Kitchens and Paints and Maps, OH MY!

Have I mentioned that I want to turn my playroom into a classroom? Well, I do.

I'm starting to hunker down on home-schooling the girls and getting as much information as possible before "formal" teaching begins. J and I have been searching through catalogs and online to find the things we would like to get for the girls here at home. I remembered we had been given a catalog for school equipment and supplies by a friend in the Department of Public Health. So after running through the catalog I signed up for one online at DiscountSchoolSupply.com and found this cute kitchen play set that I would LOVE to get the girls. Cooking and tea parties are their favorite.


Like I mentioned before, I do want to get them a wall map, but J came up with the idea of the pull-down maps we had in public school. That way we can have multiple maps without minimizing space in the room. I found a website that sells ceiling mounts for these kinds of maps. I was thinking the easel kind (like the one posted) would work, too, but I think the ceiling set of 11 maps would work best so I can use them all as they grow.


Then a friend of mine pointed me to Lakeside.com for cute storage units. I want to get rid of all these toy boxes to better optimize space for their toys. Making the storage go UP instead of out and around would help with that. The ones on the website were only 20 each.

I am so excited to be looking through all of this now so that when I plan out for the next school year, I'll be able to make this into a "private school" and file all of this stuff in our taxes. I have so many ideas and so little money, it's a bit disheartening, but it will be done! I'm compiling a list of things that I would like to get for our classroom so that way when friends and family ask what they should get the girls, I have a list of supplies and equipment they can look at and buy. I'm tired of having to get rid of multiple toys they don't care for or play with. This way I don't have to keep getting rid of toys, and they benefit from learning with what they are given. AND we won't have to buy everything. :)

I'm so excited I can't even type anymore. My mind is racing.

All I Want for Christmas

Is an awesome wall map for my girls' Social Studies projects. I have a wall poster of the planets somewhere in my things...BUT I CAN'T FIND IT and it's driving me nuts. I find this one (picture) at the office depot website for $15 and it's LAMINATED so I want it. The world map would be awesome. But I also want one of just the United States. I have so many ideas. I HATE BEING BROKE. A globe would be nice, too. WHY ARE THEY SO EXPENSIVE.

We're currently doing a bunch of holiday lapbooks that I've either found or created myself using bits and peices of information I found online. We did one on Santa, and are currently on Hanukkah. We'll then being doing Muharram (Islam New Year), Yule (Winter Solstice), Christmas around the World, and Kwanzaa. And THAT is just this month. We also did A Pocket for Corduroy for our Reading study. Have I mentioned how much I am LOVING lapbooking? Lily loves it too. Pictures will soon follow.

I will have an all picture post of all of the recent lapbooks we've finished as well as her journal. I've been trying to keep it a daily journal (Monday through Friday) But I keep forgetting to sit down with her and do it. Juggling three kids AND homeschooling is hard work. But I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm going to talk with the state some time after the holidays are through to see if they would reimburse us on a kindergarten curriculum even though Lily is not of compulsory age for another two and a half years. The kid is just so smart, I'm the one who is keeping up with her.

Also, I'm trying to post daily, but I get distracted easily. I sign online and then totally forget what I came here for. LOL. But everyone will be seeing more posts from me. I'm not gone yet.

Tracing and School Projects

When Lily was 2, we started working on writing. Well, Iris turned 2 at the end of October and we are currently working on tracing lines. The main problem that I am having is having her hold the marker or crayon correctly. We had this same problem with her spoon and fork. Thankfully, it's not a very big deal and she's doing quite well if you ask me.

As I've mentioned before, as well as homeschooling, Lily is going to a private preschool here in town. I wanted to post all of her art projects that she does throughout the school year. She goes to a Lutheran school and for September the theme of the month was being "Fishers of Men." I don't remember the whole parable and whatnot that goes with that, but she did have a lot of fun. One thing that I forgot to add to the photo was this little water bottle that she had filled with sand, little plastic fish and blue water. It's super cute and up still as a decoration.

In October they did fall and Halloween themes as well as transportation. They worked on fire safety as well and Lily came home reminding me to stop, drop and roll if my clothes ever caught fire. Last month was Thanksgiving themed and they worked a lot on turkeys. The black feather used to have a little red headband to go with it but the girls fought over it and it fell off.

I have a bunch of other things she has worked on at school as well as the activities she brings for home, such as her Weekly Reader. I'm looking into seeing if I can acquire the WR after she's down with preschool for our homeschool sessions.

Corduroy Lapbook

Today was our first attempt at lap-booking. Until about last week when I joined a yahoo homeschoolers' group, I had no clue there was even anything called a lapbook. And only a couple of days ago did I actually *know* what it was. So, thanks to the lovely help from the HomeschoolShare website, we were able to try out their activities and try our first lapbook exercise.


This assignment was on the book Corduroy by Don Freeman (one of my favorites from childhood!) Lily had a lot of fun working on it, and it took a great deal of time for all the gluing and coloring and cutting. We enjoyed ourselves very much. Though we are a pretty secular bunch (mixed religions) I really enjoyed the Bible verse that was added to this activity and shared it with Lily, who agreed that it was a very wise proverb.


The mystery toy game was played by not only writing words for the clues but pictures. We had a fun time with that, and lily was super excited that she found the right toy with all the clues given. We actually did this a couple of times with different clues and toys than the one posted.


All in all, we had a fun time doing this and I am very much going to continue using lapbooks as a teaching and learning tool.

About Us

*waves* Hi there! It's Vonnie! I am 23 years old and I have three beautiful daughters between the ages of 4 months and 4 years that I have been teaching since birth. My husband and I first came to the decision of homeschooling when Lily, my oldest who will be 4 on December 26th, showed signs of brilliance. She was very ahead in many areas academically and was easily bored with the activities of other children her age. As she got older, we encouraged learning with fun activities and she has mastered a lot of things that most children her age have not.

My husband is incredibly intelligent, and I, though not as bright as my husband, was also a "gifted" student. Academically we were miserable in school. We did not feel challenged and learned very little through the public school system. Most of what we know now we taught ourselves growing up out of boredom. We were very hands-on kids who needed to have fun in learning to continue to excel. We did not get that at all from our experiences in public school.

Currently, Lily is attending a private preschool. She enjoys it very much, but for her, it's more of a social gathering than anything else. The things that are being taught in class for the three-year-olds are colors, and shapes, and the basics, which Lily was taught at least a year ago. Iris, my 2 year old, already knows what they are teaching in her sister's preschool. Though Lily is attending a class three days a week, we supplement her with other activities using worksheets and workbooks, and different forms of play. She works with the basics; reading, writing, and arithmetic, and we also add in secondary languages (Spanish and American Sign Language) and music. Whatever she brings home from school we use together to help her younger sister learn, too. Until I can find a good support group so that she can still have a bit of socializing with children her age, we are currently just winging it and letting her enjoy her preschool.

This blog was created to post pictures and progress of all the things we do. I'm trying different things until next year when I start a formal program with her since she is getting closer to compulsory school age.

I have another daughter, Rose, who is currently 4 months old.

xv: Labor and Delivery

Oh, holy crap, has it been three weeks already?! Well, I was waiting to be well-rested, so it's no surprise it's taken me this long.

As you already know, Rose came to this world on July 31. I was unable to have a vaginal birth as I had hoped. She was delivered through a scheduled cesarean at 7:28am. Now the funny bit was that I woke up at 2 that morning leaking amniotic fluid, but after two hours nothing else seemed to be happening so I went to the hospital for my surgery as planned since I had to leave at 4:30 anyway to get there before 5.

So I'm set and ready to go, jostling on the operating table, coughing because one of the surgeons is leaning against me. Someone was stuck and DID NOT want to come out. Here's a nurse and a surgical tech leaning back on their heels holding open my incision, and the surgeon and my OBGYN fighting with Rose who was refusing to come out. They were there for several minutes struggling with her because she was lodged in there tight. As soon as she was out she began screaming. She was an ounce away from being 8 pounds, being my fattest baby. I, being doped up on anesthesia and God knows what else, was an emotional wreck and started crying, so happy that I had another beautiful baby girl. Rose was pissed and just kept glaring at everyone after she finished crying.

I wasn't able to see her for a little over an hour. Her billirubin levels were a little high and they kept needing to check her blood. When I told them I had acquired the jKa antigen during my last pregnancy it seemed to calm my OBGYN a bit and they just checked Rose's blood daily to make sure she didn't continue having blood problems.

My stay at the hospital was great. Everyone was fantastic. I had three nurses and they were all up my ass trying to get me to stay in bed and rest. I was doped up on lortab and ibuprofen and kept getting out of bed and walking around and doing things and not sleeping. But I did rest. Kristen, Jere and Shelly took Rose frequently when she fussed a lot. They just loved her. There was only one other baby there who was jaundiced and so was stuck under the UV lights most of the time. Rose was either being cuddled by nurses, me, or eating. Even my doctor bought her a cute little yellow outfit with a large pink butterfly. She thought the yellow would look great with her skin tone. ;)

Now, things have calmed down a lot. My friend Meg baby-sat the girls while Justin and I were at the hospital and my mother-in-law was with us that first week which was great. I got all the rest I needed while she watched Lily and Iris or cuddled with Rose. Justin had taken that entire week off as well. I think most of us just caught up on much needed sleep. The second week was spent me trying to do my daily routine with an extra child—which was hard since I was so tired. My stress management skills need a lot of work. LOL. This third week my mother and brother surprised us with a visit and took care of the house while I modified my schedule with Rose, which I think I have finally gotten down. She was sleeping more during the day than she was at night. I think I have successfully turned it around.

She sleeps well, in four hour blocks at night. During the day she eats every two to three hours for 20 to 30 minutes each. She's almost 9lbs now and well over 21 inches long. She's the biggest one of my children so far. LOL. My back hurts from toting her around. I use my baby carrier a lot, which is nice.

And now I leave you with a super cute picture. :D

xiv: It's A Girl!

Rose Amelie
7/31/09 7:28am
7lbs 15oz 20in

(more info to come)

xiii:

Pregnancy: Had an OB appointment on Friday and was told I need to get an ultrasound done because the baby has been measuring too small. She's seems to be growing just fine to me. I can feel her regularly and I know for a fact she's big enough to shove her feet into my lungs as she does it frequently. However, my OBGYN wants to make sure she is developing just fine so Monday I have to make an appointment with the u/s tech to get measurements and proper sonogram pictures. I know our last "official" ultrasound was in February and that then Rose was measuring just fine. I'm not really worried about it. I'm not exactly "big" by any standard except maybe to someone with Dwarfism. Lily was incredibly tall, and still is. Iris was pretty average and still seems to be. Rose seems to have gotten the short gene from me. Poor kid. LOL

Anyway, my due date is in 2 days. I'm still going to be trying for a vaginal birth after a cesarean. My OB (who had a successful experience with this on her second pregnancy and who is not much larger than I am) is very confident. Either way, they won't let me go any further than 42 weeks so I scheduled a cesarean for July 31 at 7 am. So if I haven't contacted anybody before then with "please welcome to the family..." you'll know when she'll be here.

Iris: My family has a lot of skin problems, from Eczema, sensitivity, and just very dry skin. I am thankful that I only have a mild form of this, but still have to use certain lotions and treatments in certain areas. Unfortunately, Iris seems to have inherited this unpleasant condition. She currently now has a staph infection on her scalp. Apparently her scalp had become irritated at one point and she kept scratching at it. It then escalated when she scratched so much she broke skin. Then when it started to scab over she continued to scratch until it got infected. I had thought that maybe she had hit her head on the coffee table (which she has done numerous times) and those were just a result of a mishap. So I had cleaned them and left them alone checking up on them daily. On the third day, Friday, J and I realized that they had doubled in size so I took her to the doctor that afternoon and was prescribed some penecillin to get rid of the infection. *sigh* This poor kid. No matter how well we take care of her skin something always seems to pop up and get infected.

She's also been having nightmares. She'll wake up in the middle of the night calling for me. At first I thought it was just her teeth since she's getting all her molars at the same time, but last night I had given her pain medication for her teeth and she still clung to me (she's a mama's girl). She wouldn't let go of me for well over an hour or she'd start screaming. I had to literally lay my 150lb pregnant self in this toddler bed with her until she fell asleep. Every like 5-10 minutes she would suddenly wake and slap me in the chest just to make sure I was still there. I couldn't leave until she was knocked out and rolled away from me.

Lily: We were doing great with night-time potty training. She had been waking up and telling me when she had to pee. She had only had a few accidents here and there. Then the accidents became more frequent, almost every other day. And now it's gotten to the point where it's every day again. I've reminded her to call me if she has to go, which she does just fine when she's awake. But when she's knocked out she doesn't even notice. I even wake her up after an accident and ask her if she wet herself and even though she's completely soaked in urine, she still says no and is surprised when I wake her up enough to realize she's wet. I don't know what else to do. I've tried waking her up and taking her to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but that obviously hasn't worked. I'm just so tired now to even begin to think of something else to try other than putting her back in trainers at night time and I don't want to. :(

xii: One Week+ To Go

I had an OB appointment yesterday. All is well. Rose is still vertex but I'm not doing any dilating or effacing yet. My doctor give me an herbal remedy (evening primrose oil) to help my body going to into labor naturally without getting chemically induced or using anything synthetic. I still scheduled a cesarean for July 31 just in case, though. We'll see what happens.

Today is the one week point on time left. I've been keeping busy with cleaning all the things for the girls so by the time Rose gets here, I think the only thing we will have to do is a sink full of dishes, though I've tried to keep those well under control. All the things for the baby are ready and now it's just a waiting game.

There isn't much to report. Everything with the girls is pretty much the same. Iris is her weird self, and Lily had a physical on Friday. She needed one for her pre-school application; all went well. She is in excellent condition, and has 20/20 vision. J and I were cracking up trying to keep up with Lily on the vision exam; yeah, we are so blind. ;)

I just want this baby to hurry up and get here already.

xi:

You see this baby? She is so cute! If you notice, she's cutting teeth, all at her own time since she's almost 2, but it seems like all at the same time. Her top right central incisor came in June 23 while her top left took an extra week and cut through Tuesday. However, she woke up screaming not too long ago telling me her teeth hurt because her top 1st molars just started cutting through now, AT THE SAME TIME. Poor kid. Thank goodness she can tell me these things, though.

So since I'm up, for more reasons than just Iris screaming, I decided to update. Now I've been having BH contractions for a while. Sunday the got so bad that everyone at church panicked, mostly Liz. So just to be on the safe side I went to the clinic where they confirmed what I already knew--I was indeed contracting, but I wasn't in labor. So after being monitored for a while they gave me some hardcore vicodin and sent me on my merry way. This little one is beating the crap out of me from the inside out. I seriously have bruises from her. *sigh*

I went to the OB today (or yesterday, actually) and all seems to be in order. I'm having normal pain, which is good. No pain whatsoever near my cesarean scar. :) My cervix hasn't dropped, but it has softened, and I'm only 1 cm dilated. Not closed, but not really open, either. Right now it's just a waiting game. Rose has been in vertex (head down) position for a while now and has begun to snuggle into my pelvis, so everyone is getting ready. :)

Other than being in a lot of pain everything and everyone is/are good. Lily is excited about having a new baby sister and Iris couldn't care less. LOL. I know I'm anxious and want her to hurry up, I can't wait to see her, and Justin is so calm about the whole thing I really don't know how he's feeling.

x. Baby Shower

My friend Liz from church threw me a baby shower at her house today with friends from the Kingdom Hall. The whole thing lasted 3 HOURS!! (5:30-8:30pm) I had a great time, I'm still stuffed with food, and the children were knocked out almost immediately afterward.

Here's the link to a couple of pictures I took at the shower: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102600&id=502292446&l=8f97b8c9ed

And below are the videos. Enjoy!

ix: Full Term

On the pregnancy front, I am officially 36 weeks today. That makes me full term and I can go into labor any day now. I just wish my due date wasn't 4 weeks from now. I want her out!!

I've been having a lot of lower back pain, BH contractions, and getting walloped right in my girl parts. I figured it was because Rose is so low, even though she has her feet in my ribs. So to relieve some of the stress and pressure on my body I bought this awesome maternity belt. Granted, it's one of the most convoluted contraptions I own, but it is awesome and alleviates the pain in my back. I also bought the Tummy Sleeve so that I could wear my regular pants when all my maternity pants were dirty (some already don't fit).

Right now it's just the waiting game. I already have all the clothes and things ready for when she gets here, now all that needs to happen is for her to get here!

The girls are getting very big. Lily, who will be 3 and 6 months on Friday, is starting to learn Spanish. She remembers random letters and can count to 5 along with saying hello and goodbye. We're also working on the parts of the face. We still practice ASL so she won't forget, and she is starting to learn how to read. She's now to a point where she no longer needs her trainers at night. We've been Pull-Up free at nighttime for this entire month. She's only had three accidents since we started (one of them being yesterday) so we're really happy. Other than that, she's on summer vacation and just being silly and having a good time.

Iris will be 20 months on Friday. She is talking so much. A lot of times her sentences are mostly gibberish, but she is grasping the concept very much. She can sing her ABCs, remembers a couple of letters on sight (like O and Y), and can count to 3. She's also mean as hell when she's angry. Don't piss her off or she'll punch you in the eye and bite you. Right now I'm trying to get her to relieve her stress and anger in passive ways. Lily just throws a fit and whines and when she's done that's it. Iris though, she'll follow you, start screaming like someone is stabbing her, and throws things, particularly at you. I've at least got it down to where if they are tackling each other I can calm them down, get them to say sorry, hug, kiss, and let it go -- until the next fight, that is. Her teeth are still taking their sweet time. Right now she has what we call the Disney Goofy-Pete gap. Her top lateral incisors came in before her top central incisors, so she's got a "hi-yuk" kind of smile. One of her top central incisors seems to be trying to cut through right now, though.

Other than that, all is good. They've been hanging out and having a good time outside in our little pool. They are starting to golden and have cute little tan lines. I look day-glo beside them. ;)

Now I leave you with some videos.

viii: 43 Days To Go...

33w6d

Holy shit. Where has the time gone? I only have a month and a half left? Seriously, I knew I was close, but I didn't realize how close. I'm glad I'm almost done, though. My EVERYTHING hurts and I'm so heavy and tired. I hate feeling miserable, especially when there is so much to look forward to.

My friend Liz is throwing me a baby shower at the end of the month. It was a nice surprise when she told me her plan yesterday. When I was pregnant with Lily, I was the one who threw my own self a baby shower. With Iris, I didn't even think about one since I already had most of what I needed. Granted, I still have most of what I need (the joy of having nothing but girls) but it's still a nice thing to do all the same.

My allergies are no longer bugging me so much, and the only issue I'm having is trying to stay standing without toppling over or walking without passing out either from low blood pressure or overheating. I also have a hard time sleeping. I can't get comfortable at all, and since I'm nothing but baby, every time Rose moves it's like she's digging her feet and knees, trying to escape like Alien or something. Oh joy.

I want to go back to bed; I wish I could sleep more peacefully.

vii: Pictures

I know I haven't posted recent photos of the girls here, but if you have a Facebook profile and have me friended, then you've noticed I've been posting them there instead. :D

The most recent pictures can be found in the following album:
Family Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=90133&id=502292446&l=8590a1e119



I'd post the videos, but unfortunately I'd have to post those one at a time instead of just all of them in one site. I'll figure something out soon.

vi: Haircut

So first off, let me say that Lily has Justin's wiring. Other than having his large forehead and incredible height, she's usually a degree or two warmer than most people and has thick hair that grows super fast.

I have to fight with her every day over her hair, especially on warm days. She overheats and feels ill, but when I put her hair up in clips or bands, she always yanks them out (along with a handful of hair.) Doesn't matter what style she had, she always yanked it out.

I was losing patience with her hair and Justin figured that it'd be best to cut her hair off. She has an ungodly amount, and it grows several inches within a month or two, so it's not like it won't grow back. So, taking his advice on what kind of haircut to give her that would last her through most of the warm weather, she had a good foot of hair cut off yesterday at the salon.

Here is her before:

Her hair is wavy, so when wet and straight it reached her bottom.

After a good foot cut off she was feeling better. I have a pony tail that's about a good 8 inches of hair wrapped in a rubber band. Justin thinks it's creepy that I kept her hair.

Either way, she likes it. I think it looks cute. It's very similar to my own hairstyle, so I know how to rock it with cute accessories. She feels comfortable with it, and I'm relieved that I don't have to deal with a crap ton of hair and waste half a bottle of detangler just to have her destroy my hard work.

v:

So about 2 weeks ago, on a Sunday, I'm getting Lily ready for bed when I notice she has a small rash on her butt. Thinking it was jut that she needed a bath, I didn't think much of it. The next day, however, the rash was all over her legs. It was a warm day and she had been wearing velvet leggings, so I thought it may have been a heat rash. On Tuesday, not only was the rash all over her bottom half, but it had migrated to her arms and face. By Wednesday it just seemed to be getting worse. So on Thursday afternoon, while my husband was off of work, I took Lily to the doctor to find that she had an ear infection in her left ear and the source of her rash was the viral infection. I felt terrible. Lily had never had an ear infection, and the on time we were incredibly close, we nipped it in the bud. This time she had no symptoms. All we had was one fever and this ridiculous rash. She didn't hurt, she felt just fine, and was horribly confused that she was sick.

The rash was so bad I felt horrible every time I saw her. She resembled a burn victim. It was EVERYWHERE; the soles of her feet and even the palms of her hands were covered in bumps. It looked like a mix between heat rash and chicken pox.

(3.21.09)

Thankfully, we were given antibiotics and she's no longer sick. She is back to her normal, goofy self already.

(3.30.09)

(3.31.09)

During this time, Iris and I contracted a cold, so we were all sick for a while. We are all better now and are all just suffering from allergies. Thanks to this being allergy season, ALL of us have been with runny noses and sneezing. Can't avoid it really. Both Justin and I suffer from seasonal allergies so our children were not spared. But Iris is well and also back to her goofy self.

(3.30.09)

(3.31.09)

iv:

One hundred sixteen more days to go...that is if Rose decides to come when she's due...which is never the case with my children... I'm more than halfway along now. I cant believe how quickly this pregnancy has been passing.

Physically,baby wise, I've been doing well. I'm having a bit of trouble gaining weight, though I'm not very worried. Rose seems to be growing just fine and her size coincides with her due date. She's very healthy, and VERY active. Now just physically,I feel like utter crap most of the time, though. I'm horribly tired, bloated, and my allergies are 10x worse than before. Nothing I can really do except take Benadryl and Sudafed for my symptoms. It really sucks. The meds aren't really helping. My blood pressure keeps dropping dramatically and I get light-headed and dizzy quite often. I had to quit work because I was fainting during my shifts.

Emotionally I'm doing well, too. I've been taking Prozac again now for almost two months. It's helped out a lot on keeping me focused. It makes me jittery, like if I had too much caffeine, but it's better than wanting to do murders and burn this place to the ground.

So far so good. My everything aches, so I really want this pregnancy to hurry along.

iii.

OK, so I said I would post about the girls at the end of last week...well, we've been busy. :-P

Anyway, Lily is large and full of sass, which is nothing new. She's the size of the average 4/5 year old and intellectually at that level. She's still a brat, though. Almost every day she's in time out more than once before noon. *sigh* It's been a struggle with her behaviour but we are working on it. It feels like there is just constant whining and back-talk from her. I am super happy when she's behaving, but lately those days have been few and far between. :(

On a different note, a private preschool up the street from my house at the Lutheran church is willing to take Lily early this school year. I usually have to wait until she is a certain age, but they said as long as she is not a disruption to the class, she is allowed to start with the four-year-olds this year instead of the three. She's super excited. Lily has been asking me for the past year if she could go to school, and for the past year I have tried everything to get her into Head Start or other similar programs for preschoolers. But since she is not developmentally challenged nor handicapped in any way, they didn't want to take her early. It was frustrating for all of us. I understand the "no child left behind" but because of it, it is hindering the progress of the children who are above the average. It's great that these programs are helping children with disabilities reach the proper level by a certain age, but what about the children who are like Lily who need more to satisfy their thirst for knowledge? *sigh* Oh well, at least I finally found a place who would take her, even tuition is a little over $100 a month.

On the Iris month, she hasn't been a big pain behaviour-wise like her sister. She does have her days when she's in a mood, but those are few and far between. I just wish Lily's moods were, too. LOL. She FINALLY has teeth. Her first tooth came in on the 9 of last month, while her second one just cut through today. I've been impatiently waiting for her teeth. LOL. She doesn't care less, considering it was never a problem for her. That kid has razor-sharp gums made for eating...and she loves to eat, that's for sure.

All in all the girls are happy and healthy as well as incredibly brilliant. They had a developmental screening last week on Thursday and they mastered everything for their age and above, Lily the 3-4, and Iris the 1-2. ;)

We've been spending a lot of time of family time during the weekends. Justin's been taking us out and about on Saturdays and so far we've been to the aquarium at the Doorly Zoo and two days ago we went to the Children's Museum. They had such a blast. I feel bad with the fact that their only friends are Mommy and Daddy, so I want them to interact with children as much as possible. Justin just absolutely loves the way their faces light up when we take them somewhere.

Anyway, it's snack time and the girls are asking for food. ;) It's amazing how quickly they grow...

ii. Lily the photographer

So I haven't updated on the girls in a while, I know, and I'll get to that this week for sure. However, this post is about Lily's latest hobby: picture taking!

In December her father bought her a Fisher-Price camera; those large, cushioned ones that are made specifically for toddlers. She absolutely loves it and I think it's cute with its pink and pretty flowers. Last week she finally filled up the camera memory (400 pictures!!) and I decided to upload them to the computer.

She now has her own personal web album for her to share her "art work." Yes, she's 3 and 90% of her pictures are either blocked by her hand or sleeve or of random things, but there are some picture of her sister that she took that are AWESOME. So go to the website and check it out!! DO IT!!!

http://toddler-photog.blogspot.com/

The site is still a work in progress. There are 400 photographs that she has taken the couple of times she used this camera (we misplaced it for about a couple of months) and I've only been able to upload about 50 or so. :/ But enjoy what we have; I'll be updating the site with more of her pictures soon. ;)

i. updated pictures

Photos of the girls have been updated
http://lilypix.blogspot.com/
http://pixofiris.blogspot.com/

ENJOY!!