Preschool "Graduates"

I have always laughed at the term preschool graduates because there really is no such thing in my book.  One either graduates from high school or from college.  End of story.  However, now that I finally have a child old enough to participate in such end-of-the-school-year festivities, it's sure fun to pretend that such a thing really exists.  Although our little co-op shrunk half way through the year, the remaining moms and kiddos hung in there and made it til the end of May.  We covered the alphabet from A to Z and counted to the number 20!  Our children had endless fun coloring, cutting, gluing, painting, and crafting and creating to their little hearts content.  It was a good year, but I am ready for a break.  No more ballet, no more swim lessons, no more preschool.  It's time for summer.  Can anyone say Disneyland?! :-) 

Lia with her buddies, Kaylee and Lilly, with their preschool certificates and balloons!

Meeting Logan

Two of my good friends flew into Seattle this week to visit their families and, as a result, I was able to see both of them for a quick visit and introduce them to baby Logan.  It is always a joy to see Kristina and Sarah and I am so grateful that they still have parents in the area to bring them "home" once in awhile!

Kristina flew in from Colorado with her hubby and managed to slip away for a few hours on Sunday to see my parents, Logan, and me at my parents' house in Issy.

Sarah is in town from glamorous New York City and drove down to my home today for lunch with my children and me. 

Love you girls!  So good to see both of you!

My Little Man

As I put Logan down the other day on the couch, it really just struck me how he's looking like such a boy these days.  Even if I put him in a pink, frilly dress with a bow on top, I don't think that he could be mistaken much for a girl anymore.  My little man in the making...

Just Monkeying Around

Last night when I came upstairs, I found Logan in his crib hugging his stuffed monkey (placed there by Ron) for the first time.  Since he was wearing his monkey shirt, I just thought it was the cutest thing.  All my little monkeys monkeying around in Logie's bed.

Lia's 4 and 1/4 Years Report!

Lia has made it through the first quarter of her fourth year of life.  Goodness.  The time just keeps on flying by.  I took this picture of her today on our front step and I can't get over how grown up she looks in it...like I could ship her off to kindergarten tomorrow and no one would even bat an eye if they saw her walking down the halls of her future school!  I must say that it's been an interesting three months as Lia "adjusted" to be an older sister and not an only child.  We sure have had some ups and downs with this transition, but hopefully we have made it through the worst of it.  So here is an update of what's been going on in the life of Lia these past three months.

1.  As a I just mentioned, there were some rough times with Lia since Logan arrived into our family.  Normally an extremely well behaved, obedient, and kind child, Lia's behavior took a turn for the worst when Logan was around six weeks old.  She started throwing massive tantrums, disobeying us, and physically being very rough with her brother.  This overall behavior continued for about six weeks and luckily started to subside around Logan's three month mark.  I know that this was all a reaction to the monumental change in her life, but I am grateful that it seems like I have my "old girl" back.

2. With the arrival of Logan, Lia finally seemed to find her independence in our home.  She has always been my shadow and preferred to be in the same room as me (and her father when he was home).  However, after Logan's birth, she discovered her bedroom for the first time and now happily spends a lot of time playing alone up there.  I consider this a good change.

3.  One of Lia's favorite activities while in her bedroom is to crawl into her bed with her trusty blanket and "play games."  This usually consists of pretending that she is someone else and having conversations while being this pretend person.  She goes on all sorts of adventures and does all sorts of things (in her mind) while assuming this other identity.  Such a silly girl.

4.  Lia has gotten extremely particular about what clothes she will agree to wear and most of this is based on the texture of the clothing.  She only likes soft clothing now.  So she can either be found wearing her pajamas all day long or cotton pants and leggings with simple cotton shirts.  Basically half of her wardrobe never gets touched any more.  Yes, this is frustrating to me, but a battle that I have learned not to fight.

5.  Lia has become an expert at coloring in the lines of any picture that she is working on.  She picked this up from her older cousins during a trip to Montana in March and has not looked back since.  I love that she no longer just scribbles all over a picture in a matter of seconds.  Instead she will spend many, many minutes carefully coloring every detail of the picture with exactness.

6.  She has also gotten really good at writing letters (and not just the ones in her name) and constantly can be found writing them on pieces of paper or drawing them in the air with her fingers.

7.  Overall Lia has also gotten a lot sillier and enjoys making funny faces or noises or moves with her body.  She loves to giggle with her friends and make them laugh.

8.  Lia is a jumping and leaping maniac and is constantly using the couches in our family room as the platform for all of her aeriel tricks!  She especially enjoys doing this while watching any of her movies as she now will always choose a character to copy (from Simba to Wendy to Snow White) and will mimic their every move and quote every one of their lines throughout the entire movie.  At least she is getting some exercise while watching television.

9.  Although Lia has been a huge fan of the Disney princesses for two years now, she is currently in love with Ariel.  She thinks that she is the little mermaid and that Ron is Prince Eric.  She insists that I call her Ariel on a regular basis and loves to point out "her face" on cups, books, stickers, clothing, etc.  She knows she is kidding, but sure likes to play this game with me.

10.  Lia has wrapped up her first session of swim lessons and second session of ballet lessons and finishes up her year of preschool next week.  We are taking a break from all of this over the summer and will start back up with everything in the fall (swapping out the ballet for gymnastics).  With the exception of having to wear tights for ballet, Lia has seemed to really enjoy all of these "extracurricular" activities and is excited for them to resume in the fall. 

And there you go...

A Baby and His Bassinet

Since Logan has slept through the night consistently for the past three weeks, the time has come to move him from his bassinet next to my side of the bed to his nursery down the hallway.  Sniff.  I never thought it would be, but this "step" in my children's lives is actually a bit emotional for me.  Silly, I know, but it's the truth.  Due to the fact that the bassinet is going to be taken apart and packed up soon, I thought that I should get a few pictures of my baby boy in it since it's a sentimental piece of furniture in my family.  This bassinet is actually 73 years old and was first purchased by my grandparents in New York City when my dad came into the world.  Since then, it has been the first bed for many babies in my family from my aunt and uncle to one of my cousins to my brothers and me to some of my nieces and nephews and now to my own children.  I love that Lia and Logan slept their first few months of their lives in their grandpa's bassinet.  It's just a special thing to me that the legacy and love in this bassinet goes back three generations.

Lia and Her Letters

This year in Lia's preschool co-op, we have been focusing on a letter and a number every week and last week we finished up the alphabet!  Since there are a few weeks left in the school year, we decided to just start back over again with the letter A.  A little repetition never hurt a few four-year olds, right?  Anyways, one of the activities I had the children do today while they were at our house was to go out onto the driveway and color in a giant A that I had drawn for each of them.  Of course, Lia was all over this and even insisted on finishing up the other girls' letters once they had gone home.  However, this was not good enough for my aspiring artist as she still wanted more. So after lunch and putting Logan down for his afternoon nap, we headed back outside and that is how a giant pair of Bs, Cs, Ds, Es, Fs, and Gs ended up on our driveway today. 
 

Lia coloring in the blue, "water" background on her fish-themed E.

Lia and her masterpiece!