Family Friday

Ellen is growing out of nap time, but every now and then she will fall asleep in random places. She is a good mommy to her toys. She loves to take my dish towels and use them as blankets to tuck them in. Lately she has been using Thomas' diapers on her dolls. It was cute for a while but it's nicer to use fresh, crisp diapers and not crumpled leftover doll diapers. Ellen is such a friendly little girl. We were in the store and she made it a point to wave to everyone we passed. She made quite a few people brighten up and smile. She will randomly come up and tell me, "Mom, you're the best!" The other day she came and told me I was beautiful...then she asked for a treat. We love our sweet Ellen.

 Thomas is growing up! He just started nursery and is enjoying it so far. He is starting to walk quite well too, but crawling is still faster and more efficient for him. I think he is suffering from cabin fever. It has been so cold and the kids have been coughing so they don't get out much. It finally hit 50 degrees so I pulled out the stroller and Thomas got so excited and climbed in all by himself. When May gets home from school I go out to welcome her and Thomas makes an escape. He crawls out on the porch and down the ramp as fast as he can and cries when I pull him back inside. Lately he has been saying "uh oh!" when he drops something, and "whoa!" when we drive around corners in the car. He is also fascinated with the vacuum. He plays a kind of tag with it while I'm pushing it around. He's either chasing or running away form it.

 May is loving school and doing really well. She can count to 100 and read quite a few words now. She made the honor roll at school and we are proud of her. I LOVE having her home on the weekends! It's been hard for me to send her off everyday and not really know what is going on in her little world at school. I always sit down with her and ask how things are going and what happened at school, but I never get a real clear picture. Its easy to find out what she's learning but not so much how things are going with her interactions with other kids. She hasn't really mastered to skill of retelling events. There is the on purpose vs. on accident factor and the imagination vs. reality factor that make it really hard to tell what really happened. We're trying to teach her about telling the truth and how telling a story is different from telling the truth. I really wish that I could go and just be a fly on the wall for a whole day, but that's not likely to happen with Ellen and Thomas to take care of.  I guess it's just part of letting them grow up and fight some of their own battles. It's hard to not have control over everything.

Best friends! They get along really well most of the time.

Thomas squishing his sisters. They love him a lot.