Four Years

Four years ago, I married my best friend, my confidante, and the guy who makes me laugh more than anyone else ever has.  In four years, we've lived as fundraising missionaries (and continue to do so), we have had two sweet, sweet babies, and he has, without fail, supported my goals as a photographer, stay-at-home mama, and person.  I am so glad we chose each other! 

B Week

Letter of the Week: B

I was far less organized our second week of school (it happens, I promise I was better the next week!)  Luckily, I managed to have enough prepared that Anni was picking the letter out of books and still had at least one craft she loved (I bombed our second attempt at a craft... we just didn't get anything out of it!)  For our craft, she glued (or rather mod-podged, because I still can't figure out where the glue got packed!) buttons, beads and black beans in the shape of a B. 

Our Saint of the week was St. Benedict (I went to Benedictine College, so the choice was easy!)  I didn't find a coloring sheet for her, but we read out of our little Saint stories book and talked about Pope Emeritus Benedict (is that the correct title now?), since she knew a little about him already.

She always gets really excited for the grab bag (she usually starts out our "classtime" by saying, "and we'll look in the grab bag?!")  This week we had a bun (she referred to it as bread, still works), butterfly, bumblebee, baseball, block with the letter B on it and black beans. 

Stay tuned for week "C"! 

A Week

Letter of the Week: A

Here's a random sampling of some of our learning tools from our first week!

We have a little "grab bag" of things that start with A, and this week, I had airplane, alligator, apple(s) and the "A" Block.  I picked up the little wooden cutouts at Michaels, but everything else was around our house anyway.

St. Anthony was our Saint of the week (he's Anni's patron Saint, so it was a good chance for her to get to know a little more about him.  We even found a coloring page for her to work on.)  We also had a virtue of the week that we just briefly touched on and a Bible verse of the week that we read every morning (Anni actually had it memorized by the end of the week... but she's got a crazy sharp memory like her Daddy!)

We did lots of singing (the 12 apostles song gets stuck in my head all day!) and lots of crafts.  We did the Angel craft from our Catholic Icing book:

 

Some apple stamping (that turned into handprints).  This one was so cute when she was all done that I ended up putting it in a frame in our hallway... instant art!

I was running out of steam and craftiness at the end of the week, but Anni was reeeeeeallly wanting to get crafty.  I ended up rolling out the butcher paper and tracing around her.  Then we pointed out body parts (hair, hands, heart, feet) and then she went to town coloring it.

 It was a good week.  I think Anni really thrived off of a little structure and some new knowledge. 

Lil' Bit turns 6 months old

Remember wee Colette?

Well, she just turned six months old on Saturday.

Colette is happy, she shows off giant gummy grins and recently added her loooong tongue to her grins for when she's really tickled.  We savor her very few laughs (usually related to the noises "beep or bumbumbumbum") and compete to see who can get the biggest smile. 

She's getting the sitting up thing down a little more every day... and is very pleased with herself about it!  She is trying her hardest to crawl, scootch or, really, just move.  She  lies on her tummy and kickes her feet against the floor as hard as she can just to see if it gets her anywhere.  She has started to do a bit of an inchworm backwards (she can really move on the wood floors... she thinks the sliding is pretty awesome, except she'd really rather go forward to to her toys and avoid getting stuck under the couch).

She's become a very distracted little nurser (always afraid of missing out!), but two things will help us get a good session in: sleepiness and sitting on the loveseat by our front window where she can look at the tree outside. 

We had her six month appointment today: 13 lbs 12 oz & 25.75 inches... so she added about 2.5 pounds and 1.5 inches... growing up!

I attempted a consistent photo each month of her with her doll, and decided six months was a good time to get them edited and posted.  It's true that the time seems to have gone quickly, but I also feel that I really soaked up these last six months, I am in awe of how blessed our little family is!

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Anni's Quotables

Lately, I've been trying to keep track of some of Anni's funny little responses (usually by telling Daniel to email them to me from his phone so I didn't forget.)  Without further ado:
  

A- "Grandma is my friend who mommy calls her mommy."
True enough!

A- "Can I have some strawberry... short one, too??"
Who doesn't love strawberry short cake? 

A-Yeah, sure. I do want some sugar.
 I have a vague memory that this had nothing to do with sugar... but who doesn't want some sugar?

D: I have to go give him money
A: Can I give monies when I'm bigger?
Daniel was leaving to pay the carpet cleaner when we moved out of our apartment... if only she knew how often she'll have to give monies when she's bigger!

 D-"Can you go to bed quietly if the baby is sleeping in your room?"
A-"No…
Or I can if you want!"
We're transitioning the baby into the girls' shared room, but we were afraid Anni couldn't handle going to bed at the same time since she usually sings for awhile before she falls asleep. She actually did great! 

A-"My clothes are clean sometimes… When Daddy doesn't spill on them."
Daniel accidentally knocked over his glass and spilled his milk on Anni... while I was helping her change, she gave me this explanation.