Mio’s adorable way of saying “bumblebee.”
She’s in a particularly happy mood because her Uncle Ted was over to visit!
Mio
“Hewwo!”
A cute video we took while having some family cuddle time this past weekend:
Mio can’t quite say “Hello” and it sounds more like “Heh-WOH!” right now. We don’t want to correct her just yet, as it’s so cute! 😉
Mio’s First Day of Preschool
Today was Mio’s first day of preschool ever! We had initially not planned on sending her to preschool yet until she turned three, but we saw that a very local preschool had one last opening they were trying to fill for the upcoming school year back in May (when most preschool enrollment has filled up) and I was noticing that she seemed more bored at home lately despite my efforts to take her on playdates and to playgroups, so we decided to go ahead and sign her up! Shortly afterwards, we discovered that we were expecting our second baby, so it all worked out because it will give me a little break from taking care of two kids once the baby arrives early next year. Hopefully getting out and having some independent time away from me, seeing that she’ll be fine without Mama will mitigate her recent clinginess, too. It’s just two days a week, from 9am to 12 noon, so it’s not that long and I think it’s just the right amount of time away while she’s still at this little age.
Last Friday, we went to the preschool’s “sneak peek” so Mio could meet her teachers and see the different classrooms she’ll get to go to:
The “sneak peek” was really helpful because it got Mio used to the classroom environment, and she got to familiarize herself with her teachers (who were all super nice!), and get excited for preschool. All weekend she was repeatedly saying, “Gakkou!” (Japanese for “school”) and “Fun!” so it was reassuring to see that she was looking forward to it.
This morning, we got up bright and early to eat breakfast and get ready for Mio’s first day of school!
Of course, we had to take some obligatory photos in front of the house to remember this milestone!
Each classroom at the preschool has a door that leads outside facing the parking lot, for easy dropoff and pickup for parents. We all gather in front of the door in the morning, and one by one the kids are ushered into the classroom, and parents are encouraged to just stay outside and watch them go in. The teachers help the kids hang their bags and coats up, and get them situated in the classroom.
Mio didn’t cry… probably because she didn’t even realize that we weren’t coming in with her until we had left. I wasn’t feeling that emotional this morning while I was getting her ready and taking pictures of her, but the moment I saw her go off into the classroom, my eyes welled up with tears. It was bittersweet, and I couldn’t help but cry when I got home, too, wondering the whole time what Mio was up to and how she was doing. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wonder for too long. For the 2.5 year old class, because they’re still so little and need time to transition, they start on a graduated schedule, where they are just at school 9am-10:30am (for 1.5 hours) the first week, 9am-11am (2 hours) the following week, getting 30 minutes longer every week until they reach the full 3 hour schedule the last week of the month, which they’ll stay at for the rest of the school year. Even the 1.5 hours today felt unexpectedly long because I’ve gotten so used to being with Mio all the time.
When I went to pick her up at 10:30am, they had already put some photos from the day up on the bulletin board, as well as some updates about what each child did/liked.
For pickup, the parents wait outside the same door we dropped the children off at, and the teacher opens the door and one by one calls each child and hands them off to their respective parent. Even though I was the first mom to arrive, Mio was the last one to get called and come out… apparently because she was showing no signs of wanting to leave! Even when they brought her outside, she kept going back inside to play with the Lego toys inside. I had to practically drag her out of the classroom and into her carseat because she was so reluctant to leave!
Mio kept exclaiming, “Gakkou! It’s so fun!” on the drive home, and she was so excited from the day that she skipped her nap (much to my distress). Tonight, as we were getting her ready for bed, she picked up her school bag and said “Gakkou! Yay!!!” She can’t wait to go back tomorrow! I’d spent the whole summer wondering and worrying about how she’d adjust to starting school, but it turns out it’s proving to be a much easier transition (at least so far) than I expected! We’ll see how the following weeks go, when the novelty starts wearing off… I’m hopeful that she’ll continue to love school, though. After all, it’ll be her “job” for the next twenty years! 😉
Dutch Wonderland
I’d been wanting to take Mio to an amusement park this summer, but as we found at carnivals and fairs in the past, most rides require kids to be at least 36 inches tall, which Mio is just shy of. It’s hard to watch when she gets super excited to get on a ride, and then we have to turn her away because she’s not tall enough to ride, which she doesn’t really understand and then of course she gets confused and upset. I did a little research, and found that Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, Pennsylvania is an amusement park designed for small kids, 2 to 10 years old. It’s perfect for toddlers, as many of the rides are okay for kids under 36 inches to ride, and there are plenty of family rides too in which younger children can ride with their parents. While it’s a 2.5 hour trek from where we live, we thought it’d be worth it to make the trip up to give Mio a fun-filled day in which she could go on rides to her heart’s content!
It went pretty fast!
Only minutes after this photo was taken, while we were still in line for the Turtle Whirl ride, we had a really harrowing incident. I don’t know what idiot decided to place the designated smoking area right next to a toddler ride when designing the park, but a man started smoking there and the line we were standing in was directly downwind of the secondhand smoke. I was feeling just fine until then, but as soon as the smoke entered my lungs, I felt extremely dizzy and started having trouble breathing. I squatted down against the ground to avoid inhaling any more of the smoke, but then when I tried to stand back up, I lost my vision completely and all I could see was solid bright pink. It became even harder for me to breathe so I was gasping for breath, and could barely manage to sputter to Dan, “I can’t see! I can’t see anything…” and then my legs turned to spaghetti and buckled underneath me. Dan immediately grabbed my arms and moved me and Mio out of the line and onto a nearby bench. Because I couldn’t see anything nor feel my legs, I just heard Dan urgently saying, “Excuse me, we need to get out of this line” to the people around us and then telling me, “Sit down. Sit down, Misono!” and I remember being confused because I felt like I hadn’t moved at all and wasn’t sure if he meant for me to sit down on the ground, right where we were. But I guess Dan had somehow maneuvered me to a bench and once I sat down and got me some water to drink, my vision started returning. I could breathe and feel my legs again, but was really shaken up by what had just happened! It must have all transpired in less than a minute, but in that short time I was so frightened that I was going blind, or possibly going to die from not being able to breathe (I know, it’s dramatic of me, but you never know!). I’ve had times in the past where I’ve had blackouts or lost strength in my limbs because I used to be anemic, but I haven’t had any serious dizzy spells in the past five years, and none of the ones I’d experienced before were like this where I couldn’t breathe and my vision went bright pink. We’re still not sure what exactly happened, but Dan think it’s a combination of several factors — the changes in my cardiovascular system and heart rate due to pregnancy (as your blood volume increases 30-50% during pregnancy), perhaps having low blood pressure and/or low blood sugar, being slightly dehydrated while standing the heat, and the secondhand smoke just triggered the perfect storm. It’s so strange though because I felt completely fine just beforehand! I feel so lucky that Dan was there to help me and take control of the situation; I don’t even want to think about something like that happening while Mio and I are out alone on an outing! Once I regained my composure a bit, we went over to the nearest dining area and got some food in me, and I started feeling like myself again once I sat down for half an hour and ate lunch. I felt awful that I’d scared Dan, and that Mio didn’t get to go on the turtle ride she really anticipated, and I was also really concerned about whether the baby was okay after what had just happened to my body. I’ve felt the baby move since, but I’m going to talk to my OB about it the next time I see her just to be sure everything is fine. Dan’s also filed a complaint to the park about the placement of the smoking area. Smoking areas should be a good distance away from the kids’ rides, not right next to them… otherwise, what’s the point? The smokers might as well be huffing away right there in the line with you.
Anyway, we didn’t want to let that scare affect the rest of our day, so we continued onto the rest of the park…
Dan remembered that one of my favorite rides at amusement parks is the flying trapeze swing, and pointed it out to me in the park. At first I didn’t want to go on it, because Mio wouldn’t be able to ride it and I didn’t want to just go on a ride for myself and make Dan and Mio wait… but Dan kept urging me to go on it, so I got on and it was actually really fun and refreshing! I’m glad Dan was so insistent on making sure I had some carefree fun, too — that’s why I love him! 🙂
The noise on this ride was a little annoying, but Mio didn’t seem to mind it…
As we were leaving, Mio kept blowing the dragon in front of the park kisses and giving it air hugs, saying “thank you!” and “bye bye dinosaur!” Such a sweetheart. I was able to catch a little bit of the tail end of it in this video:
I’m so glad we made the trip up to Dutch Wonderland! Our whole family had such a fun-filled day, and just watching Mio so excited and happy filled our hearts with joy! She was totally in her element and running around. enjoying every ride, game, and play area to the fullest. The next morning, she woke up exclaiming, “Dinosaur! Fun! Whee!” She must have been reliving all the fun she had in her dreams. We’ll be sure to take you again sometime, Mio! ♥
Little Dancer
Mio is quite the dancer these days! Here’s a cute video Dan captured of her earlier this month, twirling and jumping to some music.