Driving to Gabriel's "Gymnastics" (Tumbling Toddler Class) Gabriel told me, "Daddy could build anything. Daddy could build our house so high that I could climb on the roof and catch a cloud." Me: "Well, Daddy might need help to build a house. A house is really big." Him: "Nope. Daddy can build anything."
At gymnastics: These are my friends "fly-ee and car-ee." (He played with this toy airplane and toy car for a long time and talked back and forth with them)
Another time: This is my watch collection. ( puts pretend watch on his hand) Transform into dragon! (Opens a pretend case.) This is my dragon collection. We have yellow dragons, red dragons, blue dragons, black dragons.
At the end of gymnastics Gabriel loves to open the door for people and just glows when I tell him what a gentleman he is. He loves being a gentleman and helping me and will even give me a kiss on the hand. I am so glad we have that time alone so I can get to know him better. The girls are so full of energy that sometimes I miss out on all of his creative play and sweetness.
His favorite books are Monster Trucks, Katie Caboose, Bear Sees Colors, Letter Parade Books, Dinosaur Dance, The Belly Button Book, Most Train Books.
This is her first time forward facing isn't it cute. She is starting to say consistent words. The first thing she says when she wakes up is "shoes!" She loves her little blue crocs. The next thing she usually says is either "out" or "ne ne" (Sienna) For a little while she said "Be" for Gabriel but now she just calls them both Sienna. She can and will say both Daddy and Sean. She found a whale and thought it was a bird, which she calls "Bek" and walked around saying "die, die, die. Up, up, up" for fly, fly, fly. Up, up, up. So so cute. She also says "down." She will squawk when she wants something she hasn't found the word for. She pees in the potty twice a day and when she does I give her a handful of jelly beans, which she started calling "be beans" but now calls "J beans." She loves being one of the group and has slept in the kid's room two nights in a row now. Just now she climbed up on my chair saw the picture of her, pointed at it and said, "seat!" She still has barely any hair, but we are starting to see some little curls. She loves picking books and climbing at the library. Gabriel and Sienna were fighting over who got to sleep next to her last night...and Gabriel was a little sad Sienna didn't want to sleep next to him. There has been a little jealousy now that Bridget is more of a little person.
Favorite books: Patch work Elephant, Anything touch and feel, Anything with dogs or cats, Anything she can turn through pretty quickly.
It has been a fun ride homeschooling Sienna. I love being her teacher. She had her last violin lesson last week and I loved seeing how much she improved and I wish I had been able to catch her huge smile at the end of her playing. We took to playing games after violin lessons and I got to introduce her to simplified versions of Clue, Sorry, Battleship, Scrabble, and Boggle. I think Battleship may have been her favorite. I just let her take all the turns and helped her figure it out. She loved getting a free paper pad and pen at the end of her lessons and has become quite the story writer and illustrator. Her favorite books are Gabby and Gator, Phoebe and her Unicorn, Bad Kitty, Moon Cats, Iggy Peck Architect, Magic Tree House Books, Baba Yaga graphic novel, and so many more. It is so fun watching her read to herself and her little sister and I hope soon she will read to Gabriel too. We had so much fun celebrating when she read her first chapter book, and she loved telling the sign in lady and waiter at Olive Garden that she read a really big book. When we go to legoland the kids have to get a rider for "The Flying Ride" as Gabriel calls it. Gabriel will ride with anyone, but Sienna is very picky. It took me a few times before I recognized that if it wasn't an attractive teenage boy she would refuse to ride. LOL.
