yet to be published illustration of an older Fancy Nancy, the detective.

Jane O'Connor and Robin Glasser discuss their collaboration.

Three Down. One to Go.

Third time's a charm!  Well, all times were charms with today's event.  Over lunch I registered Ingrid for Kindergarten.  The registration process was so smooth, so easy - it's like I'm a pro at this.  Of course I have a very different experience to compare it to.   I'm still not quite over Morgan's kindergarten registration - arriving in the middle of the night to stand outside the school to secure a spot in a lottery to get into one of the coveted Kindergarten classes.  And for that we had the privilege of paying more than $2500!  And this is the same school for all of the girls.  I'm not sure what it will feel like seeing THREE of my kids jump out of the car at drop off next year.  Wow!

Snow Day

Ingrid had her annual snow day at preschool today.  That's when the school pays a lot of money for a company to come over in their special truck and "make" snow for the kids to play.  The snow is a fluffy shaved ice.  Depending on the temperatures outside, it can make for a quick mush of sludge water in short order.  Today, we were fortunate to have temps in the low 50's in the morning when these pictures were taken.  Woody and Grandma went to watch the fun while I stayed home with Erik.  The collage was sent to us by Ingrid's teacher.

What a fun day to get to wear the "hand thingys" and wear winter clothes.

Diamondbacks vs. Astros

A work message popped up at 7 PM last Thursday offering a few sets of baseball tickets from the hospital.  I mentioned it to Woody - they were for Saturday's game - and he thought it might be a good idea.  A quick FB message to Tonne, our babysitter, and we had Erik all set.  I thought at first to wait until Friday AM to go get the tickets (first come, first serve).  But, at 10 PM, I decided to drive up to the hospital just in case.

Good thing, because another email popped up at 6:15 AM indicating the free tickets were all gone.  Night shift folks must have picked them up.  I was happy we had our five tickets.

There was very little time between the orchard trip and the baseball game.  We made the best and got baths for everyone to wash off the dust from the desert.  We packed a bag for Erik and some of his favorite cars and drove to Tonne's house.  Erik had no problem with his babysitter.

Ingrid's first baseball game started with a view of Chase field.  It's still hot in Phoenix, so much so that the roof was closed.  Darn, I wanted Ingrid to see the field with the retractable roof open.  I now get why the seats were free - upper deck!  We've been to games before, some in the suite as part of the hospital's leadership team, and some down the third base line.

After the many steps, the girls were ready to sit down and check out everything around them.  Hotdogs and drinks followed.  Ingrid was intrigued by the busted baseball bat the flew all over and hated the homeruns.  "Too loud, Mommy."   Morgan was interested in the stats and Annika just kept smiling.  She can't wait to tell her class about seeing the Diamondbacks again.

All of the girls declared Saturday a great day - from sun up to sun down.  We drove back to Chandler and picked up a smiling Erik.

It's a great Labor Day weekend so far!

4 Year Check Up

It's so true that every child is different.  Take today's task of going with Ingrid to her four year check up at the pediatrician.  Woody has been taking the kids to their well checks for the last many months.  When today's appointment was discussed, we agreed that it was my turn to take one of the kids.  I took a few hours off from work and sighed.  This is the visit with a few of the "biggie" vaccinations - the ones needed for kindergarten.

So I packed carefully.  Fancy Nancy Colorforms to keep her entertained.  Her Fancy Nancy stuffed dog, Frenchy, packed in my purse for comfort after the shots.  Her favorite Fancy Nancy skirt, shirt, necklace and hair bow to make her feel special.

We explained to her that there were a few shots with this visit.  She shrugged it off.  When we got to the doctors, Ingrid was all happy that she got to carry the "blue card" - her shot record.  "Hand it to the nurse when she calls your name" I said.  She took my words as a solemn oath and took great care to hand off her card.  Once someone commented on how pretty she looked, Ingrid gushed and then started a lengthy conversation about everything and nothing.  And she kept flashing her smile.

Dr. McKenna had a great conversation with Ingrid and pronounced her fit.  [I already knew that.  We were really here for the shots, thank you.]  Inclusive of her Fancy Nancy clothes, Ingrid weighs 32.2 pounds and is 37.6 inches.

Then came the shots.  Ingrid looked like it was a normal every day occurrence.  When it came to holding her hands so she could have her shoulder pivot toward the nurse, she closed her eyes.  And that was it.  And then she opened them, cracked a little smile and pivoted the other way.  Two more shots - zero reaction.  Nothing.  Nada.  She opened her eyes and said, "How was that, mom?  Thumbs up?"  Oh heck yeah, Ingrid.  Thumbs waaaaayyy up.  Way to go, girl!!!

Ingrid was rewarded with three bracelets and a sticker.  Plus high fives from all of the office providers on her way out.  The fancy girl in the corner room rules!

The Fancy patient arrives at her appointment.

Fancy Ingrid in the Fancy Paper dress playing with her Fancy Nancy colorforms.

The fancy paper dress.  "Tie it in a bow, Mommy."