Spring Break and Catch Up

It has been awhile since I posted....Spring Break seems like forever ago! The kids and I did an art project. I had promised them back before China that they could paint their own pictures of Hello Kitty to match the Hello Kitties I had painted all over the girls' bedroom wall. This was in compromise to having three very "helpful" children in the room with tons of open paint cans "helping" me to paint the room. Finally, we completed their project and the pictures are happily hanging on the wall and there was no paint over the carpet or baseboards!

The girls spent a couple of days at their maternal grandparents house and Konnor, Yunnie and I spent an afternoon at the Nature Center. We found a path we had never walked before and had the brillant idea to check it out to see where it would lead. Yeah, it lead for over two miles all over. It was a great path, but it was miserably hot and we weren't prepared for a 1 1/2 hike. We had to take a couple of stops so Konnor's legs could rest, but it was a pretty scenic tour.

The last picture is of Yunnie getting busted for climbing up the step stool after being told several times to stop. This was after she spent some studious time learning how to undo her onesie. AS you can see, she is letting it all hang out! We finally got everything moved and cleaned out of the house my mom had been renting while her house was being built. With China, the hospital, and just life, it had been delayed long enough! Regan hated the vacuum cleaner and would dive between my mom's legs whenever she heard it turn on. It was hysterical to watch!

The Rest of Easter Weekend

We had a great time with the rest of the Easter weekend. We attended Maundy Thursday church service. Well, actually, some of us attended and two of us were outside the church on a bench because one of the two of us couldn't behave. Want to guess who these two were? If you guessed me and Regan you get 5 points!! And no, I was not the one misbehaving. Luckily, the congregation are great and every Sunday somebody comes to see Regan and to tell me how happy they are to have her there. During Sunday service, we sit in the back at tables where Regan has a little more freedom to move and is less disruptive. She also "sings" and when everyone sings she blah, blah, blahs, very loudly. It is really cute. I think she is trying to drown out her mommy's voice since here mommy's voice leaves a lot to be desired. The Pastor and congregation have come up to me several times to say it is so good to hear her healthy voice during church.

On Friday, my grandparents came down to spend the weekend. My grandfather always talks about his "Little Chinee" (said with a long 'i' like in China). I have no idea where that nickname came from, but he loves to hang out with Yunnie and my grandmother (mama) says he talks about her all the time. My grandmother says they couldn't wait to see her after being so worried about her.

We went to Church service on Easter where I actually got to hear the whole sermon (wow!). We then went home and had a little easter egg hunt. Yunnie did great on her first hunt and loved picking out eggs from my too tall grass. She had just woken up from a nap and wasn't too happy about being thrown outside until she saw what we were doing. We then went to my mom's house to plant some flowers for her yard. As you can see from one of the pictures, Regan's obsession with water continues and she loves looking at water, playing with water, and everything about it. I'm going to start taking her to the pool this month because with all the water in Florida she needs to learn to swim as soon as possible. She's not too young to learn some water safety.

Regan LOVES water. I am actually going to buy toilet locks for the toilets because she is not picky about where her water comes from. Her mommy is a little more picky about what she plays with and toilet water is not okay. Ewwww!

The Easter Bunny

Regan had her first trip to see the Easter Bunny. As you can see, it didn't go over so well! We tried about four shots and then finally stopped the torture. Our final picture is a keeper, with not all the kids looking in the same direction, but it sure captures the moment! She had a little treat at home (Elizabeth's birthday cake) but she still looks traumatized by her meeting with the 6 foot fuzzy creature.

The Tooth Fairy and the Birthday Girl

This week had several exciting happenings. On Tuesday, Allison lost her first tooth! She was very excited to have lost a tooth so early. She actually has two teeth pushing through and will soon lose a second. My mom got her tooth pillow finished that night and Allison was thrilled to wake up and discover the Tooth Fairly had left two gold coins. She was nice enough to give Konnor one coin since he has yet to lose a tooth. Jason gave her a dollar to replace her gold coin and as a reward for her niceness.

On Wednesday, it was Elizabeth's 7th birthday! We celebrated that night with cake and presents and next weekend we are planning on taking her bowling. She had a good day at school because it was field day. I thought this worked out well since she wasn't doing a good job of keeping her mind off of her birthday so it was perfect no thinking was expected from her! Elizabeth has been doing well in school and has gotten all green cards for several months. This is such an improvement over last year. I think it helps that the school has a positive behavior approach, and Elizabeth is learning consequences through consistency of discipline both at home and at school. She also loves her teacher. All in all, we are thrilled with Trafalgar Elementary. Elizabeth is also doing well in school. She is an especially good reader. The public schools take part in a program called Accelerated Reader. It is a program where books are sorted according to grade level. Each book is worth a certain amount of points. For elementary school, it is generally 0.5-1 point. Students then have reading goals that they meet as part of her grade. They are awarded when they reach a certain amount of points. At Trafalgar, they have charm necklaces. The students earn charms for participating in different programs and clubs. They can then go to parties scheduled throughout the year if they earn enough charms. Elizabeth is now reading on a 4.5-4.8 grade level. This means she is reading at a level that is expected from a fourth grader five months into the school year through 8 months into the school year. Not bad for a first grader! The hard part is pulling her away from reading to do math!

Grandma Baby Shower

I forgot to mention that my mom's coworkers got together and threw her a surprise Grandma Baby Shower. My mom's secretary, Sarah, called me about a month ago and wanted to know if Yunnie would be up for coming to a shower. We touched base a couple of times and then on March 20th, they had the shower. At the last minute, I almost gave away the surprise. I came home early from work in order to get Regan ready. I called my mom to talk about something and she asks, "Why are you home so early?". I told her I was just grabbing some lunch. Whew!

The shower was great! Everyone also brought in potluck to share lunch. Her co-workers were laughing because they said they knew she was confused when nobody took their lunch at their normal times! It was a great time!

Regan also had her first voluntary bite of cake. When we had a little cake for her 1st birtday, she wasn't eating table food. She loved the vanilla half of the cake. Regan doesn't like anything chocolate. Go figure.