Well Child Checks

G1 & G2 had well child checks this month. G1's appointment was pretty interesting as the doctor is now focusing on talking to her and asking her questions instead of looking to me to give all the updates and information. I guess it shows how she is growing up. Some interesting things I found out about G1 by listening to her conversation with her pediatrician.

*She is debating between being a quilt maker and a kindergarten teacher.
*Her favorite part about her family is that we have fun together.
*She is tall for her age (which I sort of knew but all her friends must be tall too because I didn't realize she was as tall as she is---83% for her age group).
*G1 told the doctor all about her love of reading and the American girl series. (this I knew about it of course, but it was cute hearing her talk about it)

This picture is from December but it is a rare look for G----she has on pants. Something that has happenend only a couple of times the entire school year.

I have always liked our pediatrician but seeing him interact with G1 made me like him even more.

G2 went in for a basic well child check too. He seems to be right on track developmentally and his speech has catupultated forward in the past three months. His weight is a bit concerning as he has been slowly dropping in percetiles his last three visits and he was down another 9% to the 8% at this last visit, so we will now be going in for more frequent weight checks. This did catch me off guard because he is by far our best and biggest eater, but we will just keep an eye on him.

World Traveler

I'm really proud of my cousin, Kari. She is leaving for Zambia to do an internship for Globalbikes. I'll be following her journey while she is there on her BLOG (click on the word blog to follow the link). Godspeeed Kari!!

Do you even have boys??

Are you wondering why there are no posts about my terrific boys? They do exist, they are just too busy keeping me chasing them to take their picture much. Plus, W is into this phase where he will only wear underwear and a dog collar. Don't want to get myself arrested for publishing too many photos of his new fashion statement. Not sure how we are going to get him dressed for school this week....could be very interesting!!! G2 is busy eating markers, emptying cupboards, and trying his hardest to keep up with the big kids! He is such a sweet boy!

A very Kirsten Christmas

We had one happy girl! She loves to wear clothes that match her dolls!
Thanks Grandma D!!!

Searching for Jesus....

Every year Santa visits our house, he enjoys his cookies and milk and then sets up the kids nativity scene as a reminder to the true meaning of Christmas. The kids love the nativity scene and play with it throughout the holiday season which gives us a chance to talk about all the different people/animals who played a role in the marvelous event of Jesus' birth. Well, this year was a hard year to be a member of our nativity scene. G2 apparently was trying to teach the angel to fly and threw it with his amazing throwing arm into the fireplace hearth--CRACK went the wing and we had a one winged angel. And for unknown reasons, G2 was determined to make have Joseph presenting the Christ-child to all the onlookers with only one arm and before we knew it, we had Joseph the amputee. Then, Olivia, the lab who has really never chewed on anything, got hungry for a little donkey one evening and we suddenly have a donkey who cannot see nor hear evil. Ok, ok, I am thinking, it is really important to me the kids have this hands on nativity scene so this is all just adding character to our set.

Well, Christmas eve comes and Santa has arrived to set up the nativity scene....he gets the super glue out of his sled and repairs the angel wing and re-attaches Josephs arm. He takes one look at the donkey and promptly declares that a lost cause. But then....Jesus is MIA. No where to be found. He is not in the toy box upstairs. He is not under the couch cushions. In desperation, Santa sticks his arm into the depths of the couch and even though there were some very interesting items, there was no Jesus. What is Santa to do?

Thankfully, Santa has a lot of foresight and suddenly remembers he has purchased an extra nativity scene (not sure why it took Santa 45 minutes to remember this!) And so we had Jesus to help us celebrate on Christmas morning!

Party Time!!!

We celebrated G1's birthday once again at a place in town that has a "big toy" for the kids as well as video games and a few coin operated rides. G1 loves the place and we don't go too often so it makes it even more exciting for her and her brothers. It also makes the planning and clean-up super easy for me so I am all for the place too!!! We were joined by quite a few of G1's friends to help us celebrate her birthday! It always means a lot to us for those who make an effort to come to her parties because we know December is such a busy month with holiday celebrations. I imagined having her birthday so close to the holidays would be stage stealing for my little Sagittarius, but it doesn't phase her at all. In fact, she seems to revel in the fact that everyone is in such good spirits and in a celebratory mood---in fact, last year we had to have a little discussion regarding the fact that the lights and excitment around this time of year are truly not about her!! She is such a naturally happy little girl and her take on her holiday birthday really fits her personality.

Dance recital

This week also brought G1's dance recital. She has a great teacher who works so well with the girls in the class. G1 has improved so much on her technique and is at the stage where she is starting to remember the routines on her own without having to watch the teacher's who stand to the side to help prompt the girls if needed. Of course, one of my favorite parts of recital time is getting to take pictures of my girl all dolled up! I think Grandma Sue enjoyed taking pictures of our little ballerina too!

Gymnastics program

Also on G1's birthday, the kids had a gymnastics program so they could show off the skills they have been learning in their weekly classes. G1 has an awesome teacher and really loves her class. W had a rough start and wasn't so sure about leaving Mom to go out onto the big gym floor. But, after several months, he is LOVING it! He is quick at flipping around and loves to hang off the bars and do somersaults. Sometimes W is a bit timid so I'm really thankful how patient the instructors were at the beginning with him because it has turned into a really positive experience for him.

Our American Girl

If you have been reading our blog for any length of time, you know of G1's love for the American Girl Kirsten. This fall we found out that the American Girl company was going to "archive" Kirsten, which meant that the doll and all items related to her would no longer be available to purchase. Back in June, G1 had started saving her money to buy this doll. She saved every dollar she received for anything, would pick up pennies along the sidewalk and ask for us to put it towards her doll, and was keeping pretty close tabs on how close she was getting to her goal. When we found out about the "archive", G1 was devasted. She cried. She heard us talking about how they would sell out fast and she knew she hadn't saved enough to buy her beloved Kirsten. She would bring it up all the time and ask if we thought there was any chance she would be able to earn enough money in time.

Well, we had already decided to purchase the doll with her money and cover the remaining amount so they would not sell out (people buy them up quickly and then sell them at a much higher cost after the company is no longer offering them). I will have to say that G1 was a lot closer to the goal then she (or I !) realized and I am really proud of my littl gal for saving her money for one item for over 6 months.

Words really cannot sum up how excited she has been about having Kirsten. She is being as careful as a girl her age can be with a doll that has intricate braids yet at the still time, play with her doll. She has been very careful in making sure Kirsten is put up when she is not with her so her little brothers won't pull the braids out (they are just so inviting to tug on!) G1 was SOOOOO ready to play with her doll and I was making her take a ton of pictures because I knew Kirsten would never look the same after she became officially "loved", even though I know that is part of what makes toys so beautiful and special. Notice how G1 had to immediately go and change into her own Kirsten dress to match her doll.

***note: yes, i know i have posted a lot of pictures for this event...i am really not sure who was more excited about the doll--myself or G1. It truly brought tears to my eyes to see how much this meant to G1!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Birthdays were always exciting for me as a child, but now that I am a Mom, they take on their own special meaning. G1 is such a special little girl and has changed my life in so many ways. I won't bore you with my thoughts on how wonderful, challenging, smart, and beautiful I think she is but do know for sure I am really proud to be this vivacious young lady's Mom!

Christmas program

G1 had the absolutely most adorable Christmas program for school. You can tell all of the kids and teachers put a lot of work into their songs as they preformed so well. It made it extra special because it happened to on G1's birthday too so there was a lot of excitement on the big day! The music teacher had the entire crowd sing Happy Birthday to G1 at the end of the program...not sure she knew what to think of that many people singing to her!


Another special addition to the day was that Grandma Sue came out to help G1 celebrate her birthay and attend all of the special events we have going on this week!

Bitter Cold

It has been so cold this week that there has been absolutely no playing outside. So, we decided to bring a little of the snow inside for some snow fun. Kind of out of character for me to purposely make a huge mess but I figured it was water and would be easy to clean up. Plus, we really had a lot of fun. W continued his dislike of snow while G1 & G2 thought it was grand!

Very Special Person

G1 was the VSP (very special person) for her class this week. She was excited about the chance to be the line leader, take her favorite book to school to be read, and to design her little person to be hung up on the wall.

It was fun talking about her favorite things and what was important to her while she was deciding exactly what to place on her paper doll. I think the final product turned out pretty cute and very representative of her. She did all of it herself except the hair (but she did pick out the hair style).

Back Tracking....Our Whirlwind of a Week

The month of December was crazy busy for us. So, I'm going to do a little blog catching up. Side note: all of the (above)events took place in less than one week. It may take me a while to get them all up and running so check back soon!