Mr. Roboto

Emily made a robot for extra credit at school.



She had originally asked if she could make one that had moving parts, but I told her that would take us a few months, if not years, to build and she only had a week. Maybe someday...

Appointment Statistics

Eliana and Sarah saw the doctor yesterday for their well checks. Sarah had her 15 month check-up. She was 29 inches tall and 21 lbs, 9 oz, both in the 25%. The doctor laughed because her head was in the 90%. I wasn't surprised though, big heads run in my family. :) Sarah had to get 5 shots and a finger prick. She took them like a pro and only cried on the tetanus shot. I spent most of my time trying to keep her from touching things in the examining room. I was just picturing all of the germs there.

Eliana was there for her kindergarten check-up. She was 41.25 inches tall and 41.25 lbs...I was relieved to know I would only have to remember one number. The nurse said having the same height and weight isn't very common, but she was in the 50% for weight and 25% for height. The doctor was impressed with Eliana's reading skills and counting to 100. She also raved about how high Eliana could jump. She said that Eliana must be really good in gymnastics which made Eliana feel good since that is her favorite hobby right now. Eliana had to get 3 shots and a finger prick. She has always hated finger pricks and starts sobbing as soon as I put her on the table. It always amazes me how she can cry these huge tears at a drop of a hat. I am helping the nurse hold her hand and these giant drops keep falling onto my hands. Thankfully, she was able to calm down while we waited for the shots. She had originally told me that she couldn't wait to get the shots so that she could get them over with. On the first one, she did fantastic and didn't shed one tear. The second one was the tetanus one and she starts bawling. On the third one, she reached down and tried to grab the needle which caused the nurse to accidentally scratch her leg and have to go get a new needle since Eliana had touched it. I think she still has her bandaids on as she wouldn't let me touch them last night in the tub. Sarah took hers off by herself. She kept shouting and pointing at Eliana's bandaids, but Eliana still refused to touch them.

I'm glad that Eliana won't need any more shots for a long time. The next step towards going to Kindergarten is the Registration Day during the first week of April.

1st Swim Lesson = Success

As I mentioned earlier, Emily and Eliana both had their first swim lesson yesterday. They have had swim lessons in the past, but Emily was only 3 and Eliana was 1 so it had been awhile. Emily's was first and she was really nervous about it. I explained that the lifeguard, Mr. Tim, was trained to help kids learn how to swim. He wouldn't let her drown. He was a professional who knew what he was doing. There were only 2 other girls in her class, one looked about her age and one was older. They both knew how to swim well though. They jumped in right away and Emily just cautiously sat down on the edge of the pool. I explained to Mr. Tim that Emily couldn't even put her head under water. The class was about 45 minutes long and I glanced over there ever so often as I was also watching Eliana swim around waiting for her lesson. I was relieved to see it looked like Emily was enjoying herself. Sure enough, as soon as the lesson was over, she came over to me and said, "I did it! I didn't know I could do all of that stuff!" Mr. Tim informed me later that Emily was scared at first, but caught on quickly and was doing well.

Eliana's lesson had 4 other kids in it and her lifeguard was Ms. Carlie. Ms. Carlie also works in the kids area so Eliana already knew her. Eliana was so excited to get started! She kept asking me if it was almost time. I told Ms. Carlie that Eliana could blow bubbles and put her head under water. I was worried that she would have to wear a life jacket the whole time to practice getting used to the water since it was a beginner class for 3 to 5 year olds, but Ms. Carlie had them start right out with floating on their stomachs and backs. Eliana's favorite part was getting to climb up a pole. I'm not sure what the lesson was there, maybe to strengthen their arms? I'm going to have to ask next time. Her class was also about 45 minutes long and when it was over, she was upset because she thought it was so short. She said Emily had a longer lesson, but I tried to explain that it was only longer to the people who weren't in the lesson.

Anyway, the first lessons were a success and they both are really excited to go back again tomorrow. I hope they will be swimming like fish in time for summer.

Random Tuesday

-- This blog is a work in progress today. I plan on taking the picture of the girls this afternoon and will hopefully have everything updated tonight. In case any of you are wondering, I know that I'm not Irish, but the girls are some percentage of Irish from Andy's side. So I decided to have the "I'm Irish" background for that reason.

-- I finally got my clothes dropped off for the consignment sale this weekend! I only did a few items just to see how it went. If it goes well, I'll probably consign some more for the winter/fall sale. I will have to remember to drop the clothes off when Eliana isn't looking. She cried over a couple of things even though they don't fit her anymore.

-- I still need to mail our state tax return today. We didn't want to pay $20 to have it done electronically so it's been sitting on my desk for the past couple of weeks. I finally made the copies this morning so I should be completely done by this afternoon! I'm glad I won't have to think about it again until next year!

-- I'm waiting for that warmer weather that was predicted this week. Where is it? It's cold and rainy here and I hate getting the girls, but especially Sarah, out in this mess.

-- It was Dr. Suess Day at Emily's school today. They were supposed to have a parade and I forgot to dress Emily in a red, blue or white shirt for their "Red Fish, Blue Fish" theme. In my defense, I only found out about it yesterday and I had 40 reports to type up last night. I'm hoping they let her walk in the parade anyway as she had a pink on which is a shade of red, right? She wanted to turn around once we got to the school to get it, but then she would have been tardy. Maybe I should have brought one up there...

-- I picked up the girls' swimsuits today in preparation for their swim lessons this afternoon. Eliana is really excited, but Emily is apprehensive. She is only doing this so that she can go to camp this summer. I'm just praying she doesn't scream and hold onto the side of the pool the entire time.

Activity Update

Emily had her last game today. I got video of her being the leader for one of the cheers.



We weren't impressed with the organization of the YMCA. If Emily decides to continue cheering, we will sign her up through another company that teaches more of the tumbling, which she really liked. Overall, it wasn't something that she absolutely loved though. She's actually thinking about gymnastics instead so we might try that in a couple of months. Right now, March is designated for swim lessons for Eliana and Emily so more on that next week. My hope is that they will be able to swim well enough for the pool this summer.

New Habits

Sarah has picked up a couple of new habits lately, one of which makes a lot more work for me to do. She loves opening cabinets and drawers. She loves taking books and school supplies off of the shelves. She will go from one room to the next leaving things all over the floor. I am constantly coming along behind her cleaning it up. I do have locks on the important doors that she must not open, but there are others that don't have dangerous things, just messy things...like crepe paper. She had rolled out two rolls of party crepe paper all over the floor when I walked into the kitchen today. She has figured out how to take the basket from her play kitchen into a room with her, flip it upside down, and use it as a step stool to reach things that she can't reach with her feet on the ground. We are having to watch her at all times. I caught her in the act of opening a drawer the other day.



If we surprise her, she will slam the drawer or door shut and give us a smile. After a long, hard day of getting into trouble, her other new habit just started yesterday. I was sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV. Usually, Sarah will sit on the couch beside us. Instead, she went over to the chair in our living room and took off the pillow and blanket there. For some reason, anything she sits on has to be free of all objects, no matter how comfortable they are. So the blanket and pillow came off. Then, she patted the chair until I put her in it. As soon as I sat her down, she leaned back and folded her arms over her tummy like she was lounging. I tried to sit down beside her and she started trying to push me out! Apparently, she liked having the whole thing to herself. So I went back to sitting on the couch and she leaned back against the chair again. Every few seconds, she would stand up in the chair, but as soon as I told her to sit down, she would sit and lean back again and put her hands back over her tummy.



When she saw me get out the camera, she took her hands off her tummy, but she is still leaning back a little bit in the above picture. I don't mind the relaxing habit at all, but I hope the destruction habit doesn't stick around too long!

Valentine Decorating

For some reason, as soon as I mentioned the holiday this month, Eliana thought it was mandatory that we decorate cookies for Valentine's Day. So I got some sugar cookie dough, icing, and sprinkles. The girls had a blast and Andy and I did too!





I tried to decorate the one on Eliana's plate above that has the heart with the I and U, if you can tell which one that is. :) Andy made a couple for me. I think he is very talented!