I lost another month. Thanks, insane work rush. So you get the September and October posts combined into one.
We’ve reversed the order in which we pick the kids up, so I collect Owlet first, and then we go get Sparky together. Every day she races toward him, arms outstretched, and throws them around him, laughing. Sparky’s not as thrilled — he has begun to enter the ‘must not look dorky in front of my friends’ stage — but it’s sweet to watch. She blows him kisses through her window every morning when we drop him off, too.
Owlet went apple picking for the first time this year. It was terribly exciting (albeit quick; turns out it doesn’t take long to fill two 20-ish-pound bags of apples when you have four people picking). We went back again about three weeks later, because this house is pretty nuts about apples and the first round was gone.
Back with all her friends at school, everyone has leveled up after the summer. Owlet’s new interest in writing actual letters (thanks, new glasses!) means that she is the first of her age group at school to voluntarily write her name on her art. Other things we can attribute to the glasses include a dramatic improvement in the fine motor control required to colour inside lines.
I’m loving how she can draw expressive faces on things all of a sudden, too.
Her current favourite movies are Bolt and The Nightmare before Christmas. I recently surprised them with Ponyo, one of the lesser-known Miyazaki movies, and she adores it. (Big surprise, I know.)
In music, she’s very into the soundtrack to The Nightmare before Christmas, which she calls “Christmas Halloween” (and that’s as good a descriptive name as any). She can also sing the Game of Thrones theme, which is HRH’s ring tone and alert. It’s a bit disconcerting to hear her humming it while she plays with her Playmobil in her room. (Exactly what is going on in that storyline, one wonders.)
A newly acquired skill is the ability to twist open Oreos, a triumph after asking me to do it for her since she started eating them. It’s the little things. Another impressive skill she has recently demonstrated is how she has an argument. Instead of just yelling or screaming over someone else, she actually discusses how she feels and listens to the other person in order to work things out. Her friend Audrey has been raised in a very similar way, so to hear the two of them have an argument is adorable. One will say, “I feel like this when you do that,” and the other will say, “Well, I feel like this,” and they talk it out, sometimes with parental input regarding solving the problem. It’s the politest argument ever.
Her grasp of French is improving, too, thanks to a new francophone girl at school. The kids have been learning the basics to speak to her — bonjour, merci, au revoir — which are adorable to hear chirped by Owlet. The other day I taught her how to say ‘cookie’ in French, and the way she pronounces it is both hilarious and appropriate if you love cookies: “Biskwhee!”
I’ve given up on the matching and laying out of outfits. One morning a couple of weeks ago she stuffed the two choices we put out for her back into the drawers and chose her purple skirt with the multicoloured hearts on it, a black and white striped top with a flower on the shoulder, and a pair of red leggings. I’m pretty sure her educators figured out preschooler fashion sense years and years ago. (Dresses are where it’s at. There is minimal unmatchyness with a dress.)
After ages of waffling about whether I’d do it this year or not, I just registered for 
