Grass

I went out to a coffee shop for a little while this afternoon (thank you, Sacha!) and Sacha called to tell me that our littlest one had explored a new culinary sensation.  Yes, she had grabbed a handful of grass out of our backyard and stuffed it into her mouth.  Luckily, Sacha managed to remove it, but it was pretty hilarious to hear about!  Our baby #3 is exploring all sorts of new territory that her older siblings never did and she is keeping us on our toes.  We fed her some banana tonight for dinner and oh my goodness was that cute.  We are all just head over heels in love with Rosa and watching her eat that banana was just about the cutest thing she'd done, well, all day.  Going along with that, watching Mateo and Tali ooh and aahh over Rosa eating some banana made my day, too, because they dote on her so much.  I was worried that there would be a lot of sibling rivalry with three of them vying for our attention, but so far it really feels like she's our whole family's baby and everyone wants to help take care of her.  Let's hope it continues!

In other news, we had an adventure this morning.  We have picked out colors for the inside of our new house and are going to hire a friend to paint it, but this morning we felt like a project and so we decided to see how far we could get on our own.  Here's how far we got, with three kids in tow:  we painted one wall.  One glorious, victorious wall!  That doesn't include getting us all to the house, sending me to the paint store for supplies and paint, taping the whole area and getting the drop cloth positioned so that it was kid-proof.  Considering that we left our house at 10 and finished up at the new house around noon, we decided that our one wall was a pretty good start.  We're going to try taking food and napping paraphanalia over there tomorrow and see about spending most of the day there.  We'll see how it goes!

I'll leave you with a picture of our little grass-eater.  Just look at that baby chub!

Letters

I might have written awhile back about our oldest kiddo's reluctance to try writing.  It seemed like kids all around us were bursting into the written word and not only did Te Te have no interest in trying it, but he had an active disinterest in it.  We tried to coax him with tracing workbooks and doing lots of art projects around drawing, but he was having none of it.  Eventually, we decided that he would get there in his own time and so, while we hadn't been pushing it in the first place (more like offering it as an option), we just let the whole writing thing go.  It was pretty interesting, actually, to watch him blast through the whole Headsprout reading comprehension program, reading and answering more and more complex passages, while having no interest at all in even writing his name.

Anyway, Headsprout ended and, since we have been in the habit for a long time now of doing something educational during rest time, we started the new Funnix math program.  It starts with the most basic of math, like identifying numbers, and moves up slowly from there.  It also includes a little workbook that you print out and that the kids work in lesson by lesson.  Almost imperceptibly, it gets them to write numbers on their own. 

We didn't even know this was part of the program at first, and once we did, I, at least, was skeptical about whether he would even do that part of the lesson.  But, do it he did.  He wrote lines, then traced numbers, then wrote numbers on his own.  And then came the big surprise:  he started wanting to write letters.  He learned to write all the letters in his name and now can write his name. 

He would and will sometimes go right from a Funnix lesson to his little notebook and practice writing letters or asking how to write a certain word.  He still needs help with a lot of letters, but he has come very far.  

It came home to me yesterday in particular when he wanted to write a whole sentence on his own.  He did the first one in chalk ("I love Mommy and Mama") and the second two in his notebook ("I have robots" and "I have a book about me").  It's exciting to see him learning a new skill and having so much fun with it. 

A few recent photos

Here are a few recent photos!

Here's Mateo with his fabulous balloon octopus from the farmer's market:

Big brother reading to baby sister:

She LOVES rice cereal!

Fun with bubble wrap on a totally plan-free Wednesday morning:

First day for three of us!

Today was the first day of pre-school for both Natalia and Mateo, and was my first day back with the students too! They were both really excited to be going back to school.

At bedtime, Mateo told me all about how he is now a Caballito - the oldest group at preschool. He explained that he put his lunch box in the space for the Ositos, because he thought he was still in that group and didn't realize that he was older now! Too cute.

Natalia spent much of night time chatting about how much she loved Mateo's friends.

My day went fairly well, especially considering that I had a 100 degree fever yesterday. I ordered a sub for the second half of the day, and got through the first half. I am just thankful that I had a great sub that I could call on for help!

Going back to work

The last five months have been amazing. I have had the opportunity to stay at home with Alayna, Mateo, Natalia and Rosa thanks to the timing of her birth.

What a gift. To have the time to spend with family, to get to see all three of our children get just a bit bigger, older and more skilled. To see the older ones sweetly talk with Rosa and play with her.

While there were plenty of times when I was ready to go back to work and thinking about the upcoming year, I'm not ready. At the same time I am ready. I'm excited about being back in the classroom and at peace knowing that the kids are with Alayna and in a fabulous pre-school for part of the week. As I'm sure you know, I'm also sad that I'll be seeing so much less of them.

This last week I worked long days for two of my days. What that meant was I left home a bit before 8am and was back at 5pm. I know it is silly to think of those as long days, but they sure felt that way to me. Sure, those are normal hours for most people. And getting to stay 5 whole months home with the kids was a luxury (though it should be normal in my mind. . .).

I vacillate between being excited about the new year and teaching a new grade and feeling like I want just a bit more time at home. I think about all of my plans and the great lessons I have in store and feel ready to take on a new grade. Then I remember how I just have those two weekend days a week with the kids and feel like it is never enough time.

I'm not sure if I have a point, just that it has been a wonderful 5 months. I'm so thankful that I've spent this time with my family and enjoyed getting to know our growing family during this time.

Another reader

At some point a few months ago, Sacha decided to try out the Headsprout early reading program on Talia.  She was starting to recognize a few words (her name, Mateo, and Rosa) and Sacha thought it might be time to give Headsprout a try.  She turned out to be right! 

Yet another benefit of Sacha being home this summer was that Tali got to do Headsprout with an actual teacher, and that she and Sacha had a special thing to do together.  Tali has been challenged at times, but is still trucking through the episodes and rarely needing to repeat.  She just finished episode 32 out of 40, so she's closing in on the end. 

I commented to Sacha that I was amazed that both of our kids had been able to do this program at a relatively young age, and she said that she thinks that little kiddos can get their minds around a lot more than we give them credit for. 

It has also been interesting to watch Tali get more interested in books as she's progressed through the program.  This makes perfect sense, of course, but I had never thought about it in this way:  that of course reading is more interesting when you can recognize a few words and sound some things out!

Anyway, we are very proud of her and look forward to celebrating with her when she finishes episode 40!  I remember baking a cake for Mateo the day he finished the early reading program (which was on the same day that Sacha had that ruptured ovarian cyst), so I may have to do that again this time.  My mom just sent me this great cake book with all kinds of cool designs, so this will give me an excuse to try one out.

Oh, and, in other news, we went by the new house yesterday, armed with cleaning supplies and amped-up children.  We managed to mop the whole downstairs and vacuum the whole upstairs while the kids played.  Mateo even helped run the little hand vacuum on the stairs and in corners and such.  We were exhausted when we were done!   We didn't consider that when you buy a house that is significantly bigger than your current house, that cleaning it will take a lot longer.  Let's hope we can keep up with this thing!

New house!

Soooo, remember that short sale we bid on back in April?  That would be the one that we have been waiting for five months on the bank for.  It would also be the one on which, in the meantime, we have both publicly and privately changed our minds several times.  Our main issue was that this house is on a cul-de-sac that connects to a very busy street.  The street is busy enough that there's no way the kids will be able to ride their bikes around the neighborhood or do anything near the street at all, for now, and only with close supervision as they get older.

But.  But, it is the house of our dreams in nearly every other way.  Five bedrooms, three baths (we currently have three bedrooms and one bathroom) and over 3,000 square feet, which is nearly triple what we have now.  And, it's in the area we want, which is generally pretty spendy, and yet smack in the middle of our price range.  It's more house than we could dream of owning anywhere but way out in the country.  It definitely needs a little work, but it's of the minor rather than major variety.  It's practically around the corner from my grandma's house, which is a very good thing.  It's also very close to the school that we hope our kids will attend. 

Nonetheless, the very busy street issue has been a big one and caused us to agonize for months over whether this was the right decision, all while not knowing if the bank would even say yes.

So, finally, about a month ago, the bank did say yes.  And, once and for all, we decided to say yes, too!  And now, after even more hemming and hawing on the bank's part than one might believe possible, it is finally ours.  Ours!  We have a new house!  We find ourselves loving it more and more and haven't even had buyer's remorse, which we take as a sign that we made the right decision.   

We're lucky enough not to have to sell our current house right away, which will give us time to do the work on the new house and take our time shuttling things over before we move in.  It will mean a longer commute for Sacha when we do move in, and a longer commute to the kids' preschool, but just for one year, and did I mention that we are soooooooo excited?  So excited!!

Sacha and I carted almost all the toys in the kids' playroom, which have not been touched in months, over there last night and set up a play area in the front room.  The kids and I are going to be over there quite a bit for awhile as we get bids for different things that need to be fixed and such, so we thought it would be good for them to have stuff to do while there.  We had a great time this morning, as we waited for the insulation contractor to come, playing with all their stuff and doing a puzzle and running wildly around the downstairs.

We have hit Angie's List in a big way and scored a deal on a few hours with an interior decorator, so she's going to help us pick paint colors and such, and then the painting will happen, and then eventually we'll move in. 

So, that's the big news.  We're so excited!!