Moving

I've had to move my blog because of storage constraints.  I'll be picking up where I've left off over at my new location.  Here's the link: http://leahscottelijahandkeira.blogspot.com/  Also, Elijah's made a new post on his blog, be sure to check it out, he's eagerly awaiting comments.  :)

Learning How to Write Her Name

After every Tiny Tunes, Keira and I sit in the van and share a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I found out that if I waited and tried to eat lunch when we got home, often she was so tired she'd fall asleep in the car or too grouchy when we got home to sit through any meal prep.  Besides being a practical solution, Keira loves it.  She likes to sit in the front seat like an adult, hang out with me and listen to some music.  After this particular picnic she started to learn writing her name.  Earlier in the week, I had noticed that she was trying to write her name by writing a few squiggles than the "I" and then a few more squiggles.  I told her I could teach her to write her name if she was interested.  Later, I told Scott I was concerned, "K" and "R" were two of Elijah's hardest letters to master.  Fortunately, the day before this picnic we had shopped at Grammie's store and bought a Fairy Doodle Board.  Accidentally, I stumbled on the fact that this particular board was perfect to teach her to write her letters.  I told her to draw a straight line, then start in the middle of the line and draw a line up to the orange fairy, start in the middle again and draw a line down to the red fairy.  It was Fairy Magic -- so easy, so simple and so successful!  Here's Keira smiling as she shows off her first "K". 

Then, she practiced her "I" with the lines on the top and bottom.

 

Finally, she used her board to draw some smiley faces.



Tiny Tunes

Keira still loves Tiny Tunes.  This fall, we took another class, and as she's gotten older it's gotten more fun.  She follows along and participates in all the activities -- even the parachute.  When we first took the class she was terrified of the parachute, she didn't even like it being out.  Then, she started participating by holding on to the outside of it.  Now, she happily rides on top of it with the other brave kids.

Now, she even likes to sit under the parachute and let it tickle her.  Although, as of this class on
September 26th, she still wanted me to lay next to her under the parachute.  But, as you can see by her big smile, she loves when the parachute comes down and tickles her toes.

Besides the parachute, one of Keira's favorite parts of the class is the free play instrument time.  She always loves the big drums, but on this day, she branched out a bit and tried her hand at the cymbals. 

However, before long she was back to her faithful drum.

Finally, every class ends with bubbles.

Elijah's Game Ball!

In baseball, Elijah got off to a bit of a slow start.  Baseball seems to be his sport, in that, he's much more fond of it than soccer.  But, getting hit on the thumb while he was up to bat complicated the already nerve-wracking reality of hitting in front of a crowd.  Fortunately, on September 22nd, he got the game ball!  After that exciting game and all the fanfare that followed, his lukewarm attitude toward baseball heated up and he wanted to practice every free second of every day.

Besides signing his ball, Elijah also wrote out the game specifics.  He wrote, "3 hits, 1 RBI, 1 run, 2 catches and a tackle."  After having a bit of a hitting slump, that game was so exciting and wonderful.  Three hits was amazing, he scored his first run of the season, he made two great plays in the outfield, and he got tackled!  Unfortunately, learning how to field can be pretty confusing, and when the other coach yelled to his boys to tag Elijah, they got a little overzealous and tackled him instead.  Understandably it was quite upsetting, but the amazing thing was how resilient Elijah was -- after all the drama he went on to get two more hits.  All in all, it was an amazing, exciting game.  That game single handedly turned his season around and gave him new interest and new confidence.  He's come such a long way -- at last night's game, he had three hits, he got a hit every time he was up to bat and he scored two runs.  Baseball has become so much fun!

Fortunately, one of the team moms took a video of Elijah scoring his first run.  As you can see, he was almost tagged out at home, but the fielder accidentally tagged him with his empty hand.

That same mom also taped Elijah receiving the game ball.  You can see in the video that he was excited, overwhelmed and maybe a little nervous when he was given the game ball.  He saved his celebrating for later, and once the news sunk in, he was over the moon.  :)

 

 

That night, we had Dendi, Bapa, Uncle Jason and Auntie Andrea over for dinner and to celebrate the game ball.  Thoughtfully, Dendi brought balloons to Elijah to commemorate his accomplishment.  Elijah loved posing with his balloons, signing his game ball and posing with his ball.

 

 

Along with Elijah's balloons, Dendi also brought Keira a balloon, too.





Finally, no family celebration can be complete without a little cuddle time.

Self Portrait

Pooping on the potty was such an important event in Keira's life that it entered her drawings. She often draws a huge portrait of me in the center of our whole family. Then, she draws little squiggles for her, Elijah and Daddy. After finally pooping on the potty, she added that to her drawing, too.  Here she is pointing to the double squiggle next to me that depicts her pooping on the potty, and proudly posing with her creation.  By the way the little squiggle under my mouth is Baby Keira in my tummy, and the little dot near my mouth is tape to fix the drawing.

Learning to Sew

Baseball lost some of it's appeal after Elijah got hit by the ball twice on his thumb by the pitcher.  His worries over getting hit again spawned a hitting slump.  Fortunately, his enthusiasm peaked again once he got the game ball, more on that later.  But, until he got the game ball he was a little reluctant to play in the games and always had another agenda he wanted to pursue on the weekends.  One Saturday morning, that agenda included learning how to sew.  He's been interested in learning for a long time, so that day I finally pulled out my sewing kit and we gave it a shot.  He's quite our Renaissance Boy.

Poop on the Potty!

On September 12th, Keira FINALLY went poop on the potty!  She's been potty trained for months, since right when we got back from Disney, as far as pee is concerned.  But, she continued to ask for a diaper when she had to poop.  I tried everything I knew, we read potty books and sat on the potty when she had to poop, I bribed her for trying and encouraged her to imagine her favorite things she might earn for pooping on the potty.  I rewarded sitting on the potty when she had to poop and I rewarded her for each toot.  But, nothing seemed to work.  Unfortunately, I think the fact that she is the second child influenced her delay.  She's been with and observed Elijah when he's had pooping issues, and I think it made her think pooping on the potty would hurt.  Again, our kids are overthinking things!  Amazingly, after a week of really trying every time she had to poop, the first poop was practically a non event.  I was on the phone with Grandpa Jan, I sent her in the bathroom with a few M&Ms to try and poop, while I prepared to get off the phone and sit with her.  Before I got off the phone, she yelled, "Mommy I poop-ed!"  I didn't really believe it, but sure enough she did!  Yay!  She chose a giant chocolate bunny for her reward (she only ate half).  She was very proud of herself as her smile shows.