Tuesday, January 27, 2009

5 years old!

We celebrated B's birthday over the weekend. She's quite proud to be a big 5 year old, though she's sure she's now big enough for Kindergarten. Not so fast, little one! ;)









Friday, January 23, 2009

Heard at our house

Yesterday at breakfast, I looked over to see K licking the syrup straight off her plate. When I asked her to stop she said, "I not licking, Mommy, I dipping my tongue."

In my email this week

Sometimes I wonder why, but at some point in time, I've signed up to get emails about ages and stages. In me inbox this week, I found one about K:

By 30 months, your child can name a few body parts, some colors, and even a friend or two.


I read this in bewilderment. K can name pretty much all the body parts from her pinky toe to her belly button to her eyebrow and forehead. She knows the colors and even recognizes most of them with accuracy. She knows the names of her friends and often those of the friend's parent(s).

As I read, I wondered if this is all we should be expecting of our kids this age. Then I remembered.....ah, she's a second child. That's why!

B can often be found teaching K something that she learned in preschool or from a friend. They are most often together, so of course K will be learning whatever B is doing. It's amazing, really.

When I mentioned this email to my mother-in-law, a preschool teacher/administrator in her younger years, she absolutely agreed with me. She thought that K's verbal skills were about that of a 3 1/2 year old rather than a 2 1/2 year old.

So, there I was feeling all proud of myself for raising such exceptionally intelligent children. Maybe I should have stopped at exceptional.....

Yesterday, in the span of 1/2 hour, K managed to pour half a bottle of nail polish on the floor, spill a bowl full of water onto the bathroom floor and cover herself in my makeup. Before I got the first mess cleaned up she was on to the next one. (Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of any of them. I might find them funny down the road.)

When I told her "no, you can't play with mommy's makeup" and I wiped the powder off her face (and her hair and her shirt and the floor), she burst into tears and threw a big ol' hissy fit.

Yep, I guess she is just 2 1/2 after all!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

growing up and getting big

Yesterday morning, I woke up to a grown up B. She had gotten herself dressed and ready for the day, including doing her hair ALL BY HERSELF for the first time ever (and a darn good job she did, if you ask me!)

AND, she made breakfast for everyone. She got out lunch meat and sliced cheese, rolled them up together and up them in the tortilla warmer on the table. When did she get to be a teenager?? Holy cow!

Today she got bowls out of the dishwasher for all of us, got out our favorite cereals and put the cereal into bowls. Then she got out the milk and poured milk in. We were almost out of the girls' milk, so she had to use some of mine in their bowls. Never mind that the cereal was a bit soggy, what a sweetheart!

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K continues to do exceptionally well in the potty training department. We're mostly accident-free at this point. She's still in a diaper for nap (which is almost always dry when she gets up) and nighttime. WTG, big girl!

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E is now just over 10 weeks old. Smiling and 'talking' are two of her favorite new activities. yesterday as I was changing her diaper, I was blowing raspberries at her and she, in turn, was trying to blow them back. It was absolutely adorable. Last Wed was mother/baby circle and E weighed in at 12lb 2.5oz. She's chunkin' up! It's getting more important for us to make sure she gets good naps during the day. If we don't, the evenings end up being a frustrating combination of 3 minute naps, fussing and whining, and a whole lot of nursing (usually followed by a huge puke.) It's lovely, I tell ya. Needless to say, I like naps, too. ;) She'll nap quite well in the morning, usually, but not so great in the afternoon when the girls are asleep. figures. I've been known to put her in her carseat for naps, too, even when we're home since she seems to do so well sleeping in there.




Monday, January 05, 2009

Happy (belated) New Year!




Happy New Year, one and all.

As always, Christmas and new years and the week between are crazy at our house. Not only do we have our little family Christmas to do, we also have both our families locally. In addition, hubby's birthday is December 26th.

It always takes a while to sort through the truckload of gifts that our kids get for Christmas. I really need to take a picture sometime of the massive pile of gifts that we have in our living room for at least a couple days while we try to find homes for them all. We get showered with blessings, each and every year.

I still have a stack of unopened boxes sitting in the playroom waiting for little hands to ask for help in opening them. Slowly they are being brought out into circulation. It's so very interesting to see which gifts are favorites. Currently they each are always dragging around "computers" aka Disney Dream Sketchers. They go everywhere with us, it seems. Since they are backlit, the girls can even play with them in a dark car, which is a bonus.













By far, watching the joy on the faces of our little ones as they anticipated Christmas, got to sit with Santa, then finally as they ripped open package after package was the most fun.










We did have to have a few lessons in the real reason for Christmas, especially for B. Every time we were in a store, she would ask me to add things to "her list" of wants for Christmas/birthday. I would gladly add it to the list, but gently remind her that she wasn't going to get all that she had on her list. (Since then I've gotten a tip from my sister (mom to 10) that she only allows 5-ish items on the list in order to have them be items that would be most enjoyed.) Through all of the commercialism, it's a hard battle to remember why we do this. Christmas is remembering the ultimate gift of Jesus coming as a baby to forgive our sins...the best gift of all.

Speaking of the best gift of all, there's a song that B is continually singing: The best gift of all is Jesus. It's so adorable to hear her sweet little voice singing songs. It seems that she can never make it through a whole song without making up her own lyrics. Even jingle bells gets changed to say whatever she is thinking at the moment. I love it.

Heard from B:
I am waiting
I am waiting
on this day
on this day
Jesus will be born soon
Jesus will be born soon
On Christmas Day
On Christmas Day
(sung to the tune of 'where is thumbkin')

I'm enjoying a pretty great gift right now. I'm sitting on the couch, wrapped in my robe, drinking hot chocolate while all three girls are enjoying quiet time. None are asleep (grrr) but all are currently happy. Oh, just kidding, Baby E just closed her eyes. Thank you Lord!