Life over the past month continues to stay very busy! I started writing small notes to myself of the latest with the girls, knowing I will forget what lovely life tidbits to include as I muse about our daily life. Since I last wrote a blog, 10 new Bluey episodes were released in the United States. This is clearly a worthy milestone to mention, since we marathoned them like an adult would for a new season of their own show, and within a few days the girls were already asking for episodes by name. No, we don’t watch television allll the time and yes, we love that the episodes are only a few minutes long and share good, family values.
It took me a couple rewatches to realize one game in our house emerged from a new episode. One night the girls were running wild -literally, as kids do in January in the winter- and circling the living room over and over again, full on running and screaming. Occasionally one would plop down on the ground randomly and pause a moment, until another caught up and yelled flush! and imitated the flushing of a toilet, and said still child would jump up and return to a sprint. I watched this occur for a few minutes and finally asked what they were playing. All three responded with we are playing toilet tag! and explained when someone stopped, you had to flush them to bring them back in the game. Like what? I’m not sure if I’m impressed at the creativity, or mortified, but now it is a standard kid game in our household. Toilet tag. Yep.
We are now in the age of toy cleanup that all three now understand cleaning up does not mean shoving everything under the bed, or in one toy bin, but to try to put things away correctly. I should probably credit Grandma Sue for this transition, and it’s noticeable when we ask them to put things away where they go. I will often randomly fine one cleaning up a room (never all three at once), looking for a reward treat of course, and putting doll accessories or barbies or stuffed animals in the correct bins. Score!! Now, if we can only convince these kids to change their clothes and put anything removed in a laundry bin or by the washer, instead of everywhere. Baby steps!
School continues to go smoothly and all three claim to enjoy it, likely due to the love for their teacher and seeing her each day. I now respond to being called Miss Tawni in the afternoons, especially from Harper, and wonder how many times a day the three actually call her name. It must be about in the millions. Take a look at the picture above. Being mom makes me biased, but I am seriously impressed at how well and creatively all three copied those pictures. Is it just me and this is normal five year old drawing? I am pretty sure all three are already better than I am at drawing. Look at the enhanced detail on Reagan’s cup, or the fingers on Emerie’s hand, or Harper’s color coordinated bear. I can’t help but be impressed!
In January Craig and I took all three to a mid-year reading assessment at our home-school (it’s in addition to their normal daytime curriculum). Each kiddo went back with the teacher for the same assessment, and all three were evaluated right where they should be. She noted everyone understands the difference between the letter name and the sound of a letter, which is the first step toward reading comprehension. All three are still stumped on combined letter sounds creating words, but she assured us they seem close to getting it. We’ve tried a few different ways to explain the concept and so far the light bulb for all three hasn’t clicked on quite yet. I believe Reagan will be the first to catch on; not sure who will be second! By the end of the kindergarten year, I’m betting all three will have it down and we will be working through level one reading books.
In January we continued to practice counting by fives and counting to 100. You can see their brains trying to figure out what comes next in the sequence after a 9 (like 39 to 40), and improvement continues. The end of January also prompted the 100 Days in school party, occurring on January 31st, and I swear the girls were more excited the night before than for Christmas. It took forever to calm them down at bedtime, and everyone happily put on their matching t-shirts (with friends) and let me do fancy hair for the occasion. We counted down the last few days until this milestone- or should I say we counted UP- and everyone excitedly yelled it was day 100 the moment eyes opened that morning. When asked their favorite part of the day, because I know several activities were planned, they all answered the same: the fruit loop necklaces! We might have to make some of those at home one of these days. We finished their fun filled day with a trip to frozen yogurt to commemorate, and I can’t believe everyone is so grown up!
Everyone received mid-year report cards in January, with great marks and then need to practice reading and comprehension more, which Craig and I both agree we need to commit more time to at home in the evenings. I hope all three grow up to love books and reading; so far Emerie seems most inclined to grab a book and hang out by herself while looking through pages. Harper prefers stories relating to princesses or ballerinas and asks someone to read to her on those; Reagan loves to carry books around and add notes and drawings in them, rotating through her favorite book each week or so.
As we all wait for spring to arrive, we maintain indoor entertainment through tons of birthday parties (not an exaggeration!); swimming at the nearby YMCA or Alaska Club, build days, hitting up the indoor climbing playground at a local rec center or running at the jump park, and other at-home activities like kid yoga, makeup and hair styling, playing with dolls or legos, making paper crafts and coloring, and can’t forget toilet tag (haha). The girls discovered yoga at school and asked to watch kid videos everyday one week. I came downstairs to find all three actively participating in the activity, yelling Mom we are exercising! They are surprisingly limber and thrilled to check out different yoga themes (Frozen was a particular favorite, not surprisingly!).
Build days continue to be a fun activity, some kits harder than others. We really like that Lowe’s provides stickers instead of paint, although I’m guessing the girls prefer the Home Depot mess because it’s more fun. They are all getting better at hitting nails and I am getting better at building some of the sets…otherwise I just copy however Craig builds it! I often find the girls at home during quiet times, playing salon with their dolls or each other, making a huge makeuppy mess but haven’t fun while doing it. Harper’s doll Babela continue to look like she’s had a rough night and quite the hangover, and then about 20 hair clips to seal the deal. Reagan finally named her doll Moriah, and constantly reminds me she has a name and is beautiful. During much of these events I will find Emerie in the bathroom, giving her doll or stuffed animal a bath, rather than adding to their makeup. Such girlie girls!
After a handful of swimming birthday parties in the past few weeks, one party highlight is certainly the Taylor Swift themed one, which was about as girly as possible and all three were thrilled. Is that Craig in a pink cowgirl hat? Why yes it is, and he definitely bedazzled those hats for the girls while at the party. I found him hanging out upstairs, bedazzling them with TS music in the background and the kids running around, having fun. He’s definitely a girl dad!
In addition to the usual birthday shenanigans, the crafts were on point. Everyone bedazzled a microphone (yes, they were working and charged…it wasn’t loud in there at all…), Emerie opting for all black while Reagan snagged a teal and Harper a light pink. The girls also added gems to their sunglasses and humored me for a couple cute shots. It was quite the afternoon!
And lastly, since this blog is getting a bit long, I have to mention all the Valentine’s day fun. This time last year we were down in Juneau working and harassing family, and I’m really glad this year we stayed for the girls to participate in their school activities. One day after school everyone wrote out their own Valentine’s Day cards; something I did quickly the night before last year! Some grumbling occurred until we got in the groove; overall they did great writing all classmates names and their own. I overbought options, since last year valentines sold out well before the holiday and couldn’t be found, with Reagan selecting Trolls (Band Together), Emerie choosing Frozen over the Bluey option, and Harper claiming Peppa Pig. I always enjoy watching them to a school type activity at home, such as writing classmates names down, and seeing how they react. Emerie struggled a bit fitting the letters into the small cards, writing bottom to top to finish names, but was able to get over that frustration and actually finished first! Harper and Reagan continued fighting over the pen used to cross completely names off the list; Harper also demanded to only use a yellow marker for all the writing, and Reagan took her time writing out the names. Somehow we made it through and were done by the time Craig came home from work!
Excluding the winter season we are currently in, it feels though time is passing really quickly and my babies are growing up quickly before my eyes. The girls are growing like weeds and I’m internally struggling a bit at how big and independent they are becoming- it really goes by quick! Life has gotten a lot easier for sure, and we can fit so many more activities and outings into a single day, but I certainly have my moments of missing my little tiny humans. I am learning to enjoy them spreading their wings and learning new things.
Cheers to winter…for a little bit longer! ❤