Sweet sounds in the morning.

Neither Sean nor I are morning people. A loud moan is often heard in our room when the pitter-patter of feet enters our room at 7:00 am every morning. Why don't kids sleep in?

The other morning we woke not to foot steps (or tugging on the arm, whining, I'm hungry) but to giggles and an elaborate game of make believe coming from downstairs. All three girls had woken up and instead of heading right to our room, they headed downstairs. We could hear them playing so well together. They were very involved in our game, and we were grateful for the extra minutes of sleep.

It is moments like that when I am so happy we had four so close. I just bought a sign that says "Having a sister is like having a best friend around for your whole life." I love it.

Theater goers

The girls have become the little theater goers. They have seen the Nutcracker Suite twice this season and will be seeing Charlotte's Web on stage next weekend. They love dressing up and going to the show. The also love to come home and do their own versions of the shows on our hearth.

B (who doesn't yet get to go to the shows) loves to get in on the action too. Her rendition includes yelling "watch his" and doing some type of dive/jump onto the floor. Quite comical, also quite painful (looking). I am sure we are in for more and more shows as the years go by.

Put it in my baby book please.

Maura is doing better and better at "reading" or spelling, not sure what the technical term is. She is starting to sound out words and spell them. She is always reading words off signs and papers and asking me what they spell. Sometimes she makes up her own words..."Mom, what does rfty spell?" She is disappointed to find out it spells, well, nothing that makes sense. The other day she asked me a series of letters and asked what they spelled. Her last one was B-A-T. She was so excited that it was an ACTUAL word. Her face lit up. She was so proud. And she said, "Mom, don't laugh, but please put this is my baby book." I did not laugh. I did choke a little. Baby book? Who teaches you such things? Why on earth would she ask me to do that? I would totally put it in her baby book... if she had one.

Happy Birthday My Little Kerr-Bear!

Our little Kerri Jean turned one today. I really am in complete denial. I don't want my baby to be one. Well really one is okay, but I don't want her to be 4 or 5 or 6 or...

We were eating dinner last night, and she was sitting in her high chair so sweet and quiet. She got a huge smile on her face anytime you looked over at her. She was quietly watching the girls running laps and screaming around the house. She would occasionally look over to me, smile and clap her hands. I don't want THAT to end. that sweetness. that calmness. that that makes Kerri Jean who she is right now.

I just absolutely adore her in every way. A friend of mine talked about her fourth being her "closer." Her daughter is a little tough and therefore, makes it easy for her to say "I'm done." I think Kerri may be our "closer," but for a completely different reason, she is just so sweet and perfect, you don't want to tempt the fates.

Thanks KJ for being so darn sweet. Thanks for your big gummy smiles (she just got her third tooth last week with 3 more ready to bust through!). Thanks for your claps and your beautiful eyes. Thanks for you chubby cheeks and thighs that match. Please stay as sweet as you are!

I love you!

Please stand up.

No need to ask KJ twice. She stood up today, without holding on to anything for about 10-15 seconds! Papa, Mommy, Daddy and Mimi were all there to see it! Yeah... go Kerri!

We are doing something right.

Of course during this Thanksgiving season the kids do all kinds of crafts with turkeys and thankfulness and all that. Well, when I went in for Mags conference her teacher gave me her "thankful" turkey. She had four feathers on it with things she is currently thankful for... Mom and Dad (thankyouverymuch) chicken nuggets, the playground and friends, and God. I thought all those things seemed fine, normal for a four year old. But her teacher pointed out the "God" feather. She said that really impressed her and surprised her. In all her years of teaching (14) no one has ever said that (seems hard to believe). Mags was not prepped at all and said it on her own. I was proud (of myself!) but moved on to the writing and the socializing and the other things that come up in a conference.

Yesterday Maura came home with a bag of crafts. Her thankful turkey, which I must say was
3-D and pretty impressive, only had one thing she was thankful for. You guessed it... God. I guess we are doing something right here. Of course, if we were doing even better, maybe her one thing she was thankful for would be her mom and dad!

Conferences

So conferences have begun. Maggie had her very first conference this year. I am feeling a little guilty. See, we always compare Mags to what Maura was doing at her age. Now, we pushed Maura ahead when she was little (thus she is repeating preK this year). So Maura was introduced to everything early. What we should be comparing Maggie to is what Maura was doing at her "grade" (I know we should NOT be comparing them at all, but let's be real). SO I went to meet with Mags teacher.

Apparently she is very advanced for her age... who woulda thunk it?!? She showed me a picture of a person Mags drew. It was very recognizably a person... a person with his limbs coming out of his head. Well, this is apparently advanced for her age. And the fact that she can write her name, well also advanced. Needless to say, I left feeling proud, but a little ashamed. I will never refer to Mags as "just not the student type" again.

Maura's conference went well too. She is doing great, making friends and loving life in general. Her alphabet book was great, full of drawings and words she wrote, many of which she spells herself. Her teacher did comment that she needs to slow down and be a little neater. Her teacher last year told her that too. We notice it too, but I guess if that is the worst thing, that is not too bad. We'll work on it!

We did not have a conference for B... I did not want to hear anything bad!! just kidding, I talked to her teacher at the auction for a while and thought it would be repetitive. Her teacher says she thinks B is going to "blossom developmentally" this year so we will have to keep in touch! We'll see! She is still loving school and talks about her teacher, Ms. Cammy, all the time. She also seems to have stopped hitting kids and generally beating people up (she never did this in school, but she did every where else!) She sure is a lot to keep up with, but she really is so darn cute and so flipping funny!

I am very glad the girls are doing so well and have adjusted so nicely and easily to their new school and environment.