The Kasickis

Emma's First Day of School

Emma had her first day of Kindergarten today. When I called her after school she told me "it was even more awesome than I thought it would be!". 

We started the day by going to Tony's for doughnuts. Emma had her favorite doughnut and exclaimed "THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!". We took her to the in-home daycare she was at before she went off to preschool and a couple of the kids were still there. Emma didn't really remember them, but we did. It turns out that one of the kids at the daycare is in her class, so she knew a second kid going into the first day (we already knew one of her friends from dance would be in her class). 

She got on the bus just fine. Her other friend from dance, who is not in her class, was assigned the seat next to her on the bus! So she had a friend on the bus as well. It was total luck of the draw as well. There's probably five busses that feed the school and the bus driver assigned the seats. 

We met her at school and helped her navigate the lunchroom where they served breakfast. After that we led her to her class where we dropped her off and said our goodbyes. Darrah was very proud that there weren't tears from either of them.

She rode the bus back to the daycare where mommy met her. 

Pictures of her first day are up on our flickr site. Here's her getting on the bus:

Emma's Last Two Weeks

Since getting her tonsils out, Emma's had a relaxing couple of weeks (for the most part). We were supposed to go to a Cardinals game, but a kicking and screaming fit (including having to be carried from the doctor's office) put an end to that.

One thing that we did do was get her hair cut. Mommy allowed her to choose if she wanted it cut to her chin or shoulders. This is what she picked:

She does look awfully cute.

She feels fine now and just had to have some M&Ms as her first crunchy food yesterday (she is her daddy's daughter). It was a celebration of making it two whole weeks.

She'll be off to Gram and Papa's house on Thursday and then she starts Kindergarten next week. She's got a couple of big weeks coming up.  

Tonsils!

Emma had her tonsils and adenoids taken out this morning. We arrived at the doctor's office about 8:15 and by 9:15 they were wheeling her back into surgery. They let her ride a Radio Flyer wagon and waive to all the nurses on the way back to the surgical room. She was allowed to take George, her stuffed monkey, back into the surgical room with her. He was also given an ankle bracelet just like hers. 

The surgery went mostly well. She did bleed a little more than the average patient. There is a blood disorder that runs in my family and while she tested negative for it, they were rerunning a different test because the screening is not 100% positive. They had to put a stitch in one side of her throat because they couldn't cauterize the wound. That is why they drew the blood for the extra tests. Even though this time it wasn't a big deal, she will want to know when she's older (I've never been tested and it would be good to know so I can stop telling every doctor I might have it). 

She is pretty sore, but they've given her Tylenol with codeine for the pain. I don't think the IV pain medicine has worn off yet either. She's pretty tired and crabby right now trying to decide what to have for lunch. All she wants is hot dogs and cheese (good to see the anesthetic has not affected her appetite). 

All in all, she's doing okay. She'll be better after a nap (at least I hope).

Florida Pictures

I just realized that I never posted about our trip to Florida. We had a lot of fun. We did 2 days each at Disneyworld and the beach and 1 day each at Sea World, Kennedy Space Center, and the Daytona International Speedway.

At Disneyworld, Emma did see Cinderella, which was all she could take about for MONTHS leading up to the trip. Darrah and I were extremely relieved when Cinderella was the third princess she met (it was random). I got to geek out at KSC and Daytona. Darrah got to get extreme sun burns from day one at the beach. Okay, admittedly our memories are better than hers :)

The pictures are up at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25376936@N05/sets/ if you would like to see them.

Emma Dress Rehearsal

Emma had her dress rehearsal today. Her big dance show is next Sunday. They're having the class of 4 and 5 year olds dance in the 26th spot at a 7:00pm show. That means that these kids will be dancing sometime after 9:00pm. That should go well. It's probably a good thing that we saw the dance today at the rehearsal.

Emma's Graduation

We had Emma's preschool graduation on Wednesday night and the pictures are posted to our flickr page. You can also see them above. It was a really cute ceremony. The kids all marched in to "Pomp and Circumstance", performed a few of the songs that they do everyday and then marched out. While most of the kids went right back to the daycare part on Thursday, it was Emma's last day because Darrah's out for the summer. Emma was really sad, but she didn't cry and that was her goal.

Otherwise, it's been pretty slow. I ran my first 5K in 39 minutes. Not a very good time, but the course was very hilly. I ran across the finish line (and ran most of the race) so I was happy that I finished. Didn't quite get my 35 minute goal, but it wasn't only me that ran slowly with the hills. It was kind of depressing to get passed by 2 or 3 of the 10k finishers on the final quarter mile though.

Like I said, Darrah has survived another school year and is looking forward to hanging out with Emma for the summer. They have lots of activities planned before we go off to Disneyworld and Emma has her tonsils out.

Our Newest Addition

This is the newest edition to our family, Ellie May. We picked her up on Friday night and she has made herself right at home. Her big sister (Taylor, not Emma) has been very excited. Emma has also done really well with her. She's sleeping through the night (a big plus) but not potty trained (a minus). If she's not playing, she's generally snuggled up with Darrah.

Weekend Update 3-7-09

This weekend Darrah's parents came down to spend some time with Emma. It's been a while since they've seen her, so she was excited to see them. When they got here, she had her "big race". She had been riding her bike up and down the driveway for the last couple of days (it's been 80 here the past few days) practicing for the big race. When I got home from my errands and they got here, she had the race. Naturally, she won.

The house has been decorated for Easter time. Darrah and Emma decorated the house last night before I got home and we're filled with stuffed animals. It's entirely too warm for early March. Like I said, it's been in the 80s the past couple of days and is expected to be that way for a couple of more. We're getting rain than a 30 degree drop, but it looks like both will happen over a couple of days. Around here, a storm and 30 degree drop in spring usually means bad things. A gradual cooldown should mean no nasty storms (ice, tornadoes, wind, you name it).

Here's a random picture of Emma being cute.

Weekend Update

It was a long weekend.

First, we had a surprise hosting engagement on Friday. Darrah's prayer group found itself without a host due to the host's son having pneumonia, so we were running around Friday night to get things prepared. I was supposed to have a couple of Emma's friends over anyway (whose mom is in the prayer group) so it wasn't a huge deal. Of course, it meant me locked in the basement with three under five years old rather than having the run of the house.

Once everyone left, we tried to put Emma to bed about 9:30 (two hours later than normal). When we went to feed her fish, Nemo II, we found him swimming on his side. Since this is not a natural swimming position for a Beta, we quickly realized that Nemo had gone to fishy heaven. We had a nice funeral for Nemo II and got Emma to bed around 10:00. Darrah and I got to sleep as well.

We got a phone call at 7:30 Saturday morning that my dad was in the hospital having a heart attack. I jumped into the shower and got packed and ready and left the house about 8:00. The five and a half hour drive was a long one. I had spoken to my mom a couple of times on the road and I knew that my dad was okay (well, as okay as possible) and that he was resting not-so-comfortably. I got up there and didn't do much, but I hope that at least my presence was calming in a way.

While I was on my adventure, Emma had a birthday party to go to. It was a High School Musical themed party where they all dressed up and put on makeup. She had a lot of fun with the kids at school. She also got Nemo III, another purple Beta fish. One of Darrah's friends was in town and they all went to America's Incredible Pizza, which opened recently in St. Charles. Emma seemed to have fun. Yesterday, Danny, Theresa, and the boys came down to visit. Again, I wasn't home yet but everyone had a good time. They had lunch at one of local favorites, Syberg's, and went home to play. It was a long weekend but we all made it through.

Istanbul (Not Constantiople)

Emma loves the song because I put it on her iPod. I think the video took it to an entirely new level for her. Man, I miss Tiny Toons.