Wordless Thursday

Library Outing

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes and I've always wanted to share my love for reading with the girls.  I got lucky in that it didn't take much coaxing from Mom or Dad to get the girls interested in books, they naturally took to reading!

As far back as I can remember, Julia has been obsessed with reading books.  When she first learned to crawl we always knew exactly where to find her if she wasn't next to us - in her room taking all her books off her bookshelf.  As she got older, she started taking as many books as she could manage into her bed with her at night and continued to read them all night and was often told to stop reading and go to sleep when we were going to bed.  Finally, we had to limit the number of books she could take into her bed with her at night when we thought it might collapse from the weight of all the books - well, not really, but you get the point.  Lately she has been spending a lot of her time reading books to Emma and her stuffed animals and there is rarely a day that goes by that we don't have a treasure trove of books scattered around the house from her daily wanderings.  Her current favorites are Pinkalicious (a great gift from Daddy!), the hand-me-down Muppets books that are probably out of print now and the collection of books on many different animals that she received for Christmas.

Emma also loves books.  In the beginning, it was always books with mirrors in them so she could see herself.  Then her interest turned to any books that included animals.  Then to most of the priddy books, which were also Julia's favorites at that age.  Now she really likes the touchy-feely board books by Usborn. We have That's Not My Fairy and it's a big hit and it's actually one of Mommy's top 5 favorite books to read to the girls.  It's a great book since we can talk about the textures on the page - soft wings, bumpy shoes, etc. - to reinforce all the work we are doing in her auditory verbal therapy.  I just did a search online and see they also have That's Not My Pony in this series and I think we'll be adding that to the collection soon to help Emma bond more with ponies.  After all, she does ride one every Friday evening, so the book is perfect for her!  

As for me, I have always loved reading and I read almost anything I get my hands on, but lately I've been focused on books to help Emma.  When I do get the odd minute of free time I read an article in a magazine since I can't commit to reading many novels lately.  I'm looking forward to our vacation in two weeks so I can read a book - or two or three.  I'm a quick reader, so I'll pack a few books in the suitcase and see how far I can get. 

Last week's adventures included a visit to the library to sign up for the summer reading program.  The girls receive a prize each week they visit the library and also receive a free scholastic book after a certain number of hours read.  We track the reading on the sheet they gave us, which I have to find before our next visit as they seemed to have vanished in my never ending sea of paperwork, but I digress.....  Here are some photos of the girls enjoying the children's section of the library.

If you have any book suggestions, please leave them in the comments section.  We're always looking for good books to read!

Happy Daddy's Day!

Happy Daddy's Day!  There are so many reasons why we love you, and here are just a few -

• We love when you let us ride on your back while you crawl around on your hands and knees and when you put our bellies on your feet and fly us through the air
• When Mommy isn't home, you always take us out for fun stuff like ice cream or trips to the mall to throw pennies in the fountain (and ice cream afterwards!)
• You help make the best forts out of our furniture cushions (so we can hide from Mommy)
  
• You show us fun videos on YouTube
• You let us stir the brownies and lick the bowl and not worry about the mess at all!
• You spend gobs of time on the floor playing with us and make us laugh until our eyes tear up from so much laughing
• You show us how to do new things, like bowl and ride our bikes and cheer us on as we succeed
• You kiss our boo boos when we are hurt and tuck us into bed when we are tired
• You get us the best books and read them to us any time of day, not just at bedtime
• You never make us stop to get things like smocks or drop cloths when the artistic urge hits us (even though Mommy thinks this is crazy!) - you let us dig in and let our creativity flow when the moment hits us!
• You do cool stuff like buy balloons, make a cake and sing Happy Birthday when we wanted to celebrate puppy's 2nd birthday
  
• You are never too busy to be there for all our important moments
• You make Mommy laugh a lot and that makes us all laugh a lot
• You take good care of yourself with diet and exercise so you will be able to see us grow up

Oh, and Finnegan is lucky, too.  She asked us to let you know that you are the best ball thrower on the planet!

Most of all, we love that you are just plain silly and we can be just as silly when we are with you.  We are so lucky to have you as our Daddy.  Happy Daddy's Day!

Love, All your girls

Dance Recital

This weekend mostly revolved around Julia's dance recital.  This is her first year in dance and I found out quickly that the year end events are planned for starting in November for the June event!  The studio that Julia takes lessons in does a recital every other year and this was the year for the recital, so I just had to put her in it.  Just thinking of the little ones dancing on stage makes me smile.

Julia had two routines - tap and ballet.  This required two different costumes, hairpieces and shoes.  It also required a bit of a time investment with the dress rehearsal on Thursday and a recital performance on Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon.  I was a stage mom on Saturday night so I was able to see the performance on Sunday with our families.  The kids did really well!  All of them showed up on-stage and most of them danced.  This is no small feat for a group of 15 three and four year olds.  Actually, all the routines in the first act were fantastic and the time just flew by.  What a great way to finish up the dance season!  Until next year.....

Wordless Friday

Some of the blogs I follow do a Wordless Wednesday where they post photos.  I love that idea, but didn't get around to doing it until today so I'll call this Wordless Friday.

Here are some photos of the girls playing with play doh (Emma actually was rolling the dough with her fingers while keeping herself in a sitting position!), riding the pony Mercedes, and I even  threw in a photo of Finnegan for good measure.  Enjoy!

Lazy Weekend

We took a break from our general activities last weekend.  It wasn't a planned "down" weekend, but we mostly wound up staying around the house since Julia was sick.  It was really nice not to have to go anywhere or do anything.  The girls slept really well, which let me catch up on some much needed sleep.  Chris and I even slept past 9am on Sunday, drank coffee on the deck and read part of the Sunday paper before the girls woke up - it felt like we were newlyweds again!

Julia did manage to spend a bit of time playing in the splash table we bought this weekend, but outside of that she mostly watched videos and cuddled in my lap.  Emma loved the splash table, too, and even went after the toys in the water quite aggressively.  This weekend need to figure out a set-up that will allow her to play at the table without me holding her up.  We even got a reprieve from the constant worry of getting Emma to eat since she ate at all her meals and even munched on some cheese puffs for a snack on Saturday!  This was such an event that I took a short video of her eating puffs and posted it below.  Did this have something to do with Emma's great therapeutic riding session on Friday?  I'm not sure, but I hope the eating and sleeping continues.  

While we didn't plan the lazy weekend, it sure felt good! 

Changes

The economy is causing a lot of people to make changes, and we are no exception to this.  I found out this week that I'm part of a corporate downsizing.  In the 13+ years that I have been there, I've had 11 managers, 5 different positions, completed my MBA, and had the pleasure to work with more exciting, creative, unique people than I've dreamed possible.  During those same 13 years, I've adopted a dog, met and married Chris, and had two beautiful girls.  

For the last couple of years I've struggled with working vs. staying home with the girls.  I was able to transition to a part-time position which worked really well and allowed me to participate in most of Emma's therapy sessions, have fun time with Julia and take the girls on field trips.  It was a great balance for me while it lasted, but I have to say that I'm really looking forward to spending more time with the girls.  We are lucky that Chris has a job he loves that seems pretty secure for now.  My severance package will continue our benefits for a while and enable us to have Emma's second CI surgery under our existing health benefits, which was my main concern as Chris' benefits do not cover cochlear implants.  

So, in a few weeks I'll be free from work!  I've been working since I was 14 years old so this will be a new experience for me.  I'm going to recharge a bit, enjoy the summer, look into starting the business I've considered.  I'm excited about the new chapter in my life that is about to begin.  I think this change is good!

Another new look

I had some trouble with the other template, so decided to go with a Blogger standard one.  I hope this is easy to read and people can post comments.  In fact, if you are reading this now please send me a comment so I know that section is working!