Conferences

Last week was conference week for the big kids. I am happy to report they are both doing very well in school. E has totally charmed her teachers. She still tends to write backwards, but that is mostly a developmental thing, plus she is left-handed. P. is now reading on a 5th grade level--both in vocabulary and comprehension. I was surprised that he was also comprehending at that level, though I shouldn't be, he's a smart kid. The other day they went outside to play with splitcat and P asked his sister if she was going to be a spectator or play football with them. Last night splitcat was playing a game on the computer(medieval Total War) and in talking to P, who was watching, he realized that P knew exactly how to play just from watching. His only problem is that his handwriting is absolutely horrible. He still mixes upper and lower case letters randomly and the size of his letters is totally random. I guess his handwriting shows his emotional immaturity while the content of his writing shows his scholarly maturity. His teacher said she always enjoys reading what Paul writes because it is usually very original.

Speaking of last week. Friday night all the kids were supposed to stay at my mom's so we could have a night out, and I had a meeting Saturday morning and splitcat had an open house to attend. So Friday morning, about 8:30 I get a call from P's school. I had taken a Benadryl(woke up with allergies/cold) and was asleep. Hi, this is the nurse at .... P just threw up everywhere, can you come get him. So I had to get everyone dressed and go pick up P. And cancel all my plans. It worked out, I guess. My mom called yesterday and said she woke up sick on saturday morning, so it was good the kids didn't come. I was sad that I missed my meeting. I am going to be working on a girls retreat in February. I am going to be one of the prayer people. My first reaction was to say no, but I realized it might be a good thing. But I already feel like the spiritual attacks are beginning. So I am already praying a lot more than usual(which is a good thing). I was blessed that the Lord answered my prayers and no one else threw up and my cold failed to progress and I was completely fine by Sunday afternoon. I am most excited about getting away for 2.5 days, especially since the place where the retreats are held is in Dahlonega, which is in the mountains. The mountains are my true home, I miss them. So even though I may have to stay up late, I have a feeling I will come home rested.

It's snowing again!!!!! We are supposed to get 1-3 inches. So here is Baby M and his first encounter with snow. He gets a little startled by the crows, that's why he stops smiling. The video of W has me in it, so I'm putting his picture instead. Now that there is some accumulation, I am going to take them out after their nap to play

It's a little later. I started a snowball fight with the big kids--but I didn't have any gloves on, so it didn't last long. It was that wonderful wet snow that is perfect for snowballs and snowmen. Unfortunately, about two seconds after the end of this clip, M took a nosedive on the sidewalk and I had to take the babies in. We had been outside less than 5 minutes. The big kids had fun and got to build a little snowman. I watched it snow from the living room. Once it stopped snowing it all started melting since the ground isn't terribly cold. However, the temperature is still dropping so it looks as though we may have ice tomorrow from the melting snow.

Cute Babies

you can see why people don't think they are twins.

In other twin news--they are starting to talk, especially W(he's the one with all the hair). He's at the "wassat, whosat" stage. And when he sees a puppy he says "urf urf." M is still mostly babbling.

And I think I have discovered the secret to M's reflux. He's still been keeping me up at night, but the other day I decided to try something different--goat's milk instead of soy milk. I am so very happy to say that he has been sleeping so much better and been generally a happier baby since then. The night before last he did wake up, but instead of screaming as soon as his eyes opened, I could hear him playing in his crib. He only cried when he got bored, so I just gave him a little something to drink and he went back to sleep. I cannot even begin to tell you how happy this makes me. But I originally gave him plain goat's milk and now I am trying to get him to drink the evaported kind(cause it's cheaper and easier to find) and he doesn't like it as well. But I suppose it's worth the money if it helps him(and me) sleep and have less reflux. It's a good thing I live relatively near a Whole Foods.

It Snowed!!!

It Snowed!! I know this isn't so exciting for my northern friends, but it hasn't snowed here in a couple of years. It was the girl's first real snow, and she had a wonderful time. I love the picture below because the snowflake reflected above her head looks like a heart.

We ended up with about an inch, but the it started sleeting, then it rained and melted a lot of the snow. Oh well. Everyone in my house still has school. My sister's kids have the day off since part of their county is in the mountains where they got more snow and ice.

It was really lovely to see snow again.

Happy Birthday to P

Christmas 2002

My boy is 7 today. His boy cousins are spending the night, they are brothers ages 10 and 12. I thought it was pretty cool of them to be willing to have a sleepover with a 7 yr old. We had pizza and chocolate cake. The girl has gone to spend the night with the girl cousins. They all recently acquired American Girl dolls, the oldest got Felicity and E. and her twin cousin, also E., got the Bitty Twin toddlers and each got one. They have opened an American Girl Store at one of our malls. Why didn't they have those when I was a little girl?

P has finally lost both his front teeth, but did not have to go through the awkward no teeth phase. He lost them pretty far apart. He's a cool kid. I'm glad he was born. He was worth the trouble :)