Kyle has been communicating quite a bit...

Kyle learned sign language early on to communicate "more," "please," and "all done."  Here he is with a new word:

Kyle is nearing 2-1/2 years old.  He has been repeating everything we say immediately after we say it.  I am enjoying it.  He is working on his letters/spelling.  See this video:

First Day of PreK and Preschool

 Makena is in PreK this year! She will be going to school three days a week. She is excited to have two teachers who she is already familiar with. One is Karis' teacher from last year and the other is Karis' friend's mommy who she has interacted with at play dates and parties. 

Last week, we went to Meet the Teacher where she got to see her classroom and meet some new friends. When people asked her who her teachers are, she answered, "Ms. Kim and Ryan's mommy."  Oops! We'll have to change that. In the past, I would refer to her as Ryan's mommy, so she learned that from me!

 Makena seemed excited to start school. She wasn't nervous at all. During breakfast, she asked me a couple times where we were going (which I thought was strange), so I told her to church or to preschool. After breakfast, we went outside to take a few pictures. Afterwards, Makena asked if we could start walking to school. It dawned on me that she thought she was starting Kindergarten at Mockingbird. Silly girl! I don't know how she got that idea. Perhaps because Karis started two weeks ago, she was going to follow right after her. I hope her excitement and lack of nerves is a sign of how she'll be next year when she'll really start Kindergarten. 

I'm really hoping to see her grow and develop this year. I want her to start becoming her own person as she spends three days "on her own." I know Karis influences her a lot, so I'm hoping she feels the freedom to like and do what she wants. She hasn't shown a lot of interest in academics, so my desire is also for her to develop a love for learning and a desire to read. 

This little munchkin is in the two year old class. He's in the three day a week class but will only spend two and a half days there. He'll do full days Tuesdays and Thursdays but only a half day on Wednesdays. After my Bible study on Wednesday, I'll take him home with me for a nap. My friend will bring Makena home so that Kyle can sleep until 3 pm instead of 2 pm. I can't believe how big he is already!

Quick Family Getaway

We spent part of our Labor Day weekend in Glen Rose, TX. A church family owns a hotel there, so we made that our destination. We left Sunday afternoon and stayed one night. We didn't have much planned besides relax and swim. It was a quick 2-hour drive. 

The girls love staying at a hotel. What kid doesn't? Kyle was only 6 months old the last time he stayed in a hotel. We had a view of the swimming pool from our room. The kids loved looking down at the pool (the pool had streams of water shooting over it). 

The picture below of the girls reminds me of a photo I have of my sister and I on the window sill. We were only toddlers and my mom would put us on the sill to get us up off the floor while she was vacuuming. She said we were so scared we wouldn't move a muscle. Parenting in the 70's! 

We swam a little bit after dinner the first night. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and the poor/lack of service left us little time to go swimming afterwards. The next day after breakfast, we had to painfully wait an hour for the pool to open. The girls could not wait! We swam for about three hours and had the pool to ourselves most of the time. We grabbed lunch on the way out and headed back home.