Sharing and Shyness (or lack thereof)

Sharing

The other day I took Austin and Karissa to story time at the library and then we stayed for ABC Activity Time, which is just a time for young children and babies to play with educational toys and puzzles. During the ABC time a baby about 13-14 months old crawled over to play with Karissa and Austin. His mom started telling me how he needs more time with other kids so he could learn to share, since he is the first. Sure enough, he went to grab a ball that Austin was holding, but Austin, already used to having things taken from him, held on real tight, and with a loud grunt, pulled the ball back. Then, he picked up another toy and gave it to the other boy. Later, the two boys joined up again and the same exact thing happened! I've always admired other parents' third or fourth child who is good at sharing just because of their placement in the family. Now I've got one too!

Shyness (or lack thereof)

Later that day while we waited for Victoria to get out of school, Karissa was running around with some other little chicas her age. One of them was with her grandpa and ran back to him for a moment before continuing to play with the others. Karissa, not even hesitating once or even looking to see what he looked like, ran right up to the grandpa too, hugging his leg like he was her own grandpa. She clung to his leg for about a minute, while the man looked at me laughing. He happened to have a huge white beard, so he asked her if he looked like Santa. She just glanced up at him to see if he did, then went back to playing with the others. My mom says I always liked sitting with the older men at church when I was younger, so I guess she gets her likeness for old grandpas from me, but she also goes up to any kid at the park and plays with them, so I don't think she has a shy bone in her body!

Homework

Though Victoria is only in pre-K, her homework is like what my second graders did at the beginning of the year. Of course that was about 9 years ago, but still, her homework is getting very challenging! Check out what her homework was last week:

Monday: 35 addition problems (not just 1+1, but all combinations of two numbers equaling 10)
Tuesday: a front and back page of sounding out 3 and four-letter words; and ten groups of three words to put into alphabetical order (some of these words were ones they couldn't even sound out yet)
Wednesday: putting triangles around 5's and squares around 10's to 100 on the front page and fact families on the back

Their homework is due Thursday, so they don't have homework that night, but every night they also do their sight words (there are 41 of them now) and read a small phonics book. Up to this point the homework took about 15-20 min, which I think is about right for young 5-year-olds who aren't in K yet. Some nights last week it took her over an hour to complete the work! I'm just hoping it's not like this for the rest of the school year. The funny part is, she likes to make it even harder by wanting to put each sight word into a complete sentence and counting in Spanish for her math homework. At least she's ready for kindergarten!

Lights

A couple of weeks ago we got overhead lighting put in our home with some of our tax return (thanks Austin for the extra money we received b/c of your birth!). We got a ceiling fan put into our family room, which also helps light our table so we can see our food better. Another light put into our living room, which makes reading easier in there.

A light in Austin's room Victoria's and Karissa's room (we made the flowers yesterday and they wanted to hang them from their new light)

And the guest room. No more lamps-- woohoo!

Spring Break

This week was spring break, so Victoria was home all week. Even though we had lots of things planned, she was still going crazy being with us all week long! It makes me worry about what we're going to do about this summer when she's off! Some of the highlights of the week were:

-playing outside

-playdates with friends

-roller skating at the rink

-making crafts

-writing and drawing in a journal

-going to the zoo

In the "duck pond" of the insect room

Getting cozy with the goat!

We met Ben and Abby there

Also, Victoria has a loose tooth in front, Austin is crawling every where, Karissa proved what a "different" eater she is (she didn't like the cotton candy she got at the zoo!)

Austin likes to pretend he's Count Dracula

Here's a video of Austin crawling

Spring Has Sprung

Grandma Pat came for a visit, and Grandpa Jim joined her at the end, to celebrate Easter with us. During the week we went to the park one day and had a picnic. As is usual around here at this time, mommy and daddy ducks wander around people's yards, parking lots, and parks. During our picnic the ducks came right up to us and the mama tried to eat a cracker right out of Austin's hand! If I wasn't right there holding him up, she would have. Her beak got to about 2 inches from his hand. Luckily, he was pretty calm, as he usually is.

Speaking of Austin, he is 10 months now and has 6 teeth in! He did some good crawling-type moves when Grandma was here. A couple of times he cleared about ten feet, though it was slow going. He can stand on his own now, holding onto the couch or a chair, or the Elmo toy. He loves shaking the Easter eggs with candy in them!

Victoria and Karissa enjoyed their Easter morning, conference, and time with Grandma and Grandpa. We had two unusually warm days, hitting 80, which made the week that much more fun, being able to ride bikes and play in the sand box.
Happy Easter everyone!!

P.S. Victoria's ear has healed up!!