Zongker Family Blog

We are always proud of Katrina, of course, but she has just had a wonderful week, when it comes to accomplishments, this time around! First of all, she volunteered to be the “speaker” in her Daisy Girl Scout Ceremony. It was exciting for all the girls & a bit of fun, too. Katrina got to announce the directions for the color guard (“flag carriers”), basically. Then, everyone recited The Pledge of Allegiance and the Daisies said “The Girl Scout Promise” and each received a Daisy pin, a petal center patch and the patches for their troop number, 121, as well. They made petals out of colored construction paper, which they had each written their names on, too & they got to stick them around a center, on a poster, completing a picture of a daisy flower. It was so cute seeing them all participate in the “program” (which only took about 15 minutes or so) & then, serve all of us family members cake & punch. It was very sweet.

Kat has also been helping a lot around the house, lately. It’s awesome, because she is *asking* for extra chores & things that she can do to help us! She especially loves helping her Mom with putting the laundry away, now. She has also told me she would like to help wash dishes, but I think we’ll wait on that one, until she can reach the kitchen sink without standing on a chair, at least… But, she can help put dishes away, which is nice. She’s always been really good about picking up her toys, and that has naturally led to her cleaning up after her little sister makes a “toy mess” on the living room floor, as well. We’re so grateful for the willing heart & attitude she has. Let’s hope it lasts!

Last week, while Jeremy was on his business trip, he bought each of the girls a toy. Katrina’s is a stuffed, white Pegasus & it’s really cute. She named it “Peggy” & she likes to make sure it sleeps with her each night & she also makes sure to (pretend) feed it every day. The first couple of days she had it, she was giving it a “tour” of its new home, explaining what items like the T.V., couch & bathroom were all used for. It was really cute!

She also got another toy this past week. She bought it herself, with her allowance – something I was afraid wouldn’t do what it was supposed to, when we originally got it. It’s called a “Grow ‘Em Hatch ‘Em” critter & only cost $1.00 at our local Michael’s craft & hobby store. It’s basically an egg, made of some type of light, somewhat plastic, somewhat Styrofoam-ish material, which holds a toy inside. You submerge the entire thing in water, and the “critter” is supposed to grow so much that it hatches from the egg completely within about 72 hours. Well, it was successful, but actually took about a week to completely come out of its shell. She chose a duck & was extremely excited to watch its progress day to day. I liked to refer to it as “our little science experiment”, since it had to stay in a Rubbermaid (Tupperware-like) container filled with water in our sink, for so long. She named it “Ducky” & now, it has its own “bed” (made of a toy baby blanket that she had) on top of her dresser, as well. She can also play with it in the bathtub, which she thinks is just awesome!

Katrina’s past week has had its ups & downs.  First of all, she got to dress up for “Wacky Wednesday” at school.  She absolutely loves it – they can wear all kinds of silly things that are mismatched, etc.  Her idea was to wear a swimsuit outside of her regular clothes this year, which we let her do.  She also wore her hair kinda’ funny; she chose to have a little braid on one side, a little ponytail on the other & a headband around her entire head.  She wore her shirt backwards, as well.  It was fun to see all the kids in her class dressed up, when I picked her up that day.  Of course we had to get a couple of pictures of her, once we got home.  Here is one of our favorites:

On Friday, we explained to her that Jeremy had to go out of town for a couple of days, for a business trip.  She is normally a pretty “happy-go-lucky” kid & we half expected her just to say, “Ok”, or at the most, “Ok, Dad.  I’ll miss you, but will be happy to see you when you get back”.  Instead, she actually got teary-eyed.  It was difficult for Jeremy to tell her anything about his trip, once he saw her initial reaction.  Although, he thankfully was able to calm her down by explaining that he would miss her, too, but that he would look forward to her big hugs, once he returned.  We also had her Grandma Linda come & stay with us during that time, so that gave her something to look forward to.  Although she got a little sad saying “goodbye” to her Daddy on Sunday, she had a fun visit, while Grandma was here, at least.  Jeremy also sent her pictures & talked to her on the phone, while on his trip.  And, at Kat’s request, we all (Grandma Linda, Alyssa & I) picked her up from school today.  We also plan on playing “Hungry, Hungry Hippo” (her favorite game) together & making cookies later tonight, for her Daddy’s return tomorrow.  She’s such a sweet girl.

Katrina had fun this week, that’s for sure!  She had been looking forward to Valentine’s Day for so long…  She drew a picture on her easel the week before & wouldn’t let any of us see it until then, in fact!  She had also made paper Valentine cards for both her Daddy & Mommy “in secret”.  She filled out the Valentine cards we picked for her class, too.  When the day finally arrived, she got to have a party at school, complete with making cookies & eating them!  They also made cute, little paper crowns & when they marched out of the school building, she & all of her kindergarten classmates looked so cute wearing them!  When she got home, she got even more surprises – a stuffed hippo holding a box of conversation heart candies & also some Dora & Spongebob chocolate hearts from us.  We had to sit down & read what her Valentine cards said & who they were from, of course.  She showed us her picture she had drawn on her easel, as well.  It was a big heart, surrounded by a couple of little ones & she had written, “From: Katrina, age 5” at the bottom, as well as writing “Mom”, “Dad” & “Alyssa” in random places, to show that it was made for us.  We love our sweet, little Valentine Girl!

Another thing that was cool for Kat was that she began to get allowance this week.  We came up with a list of chores that she could do, on a daily basis.  We then made a chart to keep track of things & for each chore she did, she got a sticker.  Each sticker is worth a small amount of money, so at the end of the week, we added them up & gave her the “reward amount”!  It was really fun seeing her get excited over remembering her responsibilities & earning those stickers!  The day we gave her the allowance, we went to Target to shop a little, so of course, she got to take her own money.  She spent most of it on a large box of Whoppers chocolate malted milk ball candies.  But, she managed to save a bit, also.  We’re so proud of her & can’t wait to see how she progresses with all of this!

We were trying to teach Katrina about voting, since our state’s primary was this week.  We took her & her sister with us to our local polling place, after Kat got out of school for the day.  We explained to her how important it is for everyone to go & make their mark by the name of the person they think will be the best person for the job of President.  We gave each of the girls our “I voted” stickers, once we were done.  As we were getting in the car to go home, Katrina perked up & said, “I hope *we* win & get to be President!”  Ha-ha!  The way kids think… 

The next day, she got to go to her Daisy Girl Scout meeting.  It was her turn to bring the snack that night (she picked frosted animal crackers) & her Mommy got to be the “parent volunteer” for the evening, too.  They started out by reciting the “Girl Scout Promise” (with help) & singing a song about Daisy Girl Scouts, which Kat had memorized one line of & especially sang that part out, well.  The girls got their uniforms – blue tunics, complete with nametags they had made & an American flag patch, to start out with…  Then, they got to make puppets & have a puppet show, demonstrating some of the qualities of Girl Scouts.  The qualities she showed were “friendly & helpful”.  She enjoyed the meeting & was pleased to be able to bring home her tunic & puppet, as well!

Katrina had some great times playing outdoors this week.  In fact, it’s funny because the weather in Oklahoma seems to vary so much this time of year, that she actually had 2, separate, opposite experiences!  On Thursday, we got snow.  It began around the time that Kat was going to school & it didn’t stop until right around the time that her school let out!  Thankfully, it wasn’t icy & the roads were clear.  It just left a nice, pretty blanket to play in, which she asked her Dad to do with her, as soon as she got home from school.  So, she & Jeremy bundled up & went in the backyard & made snow angels & had snowball fights.  Her little Sis & Mommy watched from the living room window, staying inside, where it was warm.  When the “Eskimos” came back indoors, we all had hot chocolate – well, all except for Alyssa, since she’s a bit young, yet.  Then, on Monday, the weather was beautiful & warm!  It had completely turned around & wound up being a whopping 80 degrees!!!  So, as we were heading out to go to her school that morning, Katrina asked me if we could go to play outside at a playground that day.  I told her, “Maybe, we’ll see…”  Of course, when I got home, I mentioned it to Jeremy & he agreed it was the perfect day for it.  So, that evening we went to a local park.  Is our sweet, “Big Girl” spoiled, or what?  Hee-hee!

Kat has also been doing a lot of memorization lately, which she seems to have a real knack for!  In her church class, Journey Group for Kids, they are learning the names of the books of the Bible & so far, she has memorized 10 of them – Genesis through Samuel II!  She has always been good at learning songs, but lately is surprising us with her talent for this kind of thing, too.  She has also just begun learning the “Girl Scout Promise”, as part of her Daisy Scout meetings.  They will learn the “Girl Scout Law” later, since it’s more lengthy.  Another thing she amazed us with was learning to play, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” on the keyboard this weekend!  Her Daddy sat down with her & showed her which notes to play, and within minutes, she was doing it, all by herself!  Soon, we need to work with her on learning her phone number & address for school, which will probably be more of an easy task for her than we’d originally expected…  She just keeps learning & surprising us with how smart a little kid she is!  We are so proud of her!

Katrina had an interesting project due for school this past week.  They were told to have their parents’ help & make a “train car” to go along with the theme of this month: “The Little Engine That Could”, or otherwise known as “perseverance”.  It was an interesting idea & they were given a lot of room to be creative.  The only directions given were that it was to be made out of a small box of some type (shoebox, cereal box, etc.) & that it could pretty much be anything they could think of in reference to a train: an engine, a coal car, a coach, a caboose…  Well, since one of Kat’s very favorite movies of all time is “The Polar Express” & since we had some leftover cardboard cutout-type decorations from Christmas, she decided she’d like to make her car like the one in the movie.  We made kids out of construction paper, including a Conductor (which may actually be the “Station Master” or something – the one who takes the tickets).  The seats & windows were cut out by Jeanette & Katrina glued on the decorations & made labels (with help) that read, “Polar Express”.  She also made a “ticket” for the kids to share; remembering the movie, her scene had all the kids seated, with one boy handing the ticket he’d found to the girl who’d lost hers.  It was yellow & she wrote the word “ticket” on it (again, with our help for the spelling).  The finished car even had spinning wheels, made from cardboard circles & brass paper fasteners!  This is one “art project” she will probably keep to look back on for years to come!  It was really fun & her teacher was really proud of her, too!

Another fun activity Kat got to begin this week is Girl Scouts!  Yes, even though the original rally was back at the beginning of the school year & there was no leader for her troop back then, we got an e-mail just this week, stating that someone had volunteered & was interested in meeting the girls & their parents & setting up a time/place for meetings & such.  So, Kat & her Mom went & had a great time.  There are only 4 girls in her troop (might be 5 total, but one didn’t show up that night), which is ideal for this age group.  They are going to meet once a week, on Thursday evenings for a little over an hour.  We paid the $10 membership fee & she is now officially a “Daisy Scout”!  Daisies wear a cool vest, with places for “petals” (badges) that they will earn throughout their time as a Daisy.  They don’t sell cookies, so this year will be a great time to get used to other scouting events, prior to being allowed to raise funds.  We look forward to sharing her progress, as she begins this wonderful, new adventure!

Katrina had a good week, all in all.  She went to see her Eye Doctor on Wednesday, but there isn’t a whole lot of news to tell.  As most of you know, she has Amblyopia, which is basically the scientific name for “lazy eye”.  It is her left eye that has the problem & although you wouldn’t know by looking at her, that is the reason she wears glasses.  We have also been doing “patch therapy” – placing a patch over her right eye for part of the day, to cause her left eye to focus, therefore making the vision stronger in it.  She sees a Pediatric Eye Doctor & his opinion is that, since we caught the “problem” while she was still young (she was 4 when she was diagnosed), there is a good possibility of correcting it now, so that she won’t have to deal with it, later in life.  So far, she has gone from having 20/70 vision to 20/40, which is a good change.  However, in the past couple of months, there has been little to no difference.  He was expecting her to have a big leap forward, between her last appointment & this one, but unfortunately, that just didn’t happen.  So, his best recommendation was to continue what we’re doing – having her wear her glasses during all of her waking hours & the patch for 4 hours per day.  Then, we’ll go back to see him again in April.  Hopefully, she will show some great progress by then.  If not, he wants to discuss a “plan B”, which will probably just consist of having her continue to wear glasses and/or contacts the rest of her life.  He assured us that with her vision the way it is, she could legally drive (provided she was old enough), and so it’s not all that bad.  But, any thoughts & prayers are appreciated, to help her completely overcome the Amblyopia, of course! 

She also got to go on a school field trip; one that was either planned late, or the notification to parents just went out late – it seemed to be very “last minute”, but we let her go.  Her Kindergarten class went to the Aviation Learning Center at our local airport.  They got to learn about planes & about security (they walked through the metal detector), and she even brought home a couple of souvenirs.  That was on Friday, which was a big, exciting day for her also, because after school, she & her sister got to have a sleepover at their Grandma Linda’s house.  You can read more about that on our main family blog.

Katrina enjoys going with us to our Journey group on Sunday afternoons.  This is basically a small group from our church, with something in common.  They formerly called them, “Care Groups”.  We typically get together at the hosts’ home, do Bible studies, share things we’ve learned, pray for each other & fellowship together.  Since our group consists of many people around the same age, there are also a few kids that are close to the girls’ ages (younger than Kat, but older/about the same as Alyssa) & they all have a nice time playing together, too.  Just this week, our church began a special project on Wednesday nights: Journey Groups for Kids!  They have classes for Kindergarten-aged kids, on up & meet at the church for an hour, from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.  When we asked Katrina if she’d like to participate, her answer was an enthusiastic, “yes”, so we let her go & she had a great time!  She came home with “homework”, already – they are learning to memorize the names of the books of the Bible.  She should know the first 5 by next class time.  She hasn’t really gotten them down, just yet, but we’re working on it…

On Friday, Katrina went to school in the morning, as is typical.  She had no ill symptoms, nor was she complaining about feeling bad at all.  However, around an hour after school started, the nurse called home.  Kat had told her teacher that her head hurt & she had also been crying about it.  So, the nurse asked if she could be given some Children’s Tylenol & about 5 minutes later, we got the call that Katrina had no sooner taken the medicine, than she vomited.  We got her home, cleaned her up & had her lie down in her bed, to rest.  We’re not sure if she actually fell asleep or not, but she was singing & acting “herself” within an hour or so.  So, after we let her get up, she began saying she was hungry.  We were a bit worried, at first, but figured, if she really were sick, that she wouldn’t be complaining and/or wanting food so soon.  So, after eating a full lunch & having no problems whatsoever, she was “wired” – playing, acting goofy, etc.  You’d never have known there was ever anything wrong with her!  We eventually condluded that the initial problem of her headache was due to her wearing a new type of headband that was pretty tight on her head that morning.  She’d never worn this kind before; it had little grips on it, to keep it in place, since her old ones kept slipping on her.  Anyway, we threw those out & would like to warn others – don’t put Scunci “no slip grip” headbands on your child, if she is 5 or older & has always been on the “above average” side of the head circumference chart!  Ha-ha!  But seriously, the stomach problem, we could only figure was due to stress – being nervous/unsure of herself, since the nurse had to call home – perhaps the poor girl thought she’d get in trouble with her Mommy & Daddy, or something like that…  It’s all an unsolved mystery, to this day – she didn’t have a fever at the time, or since & hasn’t shown any symptoms of any illness, whatsoever!  Strange happenings!  We’re just thankful all was ok & she was glad to go back to school on Monday, as well.

Katrina is interested in so many different things! She is really turning into a little artist, though! She especially loves drawing & coloring. She got an “art desk” as she likes to call it, for Christmas. It’s actually a 2-sided easel. One side has a chalkboard & the other has a dry-erase marker board, plus clips at the top, for large drawing paper. She seems to like every medium to create – chalk, markers, crayons, colored pencils & paints! Almost every day there is a new image on at least one side of her easel. Santa did a great job, this year!!!

She also loves to sing & tell us stories. Her most recent songs that she’s been obsessed with are the theme to Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” (if you’ve seen the movie, think of the part where Ariel sings to give her voice to the sea-witch – there really isn’t but one word & it’s, “ah”, but the tune is memorable) & also the “Elmo’s World” theme song, which she likes to sing to Alyssa, since that’s Aly’s favorite T.V. character. She is growing into such a creative little girl & it makes us happy to see her shine!