Larissa's progress

Larissa is really enjoying preschool also.  She has yet to write her name, but she's trying.  She can make a pretty good S though.  she really likes it when they get to paint.  Today they painted with sticks and painted pine cones.  she thought that was great.  She loves getting to play at the park, she likes learning new songs and reading books.  Here are a few of the things she's brought home.

this is a picture that preschool printed out (but on paper, not photo paper)

Miss Skylar

Just wanted to do a little post about Skylar's progress.  As you know she has started her second year of preschool.  Last year she was writing her name only in capital letters.  This year they are working on writing it with upper and lower case letters.  she still mixes them up a bit, but she does well.  Here is a picture of one of her writings.

She is also starting to write her sisters name

Skylar is also getting very close to reading.  She asks to spell tons of words.  She is remembering some of them.  She tried so hard to sound out words too.  The other day she asked me what she was getting for her birthday and I told her a C-A-M-E-R-A.  (we got her a Hello Kitty digital camera of her own) She immediately started sounding it out.  She was able to say all the letters and sounds, but couldn't quite put it all together.  She's close though.  I spend my whole day spelling words for her, but I figure one day she will catch on. 

Skylar is also getting much better at remembering songs.  Last year she really struggled with remembering songs and rhymes.  This year she comes home almost every day singing a new song.  Also tonight she was watching An American Tail (Fivel) for the first time in well over a year.  I don't think she's ever really watched it.  She came to the dinner table singing 2 of the songs from the movie, and she did a pretty good job with the words.  I was impressed. 

Skylar has really enjoyed learning about Fall.  They take walks outside and talk about the trees and leaves.  They gather leaves to make pictures with.  She just loves preschool.  Here are some of her other projects from school. 

Skylar is also making great strides in her swimming lessons.  Tonight we took the girls swimming and she actually swam a bit for me.  We were actually in the baby pool so it was only 1'6", but she put her head under, kicked and went a few feet.  I think she may be swimming by the cruise, at least a little bit. 

Swim lessons part 2

The girls had their second class this past Sunday.  I was a little apprehensive about bringing Larissa with how she acted the week before.  We did take the girls swimming Friday night and worked on some skills.  Both girls had a blast.  Skylar is doing really well and almost swimming a little on her own.  She can go about 2 lengths before sinking.  Larissa just likes to bounce up and down.  So Saturday night Larissa kept telling us she did not want to go to lessons.  She just likes to swim with us.  Sunday morning she had tears in her eyes, but she went.  She even took the instructors hand and walked down the ramp into the water without protest.  I stayed over on her end for a little bit, but she kept looking for me, so I went over by Skylar and John stayed with Larissa again.  Larissa did much better.  No crying, and she even participated a bit.  I saw her kicking her feet and playing Ring Around the Rosie.  She started to get a little sad so the instructor had them form a choo choo train and they went by Skylar's class.  I even saw a small smile on Larissa's face as they swam by with their noodles.  After lessons she even said she had fun.  This week they go on Saturday.  I hope She does as well, or even better this weekend. 

here comes the choo-choo train

new family room

yep, I rearranged again.  I think this arrangement will work well with the day care. I have made a home area with the kitchen and baby doll stuff.  A pretend play area with the train table, houses, cars.  a play area with the basket ball hoop and slide.  I then took all the toys for the infants to 2 year olds and placed them in a section by themselves. 

view from the stairs

view from the couch

infant toys

pirate ship water table, minus the water

pretend play

baby dolls

kitchen

nice neighbors

So we have some really nice neighbors here in Iowa.  We lived in Plainfield for 3 years and barely knew our next door neighbors.  Here, we obviously know the neighbors to our right (our landlords) and we've become close with the neighbors to the left.  Monica lives there with her 2 teenage kids.  They have always been really nice to us and the girls.  The girls follow Monica around and talk to her when ever she is outside.  The girls like to play with their dogs through the fence.  Monica also gives the girls little gifts every so often.  Last easter she got them a small sticker book and a treat bag with some candy in it.  A few weeks back, she had gotten some balloons for her birthday but her daughter is allergic to latex and she couldn't have them in the house, so she brought them over for the girls to have.  The other day when she got home from work we were playing outside.  She said she would be right back, she just had to go talk to her kids for a minute.  She came back out with little Halloween gifts for the girls.  She said,I know it's early, but she thought they would like to play with them.  They got a little smiley face bubble necklace, some mini m&m's (she knows they are the girls favorites), and a little doll in a costume.  The girls love them. 

It's nice to have good neighbors. 

Preschool pictures

The girls had their preschool pictures 2 weeks ago.  They came out cute.  Skylar's hair wasn't the greatest.  It was very humid that day and her hair does not do well in the humidity.  it was freshly washed and freshly brushed, but it still kinked up.  Larissa took one VERY cute picture and then the other one she gave "the stare"  I like the one of them together too.  I still have to decide which pictures to get.  By the way, these are not scans, these are pictures of pictures so they aren't that great. 

Swim lessons

Skylar started her second session of lessons.  She actually remembered some stuff form her lessons last spring (there were no sessions over the summer because they were redoing the indoor pool) She was so happy to be back in lessons and can't wait to go back next week. 

Larissa??  She wasn't so happy.  She was very excited to go this morning, but when we got there and she realized Skylar was in a different class (yes we told her this before but she didn't quite get it until Skylar went off to another teacher) She went into the water willingly, but wouldn't participate.  She was staring at me so I left to go to the other side where Skylar was.  John stayed with Larissa.  About 15 minutes into lessons she started crying and wouldn't stop.  I asked the teacher if she wanted me to take her out and she said no.  She knew Sissy was in the PS2 class so they made a choo choo train to pass by sissy's class.  Larissa was a little happier and Skylar came to her and told her this was fun, but as the train pulled away, Larissa started crying again.  She also would let go of the teacher.  She did last the whole session, but didn't participate in the fun, just clung to the teacher. 

John was reading in the news letter for the park district and saw that there is family swim night every friday.  $10 for the whole family to swim for 3 hours.  We thought, that's a good idea for a cheap family night out, so we are going to try it this week.  Hopefully if we all go swimming and work on things with Larissa, she will be ok for her lesson Sunday morning.  I think she was a little scared of being in the pool without her floaties on, so if we take her in without them and get her used to it, she may be a little happier the next time.  We can hope, right? 

Here are a few pictures I got today. 

On an Adventure

At school Thursday Skylar made some binoculars.  They went out to see what they could see and then drew a picture about it.  Skylar saw an EXIT sign. 

So today we made Larissa her own set of binoculars and then set out on an adventure, to see what we could see.  First we walked down to the pond down the street.  On the way we saw some flowers, bugs, houses and of course water. 

on the way back home we saw some more bugs and a fire hydrant

After a brief rest at home we took another walk down by the park to see some more.

We even saw a butterfly

then we had to play at the park