Pre-School/K Update

The kids have completed three weeks of preschool. Everyone is loving it! 

For the first couple of weeks, Makena was a little hesitant about going to preschool because she wasn't sure she would have the same teachers. At Sunday school, the parents rotate each week for the first hour. She doesn't like going to class when she's not fond of the parents. But now that she finally gets it that she has the same teachers every time, she's excited to go. There is usually one or two kids crying in her class after drop-off. I'm so thankful that Makena is not one of them. She's doing great! 

Makena enjoys learning Spanish and new songs. She also likes playing with her friend Annabelle. Annabelle is Makena's first friend. They are not in the same class but they play together during recess. Here is a picture of them from this past January. 

Karis loves going to pre-K but she always walks in a little slowly and sometimes runs to me to give me a last minute hug. I asked her about it and she said she feels shy when she first gets there. I guess she's past the stage when she loved meeting people and fearless when she walked into a room. 

Karis' favorite part of the day is circle time where they sing songs together. She of course loves working on art projects as well. Every Wednesday, they have Show and Tell and they get to bring something that starts with the letter they are working on. It's fun to talk with her about what she can bring and come up with something together. 

I love talking to the girls about their time at school and hearing about what they learned.  Here is a video of them reciting their memory verse. 

When I drop off Kyle, the teacher says, "Hi Kyle. All your friends are here. Hey everyone! Kyle is here!" It's really cute. I love the little craft projects they do. When they were learning about creation and how God made the trees and plants, Kyle got to stuff twigs and leaves into an empty water bottle (compared to Karis who learned the process of planting and growing seeds =)) Thankfully Kyle takes a nap each time but he definitely needs to go to bed earlier on school days. 

Last week, he woke up one night at 2 am and didn't go back to sleep until about 3:30 am. Needless to say he was tired that day. He went down for a nap at school and didn't wake up until after I came to pick him up. He slept for about an hour on the floor with all the kids around him playing and while everyone got picked up. The teacher said a kid accidentally dropped a toy on his head at one point and he didn't even stir. 

This is what he looked liked when I came to pick him up. I love how he's covering his ear to block out the noise!

Perhaps the best part of their day is getting to go see Daddy in his office after school.

School's out!

Drawing a few pictures before it's time to go home.

Update on the Sisterhood

It's been awhile since I've talked about the girls' relationship with each other. I think it'll be neat for them when they get older to read about it so I hope to do it more regularly. Since we've been in Texas, they have definitely gotten closer to each other. We didn't have a lot of toys out when we first moved in so they basically just had each other to play with. The age gap seems to be shrinking as Makena is catching up in motor skills, speech and understanding. That definitely makes it more fun for Karis to play with her. 

Their favorite thing to play is "Mommy-Baby." It usually starts by Karis saying, "Let's play Mommy-Baby. I'm the baby. You be the Mommy." And then Makena will respond excitedly with "Yeah!" They make up all kinds of scenarios -- the "baby" cries or crawls around and the Mommy takes care of her or the baby will crawl up onto the loft and be scared and the Mommy will help her down. The best is when Karis tells me, "Being the Mommy is a lot of work." Yeah, you're telling me!  =)

When they're in their room, one person will close the door and whoever is out in the hallway has to say the magic words for the door to open. The magic words are "I love you, sissy!" Derek and I don't let the girls play with doors because there has been too many smashed fingers, but I let them play this game. How can I keep them from calling out, "I love you, sissy!" to each other.

I love when they call themselves best friends. When we first started going to our new church, Makena didn't like going to Sunday School. Thankfully, for half the class period they combine the two classes and play in the indoor play area. Karis will hold Makena's hand or put her arms around her as they walk through the hallway. Teachers tell me they always stick close to each other. Karis has told me that she worries about her in Sunday school. What a great big sis!

When Karis started preschool, it was obvious that Makena missed having Karis around the house. But to my surprise, Karis came home from preschool one day and told me she missed Makena. That surprised me because Karis loves going to preschool and her day is filled with all kinds of fun activities but she still thinks about her little sis. 

There are plenty of tattle-telling, unwillingness to share and an occasional "You're not my best friend anymore" but we won't talk about that right now. For the most part, they play well and enjoy being together. 

THREE

I heard it many times before and now I'm a firm believer.  The 3's are a lot harder than the 2's.  I didn't really get what the "Terrible 2's" were with Karis.  She was pretty easy at that age.  She maybe had two minor tantrums the whole year.  But now she can have two tantrums in one day!

She has been trying our patience a lot these days.  She acts like she doesn't hear us, she'll have moments when she talks with attitude, and sometimes she just blatantly disobeys us.  

Karis can get very set in her ways.  She'll have something in her mind and if it doesn't go that way she'll get quite upset.  It can be from her food to her clothes to the way she gets in and out of the car.  We've been trying to help her deal with disappointment, but sometimes she can be reasoned with and sometimes she can't.

It's interesting to see her be very particular in the way she plays as well.  She has a "rock garden" on the side of the house where she organizes the rocks.

The other day she took all her people and animals and lined them up and then gave each of them a piece of food.

It's fun seeing how her little mind is working and developing.  Her thoughts are definitely more complex and she has a lot of questions about every day things.  When her mind goes into overdrive, she starts to stutter.  It started back in January when she started her gymnastics class, and it comes and goes.  Certain things and events will trigger it.  We just ignore it and it doesn't seem to bother her.  It eventually passes until her next growth spurt of some kind.  

She's always been shy about speaking in front of people but lately she's been talking more to other people.  Even in a phase where she's stuttering, she's speaking up in gym class and conversing with our friends that come to the house.  I'm hoping she'll gain more confidence in her speech because she talks in great sentences to me and Derek.