Trucks and School

The focus of our home seems to center around trucks and school these days. Carter has become and really has always been a very good independent player. His loves are his trucks and of coarse his geotrax train located in his room. Often after the girls have been put to bed we can find Carter alone in the dark in his room playing with his train. His greatest love of all right now is his Daddy. He talks about him all day, points him out in pictures, and points at every black car on the road and says "dada". He continues to be limited with his speech and is now becoming more frustrated that he is not able to communicate his needs to us. He often grabs our hands to bring us to his problem that he so badly wants us to understand. I can clearly identify dada, mama, Hayhe, Teetee, fooball, kuck (truck), and stel (Stella). He is an excellent sleeper putting in 11 hours at night and about a 2 hour afternoon nap. I have high hopes for Carter to be an early potty trained little boy because he sleeps dry through the night these days, but has no clue what to do on the potty. Carter loves it when the girls return from school and smothers them with hugs and kisses.
Last night I got a phone call from Taylor's preschool teacher checking in with us to see how we are feeling having Taylor in preschool. She shared with us that Taylor is doing an excellent job in preschool and is a joy to have in the class. Taylor goes to school every Monday and Wednesday morning with our next door neighbor boy Isaac. Taylor now can identify all of her letters and most of the numbers. She is attempting to write some letters and has mastered the letter "T". Mondays are very busy days for Taylor as she also takes a 3o minute gymnastics class in the evening--she loves it! If I had to describe Taylor in one word it would probably be "passion". She is extremely loving and caring, especially for Carter. She has excellent mothering skills and often feels the need to guide Carter and assist him in all that he does. She told me the other day "Mom, I really want to be a mom." I responded "OK Taylor, that is great. You will be a good Mommy." She then said, "but I want to be a firefighter, a police man, and mail man too." I guess she also has a passion for public service. Taylor is phasing out of naps resulting in the negative side of passion often displayed by extreme drama. This includes falling to the floor in devastation. Taylor is growing like a weed which has now resulted in me moving clothes from Hailey's drawer right to Taylors'. I have already warned Hailey that Taylor might end up being taller than her.
Hailey has definitely adapted to being in school everyday. School seems very natural and easy for Hailey She loves to read and do math worksheets. She has spelling tests every Friday along with a weekly memory verse. My time with Hailey seems to be limited. When Hailey gets home from school her first words are "Can I go over to Olivia? Is she home?" Olivia is our next door neighbor girl who is also in the 1st grade; the two have become quite the pair. Hailey is always happy and doesn't seem to require much sleep. It is often hard for her to shut off that brain of hers at bedtime and comes upstairs to tell us about some ailment that has developed since tucking her in. Hailey also takes gymnastics on Monday evenings and really likes it. Our downstairs is frequently turned into a giant tumbling area. Crafts are Hailey's greatest passion; she starts them sometimes during breakfast.
Mike is in his 4th month of his cardiology fellowship. Mike switches rotations and hospitals every month. This month he is back at AbbottNorthwestern and his hours seem to be very reasonable. His overnight call has also been quite bearable so far, except for being called in at the start of the Packer/Vikings game on Monday night. My biggest complaint of fellowship is weekends and late nights, but fortunately each rotation is different and each rotation is only a month.
I am keeping busy with making sure that the girls make in back and forth to school, that everyone has full tummies, and clean clothes. The late part of September was spent reorganizing the kitchen and winterizing everyone's closets. I have taken some online courses to keep up my nursing certification in anticipation of returning to work in a couple of years. I am fortunate to be able to go to two faith conferences in the next couple of weeks; one with friends and the other with my mom and sisters.