She talked to us about rules and all the information she needed from us for a bit. She also went over the student handbook with us. It was almost as intimidating for us as it was for Morgan. Once we were done with all the boring stuff, she took us on a tour of the school and all the places Morgan would need to go. Our first stop was the lockers. They will start using them once the weather gets colder and they need jackets/boot/hats/mittens and all that fun stuff. Next up was the lunch room. We went to the gym next, where she’d been a few times before when she had self-defense. We visited the library, music room and all she could talk about were the computers they were going to get to use. When we left, she was SO excited.

Wed. came and Josh stayed home to see Morgan off for her first day of school. Getting up was a bit tough, but we tag teamed it and that made it so much easier. Morgan had her outfit picked out the night before so we just needed to get dressed and go. On the way there she kept telling me how she didn’t want me to drive her, she wanted to ride the bus. I told her that I wanted to take pictures, and she was still not too happy with me. She said I could only take ONE picture and that was it! Well, I took about 4, and we walked her in. She was very excited once we got there and just wanted to get into her class. Thankfully we were in a rush because there were so many people there and they were all in a hurry so there was no time for tears or long drawn out emotional overloads (at least from me). It was a bit painful for me when we left the school, but I know it’s the process and she’s going to LOVE it.

Josh and I came to pick her up, which she was again, unhappy about. She wanted to ride the bus home so when we came to get her, she was a little disappointed. We wanted to celebrate her first day by taking her to Dairy Queen for a special treat. She was excited about that. When we got home, she informed me that she wanted to ride the bus home – she did not want me to get her.

Thursday I was on my own to get her up, get dressed and get her to school ON TIME. I did it! We were right on time. The drop off procedure is pretty slick. You drive up and someone is there to greet you. They open the door of your car, they will help your child out and escort them into the school. You do not need to get out of the car at all. It’s great…and much safer than having kids running all over. The woman we’ve seen each morning so far is great. She opens the door and tells me how great Morgan is and that she “wants to see her ‘Morgan’ smile”, which just makes Morgan laugh. If we want to pick up our kids, we’d have to park in the parking lot and then go in, wait for someone to bring the kids to us and that just wouldn’t work for me because I have Miina to take in and out each day. The bus system also works pretty slick. At first we were worried because there is a transfer the kids need to make between busses. They all wear tags around their necks, telling the school teachers/aids where each kid needs to go and what bus they belong on. It works pretty well, even though it sounds confusing. Morgan LOVES riding the bus. She was surprised on Thurs. when she came home and saw that all of the neighbor kids were on the bus with her. She was SO excited when she got off the bus.

I’m not getting much information out of her as far as what she did at school (because they do so much I think it’s overwhelming for her), but I know she’s having a great time. And LOVING the food. Most of it anyway. It’s going to take a while to get a rhythm down, but we will soon, I hope.

Here is my public profile.

Here is my first test run. I just did a quick run with Miina tonight. Not sure why it thinks Im in Chaska, the map is correct though.

We went to Best Buy even though I don’t like to shop there anymore. I was looking for iPhone covers and Miina was getting quite bored. She didn’t want anything to do with sitting in a cart, so I let her walk around. She headed over to the CD section and proceed to threw CDs from the rack to the floor. After a few minutes of that we left the store, empty handed.

Since it was just me as the only one who cared about where we had lunch, we headed to Long John Silver’s. Miina at some fries and very few bits of chicken. After that we went to PetCo and got some dog food for Toby when he gets back and some vacation food for the fish. Miina was pretty good there b/c she was in the cart.

The rest of the weekend was not quite as exciting. Miina was very clingy. Probably b/c she was bored and there was no one else but me there to distract her. She did got down to bed without a fuss which was great for me. Sunday was a little rough, her being more fussy than usual. I did have her outside with me and she was playing in her car seat on the garage floor. She was bound and determined to figure out how the buckle snapped together. Screaming when she couldn’t get it. She would get mad and walk away, then come back for more attempts. I just sat there and watched. Letting her vent as the frustration overwhelmed her. Her 1 year old hand-eye coordination just isn’t there yet. She was not able to buckle it, but that what she doesn’t, she tries and tries and doesn’t give up easily. I hope she keeps that quality for the rest of her life.

She is doing really well. She is 50% for head, 15% for weight and 50% for height. Our doctor isn’t concerned about her weight for now, he said she should even out over the course of the next 3 months (by her 12 month visit). If she doesn’t, then we will discuss what to do then.

We told him, she eats everything we give her and we don’t stop feeding her until she pulls away. We are not limiting her eating at all, so we were surprised when she weighed so little according to the charts. And she seems like she’s fairly big compared to other kids her age…oh well.

He was impressed with her gross motor skills as far as crawling and standing and those sorts of things.  He said she’s ahead on all of that and it could account for her weight loss.  I was worried about when she does start walking, usually kids lose a lot of weight do we need to worry, he said no.  He said the only thing we can’t feed her is red meat, so we’ll start with chicken and things like that.

She also got a flu shot and her finger poked for a hemoglobin test.  The hemoglobin was just fine.  She did ok with the hemoglobin finger poke, barely made a sound.  She just wanted her finger back.  Then for the flu shot, she was more mad about having to lay down than the actual shot.  Morgan was more upset than Miina..hehe.  She was plugging her ears and trying to block it all out.

On Saturday we took Susie to Morgan’s gymnastics class and then had Papa Murphy’s pizza for lunch. I was getting tired so I laid down for a while. Well I ended up taking a 3 hour nap…oops. So nothing really got done during the day. That night I did end up going through 4 boxes of my crap in the basement while Susie watched Miina.

On Sunday, Leslie and I got to go out on our own, which was very nice. We had a nice lunch at Houlihan’s and got to do some shopping. Since it was cold and snowy it was nice to not have the kids with us. Later on Sunday night, we just relaxed and gave the kids a bath.

Our neighbors said they would watch the kids while Leslie took Susie to the airport. This allowed Leslie to get some work down in the basement on Monday morning.  So we had a pretty good weekend. Thanks Aunt Susie for getting up with Miina and watching the kids so Leslie and I could get some thing done and spend some alone time together.

Learning to sit up on her own in Ireland too is leading to other advances. She has been reaching for objects on the floor and ending up on her belly. She puts her arms up and wants to crawl, but ends up just getting upset. I usually leave here there for a few minutes so she can learn that it’s ok and maybe take some stides forward. On Saturday, she was sitting on the floor playing with her toys. I looked over and saw her with one of Toby’s chew toy. By the time I ran over to Miina she had already had it in her mouth. YUCK! That kids can streach those arms.

So far she really likes carrots, apple sauce and bananas. She’s not too keen on the green beans. She must have got that from Leslie.

We caught the train again, with the help of Herma’s sister Valorie.  She was heading home so she brought us to the train and showed us where to get off to meet up with Matt.  We were on our way to lunch at an Irish pub to get some Pub Grub (as they call it).  It is set up as a cafeteria style where you get your food in a line, and then go find a seat.  Josh, Matt and I all got the “roast rib of beef” and Ginny got the pork loin.  Marty got the fish and chips.  Once you select your main meat then you can choose the sides.  I got mashed potatoes and gravy with broccoli.  The food was VERY good!  Ginny gave Miina some mashed potatoes to taste and she seemed to like them.

From there, we went to Trinity college.  That is where Herma went to school and graduated.  It’s a beautiful old college where the “Book of Kells” is kept.  It’s an old book that was transcribed in latin and contains the first 4 gosspels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).  It shows how the scribes created the book and how they made the colors.  It was very interesting.  From there we went up the stairs to the “Long Room”, which was a huge library with manuscripts dating back to 300bc or older.  They have some of the oldest books/manuscripts in the world.

After that we went to the art museum a few blocks away.  It was very nice and very big.  We needed to kill some time so we could meet up with Herma after she was done with work.  We walked a few blocks to the same shopping area we were at the night before.  We met Herma at a small cafe’ for some mocha and scones to catch up with her since Josh and I hadn’t seen her yet.

Herma needed to go and get some things done for the wedding and get ready for work the next morning so we headed home and Matt headed to his place.  We took the train back to the Ryans’ house from downtown (City Center, as they call it).  Sarah made roast chicken for dinner and it was very good.

Morgan had a great day with Sarah.  They played around the house a bit, and then went to feed some ducks at a nearby pond.  Morgan had a great time with that.  Sarah asked Morgan to help prepare lunch and she made herself some little sandwiches.  She also helped Sarah prepare dinner for us.  I could tell when we got home that Morgan was a bit tired, but we’ll keep her up as much as we can so she sleeps better tonight.

Josh and I leave for London tomorrow, and the girls are staying home with Granddad, G.G. and Uncle Matt.  They plan to go to the zoo and maybe run a few errands.