Back in the Saddle

I've been feeling very uninspired lately when it comes to blogging.  Not sure why, as we've actually been doing some pretty cool stuff, my kids are being awesome and funny most of the time, Michael is adorable and amazing as always (shout out to the hubby ;)), just kindof a blogging funk.  The doldrums, if you will.  But...it's almost November!  And you know what that means, right?  NaBloPoMo!!!  Also NaNoWriMo for any of my writer friends out there (ie. not me ;)).  Also, it means that my blog is pretty stinkin close to 3 years old (holy bejeemenie!) (as an aside, Blogger believes "bejeemenie" is misspelled but gives me no other options for how to spell it.  Crazy.).

Update time :)

Maya and I took this week "off" of school, and it was a nice break.  Because we started sometime in July or August, I felt ok giving her a Fall Break :)  Also on the school front, a few weeks ago Maya finished book 1 (of 8) in phonics, and in looking at the series I realized that we can totally skip books 2 and 3 and move on to 4!  Yay Maya!  She is actually happy about the new phonics workbook because then I won't "make her read real books" (which is what we've been doing the past couple of weeks).  I tried to explain that once she practices more she will actually be able to follow a story and read signs along the road and at the store, but she's not buyin it.  Writing, on the other hand, she is all about.  It's awesome.  And, Charlotte was sick today so Maya sat down with her on the couch, pulled out her "Dick and Jane Treasury" and started reading out loud to make Charlotte feel better.  About 6 pages in (out of maybe 100) she told us that she had read almost half of the book.  Not quite, Peanut :)  But I'll take it!

Charlotte is pretty much awesome.  She has been not feeling well the last few days, which is so sad because she just cannot keep herself together!  It actually makes me realize how far she has come in just a few months in terms of meltdowns, as she's had quite a few the past couple of days and we almost immediately knew that she was probably getting sick (rather than just thinking it was par for the course).  Hopefully she'll bounce back to her regular, spunky, talkative self soon!

Side note ~ now that Maya AND Charlotte are both needing to use up at least 50,000 words per day, I am pretty much constantly on overload.  I told the girls a couple of days ago, around 7pm, that I needed them to be quiet for a few minutes because my brain was starting to hurt.  Maya has used that phrase no less than 10 times since then to explain why she just can't listen to Charlotte for a few minutes.  Oops!

Charlotte is beginning to be more comfortable at preschool (yay!).  On Thursday they were reading a story about camping, and on one of the pages there was a boa constrictor.  Charlotte yells out (no hand raised or anything), "boa constrictors can wrap around you and squeeze you until you die!"  So I'm glad she's participating...but maybe we should talk about not scaring your classmates! :)

Milo is on the move!  He started walking pretty much full-time, and now he is into everything!  It's funny what you forget when your children move past a certain stage.  Like, I had forgotten that when I have a 14 month old, I can't keep dishtowels hanging from the oven.  Milo will walk into the kitchen, pull the towels down, and then go back to what he was doing.  It's the same thing that Maya and Charlotte did, I just forgot!

On a "yay he's learning!" note, Milo now has 3 signs!  He can do "all done", "please" and, if coerced, "more".  Mostly he just says "ma!" when he wants more, because for some reason that is easier than signing for him (works for me!).  If he wants food that he sees, he will say "ma ma ma ma ma ma ma" until I give it to him.  At first I thought he was all smart and trying to say "banana" but it's the same sound for everything, so it's just his way to say FEED ME!  I am looking forward to his communication skills expanding ~ tonight at dinner he was really mad and whining, which is pretty unusual for dinner time.  We got him out of his seat, I tried nursing him (no), tried giving him food off of my plate (no), finally put him down.  He whined all the way over to Charlotte, pulled her placemat off the table, stole her water cup, and took a big drink.  Oh, well if you wanted water you should have just told us!  Charlotte, fortunately, thought it was hilarious and kept offering him more drinks after he gave her cup back (and she calls him "buddy" which is pretty much the most adorable thing ever).

I think that is all for now :)

Here are a bunch of random pictures from the last...long time.

First day of preschool!

Milo's friend Kieran (brother to Kendall)

 

Birthday girl!

birthday tea party...we definitely need to recreate this when she turns 16!

"mooooooom!  Stop taking pictures!"

walking like it's NO BIG DEAL!