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A classic Norman Rockwell moment, as Alex takes her ceramic piggy bank down to our local credit union "Island Savings" and opens her very first bank account. At age six, our girl is learning how to save her money! She deposited $54.40 in coins.

Alex's Opens Her First Bank Account - Chooses Island Savings Credit Union

Here Piggy Piggy: Alex proudly holds her hand-made ceramic piggy bank, before dumping the contents and depositing them (most of them) into her very first bank account. (One coin was a token, another an English Pence ... the American coins went in at par).

It was classic Norman Rockwell. A six-year-old girl holding a ceramic piggy bank, sitting in the lobby of a bank, waiting to open her very first bank account. The girl was none other than our Alex and the bank was the small branch of a local credit union.

Earlier that morning, Alex asked, "Can I get a bank account?" (Since Dad is keen on personal finance - having retired at age 39 and opened his first business when he was 12 - his ears perked up).

Several questions later, it became clear to him that Alex understood the concept of banks (even though she couldn't name all the denominations of coins in her piggy bank).

Alex has a very special piggy bank, one given to her by her God-mother - a beautifully decorated and glazed ceramic pig, complete with Alex's tiny hand-print on it (Alex was two-years-old at the time "Wilber" was made).

That afternoon, Dad drove his 6-year-old daughter to the credit union in Cedar. It was a long visit. She signed multiple forms and it took time to count out her "life-savings".

It was a very big day for Alex and a proud one for her Dad (who was busy taking pictures of the event). The visit brought smiles to the banking staff, whe were very patient with Alex and treated her like a 'big girl' customer. Not every new account holder meets one of the Credit Union Board of Directors, but Alex did! She also learned the difference between tokens, coins and foreign money (as she had a few Pence and U.S. coins).

To learn more about Alex's first account, read on ...

Alex Breaks the Pig

Kindergarten is finished today. Alex is pretty certain she'll have a great summer, filled with lots of social activities. We're pretty certain Alex is going to miss school. (Class photo included).

"The Oop" Graduates Kindergarten Per Ultum Tripudium

School Photo: Alex was exactly 5 years old when this was taken, on Oct. 3rd, 2008. She was so excited to start kindergarten and didn't cry, like loads of other kids seem to do, when separated from their parents (sometimes for the first time). Our little socialite loved school (and still does).

There were no caps; no gowns. There wasn't any of the pomp and circumstance that graduates across the U.S. and Canada are experiencing this month. Alex just went to school at 11:35 AM and was released at 2:15 PM, just like any other day. The only difference, of course, is that it wasn't just like any other day, because it was the last day of kindergarten.

I asked her, this morning, if she was going to miss school (as I'm pretty sure she will, since she's such a social creature). It surprised me when she said, "No."

Exploring a little further, I asked, "Why not?"

"Well Dad," she said, putting her hands on her little hips, as she does when she's explaining how things are, "because during the summer, I don't have to go to school, see? And every day I'll have play dates!"

(I told you she was a social creature).

Unfortunately, as the Dad and one of two qualified chauffeurs in the house, I was pretty certain that her hastily thought-out plan of multiple 'play dates' per day weren't going to be the norm. I tried to explain that school was the ultimate play date and especially because (now) she's in day-care on many days, in addition to school, so she actually has more actual playing opportunities when school is in session, than during the summer months. (In our rural neighborhood, Alex has only a few kids to play with, within walking distance and none are her age - there are two that are 1-2 years younger than Alex and three that are 4 or more years older).

Of course, my argument fell on deaf ears and Alex remains excited by the prospect of upcoming 'social' summer!

To see Alex's kindergarten class photo ... head to the next page

The Graduating Kindergarten Class

A slide show consisting of 75 photos taken by our 5-year-old daughter, Alex, over the course of a year and a half, using her "Little Tikes" 640x480 digital camera. Our world from a three-foot-something, kid's perspective.

Photography from a Child's Perspective

Alex the Photographer: Our five-year-old daughter composes a photo through the living room window, using her "Little Tikes" digital camera. It's been a great starter camera for Alex.

Shortly after our daughter, Alex (AKA "the Oop"), turned four, we gave her a digital camera for Christmas. She's now five and a half years old and has used the camera for a year and a half, taking roughly 750 pictures all-told.

It's interesting to see what catches her eye, even though many of the pictures didn't turn out well. While we really like the rugged quality, ease of use and child-oriented design of her "Little Tikes" digital camera "My Real Digital Camera" by Little Tikes We bought this durable camera in Canada for approximately $30 CAD. It's worked well for Alex for a year and a half. Pros: The camera is well designed for little fingers, it's rugged and will take abuse, it has both a 1.3" LCD screen and a view-finder for framing shots, it's easy to use, has auto flash and stores about a 1000 pictures (64 MegaBytes). Cons: Picture quality could be better (it takes 640px by 480px shots with some spherical aberration and blurring). There is an appreciable shutter delay, which children must understand, before they can begin to take non-blurry shots. (One needs to hold the camera steady for about a second, after pressing the shutter button). It uses 4 "AAA" batteries & also comes in pastel colors. Thinking of getting one? Click inside this box or the link for more information & reviews on the Little Tikes website. , it has one major flaw - there is a one second delay between pressing the shutter button and when the image is captured. It took Alex a while to work out that she needs to hold the camera steady during and after she presses the button.

We figured that it was high time to show off our daughter's photography "skills" and share her visions through the lens. Life looks a lot different when you're only three feet tall and the things that she's pointed her camera at ... well, you can only conclude that they're important to her!

On to the Show

Alex was really looking forward to Easter this year. She dyed eggs at day-care, at kindergarten and at home. She found a chocolate bunny, was given another by friends and hunted down fistfuls of chocolate Easter eggs.

Dyeing Eggs, Stuffing Turkey & Watching Alex Bounce off the Walls

Easter Booty: Alex, still in a night-shirt, shows off all the chocolate Easter eggs she found. Weather was a tad rainy, so the Easter egg hunting was held indoors this year.

Another Easter holiday has passed. It was less about Christ rising from the dead and more about our five-year-old daughter waking the dead, with screams of delight, upon finding hidden confectioneries.

"The Easter Bunny didn't do a very good job hiding the eggs," Alex remarked, at one point, after plucking a foil-wrapped chocolate 'egg', sitting in plain site, from the coffee table.

In past years, Easter had a way of sneaking up on us. There's no such thing now, as news of the upcoming holiday is distributed throughout Alex's kindergarten network. Before Easter weekend, Alex had dyed eggs thrice: at school, in day-care and at Sparks (young Girl Scouts). She was fully aware that a "candy-filled" weekend was imminent!

It's become a bit of a family tradition that we celebrate Easter at the float cabin. This year, however, we stayed on dry land. Rachel was scheduled for shifts at the hospital and our cabin-mate's were left high and dry, as their boat was in need of mechanical repair.

To learn about our land-lubbering Easter holiday, including photos of egg-dyeing fun and tales of a turkey dinner party ... read on ...

Oop Easter Fun

Alex goes to Vancouver for Spring Break 2009! Alex visited maternal grandparents for a week of fun, most of which has been captured in this online scrap book (Thanks Gran!)

Alex has a "Whale" of a Time in Vancouver!

Spring Break: Alex had lots of fun on her Spring Break trip to Vancouver. She went to the Vancouver Aquarium, Lynn Valley Ecology Center, Science World, took in a play, went to the park and swam in the community pool!

I still have to pinch myself at the fact that Alex is in school! She's finished her 2nd (of 3) kindergarten terms and did very well on her report card, by the way. (Alex "meets expectations" or "exceeds expectations" in all 42 of the development metrics and improved over her first term marks in 7 of them.)

Yay Alex! (Congratulations and high-five's all 'round for our "Oop"!)

For her week-long Spring break, Rachel ferried Alex over to the mainland, so that she could spend a week with her maternal grandparents. Rachel returned after a couple days and we were "kid-less" for the better part of a week! (Not that we really took advantage of it, but we did note how clean the house stayed and - sadly - how quiet it was in her absence. On the plus side, we did enjoy a few "pub dinners" and even had a lunch-date at a sushi restaurant, so mom and dad enjoyed some "quality time" for ourselves.

Alex was kept very busy in Vancouver and even kept a journal of her activities! ("Thanks Gran and grandpa for taking good care of me! I had lots of fun and I especially liked making the scrap book," said Alex, adding, "Well, Dad said to say the bit about the scrap book, but I did have fun making it - really!")

To see what the Oop was up to on her Spring break ... read on ...

Alex's Spring Break Journal