Some random January pictures....

Emmy the Princess with Thomas as Raggedy Ann:The look on Em's face cracks me up in this picture- as well as Thomas in the doll stroller and Callan with her hardhat on w/ her wedding dress.

This is how daddy reading books to the girls ends up:

Crazy Emmy Lou (the boots are part of a costume- I swear! not part of my regular wardrobe!)

Cal and Em zooming through the mall with their bears on the way to Build A Bear to buy wheelchairs and outfits for Sara and Polly.

Cal the superhero:

Thomas getting a ride in the pink wagon :) My cute boy:

Group Pics

So we had the idea to get a group picture of our ever-expanding set of chicklets. What a hoot this all was. Poor Natalee. She had a rough time. These pictures of her are hilarious though. She's so sweet, even while screaming her head off.... So here they are, Natalee, Thomas, Callan, Emmy, Maycee and Adeline. Gretchen, Erin and I have been buddies for a loong time- 17 yrs? Oh my, are we that old? I'll admit that we have the cutest group of babies ever....

Happy Birthday, Shad!

Shad spent the day on a field trip w/ Emmy's class :) So cute! They went to the Claremont Folk Music Center and took the Metrolink (so green). Then Shad picked Callie up early and took her to the bird farm until Emmy was out of school. Such a good daddy! I was jealous he got to have a fun day with the girls and go on Emmy's first elementary field trip, but I'm so thankful my kids have such a wonderful daddy who wants to do stuff like this with them. Emmy's made lots of big friends in her new class and learned some new bad words. She got in a fistfight w/ some boy and got a scratch on her hand. Some boy, W, stuck up for her when some other boy was "hogging the playground" and Emmy said, "You know, W is my true love" b/c he stuck up for her.

Yesterday was Callie's half-birthday. I picked the girls up from school and we went to Chili's (Callie's FAVORITE). She walked in and told them it was her birthday. We had a fun time. Callie asked me something that just blew me away. She was sitting there thinking for a minute and she said, "Mom, do you think we're in a movie? Like someone is watching us and all of this life is just a show?" Dude, kid. That's too deep for your old mom. So anyway, she's now 4 1/2 and oh so philosophical now :)

Thomas today insisted that he wear two different shoes. He brought me one shoe of two different pairs and I put them on and he thought that was so funny. He's very happy about it. Thomas is the most expressive baby I think I've ever come across. The kid really wants to communicate and does a great job of getting his point across.

What a week....

What a big week we had this week. Our girls are in separate classrooms for the first time in 2 years.

This are going okay, though Emmy's broken down crying a few times at home:( Nothing in particular is bugging her, just think it's stressful. b/c she had her teachers for 3 1/2 years and she has been ruling the class for a good while now. She's excited that she's doing science experiments now, doing timed addition facts, etc. I drove up to pick her up from school after her first and she was waiting w/ her class by the curb. I couldn't see her but heard her yelling to one of her friends from her old class who was passing by, "Guess what? I'm in elementary full time now!" She was so proud. I heard it in her voice and it made me cry. My big girl. This is quite an accomplishment for her and a major deal in her life (in mine too!). Grandma Bo remembers when she went to 1st grade, how new it was and how she wasn't used to it. I suppose Emmy will remember this last week when she's 99 too.

Emmy heard some tune somewhere and said, "Listen mom, that's Bach. We learned about him and Haydn." I said really, who's Haydn and she said, "he's one of those musical instrument guys who made 'The Surprise.'" Rock on. I didn't learn that crap until I took "Musical Appreciation" in college.

Emmy's teacher called me tonight to tell me that she's doing great in school that she's well prepared for Elementary and wanted to make sure I wasn't freaking out about all the changes and the things Em. She said Emmy kept a strong face at school and didn't act like she was stressed out about her transition. I think I'm going to like the new teacher- calling to check up on me :)

Callie hasn't mentioned much about not having Emmy there. She's said a few things- that she doesn't get Emmy to help her with her work and give her new lessons, but she's doing ok. Callie has her little group of buddies and they are a pretty tight group, so I'm thankful for that. Callie is learning exchanging (i.e., "carrying over") in her math work. She's working on learning lowercase cursive letters, matching the cursive to the print letters. Most of the kids just learn the cursive letters in school and those are the first letters they learn. She's having fun in circus, doing pyramids now and starting to get ready for the show (which is still mooonths away). I'm exhausted Tuesday and Thursday nights, but boy does she have fun.

Our little T is learning more and more new words. "Apple" and "bird" are new ones. I've been surprised lately with what he understands. I told him Gracie was going to come over and he got up and walked over to the door and hit on it excitedly- he wanted me to let her in :). I told Dooc to go to bed and he stood up and tried ot push him to go to bed and was yelling something at him, and throwing his hand around like he was telling him to go to bed. He's been giving dirty looks lately too. He's got a very big pouty look and a new mad-at-you look. He dances when he hears music and has just about got it figured out how to drink out of a cup. They grow up too fast!

:)

Emmy has moved up to Elementary (6-9 yr old class). She is soo excited and so far is taking the transition very well. When I picked her up from school she had the BIGGEST smile on her face and told me that she finally got to go visit in the other class. She was so excited. I have been worried about the transition into the older kid classroom. I pictured the girls flipping through Vogue and InStyle during lunch break and was soooo relieved when Emmy told me she played "fairies" and "reindeers" on her break. Amen to that.

Callie told Emmy she was very sad with her because she didn't give her a kiss and hug goodbye yesterday when she went to visit the other class. Callie yesterday said she might as well not go to school since Emmy wasn't going to be in her class anymore. Aside from these two comments, though, Callie is taking it okay too.

Thomas is having a language explosion, methinks. He hit his head last night and said "Uh Oh" and he says "Poop" when we go to change his diaper, and "off" and "cookie" and "cracker" cookie and cracker sound the same though :) he gives the BEST kisses now too- puckers up and closes his mouth- no more slobber-snotty kisses :)

Hmmmm

Little T had his 1 yr check up yesterday. What an event that was.... He is officially TEENY. He weighed 18lbs 14oz, was 30 inches tall. He is in the 5th percentile for weight- yeah, so 95% of little 1 yr old boys weigh more than he does. I'm trying to feed him more. He's developing fine though :) he's super smart, getting food on a spoon to feed himself (I just yesterday gave him the spoon for the firs time), he talks up a storm. he was saying Zeebra (well, "bruh") and off and on yesterday. Those are new ones. He tries to say airplane "uh-p" is how it turns out. He climbs and interacts so well. He plays very well w/ his sisters, trying to get them to chase him, or him chase them. He dances and loves music :) Now that he walks, when we pick them up at school or drop them off he SCREAMS when we leave. he walks in ahead of me, tries to shut the gate behind himself and walks on in like he belongs there. Now I remember Callie at this age b/c she was the same way. She wanted to be at school sooooo badly. Not sure when Thomas will start- maybe 2 mornings a week in the fall or closer to his birthday. He'd be a happy little guy, I know, to get to go. The toddler program at the school is so good. It's amazing what they have the little ones doing. I'm just not quite ready to let my baby go :)

The girls are doing well. Still doing circus and having fun. Callie still does headstands all around the house. She runs on the balance beam (even when it's propped up at a 30 degree angle). Emmy is a jum rope queen at circus, which is so cool b/c she was so worried about jump roping. When she started in Oct she couldn't jump rope and it didn't take but a couple of weeks to be able to "jump in" and go at it! We got a new tennis coach and we really like him! He's great w/ the kids and he's a great teacher. Mom and I were serving up a storm last week :) Emmy will be visiting her next class on Monday- she is sooo excited and so ready for the transition. Callan is continuing her work on making words and reading small words. She's been doing the "bank game" at school which is the addition of large numbers using numeral beads to learn math operations and addition facts. She's also making maps of the continents- carefully tracing out the continents, punching out the shapes with push pins, gluing them to paper and labeling them. They both love school, thank God. We're curious as to how Montessori elementary will turn out....

Kicking

Since before T has been walking, he's been kicking a ball. Shad says soccer is in his blood. He's destined to become a soccer superstar. He loves this little ball at Grandma Bo's house: