Santa brought tickets to “Nemo on Ice” for Adlani and “Princesses on Ice” for Aliya. Coincidentally, he also brought Nemo tickets to Shane, so Karen and I took the boys at the end of December. After surviving the bickering of the Hannah Montana wannabees, the boys were a piece of cake. Two $7 swords and some overpriced snacks and they were all set. We had lunch at the Fours and then called it a day.

I was a little worried that Aliya would notice the multitude of size 2T-4T princess dresses but we made it to our (front-row!) seats without her asking why Santa didn’t bring her tickets to “High School Musical on Ice” instead. I had another scare when the crown that came with the $10 cotton candy didn’t fit on her head, but Norah broke it about 10 minutes after we got home so she hasn’t had a chance to question it.

I actually thought the show was great! Although some of the *magic* she might have experienced a couple of years ago was replaced by questions like, “Why isn’t it called Belle and the Beast? What’s a beauty anyway?”, I had plenty of uninterrupted time to ponder how they keep their wigs on during the spins, what the princes are holding onto during the overhead seated lifts, and the fact that belly hair on Princess Jasmine’s (male) court was just wrong.

There were a couple of parallels between the two shows…during intermission Adlani stood up on his chair and screamed excitedly, “LOOK MOM!!! A ZAMBONI!!!”, while Aliya said, “What the heck is that?” The strangest was that the family sitting directly in front of us at Nemo (at the Fleet Center in Boston) was sitting next to us at Princesses (at the DCU Center in Worcester). Coincidence? I think not.

Last week on the way to the bus stop Aliya said she felt like she might throw up. Having just survived the pre-departure hell known as “crunch time”, I was in no mood to deal with vomit. I said, “If you’re going to throw up, try to do it in your hat or something. I don’t want it all over everything.” Sensitive, huh? A minute later I looked in the rear-view mirror and the poor thing was holding her hat in front of her face, preparing to fill it. After questioning her to determine whether she was just avoiding school or actually ready to vomit, I decided to let her stay home. We loaded up the car with the DVD player & movies, snacks, drinks, a sleeping bag & pillow, markers & a coloring book, and drove to my office where she spent the day recuperating on our training room floor.

Tonight we attended a really fun event at BLOCKS (Adlani’s school). Big Joe the Storyteller was there (some of you may remember him from Aliya’s 4th birthday party) and the kids loved him. The kids had juice and snacks, and on the way out they got to trade one of their gently used books for a book from someone else. It was great!

Aliya and I updated the wish list board yesterday since there would be a lot of parents in the building today, and we’ve gotten a lot of compliments on it.
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After the House Fairy left Aliya a note about her room being too cluttered, we decided to empty it, build a new closet, and re-do her room. It’s time…she still has the Noah’s Ark nursery wallpaper. Her new room is my “secret project”…all I can tell you is that it’s PINK.

Here’s a “before” picture. This was taken when we had already cleared half of the stuff. I’m not kidding when I say that her room made me nauseous. I couldn’t stand to go in there. Watch for the “after” picture in a couple of weeks!

Aliya was so excited to bring home her report card today. At a meeting last week, the parents were told that we shouldn’t expect to see “4’s” (the highest grade) on any of our kids’ report cards. Aliya’s is loaded with 4’s!!! Here’s what her teacher had to say:

“Aliya is both inquisitive and enthusiastic about learning. Learns and applies new vocabulary quickly. Does not hesitate to use her new language to ask or explain matters that are important to her. Is a strong student in all academic areas. Is always willing to help others.”

She’s definitely my kid though…after counting the 4’s, she started strategizing about how to turn the 3’s into 4’s. We’re going to have to watch that…perfectionism is a curse.
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