They are growing up so fast!

 Claire

I feel like she did a lot this week and I hope I have enough to say about Shay too...first, she is starting to be more independent when she does her homework. Now that the activities are repetitive, she can do them on her own and she is almost done with her book so I went and got her another Pre-K book for her to start this coming week. She is also doing more reading! During our daily reading time, I've started using the phonics books we got so she can look at the words and try to read them. She recognizes a few of the sight words that I started teaching her a couple weeks ago and pretends to know more words but says silly ones like 'pinky' for 'and' or something like that. The best part of this week was when she remembered the whole scripture story we have been going over this week. I'm so glad I transitioned into one story for the whole week instead of separate ones for two-day periods because it warmed my heart that she could retell the entire story as she taught pretend Ariel. On top of all that she got really excited when I made her a craft...

Shay

She will join in homework sometimes, but I haven't started forcing her yet because she still seems impatient and after one page she gets annoyed. The reading time is what homework she likes and they come one after another to have me read them books. We had a special visitor on Friday that we haven't seen in a while and the girls were so excited to see a baby! Shay was the only one awake when her mom dropped her off and she kept asking questions like she always does. She is so curious and her favorite question is 'what is that?' even though she usually knows what it is. On Saturday, Claire pretended to be the baby because they both missed our guest, and Shay took care of her by helping to wrap her up and bring her a 'bottle' or toys. Even though she can be stubborn and resist eating things she JUST asked for, I think she is cute most of the time.

Making the best of May

 Claire

We have been having some fun times this week while she has been using her imagination to come up with some new games. She was working really hard to try to make something out of all their backyard toys and I helped a little to make them a house. They've now played with it 3 days in a row and Chris calls it their homeless encampment because of the shopping carts. We also had a lot of fun playing with our sprinklers in the sun this week and Claire started trying to control where the water went by putting things on top of it. Our routine every day that she is great at remembering is 1. we eat, 2. homework, and 3. tablet time. Where I'm trying to limit the tablet time to only an hour each time and soon will be able to get three homework practicing in. I have her writing a book, practicing the sight words, and the next I hope to figure out maybe reading a book soon when she gets better at reading.

Shay

Whenever we do sprinklers, Shay never likes running through them, but loves to play with the mud that it makes...super fun. I'm trying to teach her not to put dirt and leaves in her hair and telling her that if she wants to be Elsa, she can't be dirty because princesses aren't dirty. When we did our nails this week she picked blue and now I'm ruined at making them match me because Claire will always choose pink and Shay will always choose blue. Why must they grow up? She is getting more and more stubborn and willful and we have to work on teaching her how to be mad without screaming or throwing a tantrum. I'm usually the one that can reason with her where it isn't exactly reasoning, more like being stronger-willed and outlasting her tantrum. I've debated just ignoring her to see if it will help her in the future, but having her meltdown around others is stressful. They spent some time with Nana Kathy when Chris and I went to the temple and I heard about some of the tantrums she threw for her too. Luckily most people understand the craziness that comes with having kids.

Make it in May

 Claire

I finally found the one way to get her to want to do homework and all it took was a sparkly pink pencil. It is her new favorite thing of the week and it is easier to remind her to hold it correctly too. Most of the time she is asking to watch the tablet instead of doing her homework, but one day she asked to do her homework first so it is progress. We have also started another hour of homework later in the day if she wants the tablet after dinner that has to do with practicing her reading words. I've made a list of the sight words and want to know if she will start to recognize them, so far she only knows the word 'I' but I'm sure with practice she will get better. I was thinking of making more pages of ones that look alike for her to practice sounding out words and rotate them once she has the sight words down.

Shay

Half the time I should be labeling this section Elsa because she plays pretend so often and wears only Frozen-themed clothes that her name should be Elsa. I like seeing how excited she gets when she finds something new or I bring home from shopping like yogurt or drinks. I'm amazed at how her obsession changed so quickly from PJ masks to Frozen in just a few months and don't know what might be next. She has been a very picky eater this week and didn't like trying anything new, but not just won't try it, screams, 'no, I don't want it' at me for even asking. I was able to trick her into trying rice pudding by only calling it pudding but she was very mad that we had potato soup in her cheese. She still takes her naps most days, must be because the weather is warming up and she loves playing outside in the mornings so she is tired by 3pm-ish. The picture is actually of her pretending to sleep so that Claire can wake her up, she doesn't fall asleep on the hardwood floor.

Happy Mother's Day

Claire

She is resisting getting new responsibilities but when she does do some more big girl things she sometimes gets them wrong and has shorts on backward for a couple hours. The new homework book we have been doing makes her happy and she doesn't stay disappointed as long when it's time for her to start her homework. She will still say 'aww homework again' but then almost right away be excited to do it with her friend Ariel who she plays pretend with all the time. Her imagination is really something fun and loves to be a mermaid outside in our mini-pool or in the bathtub. She was excited for Mother's day and brought her flower wand to church because she liked turning everything into flower things. Daddy was gone most of the week and we had gone to an activity while he was driving back, but she was surprised when he was already home when we got there.

Shay

I turned the sprinklers on which made the girls squeal in excitement because normally we just used the hose sprinkler and having the lawn ones on was different and fun. I didn't notice until too late that it created a mud puddle in our back corner and Shay had a mud spa day rubbing it all over herself. They now ask for those sprinklers all the time and I have to limit it to only once a day because we can't waste water! There is one part of the lawn that needs watering more because the lawn sprinklers don't reach so they get the hose more often. Shay has so much love for Claire and will express it loudly and with great whininess if Claire doesn't want to play the same game or runs away. She was upset when Claire left our seat in church to go sing in the front with the rest of the primary but it's cute to see their reunions.

Mother's day

We went to enjoy the sunshine at the park yesterday and I got us some sushi to have as a special dinner. Chris made one of his specialty meals, loaded nachos, for our lunch today as well and I feel spoiled ruining my diet on the weekend. Our church also provided cookies and a beautiful pink tulip for all the women. I'm so happy to be a mother to my girls and be able to be so close to them staying home while they are young. I love them to pieces and can't wait to see what their futures hold because they are so sweet and precious!

Merry May

 Claire

We finally finished her first experience with homework and she got really used to writing with a pencil and can now spell and write her own name without having to ask what comes next. She writes them all in capital letters and the R used to look really weird but I was able to fix it this week. We started a 'Getting Ready for Kindergarten" book that has activities as well as practicing the letters she is finding words that start with the sounds too. It takes a little more time to go through the page with her because she isn't used to it but now it seems that she is excited to do it together. She changes her outfits a lot when she wants to go play in the water outside and hasn't understood that she needs to put her clothes away or put panties back on once she is done. I give her a 10-second count down to go get her panties from the closet and she likes the race now so if I stop counting she will say "why did you stop?"

Shay

This girl has an Elsa obsession. We try to leave the church that has an Elsa doll in the nursery and she has a meltdown even though she is currently carrying her two Elsa toys. She asks to watch Frozen at least once a day, dresses up in almost exclusively Elsa outfits, wears heeled Frozen shoes all day, and will not let anyone else play with her Elsa and Anna toys. It's pretty obvious that her new favorite color, blue, is because of her obsession and anything blue is automatically something that is Elsa's, a blue plate for example. She was very excited when they came with daddy to pick me up from the airport on Monday and I didn't have to watch the videos Chris made for me over and over again. Shay likes to watch the videos and will take Chris's phone and watch it over and over again. which is so funny. She tries too hard to find things on the phone and it is amazing how they already know how to use it where she can get out of the photo app and find her PJ Mask shows.