Finishing February

Claire

She loves to work with her hands in most things like playing with playdough, drawing, doing puzzles, and using the chalk outside on the ground. I still race her when we are writing, and try to get her to read but it's a slow fight and I can't figure out how to make it fun enough for her to want to do it on her own. I hoped she would be interested in princess books but they are a little too hard for her to read so I need to find simple books about the things she is interested in so she will try. There are some apps on the tablet that we let her play with while I'm working out and other kids are napping that are very interactive and creative so I hope it is helping that she isn't just using it to watch shows. She is very attentive to shows and likes to play out the plots when we all play together.

Shay

This is the last week of having a 2-year-old! I put up the Happy Birthday sign and she is getting so excited that it is her birthday! She keeps asking to eat birthday cake and to have a party but I tell her she has to wait and will show her the calendar so she can see how much longer there is for both. She got a small present from church today with a balloon, crown, and stress ball which is what triggered the excitement. They want to be so helpful with making the decorations I'm planning to do for the party and I'm still trying to decide what to do so it is hard for them to help that much. This last week was pretty cold for what we were getting used to but it's warming up outside so I hope we can have some fun outside during the party. I think I mentioned it before but I cut out masks from her favorite show and we finally put the headbands on them so they will stay on them. She hasn't taken off Catboy's mask since we put it on her and I expect she will want to wear it all week. 

Parents!

An update on us would be good to do every once in a while. Chris has one more week in his surgery rotation and then will be finishing this quarter with classes and tests. We are wanting to go visit home for a short vacation because the girls always ask to go to nana's house and remember the treehouse and slides in the back. We are in a really good grove of our life here and feel very blessed to have been in such a cozy and spacious house for the time we have lived here. With the impending graduation this year, it is hard not to think about what will happen in the future and where we might be going next. I love looking to the future though because I have such a wonderful and cute husband who gives me so much happiness. We've been leaving dry erase messages all over for each other on our bathroom mirrors since his first Valentine's message a few weeks ago.

Feeling February

 Claire

She is quite competitive and likes to 'race' with writing practice but to win she always says "magic magic slow" so that I don't go very fast. She gets really distracted all the time and I usually have to encourage her to go faster each time but she is holding the pencil and getting good practice. Her reading is lacking because Shay always wants to help out and Claire gets frustrated when her space gets invaded then starts saying her brain hurts if we do it for too long. I hope I'm doing enough to help her learn, she is getting great at coloring and not scribbling all over the pictures, and she is very imaginative when she plays. I can tell she is learning things because she will explain things to Shay like what an ice cream truck is when we hear the music. She knows about checkers even though she doesn't know how to play it, and she remembers names of her toys a lot more often than she used to.

Shay 

We are only 10 days away until this little girl turns 3! I am in shock how fast she seems to be growing and even though it is still hard to understand her speech because she doesn't enunciate exactly right she talks really well. I was always concerned for Claire being behind when she was turning three and worried she wasn't talking enough but Shay hasn't had that problem! She is fully potty trained, knows her ABCs, numbers up to 20ish, can do easy puzzles, and has so many things that make her seem older than she should be. Something about wanting to be just like her sister is making her learn so fast and still she is able to have her own favorite things like PJ masks and Frozen. She does copy her sister's new games when they play together and has to have her turn doing everything even if it is just hiding under a blanket behind me in the kitchen so I pick her up and put her on the couch...super fun game.

Happy Valentine's Day

Claire

This week has been lonely without daddy around the house as often and the girls would randomly ask where he is or assume he is sleeping. They get excited when he comes home and usually likes to show off whatever they are doing to him, or tattle on mommy by saying what she let them do. I was cutting some of the fabric I've had for a while to make blankets for a service project and Claire fell in love with some of the patterns so I had to make her a blanket. I've never done a quilt before but it was a very simple pattern of sewing 5x5 blocks together and I organized them before starting. The only bad thing is that she is sad she can't use it yet since I don't want the edges to fray before I get it finished! She did say she loves the hearts, rainbows, and unicorns, but then decided she wanted princess on the quilt so I'll probably buy the backing to be some kind of princess material.

Shay

The quilt I made that is a baby blanket wasn't supposed to be for her but she loves to be just like her sister and can't stand not having her own. They were being very careful and just sat nicely on the couch until they were ready to go play or maybe it was bedtime...not sure. We celebrated Valentine's day today instead of waiting for tomorrow since Chris will be gone at work and we were already in the mood with our church dresses and treats from church. I was also excited to give them their hearts because I picked them out especially to see their faces when they got them! I first had them give daddy his Valentine from us then let them see the princess and PJ mask hearts I got for them. I wish I had my camera because Shay was the cutest of excited and they loved them! They have been playing with the boxes and didn't even care that I said they only get candy after meals. While we were on a Skype call with family I had them open the card from Grandpa and Nana Cox and got some cute excitement again then they used the stickers to decorate their boxes.

Fabulous February

 Claire

She has been asking for princess music, first when we were in the car driving to the dentist for Shay, then again when we were dressed up for church. We have dance parties and whenever we watch movies together and there is a song she gets up from being comfy together and dances to the song. She has several favorites but I love it most when both of them get up and try to act out the songs together. Chris says I'm poisoning them with all the Disney, but she chooses the life all on her own...I think. We got a couple packages this week and Claire was excited to play with them and ended up turning one into a robot by punching through the bottom to get her head through. I cut out arm holes for her and made one for Shay then they colored buttons on them with our crayons and played it a few times this week. They didn't survive very long, but it was cute and fun.

Shay

This week Shay had a nap almost every day and Claire even joined her for one when they both fell asleep cuddling me and I had to sneak away. They get along pretty well with some things and are used to sleeping next to each other, but other things are huge sources of stress between them. Luckily, they play more often than they fight and I get some amazing moments of cuteness when they use their toys to play out adventures. We got a small slide for the backyard that they had a lot of fun with and will be even better when they can slide into the pool during the summer! Shay likes to rope daddy into dancing with her whenever he is out while they are dancing together, and he loves it.

Date

Chris and I were able to go out on an early Valentine's Day date this past Friday while the girls spent time with their adopted nana. We dressed up in red and had some Korean food at an Asian market then went shopping to find some things to cook our own yummy food. We talked about how we are so good at dating each night once the girls go to sleep by playing games or watching shows and movies that going out for a date is weird. He also commented how he likes the way I make the Korean food more than the place we ate so might as well just do it at home! Sometimes it is nice to have someone else cook for me though so going out is great. The girls wanted to take pictures with us after we got back and I remembered I was trying to do more pictures this week.