In September, Alex started kindergarten!  She was so excited!  One of her teachers, Ms. Maryanne, was the same teacher she had when she was three in preschool and some of her preschool friends were in her class.  She continued to do really well in her reading, writing and math. Now she has a lot of "special" classes too.   She has Chinese, Spanish, Science, PE, Art, Music and Computers all taught by "Special Teachers".  These classes add variety to each day and give her lots to look forward too.  I would have to say that her favorite class of all is Chinese.   She loves to sing, count and say Chinese phrases and even though she has Chinese twice a week, she wants to do an after school class of Chinese with many Chinese speaking children.  Perhaps we need to take a trip to China next year and Alex can be our translator!

Socially, Alex has made some big leaps!  She is much more verbal with adults and is now hugging her teachers.   She is making new friends quickly and is playing with a larger number of friends.  She also announced that she has a new "boyfriend" - a boy that she likes.  His name is John and he's 5 and he's in her class. 

Alex has learned to do something new this month.  She's learned to whistle.  When she heard a girl in her class whistling she decided she need to whistle too.   She could hardly make a noise the first few days of trying.  But she continued to practice and by the end of the week she was whistling loud and strong.  A week after that we was starting to whistle songs.  So cool!

Alex continued to swim as much as possible.  Daddy would often take some time in the afternoon to take the girls swimming next door at our neighbor's house.  She continues to become a stronger and better swimmer.  After a long hot day at school swimming in the pool made her so happy!

Emotionally, she still has strong emotional reactions that she can have trouble controlling.  This was especially apparent when she woke up Saturday, September 30th to find that  Mommy and Daddy had gone to have the baby without her and Charlie.  Even though she knew that Mommy would need to go to the hospital to have the baby, it bothered her to be left out.  She was very teary and sometimes angry about it.  She was able to come see her baby brother just an hour after he was born but that wasn't enough.  She didn't want to leave the hospital she wanted to spend the night there with us.  Nani and Papa did their best to distract her but she cried on and off through the night until she was able to come home with Mommy, Daddy and baby Chase.