Slowy Chloe

I've had to use this name a lot with my first born lately.
Her waking up before seminary bright eyed, bushy tailed, and ready for school has slowly come to an end already (did I mention I'm teaching early morning seminary? LOVE IT!). She, like the long line of matriarchs before her, enjoys her sleep. Not even her excitement for school has carried her past a few weeks! Some mornings she comes out and when I've got the other two ready for the day and she's still eating her breakfast, I have to ask Ms. Slowy Choe why she told the real Chloe to go away and how to get her back. Any tips for how to speed a child through morning routines before school in a timely manner without bringing the said Kindergartner to tears before school each time she goes would be appreicated.:-)

But she does LOVE school. Immensely. That's a bit of a relief for me, sometimes Chloe gets apprehensive about things she has not yet experienced and adopts a refusal to participate. I work her through it, but now I have to give the reigns to someone else and that's a little hard sometimes. She has totally surprised me and gone above and beyond what is required of her for schoolwork every day and seems very enthusiastic about learning. I'm really glad we got to spend the year doing at-home preschool together, but I think letting her go out and experience this school thing on her own has been really good for her.
At least while she's at school anyway. I have noticed that since her half time schedule includes two full days of school and one half day, after those full days are over, she's pretty pooped. And since she loves me more than anyone in the whole world, I get to experience her lovely temper tantrums the whole way home some days.
"WHAT?!!! You WALKED today? MOM! I don't wanna walk home!!!"
"Chloe, you were excited to walk to school this morning, why are you upset?"
"I just decided that I hate walking!"- followed by the return of Slowy Chloe with every step home and frequent sniffles and sobs the entire 10 minutes it takes to walk back.
"MOM! MOM! Guess what?!!!"
"What honey?"
"My friend invited me to her birthday party on September 23rd!! Can I go? Please please please?!?!"
"Yes, well....so, Chloe, September 23rd is a Sunday (because we are Mormons, we keep our Sabbath Day as a day of rest and don't do any work or recreation)- what do you think the right thing to do would be?"
Her face falls. "GO TO CHURCH!!!!" she wails, and then cries through the entire three errands I have to run after school that day.

I kind of have to be on my guard when I pick her up from school on the long days, I'm never quite sure which Chloe is going to make her appearance.
BUT, we did get her to learn how to ride her bike with no training wheels on the first try yesterday! She cried the whole way getting on to the bike...until she figured it out very quickly and now can't stay off her bike. She also learned how to tie her shoes the first time

However, all is not tears and wails. Despite my hectic schedule this year, I've been able to sneak away for an hour each week (thanks to my Mother in law for watching the kids!) to help volunteer in her classroom and we LOVE it. I get to walk to school with her, just Chloe and me, and spend some time helping her teacher (whom we also LOVE) and then help manage a station for literacy groups. I also get to watch her learn more words that we haven't got to yet (she knows about maybe 10 star words and is learning more each week).
She's been very helpful with some of our diet changes in choosing healthy things to eat and never complains at our dinner selection. In fact some nights she's the only one to tell me she loved what we had. :-) We talked about our bodies and where our food goes (and also where it comes out- hard to keep a straight face while talking about that scientifically with a five year old and a four year old) and how some foods we eat help us to be happy and have lots of energy and other foods, while they are good to eat sometimes, make us tired and lazy if we eat it all the time and then we have no energy to do things like run and jump and ride bikes.
She LOVES to help me "babysit" when I have to do quick things outside of the house like take the trash out or check the mail- she happily volunteers to play with the babies (I watch two babies during the day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon) and/or with Odell and by my five minute babysitter. She's actually very helpful with this and I should start hiring her for longer while I'm working on things in the house because she knows how to entertain them better than I can. :-)
All in all she, as always, has been one of my best friends. She reminds me so much of myself sometimes it's scary, but also reminds me that there is a reason we were put together as mother and daughter on this earth and I look forward to the friendship we'll share as we get older. And as far as that goes, Slowy Chloe can stick around as long as she likes as long as it means she stays little forever. :-)