Caroline in September

She is quite the artist. She's drawing pictures of animals...and asking me to do the same. I keep biting my lip to stop from saying "I can't do it, I'm no good at drawing!" It's true, but being afraid to try something I'm not good at...not the kind of example I'm trying to set!

She is learning the sounds that letters make and how to write letters and numbers. Papa bought a Princess thingie that has addition and subraction flash cards and a workbook, plus a reading workbook. She's doing great at the math. We're reading the stories together and she's pretty vague on the questions about what happened and who did it.

It's so different working with her. She'll happily sit down and work with me for 45 minutes. Lots of times she gets distracted and I ask if she wants to go on. Yes, please and on we go.

She's coming out of dance class happy, but then when I ask her about class, she complains about different things. Then the next day, she's happily doing her dances around the house. I don't know what to think. She's excited about going, she's amazing at how well she does the dances already. So much expression. Not the least bit hesitant, just like Mikey with sparing: this is what I am ready to do and watch me go!

Caroline has been saying she's bored a lot. I'm not sure how to respond. We've been doing crafts more and that's been great. All the stuff I tried to do in the past and had go so badly, now we can just do. Mikey and Evan join it at their own level and leave when they want and it just flows nicely.

I'm going to make an effort to read more with her. She likes it, but doesn't ask much and I have not been suggesting it much lately. (We seem to either be going all out or resting, with not much in between.)

I love how she'll ask for the meaning of words or phrases. She wants a long, thorough definition. (She is sooooo related to her Papa!!)

Stomp, Stomp Like a Fairy

That is what Caroline has been singing, having learned it at dance class.

Or so we thought.

Turns out it's the Strawberry Shortcake theme song: "Straw- b-b-b-b-berry..."

I like her version better.

The Thunder won the soccer game! They only had 6 players, so they had to play the entire game. Mikey was on defense the first half. At half time, he asked the coach to play offense. We were all suprised, but Coach said, "if you want to, you can". He did okay. He ran to the right places, got the ball sometimes. He still hesitates to go for the ball when the other team has it. I tried to talk to him about it afterwards, but he just started arguing. I said we won't talk about it if you don't want to and left it alone. He knows what he's doing in the game and eventually he'll get more aggressive and/or be ready to talk about it.

Evan is still sick, but in a good mood this morning. I'm sick but frightened by the state of the house, so I'm going to push myself to clean.

Auditions tomorrow afternoon. Here's hoping...

Thursday and Thursday

Well, at least soccer is back to Wednesday nights. T0day we just have to get C to ballet, Mikey to TKD and meet up with someone who's going to take my old double stroller. She has 3 mo. old twins, so it will be used.

Mikey did great at TKD and soccer this week. His team is finally learning the pieces of the game--passing and moving toward the goal--that the other teams seemed to know already. I don't know what to think. I'm glad that the coach isn't strict and I understand he coaches another team, so it would be hard to have 2 practices a week...BUT I don't think Mikey and the other kids enjoy the games as much when the other teams can beat them so easily. For 6-8 year olds, 1 vs. 3 hours of practice per week can really make a difference.

Tomorrow starts off the Mikey Birthday Extravaganza Week with a picnic on base...

Evan is napping after waking up in the night with an awful sounding cough. I think it's allergies, because I'm feeling it, too.

Mommy, I stopped crying

Almost every time Evan starts to feel better after an upset, he explains (in a suprised but pleased tone) to me that he has stopped crying. I tell him I'm glad he's feeling better, he smiles and nods and we move on. It's a good ritual.

Quiet day today after ballet, Tae Kwon Do and soccer last night. I didn't get back to TKD until after class had ended and found Mikey outside crying. Ugh. I thought we'd had the "stay inside until I get there" talk, but I'd only been telling Caroline that repeadly. Mikey "explained" that he went outside because he just didn't know if it was going to be a long time until I got there.

TKD had belt tests last night, but Mikey wasn't ready. He's been very nervous about going to class, worrying about the belt test, then Tues. he decided he wanted to take the test and then Thurs. we agreed that he wasn't ready yet. I'd wanted him to watch the test, but that didn't work out. He's still disapointed that there's been no real sparing since he started.

Evan is speaking in full sentences as of yesterday! Not all the time and he is still hard to understand, but wow! "Mommy, I see the garbage truck." Once again, he woke up quietly and started wandering the house. I heard footsteps, assumed they were Mikey's and 3 minutes later heard a whimper and found Evan in the bathroom, scared. Last time he was sitting in the dining room crying.