Vinny's school update...

We had Parent/Teacher conferences for Vinny last night. He is doing a great job at school. He does get himself separated from his best buddy Alex now and then for a little too much talking and playing. He is doing great with all the academic and social aspects.
We wandered around school a bit to find his artwork on the wall. His was of a surfer dude. J we ended up talking with one of his PE teachers (she is from my hometown, so it was more of a little social chat, but we talked about Vinny too) and his music teacher. Vinny wanted to show us his art teacher, but we needed to get going.
I headed off to book club and Dave went home to get the kids fed and do all the nightly tasks. Came home to everything cleaned up. Thanks!!

Bath Time Talk

Last night the kids were in the tub and Dave and I were asking Vinny about school and the bus. For quite a while we kept hearing tales about the neighbor boy, but lately he had not been mentioned, so we were asking about him.
Dave: Vinny do you sit with Ethan on the bus anymore.
Vinny: No, I am not allowed to.
(Dave and I really trying not to laugh)
Heidi: Vinny, were you and Ethan being naughty on the bus. (my attempt to make up for my laughing)
Vinny: NO, I am not the one in trouble. I tried to go sit with Ethan, but Donnie (the bus driver) told me I couldn’t sit with him. He is in the naughty seats.
Hmmm, not sure if we will find out for sure what the deal is with all of that. We have parent/teacher conferences tonight so we may get the scoop on what goes on at school anyway.

The kids LOVE the whirlpool tub these days. They have always liked it, but we have a hard time getting them out without ‘bubbles’ lately. They all try to swim in the tub, so fun to watch them.

Vinny - 5 1/2

Vinny. What to update on him. He loves school. School leaves him pretty exhausted, but he seems to be doing a good job. He was in basketball this winter and he took ice skating lessons. He has a lot of fun in all the activities he has done. He wants to play soccer again like he did last spring, so we will see if we can work that out again this year.
He loves animals and all things to do with nature. His nature books are very cool. Lots of things for me to learn too.
He has gotten to be more adventurous (makes mom very nervous). He had a ball last weekend at the water park and seeing how many crazy ways he could find to go down the slide. he was going down headfirst on his back. it was pretty mild slide, so this was not too much of an issue!
He plays with his sisters a lot. He does very well with both of them. He and Elise are often buddies. Never know what they will get into!

More to come, but at least this is a start!

Addie.... 3 1/2

Addie. She is our little quiet princess... most of the time. she has her headstrong grumpy moments!
She can be so quiet and reserved and then the crazies come out and you never know what she might do. She really has always been easy to calm and entertain. She loves her princess toys and barbies, but also loves to play with her big brother and run and chase. When Vinny gets to his decided finish line and proclaims 'I win' she will boldly state 'I lose'. Very happy about her accomplishment.
She LOVES movies and quotes lines from them all the time! we stayed in a hotel last Friday night. She was the last to wake up Saturday morning and the first thing out of her mouth was 'they are going to the dropoff, the dropoff!!!' - line from Nemo. She is way better at movie quotes than I am. I think there was more to this one. Super cute though. Most things can be convinced to do willingly if you offer up a movie time after.
She really enjoys going to Big girl School - this is Sunday School and it was a way to get her to go and now she really enjoys it and is so proud of the color projects she does in there.
She is still sleeping in a crib and we have not had any problems with it yet, but she can now get in and out on her own. We will probably look to move her into a big bed soon. oh, how I love having her in a crib. ho hum... More on that in a later post.

Elise at 23 Months

Elise is quite the character these days. Trying to keep up with her is almost impossible sometimes! she really gets into everything - and I mean EVERYTHING. She likes to do things on her own. Apparently, she is very independent or she just got fed up with waiting her turn. She will find 'stools' of all sorts to reach high places, she learned if the shakes the cabinet doors real fast she can get past child locks (that is what we get for getting the cheap ones - the other kids were not so persistent!), if she thinks the dog looks hungry she will go find her some food (Beasley is her new best friend). She is really talking now and she gets very upset when you can't figure out what she is trying to say. One of my favorite is 'deeper' or diaper. she will go get a diaper and the wipes and bring them to you when she needs a change and sometimes when she doesn't. She has tried out the potty a little bit. One day last week Dave had picked up all the kids and was doing some normal afternoon stuff and elise went to the potty chair and pooped all on her own.

This week she has had a cold. This proves to make sleeping VERY difficult when you must suck your favorite fingers to sleep. Last night she finally made it through the night and stayed in her own bed. Thankfully, we were all getting exhausted from these past few up and down nights and ending up with a little stuffy girl in our bed for a few nights - no one sleeps well that way!!

So now fast forward a week. I have gotten so bad at getting posts done! Elise is much better in the stuffy nose department. Back in her own bed. Had some definite crying streaks to get back on track, but much better to have everyone in their assigned sleeping stations.

I have to get better at posting some of the funny things she does! My new goal.