Growth and growth and chatter.

Pre-school was a trip. It's been six weeks since I've attended, and she missed twice due to illness (well, sniffles) and once they went to a pumpkin patch instead of school, so really only three classes have passed. But a routine has been set! A schedule is followed! There are procedures! My kid knows and follows them, even anticipating them. It's kind of freaky.

For example, at clean-up time, some other people had begun to clean even before the scratchy LP music had come on, and Zadie joined in, happily cleaning both her mess and a nearby mess she had not contributed to. When all the toys were picked up, although the teacher had made no announcement, Zadie grabbed the hands of two other children to form the song circle.

It was fun otherwise, too. She played with play-dough, ran a toy ambulance down a ramp a couple times, made a painting, helped put a puzzle away, put stickers on a paper bag, and a few other things here and there. She's such a leader sometimes (okay, bossy), and today she marched right over to two kids and announced what they were all going to do. It's nice to see her enjoying school so much. My favorite moment was during "If you're happy and you know it." She sometimes has a bit of a delayed reaction, but she's incredibly enthusiastic. So the third verse, which involves shouting "hooray" went something like this:

Miss Kelly: If you're happy and you know it, shout hooray.
Kids: Hooray.
Zadie (three times as loud as everyone else, and jumping): HOO-RAY!!
Repeat.

She is eating like a horse again. She goes through these phases, and she usually grows an inch overnight, but she never gains a single pound (she hasn't in a year). Anyway, just for your edification, today she had:
Breakfast: Two scrambled eggs and two slices of bacon.
Snack: apple slices and goldfish crackers.
Lunch: macaroni salad.
Snack: 1/4 persimmon, crackers, cheese.
Dinner: Brown & wild rice blend (about 1 cup), 1/3 cup broccoli, 1 meatless Riblet.
Dessert: 1 cup frozen yogurt (I didn't mean to pour her that much, but it came out fast, and she ate every bite).

She also ate an entire bagel and a banana for breakfast yesterday. That's more than either her father or I had.

By the way, she has turned into a world-class chatterbox. I swear, sometimes it keeps her from sleeping because she just HAS to talk more. I went to get the video camera today, because she wanted to help me do the laundry, and as she put wet items into the dryer, I heard this:
"Oh, I'm just putting my nightgown in the dryer so it can be warm and dry. Why did you buy this nightgown for me, Mommy? Oh, here is my Rapunzel shirt. I just got it. It has long sleeves. Here are my underpants. They are wet from the washer. We had to wash them because they got dirty. This is my skirt that I wore to Old Sacramento. Where is my holiday dress?" And on and on and on. Unfortunately, I didn't get back with the camera in time (I think my absence distracted her), so I didn't catch the laundry monologue. You'll just have to trust me -- she rarely runs out of things to say.