Cadence has always delayed bedtime as long as she can. When she was a toddler, she would stay in her crib (mostly because she couldn’t crawl out of it) and she would sing, tell stories, babble.....and sing again for up to 2 hours. She did not cry, so she must have been contented. As she grew older, and went into her toddler bed, that became a different story. Now she could get up and hide in the hallway if she was lonely, or not tired, or both. She moves like a little pixie from one room to the other. I could almost see the wings flitter as she tiptoed quickly down the hall, in the semi darkened shadows of the living room television.
Many a nights, we’ve rocked and kept each other company. I really do think it’s a combination of being without a “mommy” at the orphanage for 16 months, and wanting closeness at night, which she probably did not get much of there as well. And coupled with this child’s ability to sing and talk and move. She’s a doer. She will happily take a wet wash rag and wash down the walls, the TV, the desks....the floor. She’s always been that way. I love that quirk about her. But it also means she is a high energy child. Not A.D.D. This girl watches closely and mimics. She can recite an entier song after listening to it only a couple of times. She once “read” the first two, and last one paragraph of a book to me, of course without knowing how to read sentences yet, she “read” the paragraphs by memory. Not just pieces of it, but entire paragraphs. OK this story does loop around to the Sleepy Time Fairy.
What I’m trying to say is that she is always going and is very high functioning, and does not seem to need as much sleep as most children her age. BUT there are times when she does need the sleep. The problem is, she doesn’t know when those times will come up, neither do we. So, we have set 8pm as her bed time during school nights. Reasonable.....OK but she doesn’t want to do that. She goes to bed then sneaks up then sings then sneaks up.....Until two nights ago. Ya see, that was the night the Sleepy Time Fairy was to make her debut at our house.
Here’s the plot (as told by the Mommy and Daddy who invited the Sleepy Time Fairy to our house)
When a girl is almost 5 years old, she’s old enough to get visited by the Fae creature. She flitters into the house, thru the cracks in the doors, and shakes off her bits of fairy dust. Then after she’s made certain all the almost-five year olds are asleep in our house, she leaves a coin on the girl’s dresser. When she’s found the perfect gift for a girl who went to bed on time, she flitters away. Perhaps one time it will be a trinket bracelet, or a shiny rock, or a glass pebble, or a sealed vile of her dust. Maybe a few pieces of ribbon for her hair. Perhaps a dollar. But it is always left in the same place. On top of a piece of paper that Daddy designed from the computer that simply states:

Dear Sleepy Time Fairy,
Please leave your gift here ------------->
Thank you for being my fairy. Love, Cady

Now, if the fairy noticed that she was in bed by 8pm but did not get up....(and believe you me, the fairy would know!) She will wait till the wee hours of the morning to deposit the treasure next to the arrow. Then she will go back to slumber in our garden, that is what she does best, herself. If she did not notice Cady went to bed by 8pm....well, let’s just say, Sleepy Time Fairy will be able to sleep in the next morning without the worry of not doing her job the night before.




So far, the Sleepy Time Fairy has helped us thru 2 nights. Not a peep. Not a sigh, or a but but but......She watches the clock, tells US when it’s time to go to bed, gives a kiss and gets a book which one of us reads to her, then off she goes to Slumberland, so as Sleepy Time Fairy can wake up and get back to work.
Gotta love the fae creatures!

A little late, but not because we weren’t thinking about her. There’s not a day that goes by, in which I do not think about her, wonder about her, feel a connection to her. It’s as if we have an invisible sister living with us already. It’s going to be a room full of love when Cadence and Melody finally meet......someday these sisters will be united, but for now, we wait for Melody.

Well, Monday was Cady’s first day of school, and so far we’ve made it thru almost an entire week! Her teacher is awesome. We’ve scrapped and saved, and we’re on a really tight budget, but we managed to keep her in private school, at least for Kindergarten. I would love to continue with this school past Kindergarten, but when we decided to adopt a second child, we knew we might possibly be foregoing private school in the future. We decided that the pros of Cadence having a sister out numbered the cons. So, for now she’s in private school for Kindergarten, and who knows what the future holds. I hate to say it, but one of the driving factors for me was that it’s an all day Kindergarten, 8:30-3:30, with lunches (healthy lunches) included. Otherwise, with both Scott and I working, she would be in daycare for probably 5 hours a day after Kindergarten in public school, and we’d be paying for that anyway. Those were not the driving forces behind Scott’s desire to keep her in private school, and if he has his way, even though the schools here are very decent, he would have her continuing in private school till 6th grade.
Oh, but she adores school. She has a cubby full of workbooks, a pencil box, crayons, erasers. The art teacher came into the classrooms today. Yes, you read me right......an A-R-T teacher. Do you remember those from your childhood? It even feels odd writing the words ‘art teacher’. They’re unheard of any more. I never quite understood how public schools could get about the same amount of money per child, and yet there’s no money for art any more. Heck, public schools probably get MORE money per head count! But so much is chopped out of their curriculum.

So, off she went on Monday.....She went to the same school for Kindergarten-Kickoff, so the teacher and the school were very familiar to her when she started “real” Kindergarten on Monday. The teacher must have had fun disposing of the rocks and other treasures Cady had collected and tucked neatly away into her cubby, at the school during the summer.
In July, her teacher had told me that Cady is very “sociable”.
“Yes” I agreed, feeling very confident in the outgoing child we had encouraged her to be.
Then her teacher looked at me again and said, “Well, I mean she’s a socialite.”
Yes, she is.
“OK, well, she talks a lot to her peers” her teacher added. “She does all her work, and does it well, but she’s very chatty”.
“Oh, yeah.....riiiiiight! OOPS. Right, yeah, I guess she does”. And she’s right. Cady’s always talking. She’s always smiling and talking. She’s not disruptive, but she does like to chat. I’ve always chalked it up as being charismatic and outgoing. But, she does have the gift of gab. And as any brilliant teacher will do, she moved Cadence to the front of the class by the time real school started.
And, Cady? Well, she thinks that’s just wonderful!


Before school photos








Our chatterbox, after school





After school portrait with Daddy!

My baby starts Kindergarten tomorrow. KINDERGARTEN! It’s all over now. No matter how hard I try, she’s not going to stay tiny. She’s going to be in big girl school. It’s so fun, so exciting, scary, so wonderful, so sad, so busy, sooo busy!
Cady and I made a calendar a few weeks ago of this month’s days, and she’s marking them off as the days pass. She doesn’t seem anxious, she seems happy to meet her new challenges head on. It reminds me so much our first encounter with her. She looked bold and ready for what was coming next. She had no idea what it was, but she knew it was different, so she met it head on. She was quiet, but seemed to like the newness of our faces, the hotel room, her first bath, the little toys we brought with us. She liked it.
She’s been going to Kindergarten Kick-off for the summer. She’s been able to go to the school daily, and spend time with her teacher and many of her classmates, who also came from the same preschool as she did. We’ve gotten school uniforms, school shoes, long white socks, short white socks, skooters, pants, shirts. She’s had her hair trimmed, stopped taking naps, and has grown 3 and a half inches in the past 6 months.
Last week, we visited her old preschool and the children in her preschool classroom now look so young. She towers over them, and her features are becoming more defined.
In every way possible, she’s ready. So, why am I not prepared? My monkey is going to Kindergarten. I knew this was coming but I’m just not ready for it. In only 10 more years she’ll be going on 15 years old. OUCH! And in High School.

Scott has always been the one in our family to make videos. And he does it quite well. I’ve left it to him to always put the finished products together with music. Today, I created one of my own. It’s a compilation of pictures, starting on Gotcha Day, and going to Preschool Graduation Day.

I hope you enjoy it.
Karen