Frequent Flyers

The Brouwer girls have become "frequent flyers" at our house lately and that is a good thing because our girls LOVE them. It has been so wonderful to join forces with the Brouwers in getting the girls to and from school, exchanging child care, and transporting to the constant kindergarten birthday parties.

When Mommy is Away.................

Last week I spent a day away at a seminar to keep me up to date on my nursing education; Mike took the day off to be with the kids. I was greeted at home with "bombs" from the fort.

More Snow

We had a nice break from the snow, but it's back! The difference with the snow this time is that it is warm enough to play in. Carter has surprised us with his aggression in the snow. When Hailey and Taylor were his age we were used to taking a 1/2 hour to get their snowsuits on and then watching them sit in the snow like statues. Carter acts like its his personal playland. While Mike was shoveling the driveway he crawled out into the yard and almost disappeared at one point.

Ice Skating

This past Sunday afternoon we spent the beautiful day outside ice skating with the kids. Hailey had been ice skating all month at school for PE and was super excited about her progress. We wanted to see for ourselves and we were pretty impressed. There were still lots of falls, but not too bad for her first season. Taylor suffered from some jealousy, but love the sleigh rides. Carter was lucky to have his fingers after crawling around the ice with hundreds of amateur skaters.

Spaghetti

Carter enjoyed his very own bowl of spaghetti the other night. The girls were appalled by him and wondered if we would ever be able to get him clean. He had three servings.

New Skills

We have been waiting for Taylor to take some interest in letters/numbers for quite some time. We obviously know that it is not healthy to compare, but Hailey knew all of her letters and numbers before the age of two. Taylor could have cared less until recently; she is now noticing letters all around her. I do think that she knew them well before I knew that she knew them. Her initial response when I ask her what letter it is "I don't know." If I wait and ask again she always knows it as if she needed to show me in her own time; on her own terms. Should I really be surprised by this?

Carter is finally showing some progress with walking. He has now mastered crawling to such a degree that he is wearing holes in his pants and crawling backwards at the same speed as forward. He knows that we are excited for him to start walking, so much that if he stands up, he waits for us to watch, and claps for himself before he even begins. His other adorable skill is the stairs. He knows that he needs to turn around at the top of the stairs in order to crawl down backwards. He knows this so well that some times he is backing up a good five feet away from the top of the stairs.

Our winter game of choice is football downstairs. We get all of the toys picked up and then it begins, however it always ends in tears.

Prayers for Grandma

Last week Monday my Mom fell on the ice and fractured her femur. She had surgery on the same day to set and place pins. She was released from the hospital to home where she is able to get around very tenderly with a walker. We went for a visit over the weekend to give some distraction; a pretty easy thing to do with three kids. We noticed some improvement from Saturday to Monday with her mobility and were so encouraged by the love and support that she is receiving from her community. It is going to be a long couple of months for her and my dad. Please remember them in you prayers and ask for complete healing for her leg. Oh, and be careful on the ice!

What we have been up to

It is the start of a new year. Hailey is back at school and still loving every minute of it. Tomorrow she is the "Birthday Girl" (half birthday) at school. She says that she gets to wear a birthday vest and hat. Last week she was the VSP (very special person). We put together a bulletin board of pictures of her from birth till now that she got to present to the class. I also got to go and read to the class. Hailey was so proud of me and just gave me hug after hug; then her friends all started hugging me. How long do you think that she will love me coming to her classroom? Hailey has learned so much this year I cannot even begin to fathom how much that little mind has the capacity for. She is reading independently and loves math problems. The school is also studying the Arabian Peninsula, so the next time you see her she will probably greet you with an Arabic "Hello".

Taylor has really been seeming like a big girl these days. She has totally mastered the potty thing. She insists on fully dressing and undressing herself; this is good, but not if we are in a hurry. She got rave reviews at her 3 year well check. She continues to be very tall and lean. They say that is she continues at the current pace that she could end up to be around 5'10"! Taylor has been giving everything nicknames lately, unprompted. She calls Hailey, "Hail". She calls Carter "big stuff", and her latest obsession is playing Mike's old Nintendo. She says "Hey guys, you want to play "Mar"? Mar meaning "Mario". There has been a fair amount of drama with Taylor lately--I have even caught her watching herself in the mirror crying attempting to make an even more sad face.

Carter Dean is just the most happy little one year old around. This may be primarily due to the fact that he has been sleeping through the night for about one full month. He waves good-bye to us when we lay him down in his been and even dives towards his pillow. He does this for naps too! He takes a morning nap of about two hours, a two hour afternoon nap, and sleeps 11 hours at night. AWESOME. He has absolutely no interest in walking. He does take a few steps with lots of coaching and cheering. He has perfect balance and will stand completely independent in the center of a room, but quickly goes to the speed crawl when needing to get anywhere. He out eats the girls at any given meal. His two most favorite things to do is stand up by the fireplace and play with the pots/pans on the little picnic table downstairs. Oh, and I have to mention that he has the silliest smile lately where he wrinkles up his nose so that his big new teeth are shining out with a huge smile.