perching bookworms

Tonight Joel is away at an event for work, so I put the girls to bed by myself. We had a long afternoon (Larkin is starting to drop her only nap--so the afternoons can be VERY long!) and I was more than ready to get them tucked in their beds! We settled into Willa's reading chair-Larkin always sits on the arm of the chair, and Willa sits in my lap while we read. As soon as we got comfortable I realized that we didn't have Mr. Duck (Willa can't sleep without him). Willa jumped off my lap and said, "Wait here guys! I go get duck. I be right back!"

She looked for a few minutes, contstantly yelling, "Wait here guys! I get 'em!" but of course she had no idea where he was (he always seems to go into hiding at bedtime!!!). I convinced her to let me look, and she ended up running back to her room. Once I finally found him (stuffed in the dollhouse) I came back and found BOTH of them perched on the arms of the chair "reading." The first words out of Willa's mouth were, "I won't fall down! I'm okay!" I trusted her just long enough to go grab my camera.

Willa's face: "Can't you see I'm busy?"

Larkin loved reading this animal book because there's one word under each picture-so she likes to point to the word and say the name of the animal and "read" the book! Just in the past month or so she has taken off with her pre-literacy skills:
-loves to clap and count syllables
-counts words in a sentence
-notices what sounds words start with ("hey, potato starts with /p/!!")
-wants to know what letter everyone's name starts with, and then she tries to figure out what sound that makes by saying the word very slowly
-carries around paper and pencil a lot to write "messages"

Valentine sweatshop

Larkin's homework for her speech class was to make Valentine's for everyone in her class (10 kids) and try to write any letters that she recognized in her friends' names. This assignment was right up her alley-she loves arts and crafts and just recently has gotten very interested in letters and sounds in words. When I told her about her homework, I said that I would run to the craft store while she was in class and buy all the materials. She started to cry and begged to come with me so that she could help pick out her goodies. So, at 5pm in rush hour traffic and rain, we headed to the craft store! Talk about a wonderful mother!! :)

On one side of the card she wrote letters she recognized and also an "L" for Larkin, and then the other side she decorated profusely with with hearts, paint, and stickers.

If someone had an "N" in their name, they were guaranteed a whole slew of N's...that is her favorite letter to write!

We made Valentines for all the kids in her preschool class too (11 more Valentines)--so we've been busy at the craft table lately!!

indoor play pics

They actually BEG to wash dishes! Must find a way to keep this up for years to come.

Willa deep in concentration making a beaded necklace. Today was the first day she was able to get tiny beads onto her string. She was so proud of herself and worked on her necklace for almost half an hour.
Every time she puts on a necklace she says, "Princess me!" If she puts one on you she always says, "Princess you!"

Larkin drawing "beads" on her writing board. Notice the small dots for the holes in the beads!

Crafty girls!

butterflies

I'm sure we'll be visiting the emergency room sometime in the near future, but in the meantime the girls are having a great time jumping off furniture! Willa wants to do everything her acrobatic sister does, and now she can add jumping off couches to the list!

It was Willa's idea to put on the wings and "fly" off the futon. Sometimes she does miss her landing and you think for sure she'll be crying in pain, but she always jumps right up and says, "I'm okay, Mommy! I'm okay!! I hurt my butt but I'm okay! I do it again!"

babies, babies, and more babies

It's been in the 70's lately so yesterday we had a picnic snack in the front yard and then took the baby dolls for a walk. Willa got a new baby from Cat-mama and Papa and has become very attached to it (she often has to pry it from Larkin's hands though--we hear "THAT'S MY BABY!!!!!" a lot over here!). The baby is named Cara or Corelle, depending on who you ask!

When they're not playing with baby dolls, they're pretending that I am a baby and they are the mommies. I get put into a pretend crib, fed pretend food, and covered with blankets.

I snapped a few headshots of the girls while we were outside-they are growing and changing so fast!

Happy Birthday!

Willa is now two years old! Although if you ask her how old she is, she almost always says, "I'm three, not two, OH-KAY??!!" Definitely wants to be just like her big sister (who is 3!).

Cat-mama and Papa came over and we had lunch and then chocolate cake with raspberries. When it came time to sing happy birthday, Willa sang the whole song but inserted Larkin's name instead of her own!! Apparently she's been invited to way too many pretend birthdays for Larkin!

what we've been up to...

Well I took a break from the blog for a few weeks! Here's what we've been doing around here the past couple of weeks.

Larkin has started attending a preschool near our home twice a week. She's been on the waiting list there for over a year and finally a spot opened up-so we grabbed it! She goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-1:30. Here's a pic of her on her first day. I begged her to come out on the grass so that we'd have a pretty background for her "first day" pic, but she refused to walk that far and said, "I just want to go to school Mommy! Hurry up and take my picture so we can go!!" When we got to the classroom I thought for sure she'd cling to my leg and beg me not to go, but instead she said, "Bye Mommy! Go home now!" Needless to say it's been a very easy transition!

Willa has enjoyed the one-on-one time, but definitely misses Larkin! The other day we were driving around running errands and she said, "No, don't go shopping. Go get Larkin. I talk to Larkin!" Whenever we drop off Larkin in her classroom, Willa always stands at the doorway waving and yelling, "Bye Larkin! I miss you!" but Larkin never even seems to notice-she's too busy playing!

Here's some pics of Willa doing some artwork without Larkin's interference, and a pic of her reading one of my books to her baby. Every babydoll likes to listen to a little John Grisham, right?

Uncle Ryan and soon-to-be Aunt Jaime sent the girls a tent. We keep it set up in the corner of our living room and the girls play there everyday. They like to hide in it and pretend that there are monsters/foxes/giants outside the tent, and they hide under the many pillows and blankets! Lately it's been really dry here and the static electricity in the tent is outta this world!! :) See hair pic below.