Summer 2009

Let me fill you in on what Makayla has been up to over the last few months. She finished up her year at tap dancing and here is a photo of her with her costume on. She just loved her "tap dress"!

She and her group danced to "I'm a Little Teapot" as well as to a version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". Here is a YouTube link that another parent posted. Makayla is on the left of most of the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rEUCzhyyEo

There were 2 tap dance shows that were to last approximately 90 minutes and the kids were to stay backstage with the daycare personnel they had there. The ladies told me that Makayla struggled a bit being backstage without Mommy the first night (cried most of the time although it didn't appear that way when she was onstage dancing), and they suggested that I stay with her the following night. Makayla had been going through a phase where she seemed to dislike me leaving her anywhere even if she used to love to go, like preschool, tap dancing and even her sitter's house. So I stayed with her and kept trying to see if she was comfortable enough for me to leave, but we never got to that point. Since I knew when her dances were because I had watched the show the previous night, I brought her to my seat with me and we watched the show until it was time for her to go back to get ready to dance. She had no problem with me dropping her off so long as she knew that I was going to be there to get her once her dance was finished. I did go back and she came and watched the rest of the show with me and her father.

Here is our family shot after the show was finished. Makayla received flowers and a CD from Nana.

This is Makayla with her friend Tharen from her dance class. Tharen was born at 24 weeks as a twin, but his twin didn't make it. He is a great kid. His mother enrolled him in tap dancing to try to help his stability on his feet improve. He sure has come a long way from the beginning of the year.

We were already enjoying the campground by mid-May and here is Makayla doing one of her favourite things there - playing basketball. It's amazing how much she isn't nearly as scared of the ball as she was last summer. She was always a bit timid when she would try to get the ball in the net last year, but this year, she has no fear.

On June 4th, Makayla had her last day at preschool for this year. Here she is at the house before we left that morning.

Makayla went to preschool with 5 other children. The ones in black hats will be starting kindergarten in the fall while those in white hats will be going back to preschool in September. Here she is receiving her diploma.

Makayla had a very proud mother and 2 grandmothers to see her at the graduation.

Makayla's birthday is June 6th and originally I had told her that she could have a Nintendo DS when she turned 5, since that is how old her chum at the sitter's was when he got his. However, she has REALLY wanted one since last September and after she had proven to me this winter that she knew how to use one (she showed me how it worked!), I decided that she was able to handle one for her 4th birthday. Not to mention that when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she replied with "I would REALLY like to have a real DS." So here she is the morning of her birthday playing her "real DS". She was very excited to finally have her own.

Here is the river view from our trailer on the morning of Makayla's birthday.

And here is the birthday girl!

Makayla wanted a minigolf party at the campground, so we invited all of her preschool friends, her cousins and some other kids we know to come have a game. It was so much fun to watch the kids running around the minigolf course, which they had all to themselves since the party was at 11am. I have to say that this birthday party was by far the most relaxing and enjoyable one that I have planned for Makayla.

This is Makayla with all of her preschool buddies - Makayla, Emma, Hayden, Macy, Sabrina and Connor.

This is a picture of all of the kids who attended the party - Hayden, Jessi, Makayla, Emma, Sabrina, Macy, Gracie, Paige and Connor.

Here are the kids sitting on the hill behind our trailer.

This is the golf-themed cake that I ordered from Sobeys. Not your usual cake for a birthday party, but it seemed very appropriate.

This was Makayla's other favourite gift from her birthday - her scooter from Grammie.

Here is a picture of Makayla trying on Daddy's hard hat.

Just after Makayla's birthday, soccer started. She is playing with kids aged 3 and 4, although this is her first year playing soccer. She loved it the first practice, but I had a problem getting her to play the second week. She started crying and wouldn't go out on the field even if I came with her. I was at a loss about what to do. If she hadn't liked it so well the first night, I would have thought that maybe soccer just wasn't for her. During the week before the third practice, I tried to entice her with some rewards she would get IF she played, but if she didn't play, then we were going straight home. Once we got to the field, she was doing well before the coach arrived, then once the organized part started (as organized as you can get with 72 preschoolers and their parents crammed into 3 small soccer fields), she came back to me and wanted to go home. I knew that my rewards weren't working, so we marched back to the car, all the while I'm thinking "How am I going to handle this so that she will go play?" When I got her to the car I warned her that once we got home, she would be going into "time out". Well, she didn't like the sound of that at all. I told her that she had one more chance to get up to that field and play soccer. She ran all the way back and had a wonderful time playing the rest of the practice. And we haven't had a problem since. I think she was a bit intimidated by how physical soccer can be and she was nervous of her coach. Once she realized that her coach is a really nice guy and she just has to push right back when she's trying to get near the ball, this whole experience has become much more enjoyable.

This is another of Makayla's favourite activites - riding her bicycle. She isn't as nervous on her bike as she was last summer. We have taken some great bike rides on the trail right by our campground.

On her 4th birthday, Makayla was 42.5" tall and weighed 36 lbs.

She recently had her first sleepover with her cousin Gracie, which Daddy supervised since Mommy was out of town.

I asked Makayla if she wanted some strawberries, and her response to me was "I'm allergic to red food." When I reminded her that ketchup and licorice are red (2 of her favourites), she was confused as to how to resond. Now she will say that she is allergic to red food, but not to ketchup and licorice.

When I told her that her soccer team was called the Jays, she thought that I meant the letter J, so she figured her friend Josh's team must be the K's or the L's.

When she was showing her sitter how to play one of her DS games, she got frustrated when the sitter couldn't get it, so Makayla says "Oh, just let me do it!"

Her friend Josh got his hands dirty while they were playing outside, so he wiped them on the back of Makayla's shirt. She turned around and said to him "I'm not a wipe, you know!"

When asked to spell her dad's name, Makayla spells out CLAY. When asked to spell my name, she writes MOM.

She has started to try to sound out words. She nearly spelled Snoopy with very little help from me, just by sounding out the letters.

Makayla is extremely observant. I put up new curtains in the living room while she was at her sitter's and didn't tell her, and she noticed immediately, even before she got into the living room.

Makayla has been telling me that I am always right. I wonder how long that will last!