Della has her own page on here, so I wanted to start one for Lana, too. This one won’t be quite as daily journal-ish as D’s is, though. I’ll use this space mainly to keep track of milestones, stats, things of that nature. Basically whatever I’d want to keep track of in a pen-to-paper journal and/or stuff that doesn’t really go in a baby book. So here we go…
(FYI, because I write so much about these kids, their pages are all broken into yearly chunks so as not to crash my site. I’ll keep the current year on the main page for ease of use. Enjoy!)
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January 5, 2023
Happy New Year, my love! You keep saying you’re not looking forward to 2023 because you just don’t like how it sounds, so I hope it proves you wrong. You deserve nothing but a great year, my sweet baby girl!
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February 1, 2023
You are getting some math intervention help at school this year. Unfortunately, you’ve fallen a little behind and I really hope you don’t get too far back. Your STAR test scores were really low in both fall and winter this year, so I’m afraid you don’t understand everything you guys are learning in 4th-grade math but you don’t like asking for help. You’ve said you hate math all year, and I did tell your teacher about it earlier this year and the low fall test score, so thankfully she’s been pulling you aside for extra help for a while now. But after the winter test score, they decided you needed a little extra. You’re in a group with 3 other 4th graders, so I really hope it helps. They said you’re really not that far behind and feel you’ll be able to move out of the intervention group quickly, so that’s good news. I have you do a lot of extra Dreambox practice at home, so hopefully that helps you, too. I’m sorry math is so hard for you this year, my love, but you are so smart and I know you can catch back up.
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February 8, 2023
Your first field trip in years! The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades all went to the symphony today in a brand-new theater, and you said it was great. Something you finally enjoyed at school! You took school buses, and the twins and I saw them all getting lined up in front of the school when I picked them up. We were hoping we’d see your class walking out, but we didn’t. You weren’t looking forward to it very much, so I’m really happy you had fun. I always loved the symphony field trips when I was in school. You said it was they did a water part where everyone in the theater snapped at the same time and it sounded like a waterfall. Awesome!
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February 9, 2023
Tonight was Open House at school, and I absolutely LOVE it every year. You were so patient, too – we went to Morrison’s room first, then the twins’, then yours last, and the twins were total nut balls by then. They were running all over your classroom, rolling around on the rug, messing around with all the flexible seating options in your room, but you very calmly took me through everything on your checklist, proudly showed me your immaculately clean and organized desk, played a math game with us as I tried to keep the twins in line, and showed us your locker. Seeing a tiny peek into your life at school is always one of my favorite days of the school year, and I’m so very proud of you, my love. One bright part about seeing your room last was that we did get to spend the most time in your realm.
Also, tooth #13 came out today! I’m pretty sure it’s the first time the Tooth Fairy has visited our house this year.
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February, 16, 2023
SNOW DAY!! I got the call yesterday afternoon preemptively, and you all cheered when I told you the news. I love snow days, because it’s like a mini-weekend for me, too, without having to get up to do the morning routine. I was extraordinarily productive around the house and with work today, so that made it even better for me. Daddy was home, too, as pretty much the whole city canceled stuff in preparation for this winter storm that blew through. We didn’t end up getting nearly as much snow as predicted, but I didn’t mind having an extra day home with you guys. Plus you made another delicious batch of pancakes for breakfast, something you used to love doing and haven’t done in a while, so that was a fun treat, too. I let you all stay up late last night and sleep in as long as you wanted today, and I said you could have as much time on your tablets as you wanted. Snow day = play day!
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March 1, 2023
You took the STAR test again to see how you’re doing in your math intervention group, and you’re back up to 95%!!! That is amazing! I’m so, so proud of you, Lana, and I knew you could do it. You just need to always believe in yourself! Congratulations, my love, you get to leave the intervention group. You worked hard and you did it!
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April 10, 2023
You’re Spotlight Student at school this week! You get to pick out 10 pictures and take 2 little objects to class to tell about yourself, and Mrs. Bowman sent you an “All About Me” slideshow that you get to show everyone, too. You’re having fun picking out your pictures from the past couple years, and you’re taking the tiny astronaut you guys got on Easter and your travel fairy coin in as your special items. I love seeing what’s important to you and how you describe yourself, because you are like no one I have ever known, my love.
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April 22, 2023
We took your best friend Noelle to the public museum with us tonight for mystery night, because Morrison had a birthday party, which left us with an extra ticket. Unfortunately she was sick and home from school yesterday so wasn’t feeling super great, but I was so glad she could still make it with us. Plus the food was terrible this time! We were all expecting the great buffet of cheese, fruit, and dessert platters that they had last time, plus the bread you’ve been waiting for again since then, too. They didn’t have any of it! They had individually bagged muffins, snack bags of chips, cheese sticks, cups of watermelon, wrapped brownies, Jello cups, and bottles of lemonade and stuff. Yuck! I felt terrible that Noelle didn’t get a proper dinner, and she looked really worn out by the end of the night from all the walking around. But I think she still had fun, and you two especially loved doing the touchscreen time line in the Egyptian tomb area. Next time we’ll make sure to eat dinner before we go!
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May 3, 2023
You’ve started working on your decade report for school, the big report 4th graders do on the first decade of their lives, and you’re so into it! I love seeing this! You’ve gone through all of our old photo albums picking out 1 picture from each year, and you were amazed by the cupboard downstairs where I keep all the years and years of photo albums I made before I started doing our annual photo books from Snapfish. You said, “It’s like an ancient library with all those huge books!” And by that you meant encyclopedias, ha! You are totally digging in to this, and I’m so proud of how hard you’re working. You’ve asked me questions about what we did every year, and you want to know how old you were in all the pictures when you see stuff we’ve done over the years. I’m glad this is turning out to be so fun for you, my love, because usually you think school stuff is such a chore.
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May 5, 2023
You lost another tooth at school today! At least I think you’ve lost one there before. But you got a cool little plastic tooth-shaped holder necklace from the clinic to keep your tooth in after it came out. You’re spending the night at Eleanor and Liz’s tonight with Della, so at least it came out early in the day and the Tooth Fairy doesn’t have to find you over there. I’ve missed a couple lost teeth in here over the past month or so, but I think you only have 2 left to lose!
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May 31, 2023
Happy Spring Sing day! I always love watching you guys sing the songs you’ve practiced with Mrs. Cruz all year and do all the dances, and we got beautiful weather for it today. We’re almost to the end of the school year, something I know you can’t wait for!
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June 9, 2023
Happy last day of 4th grade! You’ve said repeatedly the past couple months that you don’t like school and you can’t wait for it to be over, but you really did have a good year. Your incredibly hard work in math paid off, and you do actually like reading and writing. And of course your love for art and creative artistic ability is off the charts. So happy summer vacation, my love. We’re gonna have a fun one, and I hope you enjoy every minute of it. We’re so proud of you!
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July 14, 2023
We’re in Canada and you tried water skiing for the first time ever today. Della got up earlier, and you are so coordinated, I had a feeling it would be a breeze for you. On your very first try, you got right up but went right back down. It just got harder from there, so you never quite got a run in, but I know you’ll get it next year. The little Snoopy Ski School skis you were using are so old, we’ll get a new pair before next year that will help a ton. I’m so proud of you for giving it a shot, my love! Your bravery and physical abilities never cease to amaze me.
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July 15, 2023
You are so excited – you learned to shuffle doing the bridge today! You’ve also learned to play solitaire on this Canadian trip, and I absolutely love seeing you guys play endless games of it up here like we always have.
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September 7, 2023
Happy first day of 5th grade, my love! Your last year at Cumberland – what?? I know you’re not really looking forward to going back to school, so I hope you have the best last year of elementary school possible. Unfortunately we couldn’t find your brand-new shoes that you’ve been saving to wear to school this morning, but I’ll fix that asap! I hope you have fun today!
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October 21, 2023
Happy 11th birthday!! I’ll do your full birthday post separately, but I always like to say it here on your page, too. I hope you have a wonderful day today, my love!
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October 25, 2023
Today was a half day of school for the Halloween costume parade and then I had conferences with all of your teachers this afternoon. Every single one of them said how well all of you are doing and how much they love having you in their class this year, and I could NOT be more proud. Ms. Colo said how great you’ve been doing in math in particular lately, which was beyond amazing to hear since that subject has been your hard spot since last year. She even said you did so well on this last unit that she’s going to push you to do an even harder level in this next unit! Keep up the incredible work!!
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October 26, 2023
You had your Red Cross babysitting class today, so you are now a certified babysitter, too. Two babysitters in the house – hooray!
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October 29, 2023
You had so much fun trick or treating with a couple of your best friends today in both our area and Noelle’s, and you got over 8 pounds of candy!
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November 14, 2023
We had your last class music concert at Cumberland last night, and you did great. I said you looked very unenthused on the risers, but you said you weren’t trying to. 🙂 I think you’ll have a band concert plus the Spring Sing next spring, but this was your last grade-level concert in the Great Room. So, after the closing song you guys sing at every concert begging the parents to take you out for ice cream, I finally did take you to DQ afterward. Della came to the concert with us, and since they didn’t have their last concert in 5th grade because of COVID, she got some, too. We also took your friend Ruby, who lives just down the block from us, and you guys loved it. We were the first ones in line, and thankfully we got there when we did, because the line of Cumberland families was out the door when we left! A great end to your elementary-school music class career!
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November 28, 2023
We had your 11-year-old checkup today, and all was healthy! You had to get blood drawn to check your cholesterol levels, and fortunately those were normal, too. You were so funny – they had you change into a gown for the checkup, and you said it looked like you’d just been in a coma and why didn’t they give you one with ducks on it instead of the boring pattern for adults. 😀 Unfortunately you had to get your vaccination shot, tetanus shot, flu shot, and blood draw all in the same visit, so I got you some candy from the clinic pharmacy on the way out. Here are your official 11-year-old stats:
- Height: 4′ 11.25″ (79%)
- Weight: 84 lbs. 6 oz. (53%)
- Blood pressure: 112/62
- BMI: 16.9 (40%)
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December 15, 2023
I took the day off work to go on your museum field trip with you today, and it was a lot of fun! I had a group of 6 of you and you were way more squirrely than I was expecting, but I’m really glad I went. Got to see a little glimpse of you in your daily wild. 😉
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