Week in the Life 2015 | Tuesday – Eliza’s Day
This week I’m participating in Ali Edwards’s Week in the Life. This time I’m sharing the highlights here on the blog and am journaling more fully in a notebook. Blurs are our foster baby.
You can read about my plan for the project here. I’m talking about Week in the Life on the ScrapGals podcast too!
Tuesday was all about Eliza.
I woke Eliza up around 6:30 to get ready for school. She is not a morning person, but she was excited so she was reasonably personable.
It’s really hot in her room on the third floor finished attic, so she’s been sleeping downstairs. She decided she prefers a million blankets on the floor to sleeping on the couch. (She also said, “Tell them not to judge me for sleeping on the floor!”)
After breakfast, showering, getting her lunch packed (she wants to go back to cold lunches this year), and making sure her stuff was all together, she read a bit of Hunger Games while waiting for Jake to take her first day of school pictures.
I also noticed that her shoes are falling apart–something I didn’t know because she’s been in flip flops lately (which she can’t wear to school). New shoes might be added to the agenda this week.
She’s a forth grader now! I love that taking pictures with her stuff shows what she’s into right now. TARDIS backpack, superheros water bottle, Hunger Games to read on the bus.
I also love that she was talking to us while Jake was taking pictures and he got some very “Eliza” facial expressions. This is her, “I mean, seriously?!?” face.
The bus picks her up at our front door (no bus stop).
I watch our nieces for a few hours on Tuesdays, so there was an extra one year old and two year old waiting for Eliza when she got home. She was immediately swarmed with little kids when she walked in the door. She picked up our foster baby and played with everyone, which was so very helpful to me because they were all grumpy before she arrived. She helped keep some of them entertained while I fed other ones. Eliza is a toddler whisperer.
She needed a break after all of that, so she played a few games on her phone. The phone doesn’t have service and is a hand-me-down from an uncle. She uses it to take lots of pictures, record films she makes up and acts out with her toys, play games, watch You Tube videos, and for emergency call access.
After the extra babies left, she did homework while I cleaned up the kitchen. She couldn’t believe she had homework on her first day after school, but seemed to like the assignment, which was just a quick letter to her English teacher. She wrote about how much she loves school and learning, asking for a little spelling assistance here and there.
She filled me in on her first day at school, telling me who is in her class, who she sits by, who she talked to on the bus, soccer at gym, that she was a little embarrassed that she didn’t have some of her supplies (a few things on the list were tricky and I’m going to have to try a few office supply stores to find them), and that the first day back was kind of boring because it was all about rules and expectations. She said that her teacher especially doesn’t like lying and really focused on that when she was telling them about the rules.
She also showed off her new file folder. They filled out the tabs in class (français, devoirs, maths, science, études sociales, English, art, etc.) and she’s hoping it will help her to be more organized this year.
I took the kids on a quick walk to the hardware store to pick up more cat food. There was a cute succulent display, so each of them picked out one to take home. The little kids picked tiny colorful succulents, but Eliza wanted aloe vera because it has practical properties. She talked to me about how to take care of it and how to use it to treat minor burns on the way home. Her friend has one and she thinks it is super cool.
We got home just in time, because it started raining very heavily a few minutes before we got in.
She was excited that her Tinker Crate* came in the mail and wanted to tear into it as soon as possible. While I was cooking dinner, she made a rocket and then set it off with Jake on the front porch when he got home from work. Blast off was too quick to capture, but I love that he got a photo of how excited she was.
She got into a little bit of trouble for not listening and starting in on the next project in the box when she was supposed to be clearing it up and emptying the dishwasher. Quick time-out and then dishwasher emptying.
We had paninis and strawberries for dinner. We watched an episode of Doctor Who during–Eliza wants to see the 12th Doctor episodes and there aren’t good times for family TV watching during the week. The kids have to eat at the table, but Jake and I eat in the living room.
After dinner, we get ready for bed. Eliza put on p.j.s, brushed her teeth, and did her before-bed chores. She helped feed the betta fish, we checked on the crabs and played with Hannah, who just came up from molting, and then fed the cats.
Jake figured out that the Google Translate app will translate photos of text. It’s not completely accurate, but is pretty amazing. Eliza and Jake played around seeing what the app would do with Eliza’s French books.
Eliza accidentally left Hunger Games at school, so she asked for help deciding what to read. I found her Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book, which she was mid-way through before misplacing it at the beginning of the summer. She asked if I would read to her instead, so I read her a few chapters and she fell asleep almost immediately after lights out.
Those are the highlights of Eliza’s Tuesday! Are you doing Week in the Life too? Leave a link–I’d love to see!
P.S. I’m sharing more shots on Instagram!
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