Jan/Feb Videos

 

Swimming Lessons

The kids have been taking swimming lessons the last few months. It gives them something fun to do in the winter since they can't play outside. On this day, I forgot to get the camera out until after Nathan was done with his lessons so most of the pictures are of Elizabeth. I'll have to take some more pictures another day. 

Practicing her backstroke. 

There she goes!

Nathan plays in the hot tub while Elizabeth does her lesson. She plays while he is doing his lesson!

Jumping in the pool. 

Swimming in from her jump! 

A birthday party

We finally had Elizabeth's birthday party today. A lot of people and kids couldn't come due to sickness so that was sad, but not much we could do about that. 

Waiting for the arrival of the guests. 

I tried to get a picture with the kids but Elizabeth decided to duck and refused to get in the picture. 

Auntie Laura is here!!

Gram brought balloons for all the kids. Thank you Gram!

I tried to snuggle Elizabeth. She lets Laura do it, but not me!

They filled the entire tent with balloons and then dumped them on Papa Ray. 

Papa Ray and balloon games. We missed Kim! 

Balloon bonking. 

Trying to avoid the camera. 

The kids table. 

Some new Hello Kitty pajamas! She'll be wearing these to bed tonight!

She was so excited about these new Ponies!

Opening her new princess dress. 

Auntie Laura's cute card. 

Getting ready to blow out her candles. 

She did it!

Elizabeth and Charlotte listened to the new  Me Reader stories. 

Papa Norm had a listen too.

Nathan and Auntie Laura played vet. This dalmation thought he had chicken pox, but it was really just his spots. 

Elizabeth at 4 years old

Elizabeth is 4 years old!

I need to write down a few things about what she is like at 4. 

Her favorite color is pink. It's ALL about pink here. She said the theme of her party is "pink." 

She LOVES to play with her brother. They can play really well together (or have lots of fights). It is really awesome to see them play together when things are going well. They make up all kinds of imaginative games. The messes they make can be very bad though...we can also spend all day cleaning things up! 

 Her favorite toy is play dough. She loves creating different play dough concoctions and our kitchen table is usually covered with play dough from morning until night. 

Art projects are also a huge hit. She could paint, color,  and do glitter glue all day long. If it's not play dough all over the table, it's paint! 

Pretty much all day, you can hear her humming and singing while she walks around the house and plays. It is so cute. Sometimes, she'll make up little songs and sing those as well. 

Her voice is still very loud. Very, very loud. Nathan's voice is so quiet in comparison. Sometimes, I can't hear what he's saying, but I can always hear her! It can hurt your ears! 

Her vocabulary is still quite large and she talks very clearly compared to most of the 3 year olds we're around. People tell me she talks like a regular 15 year old. It's pretty funny! 

She loves to hang out in just her undies. There are days when she only wears clothes when we leave the house. The minute we get home, she strips them off and is clad in undies only. 

We do a homeschool preschool this year. She loves to do that! She's learning a lot. She knows all of her letters, can count to around 20, knows her colors, days of the week and months of the year, and most of her letter sounds. Nathan is learning to read and sometimes I'll see Elizabeth with a book trying to sound out words since she knows most of her letter sounds. She likes to try to learn sight words alongside Nathan as well. 

She does pretty well with writing her letters too! She can write her own name and if you tell her how to spell things, she can write anything. 

She loves listening to books. Her attention span is pretty good. Some afternoons, we can sit and read books for an hour or even more and she listens the whole time. We'll go to the library and pick out 20 books and then just read them all. 

Health wise, her eczema is still an issue. It's actually a lot better than it was and she is scratching WAY less than she used to even last year. Her food allergies are peanuts and sunflower seeds. We've managed to keep those away from her for another year so no reactions! Her teeth are still good. She's lucky to not yet have any cavities. 

She's getting much better with her eating. Even from just a few months ago when she only wanted noodles and cheese and burritos. She'll at least try things she's not sure of now. Most nights, I can get her to eat a few vegetables and a lot of the main dish. She never used to do that! We've tried to limit morning and afternoon snacks and I think that helps. It's still hard to get her to eat anything for dinner that has onions or tomato sauce. 

She sleeps around 11 1/2 or 12 hours a night. She hasn't napped since about her 3rd birthday. I put her to bed around 8 or 8:15. She usually sleeps until 7:30 or 8:00. Sometimes when she's extra tired for some reason, she'll sleep until 8:30. 

She is still in a pullup at night. She's still super wet in the mornings. We're not really sure what to do! Jeremy tries to wake her up most nights when he gets home at 3:30 am. It's not enough though and she still wakes up wet both then and again in the morning. Hopefully when I write her "5 year old update" this won't be an issue any more!  

Elizabeth is still pretty easygoing and usually goes along with what we need her to do. She will fix her behavior quickly and doesn't fight us much and isn't too stubborn. She's way past having any kind of temper tantrum or meltdown. 

She loves princess stuff. Those Disney princesses are just everywhere so I've given in! She likes them more than Dora, My Little Pony, Hello Kitty, or any of the other "themes" aimed at kids her age. So far, she doesn't appear to be corrupted. She loves to play dress up and likes to put on plays and "shows" for me. 

I take her to swimming lessons twice a week. She likes that and is doing pretty well! We have fun doing our weekly shopping together at the grocery store. She likes checking out all the books for me at the library. 

She's still very attached to Mommy and I'm ok with that. She doesn't like to play at other kids' houses without me there- so any playdates are either here or I go with her somewhere else. 

Happy Birthday Elizabeth

Happy 4th birthday Elizabeth! We had a party with just our family today. We were supposed to have a big birthday party last weekend, but due to the snow and bad roads, we postponed it until next weekend. Today, she got cupcakes and got to open her presents from the family. 

Pink, pink, pink!

She got that 4 candle blown out!

Some presents!

A fun coloring book

Did we really need more glitter glue? 

A playdough kit!

Balloon bonking game. 

Glitter glue on the paper and all over her shirt and pants!

Uh oh

It's the day before her birthday and she fell asleep while Jeremy was reading her stories. 

We know there is only one reason one of our children falls asleep in the middle of the day. 

She's sick. 

Nathan and I have both had runny noses and coldlike symptoms the last several days. It's not bad so hopefully that is all it will be for her too. 

More Snow Play

It snowed more yesterday and last night. I got the whole driveway shoveled and now it's snowing again! We've probably had 6-7 inches total? Nothing compared to our Spokane winters of 2008 and 2009 where we had over 120 inches...

Elizabeth standing on the top of Elizabeth Mountain

Shoveling out the front walkway area. 

Her shovel is a bit big. 

Shoveling paths. 

Heading off in the sled to get the mail. 

A few neighbors came over to play. Charlotte and Elizabeth filled the sled with snow. Evangeline and Josie threw snowballs at each other and at Nathan. 

Nathan finally got cold and went inside so Elizabeth got the little shovel! 

Some Snow Play

We got some snow yesterday and the news says more is on the way. School was delayed 2 hours, but it didn't matter for Nathan since he's afternoon kindergarten. The bus showed up just like it always does! 

Thank you for the winter gear Ava. 

Nathan tried to throw snowballs but the snow was just too dry. When it melts a little, we might be able to pack it. 

Showing off the snow. 

Squinting at me and pretending to be Pippa. 

Filling little containers with snow. 

Still trying to make snowbvalls. 

Making snow castles.