I've been accused of showing favoritism with my son. I don't love him more than Danae. He's just different. He loves to take pictures and to be the center of attention. Danae prefers to be in the background most of the time. As you can tell, she didn't want to take the above picture. She would only take it with the sticker on her forehead and if I promised to take the picture all the way at the bottom of this post. Of course, she has superstar moments too but not as much as him. So, he just provides more material for my blog. Anyway this entry is all about her.
Danae is in school now...kind of. She attends Gymboree's GLLP Program. This is like a preschool. It's 3 days a week and lasts 2 1/2 hours each session. This is only her second week but it's going well so far. She really loves being with other children her age. She's the only American and the others are Filipinos.
Dwayne and I looked at other schools but chose Gymboree. It's in walking distance since it's connected to our building. More importantly, she won't be under as much pressure as the other preschools. The international schools for children of expats are incredible. They really push the children to achieve excellence. That's all good except my baby is only 2 years old...well she'll be 3 on January 21st but she's too young for all that pressure. Of course, we want her to excel but she has time. We want her to enjoy herself. So, she needs time away from mommy and with other people her age. Mommy needs time away from her too.
So, her first day was cool. I stayed with her for about 30 minutes. I snuck out and she looked worried so I stayed where she could see me through the window. Then, she got comfortable and forgot all about me. Now, she loves school and can't wait to go. Here are a couple of school pics:
Danae is very independent. She likes to do things by herself. She prefers to go in her classroom alone. She wants to do everything she sees us do and gets very frustrated if she can't. She's also a serious perfectionist. On the other hand, she is very affectionate and caring. If you hurt, she hurts...seriously. She fights with her brother like most siblings but is fiercely protective of him. Basically, she can treat him like crap but nobody else can even try it.
She's also funny. This morning at breakfast, an older black man walked in. She said "Mommy, do you see the grandfather?" I asked her why she said that. It was because he was dark (like her grandfathers) and old. I guess he made her think of her own grandpas. She also likes to mimic the Filipinos. She knows their accents, words, diction, everything. She has us rolling when she gets going with that. She can imitate her yaya too.
She remembers everything. People, places, specific events. The other day she was talking about the Fourth of July celebration we attended in San Ramon. She described it in detail. She talks about her godparents' wedding a lot and her friends from Houston even though we haven't lived there since early March of last year.
So, like any mother I think my almost 3 year old is simply amazing. Here she spelled her name with stickers of her belly. Isn't that a cute little belly?
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