Letting go...

...and learning to trust.

During our short stint of spring like weather we got outside for some fun playtime. We said hello to the scooters (who I think forgot who we were after all this time inside) and took off for the culdesac. A few minutes of that and MJ and EJ wanted to ride their bikes. I'm just not so kean on the whole bike thing. Too stressful. Are they going to fall? Will they crack their head? Too stressful.

Reluctantly, I agreed and lifted the monsters down from their ceiling hooks in the garage. By the way as a result of the bike riding, I had to take Sara out of the Moby (she was not happy) and put her in the little green push car. Which she loved. She squealed. And giggled. And carried on and on. Oh how I wish I had a video camera. It was precious.

But anyway, back to the bike riding. Matthew was deadset on learning to ride and he thought that since he had mastered the balance on the scooter perhaps he could learn the bike as well. He had a point. So, I grabbed the back of the seat like you're supposed to and took a few steps with him. And he took off. He totally got it. Except that after I let go I was afraid he'd fall and ran after him (like two steps) to grab the bike again. "Whew, let's take a break there Matthew." He was all geared up to go again and I was so nervous to let him try. What if he fell? How long am I supposed to hold on? What if I let go to soon? Of course we hooped and hollered..."YOU DID IT!!!" and it truly was so exciting. In that moment I was remembering the time when I first learned how to ride a bike; how my mom held onto the back of that pink banana seat and finally let go...oh the sheer joy I felt. I had done it. I couldn't help but wonder the same for him. Would he remember this?

So I am letting go and learning to trust... his judgement, his instincts and his ability to learn.

**On a sidenote, Ella Jane has demonstrated for me that she knows how to hulahoop and it is HYSTERICAL. We don't have a hulahoop mind you so it's just her moving her ENTIRE body. Oh, my goodness, it's so funny.

She did it!...

Sara started climbing the stairs! Wow, we were so excited and going crazy over here just watching her go. Mind you she doesn't race to the top of course but manages to do quite well I must say.

Our first two kids were raised in a one level house and I was always so grateful that I never had to deal with the whole stair thing. Just one more thing to think about. Well, I do have to say though that it's really fun to watch her.

Jim was at work at the time (actually, Tracy I had literally just gotten off the phone with you!) and I called Ella Jane over in my excitement. She then called Matthew over in her excitement. And Sara just beamed...

The girls...

Ella Jane's new love is playing soccer. I kid you not, this is the outfit she dawns just about 1x a day as she runs through the house kicking this ball and telling me to tell her "go Ella Jane!" (I don't know why she has 7 pairs of socks on...)

Here is Ella Jane, The Statue of Liberty. She's into this pose lately too. I'm not sure why. She proclaims this phrase, "I'm the Statue of LIBERTY!"

While Ella Jane is kicking a ball, or playing princess, Sara is usually in one of three places;
here...

here...

Or here...

and sometimes here...

Change...

There has been so much change around here lately, it's hard to keep up. I started with changing the look of our blog and then petered out. I like change but sometimes it's just too hard and with the amount of sleep I've been getting sometimes it's REALLY hard. So, the blog is still in a process of getting a new look.

Sara has been EVERCHANGING this entire month. She has really grown leaps and bounds. It never ceases to amaze me to see a child learn something for the first time. And it just seems to be inate. Like Sara pulling up, or saying mama, or signing the word "more", or sitting up independently and unassisted. She's been a changing machine! And I love it. I love how she is becoming so interactive and learning to communicate. I'm so amazed by her.

Ella Jane has done some changing in the past 4 months and is now LOVING preschool. She just wasn't ready in the fall and we pulled her out. I was happy to have her at home and it just didn't make any sense to me for her to get past the crying stage and start to love preschool "in a week or two". We've had a lot of girl time and after a few convesations decided it was time to try again. Not one tear has been shed and she tells me how excited she is to go to school. I'm so proud of her...growing in her own time.

Matthew has been a crazy reader in the last few weeks. Reading books on his own that he brings home from school, following along in the stories we read to him here (I remember doing this too), and even being the author and creating a story from scratch. He and I were working on one the other night and he is the author while I am the illustrator. As I was drawing a picture he was telling me how to do it, and I kindly reminded him that I was the one who drew the pictures; to which he quickly replied "yes, but I'm the one who writes the book so I tell you what to do..."

So, as you can see we've been going through many changes around here. All good! Tomorrow Sara turns 9 months old. She's spent as much time in this world as she did in my belly. She's a May baby so that must mean that spring is right around the corner. Ahhh....

I'll leave you with this final piece of exciting news. The smurfs are making a comeback. Saw them in the toy aisle at Target today. Not nearly as cute as the originals from the 80's but still fantastic.

The prince and four princesses...

We had our princess tea party today! Matthew wanted to be sure to attend so that he could be a prince. We've been planning for 3 weeks now all the ways to transform him and we came up with a great costume, made him a sword, and slicked his hair. He was so excited! Ella Jane helped with the invitations, and the cookie decorating and of course dressing up in her princess gear and getting her hair done too. So fun. No actual princess stuff for Sara so we sassed her up by adding a little neck scarf. Soooo cute.

We decorated some party hats, played and had lunch complete with cookies and tea. It was a nice distraction from the cold weather outside and we were grateful for our little friends who ventured out to join us! Thanks Hoch's!

For you Suyetsugu's, when I first saw this photo of Sara I thought she looked EXACTLY like grandma. Don't you think? Thanks Aunt Mary for the adorable little blue dress.

Snow Day #5...

Mmm....temps. are too cold again today to send the kids to school so here we are at home! What started out as 2hr. delays the night before have turned into cancellations by morning because the weather has dipped down into these FRIGID temperatures this week.

Like the humidity and heat in the summer, this winter cold sucks the breath right out of you. I just came in from putting the garbage to the curb and boy, to say it's a little bit chilly is an understatement.

This is when we need underground tunnels to other SAHM's houses because we get a little crazy when we don't venture outside AT ALL...

But, we have this wonderful basement that is virtually empty (read, has a lot of space to run around in) so we do venture down there at some point in the day to get some of the kinks out.

I'm also secretly thankful that we don't have school because I really don't like being out there when it's this cold and it means I don't have to bundle up the girls and worry about whether they are warm enough on our walk to and from, and it means I don't have to explain AGAIN, why we need to hurry home so "no Matthew we can't linger along the way so you can play in the snow..." and finally it means that I don't have to resort to driving him because it's too cold and turn into a crazy lady while I wait in the drop off line....seriously, those lines are so stressful for me!

So home we'll stay and probably bake some more. Although I'm starting to run out of butter and there's not much you can do without butter.

Snow Day's #3 and 4...

Yesterday was snow day #3 and today is snow day #4 a.k.a. too cold to even be outside day. As of now the temp. is -24 degrees. With the windchill it's -50. Uh, -50???? Um, yea, I think we'll be staying home today...

I could just eat her up...

Isn't she scrumptous?