Updates and Such

The other day Lainey asked me to play Barbies with her.  As soon as I sat down, she handed me a little boy doll and said, in regard to her Barbie, "He really likes her because she's so pretty and has lots of cute clothes."  Hmmm.  On a more positive note, Ellie had a mommy and daddy Barbie couple.  She had them kiss then said, "Them like each other."  Then, her daddy doll came over to my little boy and was really sweet so Andrew, at least has managed to be a good example.

 

 I love seeing sweet sister moments.  This was during a walk around the lake in our neighborhood.  Ellie, incidently, was pretty upset that I put her in pink.  She cried and cried saying "This is not my favorite color" and "Lainey likes pink!" before becoming distracted.

We've finished up with pottery yesterday and Lizzie's after school art ends today.  It's just in time since soccer practices started this week (Drew is assistant coach again).  She has at least one thing every day after school so I'm glad stuff is ending.  We're going from:  Girl Scouts, Pottery, Art Class, Play practice, Activity Girls, and Piano to Girl Scouts, Play Practice, Activity Girls, Piano, and Soccer.  Girl Scouts and Activity Girls only meet twice a month each, but soccer and play practice are twice a week (not counting weekend soccer games) and while piano lessons are only once week, she's required to practice daily.  Whew.  Good thing the other girls are not involved in much.

  We finished up Lainey's ballet/tap class as well.  She seemed to really enjoy it, particularly the ballet part, so I signed her up for another session.  I also signed her up for soccer much to her dismay.  Alaina keeps insisting that ballet counts as a sport and thus fulfills our one sport, one art requirement.  I also finally signed poor Ellie up for a class (Zoom Around the Room) since much of her day is running errands and waiting around for her sisters' activities to end.

We've weaned Ellie of her binky.  Sort of.  We lost it for a few days and when we finally found it, we didn't tell her.  It's been over a week and she still cries for a binky sometimes, but we're determined to see it through this time.  For the first three binky-free days we let Elle sleep in our bed, but then we had to wean her of that as well (right during day-light savings) so we certainly regretted taking the easy way out in the beginning.  Notice in the picture below that at least one day I woke up with Ellie's feet kicking my head while she snuggled up to Drew's head.  Next on the agenda for her: toilet training and moving to a big girl bed (hopefully we'll get it all taken care of before the new baby arrives).

 

 More on Ellie: still patching her eye, still wearing her glasses.  She is also still enjoying her visits to the pediatric opthomologist and why not?  There are toys, the tests feel like games, they play cartoons, give her stickers and suckers, and she gets to sit in a special chair all by herself.