Back to a normal week.

 Adrian

He likes to explore all over our house wherever we are hanging out. If i'm cooking, he comes to the kitchen to open my cabnets and take out anything he finds, if I'm in my sewing room, he comes in to derail my organization, if I'm writing my blog he comes to whine that he can't reach the computer. It's fun to see him learning and playing but I'm not ready for him to explore outside because it either cold or wet! I have plans for when it gets warmer though because we have a swing, slide, and water table he can play with as we enjoy the sun. He likes to follow his sisters when they are home and they involve him in their games which usually means they play 'daycare' and 'doctor' and rearrange my entire downstairs. He also had his first bath in the tub instead of a baby tub and had a ton of fun splashing and watching the water come out. 

Shay

She is very excited for her birthday next week! She asked on Friday if it was her birthday yet and I just have to remind her to look at the calendar to rememeber when it is. But we made her birthday invitations and she passed them to all her classmates so I understand she might have thought it was sooner. I also got all the decorations for our Moana 2 Movie night. I'm excited to start decorating with her on Friday so we can have a full day of fun. Nana and Grandpa Cox are flying in on Saturday morning to help celebrate too so she is extra excited. I hope to make it a great party and she can feel special for being our beautiful daughter. I hope that having an inside party will be okay because it is too cold to plan anything outside even though kids don't seem to care as much.

Claire

Compared to last week, we didn't have a lot going on this week so I didn't get a lot of pictures. We still have the normal school schedule and all the things we do every week like swim class, homework, practice reading, doing chores, and all the playing she does on the weekends. It is nice to have regular weeks and schedules that the girls know and accept. They seem I even started giving money for seeing that they are doing good on their school work which made them excited in the moment and now I can tell them to do good when the tests come up every month. I see their test score trends going up but I want them to try their hardest every time. More and more the girls want Adrian to sit next to them when they eat but then get mad because he still likes to throw his food off the sides of his table.

Happy Valentine's Day and Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Adrian is now a year old and we had a small dinner with friends then had cupcakes, presents, and playtime. I get too excited to give him the cupcake, and I didn't warn Chris to start recording so we can see him react to all the attention and the candle. He was memorized and tried to grab it of course, but I was very aware that would happen so instead his sisters helped him blow it out before he experienced the messy frosting. I think I overmixed it getting it to the blue color so it was a weird consistency, he isn't used to that messy of foods, but he liked it once he put it in his mouth. I took him upstairs for a bath right after because it will never be enough to just wipe off that level of mess. The girls were worried they didn't get to go to the store to buy him a present so I told them that giving gifts isn't about what they buy but they can show him they love him, they still wanted to wrap something themselves so I let them choose from the ones I had picked out for him. 

Dance

All week, the girls were excited about their first daddy-daughter dance and they absolutely loved it! Everyone was worried because the weather said it would be snowing all day and cancel the fun but we must have missed some of it because it wasn't too bad and they didn't have to cancel school on Friday either. Chris went out of his way to buy the girls corsages and a boutonniere for himself so they would be really fancy for the dance. He surprised me with a huge box flower arrangements too and they all arrived right before they had to leave. I saw many pictures of the fun they had and got to hear about their favorite parts when they got home and it filled me with gratitude that they got to experience it all and feel special. I used the flowers for some decoration around the house because they were already looking droopy and we got some more life out of them for Adrian's party.

Valentine's Day

The girls woke up to a stuffed animal, a little box of chocolate, a new book, and a heart-pop toy. They also were excited that I got Adrian and Chris stuffed animals and matching ties, I just think it was funny that because they got different stuffies Shay assumed Claire got something she didn't. Shay's first reaction was "Why did Claire get..." looking for something "...a mermaid?" "Because you got a big kitty with hearts on it." Then she kept looking and decided it was fair. They both had parties at school and I went to Shay's class with Adrian to help, but I ended up being more of a distraction and probably won't go again because the kids just want to play with Adrian instead of do the fun party activities. It did surprise Claire that we all came to her class to check her out so I could take them home. Then they spent a long time looking through all their valentines from their friends and asking if they could eat their candies.

A few more one-more-things!

I found some pictures on Shay's class website from her 100 days of school from two weeks ago and just had to share them. Adrian was desperate to help me with taxes and was copying me by typing on the keyboard so this was his last picture taken before he turned one. Lastly, Claire took so much pleasure in not letting Dad win at Uno that she laughed maniacally and let me win!

Snow day and sledding

 Adrian

We are less than a week away from a 1-year old! He is very curious about everything from the moment he wakes up to when he goes down to bed. He points at things on the wall, towards rooms, and makes the cutest sounds to ask for things. I like that I can communicate with him and he understands when I ask things and can tell me yes or no by the way he sounds or reacts with smiles. He has been memorized by the laundry a lot of times and kept pointing at it so I tried putting him in to see what he thought about it. I think he was surprised he was able to go in there and luckily didn't try to move around because he probably would have made it move and got a little scared. He is already scared of our robot vacuum whenever he ventures into the pantry he yells at it and cries at me to come save him since if he looks away from the evil machine it would probably come after him...I think it's cute and funny, but I know it distresses him so I will sit just far enough away that he has to come to me.

Shay

We have another birthday coming up soon too! She has decided on the theme so I think this week is all about getting the decorations and invitations put together so she will be able to hand them out to friends at school in time. I'm excited because the last few parties I've planned have been much better and I think it will be great. She will also get to have Nana and Grandpa Cox here because they are flying in the morning of her birthday! This week I implemented an official chore chart that is attached to real money and the girls were excited that the chore they did on Friday got them 50 cents so they cleaned both bathrooms to each get a dollar. They were excited and sat down and stared at the first dollar they earned then compared them to see if they got the same thing. The simple rule of the chores for the first little bit is that I teach them and supervise them to check their work. I hope it will help them be ready to take care of themselves when they are older because now they need to pay tithing!

Claire

The first snow day of the year happened on Friday! We got a good 5 inches overnight and I woke up to a text that school was canceled so we had a relaxing morning. I was out starting to shovel when a lot of other neighbors were out too. We had some fun neighbors with 4-wheelers taking sleds behind them around the neighborhood and then a small hill close by was a good place for the girls to go sledding with Daddy. He had already planned to be off work for a half day so it was perfect because I do better shoveling the drive way and staying home to finish my puzzle. I've been working on it for a long time because I usually don't do such big ones and the girls are frustrated they couldn't find any pieces very easily. They liked that it was Cinderella though and seem to only get obsessed with whatever princess they recently thought about. We watched Aladdin on Friday and Claire is now dressing up like Jasmine all the time.

Exploring and Elsa

Adrian

He had a fun week practicing climbing the stairs, climbing Mommy, and trying to get into everything he wasn't supposed to get into. He has been starting to point and communicate with me by telling me where he wants to go. I'm more consistent with signing the simple words so he will use them back. He waves at people at the store, signs milk when he is hungry and is pulling himself up to stand on everything. He likes to jump instead of trying to walk when we hold him up. The last new thing is that he is sleeping all the way through the night without waking up now that he isn't sick! That is the best news because we only have a month and a week left until we go on vacation and my parents will be taking care of him and the girls. He had a fun time following me around when I was redecorating for February until he was annoyed and just yelled at me for not picking him up and bringing him with me.

Shay

On our day off on Wednesday, we went to the very busy library because they had a frozen day with lots of different winter activities. The girls met Elsa, got their faces painted, played games, ice skated on paper plates through the bookshelves, drank hot chocolate (outside of course), and made crowns. It was packed because they sent papers notifying their entire school about it and the day was a teacher work day! They were both very excited to go and dressed like Elsa which I thought more little girls would be the same, but there were only a few. The face painting only lasted until that night when we had swim class and they had to take a bath, but it was really pretty. Friday was the 100th day of school and Shay had a party where they were supposed to dress up as old people, but I really didn't have anything that would have worked well. Shay was sad when she got on the bus, but had a fun party and came back happy about having a good day, she has a great teacher.

Claire

There was a music program she performed in on Friday that was western-themed and Chris and I got to see her, even though we were on the very back row. There weren't enough chairs so a lot of parents were standing so at least we got a seat and could see her. She is so small that they always put her in the front row and this time she was in the corner too. We had the option to bring her home early, but I didn't want Shay to be alone on the bus and worry about her sister. They think about each other all the time and at church today each of them asked for an extra treat from their teacher to give to their sister. Luckily they also could share some with Adrian so he stayed awake on the ride home and could nap at home. I got some new accessories for Adrian because I knew it was going to start being rainy and I still wanted to walk to the bus as often as possible. I'm stubbornly resisting taking the car, mostly because it's not that far, and I like giving Buttercup practice behaving and some exercise. Claire said he looks like a space ship now and even the steering wheel he has helps the aesthetic!