Well, I have been gotten onto by several people now. They all say they are tired of 5 months of Disney pictures with no updates! Shame on me, right?
Well, today is the day. It won't be long, and it won't be cute or witty or anything of the sort, but it will be an update and get those Disney pictures off the top of my blog.
Aralyn has been really clingy lately. She is huggy and hangs onto us a lot lately. I think she knows that there is a big change coming our way with Axtan's arrival, but of course she isn't quite sure of all the changes that will bring. She is really excited about him coming, though. She talks to my tummy often and just says "I love you, Axtan!" as loud as she can. "I love you" might be her favorite thing to say. She will call my name and really need my attention and that will be all she has to say to me. The other day she called and called and called me and when I was able to give her my attention, she said..."Oh, I don't really have anything to say."
Today we got out the Disney Bella Dancerella set that Alora got last Christmas. She was too young for it last year and Alora wasn't interested, but today they both were interested. Alora danced and paid very close attention through half of the video. Aralyn just stood and looked confused. She wanted to watch it again, so she did and that time she did some of the moves. She figured out how to work the DVD player and so she kept pushing play and was able to watch it several more times while Adam and I were busy with lunch preparations. She was really getting into it and now she has a cute little curtsy and several little dance moves that are really sweet.
Alora is loving school. She adores drawing and her reading has really taken off. She is sounding out words and even writing simple things that she spells out. At Christmas we had a million envelopes with scribbled pieces of paper (letters) and drawings sealed inside that said "To: Stu" (Stu was how she had sounded out Santa).
She is still very much into cutting paper. She makes the sweetest things with paper and scissors and a glue stick. She will cut out little body parts and glue them together and then make tiny clothing that fits. She will fold and cut paper to make little bows for "presents" and decorations. She will cut paper and color it to make shirts and hats and skirts for her stuffed animals. She will fold paper and draw on one half and then cut out a picture...usually a person or animal. These are all usually gifts for someone or very important keepsakes that must be mailed or saved or preserved in some form or fashion. Adam and I have a hard time cleaning up after her when she isn't around so we can weed some of it to the trash can.
She is very interested in babies right now. Our neighbors have an infant daughter and she is always right next to. She is always wanting to hold her and cuddle her. She bounces her and moves her around. Being so small herself, she makes us nervous and we figure if their daughter survives Alora, then Axtan will be prepared for her.
Aidan is loving his new school curriculum too. It is done on the lap top so that he can do it anywhere and we don't have to lug everything with us. It plans out his lessons and when they are due and I can go and edit things as I need to. I can make lots of decisions about how he does things and even go back and have him rework problems. The other day I needed to do that. He had been pretty sick and was feeling poorly. I didn't quite realize how bad he really felt until I went to look at his grades for the lessons he had done. He made Cs and Ds on everything he did. He spelled KNOW: wnow. I knew that was just not right, so I had him rework the problems he had done before and he got all As.
He is really anxious about Axtan's arrival. He asks me daily it seems how early Axtan could come and not be sick or have to be in the hospital. He tries to figure out how many more days are in this month and add the days to figure out how much longer. He is loving to feel Axtan move and see my belly move when he does. Aidan is really sweet about wanting to know what I think Axtan might like to play with or do when he is born. He is very cute when we are at a store that has baby clothing. He always wants to get something for him. The other day at Wal-mart we saw a little onesie that had a screen-printed striped neck tie on it. It really was cute. The kids were looking at it and Aidan said that Axtan could have that shirt for the first time he went to church. Alora says, "Yeah, all the little girls at church will think he is so cute!" It was so funny!
Adam and I have been very busy with the boys in the house lately. They all seem to have issues right now with their families or situations that are out of their control and that always seems to create extra stress. So many with so much extra stress just means that they are much more likely to cause problems for each other and for them selves. Sadly, that usually just makes things worse all the way around, so we have been trying to stay on top of things. It can be hard to keep all the issues in mind when dealing with them and dealing with consequences. It does help usually for us to keep those things in mind when we are communicating with them, but that isn't to say that it is always easy to do. It is a daily struggle and one that does tend to make us tired.
We are already trying to plan some things for the summer as a house and it is looking like a pretty busy time. I hope that a new addition doesn't make some of those plans too hard to pull off. Some things would definitely be interesting with an infant along, but we are always up for it.
Well, that is that for now. I have pictures on my camera that I will try to get posted on here soon. I lost my camera for a while, so there were a few months when nothing got photo-ed. So sad, I know.
Well, today is the day. It won't be long, and it won't be cute or witty or anything of the sort, but it will be an update and get those Disney pictures off the top of my blog.
Aralyn has been really clingy lately. She is huggy and hangs onto us a lot lately. I think she knows that there is a big change coming our way with Axtan's arrival, but of course she isn't quite sure of all the changes that will bring. She is really excited about him coming, though. She talks to my tummy often and just says "I love you, Axtan!" as loud as she can. "I love you" might be her favorite thing to say. She will call my name and really need my attention and that will be all she has to say to me. The other day she called and called and called me and when I was able to give her my attention, she said..."Oh, I don't really have anything to say."
Today we got out the Disney Bella Dancerella set that Alora got last Christmas. She was too young for it last year and Alora wasn't interested, but today they both were interested. Alora danced and paid very close attention through half of the video. Aralyn just stood and looked confused. She wanted to watch it again, so she did and that time she did some of the moves. She figured out how to work the DVD player and so she kept pushing play and was able to watch it several more times while Adam and I were busy with lunch preparations. She was really getting into it and now she has a cute little curtsy and several little dance moves that are really sweet.
Alora is loving school. She adores drawing and her reading has really taken off. She is sounding out words and even writing simple things that she spells out. At Christmas we had a million envelopes with scribbled pieces of paper (letters) and drawings sealed inside that said "To: Stu" (Stu was how she had sounded out Santa).
She is still very much into cutting paper. She makes the sweetest things with paper and scissors and a glue stick. She will cut out little body parts and glue them together and then make tiny clothing that fits. She will fold and cut paper to make little bows for "presents" and decorations. She will cut paper and color it to make shirts and hats and skirts for her stuffed animals. She will fold paper and draw on one half and then cut out a picture...usually a person or animal. These are all usually gifts for someone or very important keepsakes that must be mailed or saved or preserved in some form or fashion. Adam and I have a hard time cleaning up after her when she isn't around so we can weed some of it to the trash can.
She is very interested in babies right now. Our neighbors have an infant daughter and she is always right next to. She is always wanting to hold her and cuddle her. She bounces her and moves her around. Being so small herself, she makes us nervous and we figure if their daughter survives Alora, then Axtan will be prepared for her.
Aidan is loving his new school curriculum too. It is done on the lap top so that he can do it anywhere and we don't have to lug everything with us. It plans out his lessons and when they are due and I can go and edit things as I need to. I can make lots of decisions about how he does things and even go back and have him rework problems. The other day I needed to do that. He had been pretty sick and was feeling poorly. I didn't quite realize how bad he really felt until I went to look at his grades for the lessons he had done. He made Cs and Ds on everything he did. He spelled KNOW: wnow. I knew that was just not right, so I had him rework the problems he had done before and he got all As.
He is really anxious about Axtan's arrival. He asks me daily it seems how early Axtan could come and not be sick or have to be in the hospital. He tries to figure out how many more days are in this month and add the days to figure out how much longer. He is loving to feel Axtan move and see my belly move when he does. Aidan is really sweet about wanting to know what I think Axtan might like to play with or do when he is born. He is very cute when we are at a store that has baby clothing. He always wants to get something for him. The other day at Wal-mart we saw a little onesie that had a screen-printed striped neck tie on it. It really was cute. The kids were looking at it and Aidan said that Axtan could have that shirt for the first time he went to church. Alora says, "Yeah, all the little girls at church will think he is so cute!" It was so funny!
Adam and I have been very busy with the boys in the house lately. They all seem to have issues right now with their families or situations that are out of their control and that always seems to create extra stress. So many with so much extra stress just means that they are much more likely to cause problems for each other and for them selves. Sadly, that usually just makes things worse all the way around, so we have been trying to stay on top of things. It can be hard to keep all the issues in mind when dealing with them and dealing with consequences. It does help usually for us to keep those things in mind when we are communicating with them, but that isn't to say that it is always easy to do. It is a daily struggle and one that does tend to make us tired.
We are already trying to plan some things for the summer as a house and it is looking like a pretty busy time. I hope that a new addition doesn't make some of those plans too hard to pull off. Some things would definitely be interesting with an infant along, but we are always up for it.
Well, that is that for now. I have pictures on my camera that I will try to get posted on here soon. I lost my camera for a while, so there were a few months when nothing got photo-ed. So sad, I know.
