Neighborhood friends

I love having friends to visit within walking distance of our house. It's what I have always wanted for my kids.

Yesterday we went to play at their house after dinner. They all got along well and played very nicely. Unfortunately, though, Eliana became accident prone. She fell onto her face while playing on the swing.


Later, we were walking home and she and Jayden decided to run. Jayden was wearing sandals that strap to his feet. He was fine. Eliana was running in her bright orange flip flops that are 5 sizes too big for her but she loves anyway. She tripped.

The right knee is still protected by the bandaid.The left knee at the time of the unveiling.

Pobrecita! If we didn't have such fun while we were there....

FOOOOOOOD!!!

Janea got to eat real food for breakfast today. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. Then when it came time for eating, she took the spoon in her own hand and fed herself. "Forget it, Mom! I'm a big girl and I can do it all myself!"

I took some pictures:

I'm ready to eat! Bring on that rice cereal!!

Hmmm....this is interesting.

Yeah....I got it all figured out! I don't need your help; I'll feed myself! ROAR!

The tables have turned!

Tonight, while getting ready for bed, Eliana was taking care of her toileting needs and Jayden took his turn at "check to see if my butt is clean" duty. I couldn't help laughing out loud when he took a flushable wipe and helped her out!

In other news: Jayden had his first T-ball game on Saturday. It was the funniest thing on earth. I loved watching the kids run all over the field to chase the ball. I just wish mine was one of them. He was not at all interested in the game around him. When he was up to bat, he hit the ball then watched as it rolled away. He had to be told several times to put the bat down and run to 1st base. When he was on second, he stayed there even though everyone else was running. The 3rd base coach had to go get him and walk him to third. Over all, it was very cute. I assume that when he gets a better feel of the game, he will pay more attention and it will get somewhat exciting. :)

Jayden is also getting to be quite the reader. He is enjoying his books now and loves to read signs and short little excerpts of things. He actually read an entire book to me yesterday. I am really pleased that he is starting to open up to this new world of reading. Now if he would only outgrow the need to torture Eliana and love her the way he does Janea.....

Eliana is learning by leaps and bounds, too. She also likes to demonstrate how incredibly smart she is. She was pointing out her letters to me the other day (her "sight words") and she was showing me the A and called it the "Uppercase A". When she pointed to the a, she called it the "Downercase a". I never laughed so hard! :)

Janea is healthy!

She went to see the doctor on Friday for her 4 month check-up. She is healthy and happy! The girl smiles all the time! :) She weighs in at 14 lb 4 oz and measures an astonishing length of 25.5 inches! She seems to have this growing business down pat! She has, however, given up pooping every day for lent. Well, I hope it's as short-lived as that anyway. By the 2nd or 3rd day, she gets a bit grumpy and starts to fuss more and more. Ellie was the same way at about this age, but more fussy and less smiley.

Eliana has a new favorite game. She likes to play "Ring around the Rosie". She can be heard singing at many times throughout the day, "Ring around the Rosie. Hocket Pulled a posie..." Followed by my LMAO! :)

Jayden's new favorite thing to do is read! Yes! Finally, the boy has decided he knows how to read and he is reading signs and labels all over the place. Occasionally, he might even read words in a book. Today he discovered that he could determine the next season of McDonald's toys by reading the bottom of his Happy Meal box. This thrilled him to no end. I am just pleased that he has finally decided to succumb to the world of knowledge. He really likes to read and to learn, but since it was difficult to learn to sit down and focus on putting the words together, he was fighting the reading thing. He seems to be over that now. Although, he would still rather be read to than to read to himself. :) My baby....

Lynda is...

...totally frustrated! How is it that I can't manage to work out a day to get up to Napa to see such a good friend of mine? I mean, how hard is it to pick a day that Dave can take off work so he can stay home and take care of the kids so I can go up to Napa and visit? I mean, her schedule is so limited by her job that it has to be a work-week visit...no weekends and early in the week, too! Next week is totally out and then she is leaving to go back home! Why couldn't I figure this out? It's not like it's hard to dump all the daily activity on Dave...between schools, dance, karate, t-ball, and choir, we usually have plenty of activity during the week. But, it's not so much that we couldn't have tried something. Oh sigh!