Laura Vegas

today was the last day of school for these girls!

moving left to right in case you don’t know their faces. lol! sarah is moving on to 3rd grade … ashlen to 4th grade … alyssa to 6th grade … and amanda to 2nd grade. i’m so proud of all of them. i’ve seen them do hours of homework at my kitchen table. they’ve had questions they needed my help on … and questions that i couldn’t figure out answers to. i’ve heard them all read their fluency stories and see how much they can read in 60 seconds. i’ve watched their writing get better and better … and they know how to spell so many more words now. i’ve also listened to them complain about school … and gripe about homework. but they did it … they finished another year of school.

first my girls.

alyssa has done such an awesome job. school has always come pretty easy for her … she doesn’t have to work that hard at it. but 5th grade was a little tougher. more reports, oral presentations, big art projects. but she did it all so well. she has also been in the gifted program for a few years now and attends extra classes usually once a month. she is one of only 5 kids in the 5th grade that got a 4.0 all year (i’m pretty sure, that’s what they said at the last awards thing). she’s still the tiniest thing in her class … but that doesn’t stop her from standing out for something … and being a great student is one of those things.

and sarah … she has done a great job once again. i secretly thought she was going to have problems when she started school. she is so active and hardly sits still for anything at home. but i don’t know if it’s wanting to compete with her big sister … or wanting to please us … or maybe a little bit that she’s real quiet in the classroom (her teachers never belive me that she’s so incredibly noisy at home. lol!). but she has done so well. she gets awesome grades and is such a helper to her teacher. she is such a good reader and loves chapter books. she is learning cursive writing. i’m sure that the 3rd grade will bring lots more work. but as long as i can get her to sit still and focus … i know she can do it.

ashlen … or should i say "roberta". lol! apparently that was an inside joke with her teacher this year … i just got the story today. i know school is a little more work for ashlen. like sarah … the girl has lots of energy. and she definately likes to socialize … and sometimes that carries over to the classroom. but she tries really hard and does her best. i can’t believe 4th grade … seems like just yesterday when i met her for the first time and she was in 1st grade. lol!

and amanda. when i picked them up at school today i was asking the girls if they all passed their grades. i asked amanda and she told me the same thing she tells me for most of my questions i ask her … "i don’t know" … with a shrug of the shoulders. lol! as if she didn’t know. she is usually the first one to sit down after school and get right to work on her homework. and she’s always digging in her backpack looking at her papers from the day. amanda has been part of our daycare family for almost 5 years now … and is now a big 2nd grader!

and this little boy. i’ve been thinking about him all day. i went to the school this morning for an awards ceremony … and i saw him with his mom and dad. i actually pretended i didn’t see him for a while … because it kind of upset me. see … i took care of him for almost 2.5 years. and then last december he just disappeared. he left one day and never came back. i know they had some family stuff going on at the time … some serious medical stuff. and his mom had mentioned maybe going to part-time. but they never gave notice … never said he was leaving. so for the last 7 months i have only seen them in passing in the parking lot at school … but he was always in the car. so this was the first time i really saw him up close.

part way through the awards ceremony he got up with his mom to leave. and i finally looked over at him. i felt him looking at me a few times during the ceremony … he was only about 10 feet away. he was just watching me … so i smiled and waved. he gave me a little smile and i waved some more. another daycare lady was sitting close by and said it looked like he wanted to stay with me. i’ve always wondered what he thinks happened … or what they said to him. does he think i just left. after all … i had a new little boy next to me today that sometimes reminds me of him. lol! i feel bad that i never got to say good-bye to him. he was my buddy … even when we didn’t get along. the 2nd to last day he was here … we had such an awesome day together. he was so sweet and loving to me … and he was always good for some fun conversations. but the last day he was here … we had a bad day. and i hate that he might remember me that way.

i guess i’ve been lucky that i havn’t had a high turn-over rate with my daycare kids. most of the kids i’ve had have all stayed for about 2 years on average. and i keep in touch with about 75% of the kids i’ve had … and i still see them from time to time. they all still give me hugs and it’s like old times. sure … i’ve had a couple of kids that have left on wierd terms. not knowing what happened … or something just not feeling right when they left. and then there are the ones that just moved on to other things … whether a move to another city or just moving on to preschool or kindergarten. these kids become such a huge part of our lives … they mean everything to us.

so anyways … just feeling a little sad over seeing him. nice to see him … he looks so grown up now. that picture up there is exactly 1 year old … so he’s definatly a big boy now. i hope he’s doing good in whatever he’s doing these days. miss seeing his blanket, bunny, and "didi" (pacifier) laying around the house. lol!

and then there is ady. lol! this picture didn’t turn out great … but i thought it was the funniest thing. first off … the girl stole my flipflops. of course she had her cup … gets mad when i try and put it in the fridge. and notice the toys. i think it’s so funny what kids will latch onto. out of all the toy baskets in the playroom … out of all the happy meal toys to choose from. she has a handful of  select toys that she digs out every day. that keychain is one of them … it’s "doug" from that cartoon that i can’t remember the name of (actually i think it was called "doug" if i’m not mistaken). he’s holding a flashlight … not sure what that’s about. and in the other hand along with the cup … one of the happy meal "polly pocket" dolls. it’s the boy one … she tends to pick out the boy over all the girls in there. i have to get a picture of her with all her phones … i swear the girls got about 20 phones in this house. some pretend … and some just old cell phones that we’ve collected from who knows where. and i love how she holds the phones on her shoulder under her chin. today she was walking around with the phone on her shoulder … and she was yapping away … and then she would just giggle adn giggle. it was as if she was really talking to someone. lol!

guess that’s it for today. that turned out longer than i planned. lol! and thanks for everyones thoughts on my last post. i havn’t gotten back to anyone yet. but i will!