I had high hopes for kindergarten. Not just for my daughter but for me as a parent (especially as a former teacher). Overall, kindergarten went well. Initially, there were the ups and downs of maneuvering all the social aspects of a classroom with only five girls, in which two of them were the ringleaders, "mean girls", or whatever label suits them. The teacher did not foster a warm and inviting atmosphere, and I don't think P felt safe or even didn't feel like she was being heard when she had valid concerns. The teacher wasn't big on communicating. 

I tried to volunteer in the classroom but was often told there wasn't anything to do. Since I only had Fridays off (and Fridays were short days with noon dismissal), I gave up and Friday morning became my errand day. Plus, with my gall bladder attacks, "normalcy" was kinda put on hold for about 4 months and by then school was coming to a close.

It really bugs me when people tell me that I'm uptight or that I need to relax. I know that I'm a perfectionist and that I like things a certain way. So why is that being uptight? I guess my daughter's recent behavior has put things in better perspective for me. Recently, my in-laws watched my daughter and her 3 year-old cousin at our house. Of course I was cleaning the house like a maniac before their out-of-town arrival.

'Twas the night before kindergarten

This mama was a hot mess!

As I poured through old photos

Of my little princess.

We picked out an outfit

Made sandwiches with peanut butter.

All the while, the girl was excited

But my heart was aflutter!

Well, we did it! We closed escrow on our house in Morro Bay. We decided six months ago that we wanted to move out of the area to a place where it is more community-oriented and family-friendly. Anytime we wanted to do something on the weekend or the holidays, we couldn't. There were too many tourists and it was just too busy. Forget going to the grocery store. We had been here almost 7 years and haven't really met new friends. It doesn't help that we both work in SLO and pretty much do everything in SLO. But, after talking to a lot of our friends and colleagues, Los Osos was the logical choice. Still by the Bay, liberal town, horse-friendly and best of all, much cheaper to own a home than most other options, or so we thought!!

She's certainly not a baby anymore! It has been two years since I have been able to sleep without my child. P was a great sleeper as a baby, never had any issues putting her to bed or sleeping by herself...until a series of unfortunate events occurred, or at least from what I can remember. Roughly two years ago, she had a few back-to-back colds/viruses. She was still in her crib, but we must've taken her out because she was having a hard time breathing and I was probably paranoid about her not being able to breathe or sleep. One night turned into many nights and fast forward two years later, she still wasn't sleeping by herself.

After a six month hiatus, we returned to dance combo (jazz, tap, and ballet) at the Dance Academy of SLO. Since we're slowly transitioning away from afternoon nap (we're fortunate that our 4-year old is still napping!), it's a better time on our free Fridays to resume dance. She's been doing so much spontaneous dancing on her own and since we've only been committed to swimming, we figured it was time for her to do something else that was fun during the summer months.

For lack of better words, I'm not sure how to phrase this group of friends that came back together when we were teaching 3rd and 4th grade together. So, I have referred to them as my "3rd Grade Level" friends as evident in this post back in 2011.

Anyhow, Marta, Christine, Virginia told me they were coming to visit in a couple of days. Yikes! My house is a mess and I'm not going to have any time to clean for company! We met for lunch and headed to the beach for a couple of hours.