Lissy's starting to walk!

Just in the last couple of days, Lissy is taking a few steps, then getting down and crawling. Today, she took about 4 steps before she gave up. I think it'll happen soon!




Brynna got her laughing for me as I took these pictures.














Well, on to other news of the week:

Last Friday, we had kind of a freaky incident with Kate. The girls started school about 2 weeks ago, and Kate has had a hard adjustment to 1st grade. She's kind of a homebody and enjoys being at the house and so the long hours of school are hard for her. Anyway, on Friday, Jim dropped off the girls at school in the morning, then came back home and was getting ready for work. I was about to get in the shower, when he says -- why is Kate here?? What?? Sure enough there she was in the bathroom, crying her eyes out. I step out and ask if she's alone -- did someone drop her off? Is Brynna with her? No, no. She said she walked home, and she didn't feel well. So, I told her I'd get dressed and I'd take her back to school. Well, she was really upset about that and ran down to her room.

So, once I was ready, I went down and talked to her about how she was feeling, and she kept saying she didn't feel well, and I felt her head and of course, she's not feverish or anything, so I told her school is not a choice and unless you're feverish or throwing up, you have to go to school. So, then she tells me there was a dog at school on the playground. For those who don't know: my girls are terrified of dogs -- any kind of dog that is unleashed nearby, they go into hysterics and run into the house (don't ask me why they're so afraid -- nothing's happened to them that I can think of).

Anyhow, I finally get her calmed down enough and we get ready to leave, and I get a phone call from the school asking if Kate is with me. And I told them, yes, that she had walked home. And after getting a few more phone calls that morning, plus talking to Brynna after school, I get the whole story. Evidently, my girls were on the playgroud when someone brought their dog (or puppy, actually) and the kids ran off upset (not screaming hysterically for once). Somehow, the dog was in their path to their classrooms, so they didn't know what to do. One of their friends' mom came up (Susan), and Brynna ran to her and told her that she was scared of the dog and Susan offered to walk them to class. Brynna said yes, but Kate kept saying she wanted her mom and wanted to go home, and then just took off. Susan saw her leaving the school grounds and running up the street. She hurried and took Brynna to class, then left to try to find Kate. She didn't know that we had moved, so she drove to our old house and realized after a while that it was empty, so she went back to school and told them about Kate running off and not knowing where I was either. And then she went back home and called me (right after the school had called).

Later, I kind of had a delayed reaction worrying about Kate running home on her own -- we're about .3 miles from the school, and a couple of turns away. Susan thought she saw a car brake to keep from hitting her, but Kate had no recollection of that. I later told Kate that next time she's scared she needs to find a teacher or grownup at school, but that she can't run home because it's not safe -- she's not old enough to walk to school on her own yet. As a sidenote: when I brought her back to school, several students who saw her in the hallway, said, "Oh, there's Kate! She's back!" And I told her, wow -- everyone was wondering where you were. And she seemed to have a good day when I picked her up, despite the traumatic beginning.

Anyway, Brynna is doing wonderfully at school. She's very confident and making new friends. I was kind of re-thinking the whole doing kindergarten again, but I think it's fine. I did want to separate her and Kate anyway.