A New Way of Doing Things

Kellen yelled to me "Mom, come take our picture, quick!"

A rare snapshot of all three together. :)

So we're registering Kellen for kindergarten next week (sob, sob, sob), and Geof went to an kindergarten information session the other night to learn more about the process. We started talking about what a big change this was going to be for Kellen and the issues we are likely to face as he transitions into this new big kid phase! We were thinking about what we could do to help prepare him (other than regular preschool stuff), and I came up with a plan. Now I have NEVER been much of a planner. I just like to go with the flow and take care of things as they come up. Thus, I've been a Mom for 5.08 years and have never really operated on any kind of schedule other than what the kids' naps/meals have dictated. Well get ready kiddos, that is all about to change! (actually, it changed yesterday). We are now officially on a daily schedule. It is posted in the kitchen where we can't get away from it! So far Kellen loves it! He likes to know what to expect, and I think this will be good for him. In addition to our normal daily activities, I'm working in designated quiet time (I've been quite the flunky with this up until now), "help time" (chores that they are capable of), table time (crafts and workbooks), one-on-one time (special time with me and just one kid), and playtime/tv time. Kellen and Addie also have "helping hands" charts to document the ways they help around the house each day. They are in charge of things like clearing the table, dust-busting the floor after EB eats, folding washcloths and matching socks in the laundry, making their beds, hanging up coats and putting away shoes, unloading utensils from the dishwasher, and several other things that they are quite capable of. Kellen especially loves earning stars on his helping chart and he LOVES dustbusting since I got the cone-shaped dustbuster (Kellen is obsessed with traffic cones, so a cone-shaped vacuum is wonderful for him). I think he would wear it in a holster on his belt and vacuum the floor all day if we let him! Anyway, this is a very new way of doing things for me, but yesterday went very well and I hope we can stick to it!

Also, Ellary had a MAJOR breakthrough last night. She slept through the night!!!!!!!! I heard her wimpering at some point early in the morning, but I steeled myself against the urge to go in and feed her and she went back to sleep. This is HUGE since she's been in the habit of getting up 3 or 4 times a night, which is ridiculous for an 8-month old. I give credit, in part, to Geof, who has started feeding her oatmeal before bedtime to hold her over (EB still won't take a bottle, but she'll take oatmeal!). And she is 8 months old today!

This is Just Too Much Fun!

What Ellary and I did while the big kids were at school:

Building More of what we Need

Geof relayed this story to me...
Tonight I believe they were reading a story about what it's like on the moon. It ends with the question, "do you think you will ever travel to the moon?" Kellen said no, he plans to be a builder. Geof said, "You never know. Maybe you could build a rocket and go to the moon." Kellen said that no, he just wanted to build houses... and apartments... and maybe stores. "Like, I could build another Target ... or Patsy Aiken." I guess based on my spending habits, he would think it useful to have more of those stores!

Another Toy

For Me! I got myself a black backdrop to play around with today. Too bad it was evening when I got home, so I could only snap a few odd pictures indoors with the flash. The kids were hungry so they weren't interested in hanging around for pictures much, and what they were willing to pose for was weird! But at least I know my backdrop should work well. Boy my kids look tired! Must have been a long busy weekend...

Miss Pac Man

I'm declaring it official:
Ellary Bea is crawling!
Today I watched her crawl across the wood floor, heading straight toward a tiny piece of trash, which she successfully got hold of and I successfully removed from her grasp before it became lunch. She has been scooting around for a few days, but today it actually looked like the real crawling - on her hands and knees, moving her hands and knees in a coordinated way to get her across the room. I guess my vacuum will be getting much more of a workout than it's used to... This has coincided with her teething and chewing on everything, and also finally being able to pick up small cheerios and other finger foods and successfully put them in her mouth. I suspect that now she will be making "bea-lines" for anything tiny that she can pick up and eat.

Crawling around the dining room floor (dusting for me)

While I was watching her scoot around the office floor, she also started pulling herself up a bit. She saw something she wanted in the window and managed to get herself up onto her knees using the windowsill. She definitely has her brother and sister beat in the moving around department!

She wanted the blind cords and managed to get up on her knees!

The Air is Cold and Dry...

...and Addie's hair has learned to fly!

Making the Best of it

So there was no more snow overnight, and the bright morning sunlight melted most of the dusting of snow that we got yesterday (and what was left was icy and powdery).  Kellen was quite grumpy about it this morning, but we bundled up and headed outside anyway and made the best of what was left!  Kellen and Geof managed to eek out a few snowballs, and Addie ate as much snow as she could.  I think this picture is pretty funny since there's obviously no snow in the ground and yet Kellen managed to scrape up a decent snowball!  I think this was headed for Addie and she was NOT happy when it landed on her back!