This one is for Grandpa

Dane has this song that he sings to the kids when we are packing up to go somewhere. He said his Dad sang it to him, and initially the song came from his grandfather Pops. Anyway, I caught this on video and had to share it. A salute to the Laverty boys.

Reading

So for clarification, Alanna mostly has that passage memorized. But, she does know some of the words when they are given to her out of context. She just recognizes them. I know when I was taught spelling\reading in school that they told me to "sound out" the word if I did not know what it meant. So I have tried to use that method on Alanna occasionally and I does not really work. "C's" and "K"s are just too similar and lets face it, English is not really a language to "sound out." It just doesn't work that way.

I am reminded of one of the advantages of cursive writing. Teaching that letters (and therefore sounds) run together. Probably much better. That and the idea of instead of learning the sounds, to learn the shape of the words. I sit here going "huh?" on that one a little, words and shapes? But hey, it seems to work. It inspires the idea that 'oh I have seem that before. I get it". And since reading is memorization anyway, why not do shapes instead of sounds?

Finally...

So I finally got a good video of Alanna.

"Hi"

Lydia's first official word was Dada. But since we don't count Mama and Dada as first words around here, her first word is Hi. This is a video of her saying it. She now also points at things and says "wa sat" or just "sat". I haven't been able to get her to do that one on demand though.

Sleep...

Some day, when I get some, I will be a whole new person. (And I mean more than just one night. If I get one night of decent sleep I am really tired the next day and have not managed two in a row in who knows how long.)

Shoes

I was a girly girl when I was little. I loved pink, ruffles, braids, curls, you know, the usual. Some of that rubs off into my expectations for my kids.

I took Alanna to get new shoes, and i have to go to stride rite because unfortunately she has inherited my feet. Stride Rite shoes are narrower but even they don't really fit. She has a size 9 foot but she has to wear 1/2 a size smaller to make the shoes fit, and we have to be very specific about what she gets so they do not fall off. Add to that her personal style sense and it is amazing that she wears anything at all on her feet.

Anyway, so we go to the store and ask for the narrowest "dress" shoe they have. I got three options. One was a white normal (boring) looking dress shoe. The other two were black casual shoes that looked like walking shoes meant to cross over to something dressier. One had a scalloped design across the toe with a bow, and it looked cute. The other was very basic and looked like a boys shoe made for a girl. So which does Alanna choose? The slimmed down one with no frills. Of course. I am not complaining, I am just glad we found something. But I did sigh a little. Watch out Lydia, you are going to have no options. Hair ties, pigtails, frilly dresses and skirts for you.

Asher ABC

Iddy Biddy

My Iddy Biddy turned 9 months two days ago. She's 28 inches long (don't have her weighed just yet) she cut her top front tooth on the right side, and (drumroll please) she has her first word!!! "Hi." Yup, that's it. She says "hi" now. It's so cute. Both of my girls said "hi" for their first word. (Asher said "dog").

Things the kids did today while my back was turned

1: Asher cut a Barbie's hair with the kid scissors. It was not a Barbie Alanna claims so it was okay, and he only got half way through when Alanna came to tell me. He then got upset because he didn't want Alanna to tell me. I told him he could finish cutting but I wasn't going to buy a new one, and I couldn't out the hair back on and it would not grow back. If all of those things were okay he could keep cutting. He said okay.

2: Evidently he started on his own hair when I went upstairs, so there are two practically bald spots on top of his head. I just gave him a haircut last week. So, shave the head or wait for it to grow again? I'm going with waiting.

3: Lydia got a Alanna's banana peel and crawled across the carpet and up the stairs with it. Oh yum.

4: Someone got a hold of my iPod and downloaded something on it. Not sure what it was or how they got it, but it wasn't anything I chose! Fortunately it wasn't something risque.

5: Alanna tore a page out of her coloring book and asked me to tape it back in.

I think I am going to like this

Dane won a video camera from work. I think this is going to be a good thing. I have an adorable video of Asher saying his ABC's that I will post as soon as i can figure out the mechanics of the software that comes with the camera. Anyway, this is good news. Especially since we were just looking at camcorders and decided not to buy one.

Two Words

FREE ADMISSION!!

Today was free admission to Museums day in California.  Yes of course everyone else and their cat were out, but we decided to go to the Railroad Museum.  Going on a free day was perfect because of course the kids were only so interested in everything. Actually I thought that they would be a little more interested.  Oh well.

After we were done we wandered around Old Sac for awhile.  It was great to see the old shops again.  Wander the wooden sidewalks.  We took a carriage ride around and Alanna and Asher had a blast waving at people.  They loved it when the carriage stopped and then started again.  They kept falling back against the seats and giggling.

Messy

So, usually Lydi only needs to be changed right before bed and immediately when she gets up.  Of course, that's not always how it works out.

I went to get her out of bed this morning, and found her sitting in the crib in one of her Daddy's shirts, a nice one he usually wears to work.  Evidently when Dane got up with her in the middle of the night she had a wet out, but her clothes are still in a box and rather than bang around and wake everyone, Dane got one of his shirts, put her in it.  She was adorable.  This is what she did when I tried to take her picture.

I got another picture of her.  Then I went to pick her up and found out that she had made Daddy's shirt yucky.  Hee Hee, I promise that I put it in the washer.

Hello World

So, instead of unpacking or organizing, budgeting, or whatever else I could be using this time for sensibly, I have instead started a family blog.  I am hoping it will be a combination of family updates, thoughts on the world, and the occasional place to rant about something.  Feel free to skip any posts that do not appeal to you.

So, we are now here in lovely Cali, and it is a warm day, so warm in fact I almost sent the kids outside in shorts. It is supposed to rain the rest of the week but I am glad I got a sunny day to stock up on my sun quota.  We are slowly settling into our new home, it takes a lot longer with three kids to do something like that.  But we are making progress.

Lydia has stated to stand on her own , and you can watch her as she makes little faces trying to move her feet.  She thinks the whole thing is a big game and giggles through the whole thing.  Her top teeth still haven't come through.  I'm so ready for them to, I am not getting any sleep at nights, despite what I put on her gums to soothe them.

Asher loves having kids next door to play with.  Every morning he wants to go next door.  He was wrestling with their 5 year old today, and he did pretty well  with it.

Alanna keeps asking me when she gets to go to school.  She's 5, I got the papers from her school, "come on Mom what are you waiting for"!  She has really gotten into faeries lately.

Dane gets up every morning and goes to the gym.  He's enjoying that, he has more energy during the day. Work is productive, and he is enjoying what he is doing.

I got up once this week to work out, but due to a migraine and very little sleep missed the next two days.  I am hoping to get back to it.  I know it feels better after you have done it for awhile.  Mostly I am cleaning the house, trying to organize it and enjoying the sunshine.

So, I think that's everything.  I'll try and keep current on this thing, but no promises just in case!