Who is this big girl and where did Lilly go?

Lilly lost her very first tooth this past Monday! She was so excited for it to finally fall out and would ask if Steven or I would give it a tug to help it out. Monday night she asked me again to check and tug on it so I tried again. I knew it was ready to pop out so when I tugged on it came right out, but just after it came out Lilly started whining about how it hurt. Steven and I started laughing because we knew it was already out. A few seconds later her eyes bugged out and she stuttered, "You got it out? My tooth came out!!!" All we could do was laugh. We were all so excited for her.

That night we went to the Christmas tree lighting on base where all the elementary school kids sang some Christmas songs. It was really nice. And I just have to mention this part. If you know me you know I love Boondock Saints and so does Steven. One of our favorite parts is when the detective asks Agent Smecker what the "symbology" of the evidence is. Then Agent Smecker says "I think you mean symbolism. What is the symbolism?" We always crack up at that. Well someone said a few words at the tree lighting ceremony talked about the symbology of the what the Christmas tree meant for everyone on base. Steven and I couldn't help but crack up.

Back to Lilly. After the ceremony we were walking to the car and Lilly was talking about what she was going to get with the money from the tooth fairy and she finally decided on a horse. We asked her how much she thought she was going to get and she said 1 coin. Unfortunately we had to tell her that was not enough. The tooth fairy ended up giving her $2 and she was thrilled! After a walk around the BX and explaining how all the things there cost a lot more.

She was such a good sport about and maturely decided to save it. We tried to find her a nice, decorative box to save her money in, but we had no luck. Hopefully we find something good soon because I think she is going to loose the other bottom, middle tooth sooner rather than later. Her big tooth broke through the gums yesterday and she is just as thrilled about it as she was when the baby tooth fell out.
And she has been growing like crazy. It is really nuts. She has never grown this much this fast. In August while we were at my parents' house we did some school shopping for Lilly. We always try to buy the girls clothes that are a little big so there is some room to grow. We bought size 5 clothes for her and a size 10 in shoes. Everything we bought was big for her. In the past month she has gone into a size 6x and almost an 11 in shoes. We bought some corduroy pants for her in a size 6 and when we got home and tried them on the fit perfectly, like a glove. We returned them the next day for the 6x ones. This was the first time we bought clothes for one of the girls and thought it would be big but we were completely wrong. She just keeps getting bigger and bigger. She's starting to read and help out more. It is crazy to us how big she's getting, I just wish it didn't happen so fast. She impresses us more and more everyday. At her Thanksgiving Feast at school, she tried everything. She sat at her table and ate while the parents sat at bigger tables. The whole time she was giving us the 'thumbs up' after she tried her food. She isn't picky when it comes to eating, so she more than willingly tries new foods and usually loves them. She also did a 5 Little Turkeys song and did great. She also made a Thanksgiving decoration that we can hang every year.

And on top of that Ruby and Sadie are turning 2 and 4 in a week. Pretty soon they won't look like babies or toddlers anymore. More on those two another day. It's time to pick Lilly up from school :) Oh and Daddy, aka The Sucker because he's a sucker when it comes to the girls, picked up a hot pink Hello Kitty Christmas tree for them even though he told them last year there was absolutely no way we are buying a pink Christmas tree ;) Ha! He cracks me up! And pay no attention to our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Since we'll have Christmas in the good 'ole USA next year we'll have the big beautiful Christmas tree we've always wanted :)

K

The Library

We've been taking the girls to the library since Lilly was 6 months old. They love Story Time and they love being able to pick out and take home books of their choosing. We read a lot around here, at least a lot of kid books. I love reading but their isn't much time for me to read around here. Plus, if you met my kids you'd understand, they are LOUD. Ridiculously loud. All. The. Time. Even when they're sick. But that's a-whole-other story for another day.
Every week we get a bagful or two of books and we read some every night. Lilly has a sheet for school for all the books we've read. It keeps tally of all the books we've read with her. At the end of the month if you've read a certain amount she gets a small treat from her teachers. Lilly's very competitive so she is really into making sure we mark down all the books.

The first thing they do when we get to the library is start pulling books from the shelves, take out a cushion, and find a good spot to sit down. They'll look at the ones they took out and decide which ones they want to take home. While they do that, I look for books that I think they'll like, especially seasonal ones. The children's book at our library are shelved by topic instead of alphabetically. It 's a good system for holiday/seasonal books but a pain in the butt if you're looking for a book by author. I at least try to get a good mix of books, but the girls have their favorites, so sometimes it's a lot of the same kind. One day at Story Time, I told Sadie she could pick out some books to bring home. She came back with a stack of Fancy Nancy books, and only Fancy Nancy books.

Some books that we are enjoying these days are:
Fancy Nancy
Amelia Bedelia
Eloise
Clifford the Big Red Dog

We could spend hours at our small library. I hope where ever we live next, they have a nice, big library. I'm sure the girls would love it not matter how big. We're really happy they like to read.

My failed attempt to get a nice photo of all 3 of them.

And speaking of reading, Lilly has been doing great at school. She is learning sight words and has really picked up sounding out words. She's thrilled, we're thrilled, and Sadie and Ruby are thrilled that soon Lilly will be able to read to them. We also like to give them books as gifts and rewards. They have so many toys as it is and we'd rather not buy them anymore, and we're grateful they love books just as much toys. And I'm pretty sure Santa is going to bring more books than toys :)

-k

Sadie Starts Preschool

I've decided that since Sadie is going to preschool we needed to start working on some "school" activities so that when she starts pre-k or kindergarten she isn't step behind. Thanks to the internet and google, I was able to find and print dozens of activities for her to do while Lilly is at school. She really loves it, so much so that she has Lilly wanting to do more when she gets home from school.
We honestly think Sadie is smarter than she lets on. We'll ask her questions and she'll say she doesn't know the answer, but if it's on her terms she knows the answer to the question we asked. Her only weakness is her fine motor skills. I made her a notebook with activities, paper, and folders so that all her work is in one place. My only problem with it is that I can't find my 3-hole punch, ha! Other than that it's working well.

She is ambidextrous, which is so apparent from starting the "schoolwork". Instead of being able to focus on one hand and improving on it, she does twice the work. When she's working, she'll start with one hand and then she'll switch. You can even see it in the photos- she uses both hands.
The only thing she doesn't like is coloring. I know! What kid doesn't like coloring? Apparently mine. Lilly loves coloring, always has, Sadie not so much. She'll pick an activity to work on and ask my what she needs to do. The second I say color she goes and finds another one until she finds one that doesn't say color.

We're really happy that all 3 kiddos want to learn as much as they can. It's been pretty easy teaching them. Almost makes me want to homeschool. Ha! Almost. Ruby has wanted to be involved to, but she mostly wants to color on top of what Sadie or Lilly is doing. You can usually find her trying to eat the crayons though. Gross! Hopefully she grows out of this stage fast.

Lilly has been enjoying school. She's often tired from it but she pushes through it. She was so excited to actually have homework. She comes home with homework Monday through Thursday but it is so beneath her. A few nights she has come home with papers to write her name. She's been writing her name for over a year now so not impressed with the homework. I know some of the other kids in her class are probably not where she is, but I do not want to hold her back any. I'm in the process of putting a notebook together for her so that she do some work that is a little challenging. I know it is still the beginning of the year, so they are starting slow. But I figure I can do more with her when she comes home from school, she likes a it and it'll be on her terms. If she wants to relax instead, that's fine. Whatever keeps her in a good mood :)
But so far so good. I'll just have to keep up with them and find some more things for to do. I'll keep you updated :)

-K

Lilly's First Day of Kindergarten

I seriously have no words. When did she get this big?

Oh and she's not really "big" by any means. She was only shoulder height to all the other kids in her class. So small, in fact, that we thought she may have wandered off for her class' line because we couldn't find her. She was in the middle of the line and all the other kids were much taller than her so we couldn't see her from the back of the line. Yup, she's tiny, like itty bitty for her age.

As they started to walk into the building to start their day, and I saw Lilly start to choke up. I didn't see her actually cry. When we got home this afternoon she told me she got upset but she was able to hold herself together and calm down. We're so proud of her for that because she occasionally has panic attacks. But she worked this one out on her own and avoided it.

She had a great day, but she was so tired. Poor thing woke up early, like 6am early. She was so excited that nap time in kindergarten is much shorter than pre-K. She saw some old friends for pre-K and made new friends too. I made her favorite for lunch which she was so thankful for- a salami, cheese, and mayonnaise sandwich. When we got home we had some popsicles for a snack to cool off and vegged for a little bit. She does get homework and her assignment this week is an "About Me" sheet that she started while I made dinner.
I think she is going to have a great year. Oh and Sadie and Ruby missed her today. They made sure to give her a hug and a kiss when we got home. All day Ruby kept saying, "Bear Bear cool."- She calls Lilly bear bear. She would come up to me every few minutes and tell Lilly was at school.
Now all I need to do is find some fun. learning activities to keep Sadie-Mae busy! Any suggestions?

-K

Sick Kids

I guess I can be grateful that since we left England our kids really haven’t been sick. Well except for Ruby, but her ailments were not some bug she caught  from others. When we lived in England it seemed that we were always sick with a virus that was going around. Lilly had a lot of ear infections and colds or a stomach bug she caught at school. Even the month we  left, Lilly and Sadie had a stomach bug that was going around and left vomiting with fevers for  at least 2 weeks.

Since we’ve been in Turkey it’s been a-whole-nother story. They’ve been good and healthy. So when Lilly started up with some cold symptoms I got worried. I didn’t want to send her to school just for all the other kids to get sick. Oh, and did I mention that most of Lilly class has been sick? At one point last week there were only 6 kids that attended class. I kept Lilly home one day last week and all I heard from her was, “When can I go back to school?” I knew she was feeling cruddy, but since she was a baby she really hasn’t let being sick slow her down. I kept second guessing my decision to keep her home.

Well when she woke up yesterday she had a cough, so when Steven took her to school they went to visit the nurse. She said that as long as it was affecting her ability to learn, she could stay. And when she came home yesterday she was losing her voice and start coughing junk up. Last night Steven and I decided to keep her home today. I have been telling her all morning that she needed to just relax and try to get better. The result was her and Sadie, cuddled up in a blanket, looking at books and magazines together. And at one point Sadie pulled out a stethoscope  and gave Lilly a “doctor appointment”.

Hopefully she gets over this soon so that she can go back to school and enjoy it. I know she really doesn’t like missing school, and she really enjoys learning. Sometimes I think she is just too smart for her own good. But I know I won’t have problem with faking illnesses. Although I know Sadie is LOVING having Lilly home today. Yesterday when Steven went to pick her up, she said, “Yay! Daddy is going to pick up my sweetie!” Get better soon Lilly!

♥krissy

Teacher Present

This year I wanted to make one of those mixes in a jar. I have seen several that make cake, cookies, or hot chocolate. You layer the different ingredients in a jar that has lid. I decided on hot chocolate mixes because I just don't bake. I hate baking. Plain and simple, I have no good reason why I just don't enjoy it. So I found a very easy recipe for Peppermint Hot Chocolate.

1 c. powdered milk

1 c. unsweetened cocoa

1 c. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. mini chocolate chips

1/2 c. crushed peppermints

-Layer all the ingredients in a jar, and add a tag with instructions on how make the hot chocolate.

-Mix all contents of the jar in a bowl. Add 1 c. of hot water to 1/3 c.of hot chocolate mix.

I also added a monogrammed ornament attached with the instruction. I think they came out really cute, but I need to tweak the recipe a little bit to better suit my taste. I had two of the candy cane jars to use but one of them broke on the was home to Turkey. I hope Lilly's teachers enjoyed it :)

♥K

Lilly's First Day of Pre-K

Lilly started her first day of pre-K yesterday. She had a pretty rough day. She was so excited to go. In true Lilly fashion she didn't she couldn't go to sleep the night before because she was afraid that she was going to miss something. We let Sadie stay up a little later because she had taken a nap and we wanted to let Lilly fall asleep without Sadie bothering her. She has also been waking up a lot in the middle of the night and tries to get into bed with me; sometimes I will wake up when she does and I'll hug her and tell her to get back into her bed, other times I sleep straight through it and she manages to go back to sleep in our bed. That is exactly what she managed to do the night before so when my alarm went off in the morning she sat straight up and asked, "Is it time to go to school?" She jumped out of bed, ran to her room and turned on the light. All of which woke Sadie up and she can be such a monster when you wake her up.  And Lilly has a very sensitive gag reflux. Steven brushed her teeth and accidentally made her throw up. He barely touched the tooth brush to her teeth and she threw up again. I finally managed to get her teeth brushed. On her way out the door I told her to remember to "Be nice" and Ruby repeated it perfectly. She yelled "Be nice" and giggled.

Daddy walked her to school by himself, because I had  yet another monster migraine. I was a little sad but I got to pick her up from school and and it wasn't her first time going to school. After school we met Daddy at the BX and had ice cream cones while she told us about her day. She wasn't her normal happy self when I got her from school so we tried to find out what was wrong. She told us she never wanted to go to school again. She kept saying she wanted to bring the class hamster home and she didn't. I also think that they don't do things like we do at home. All of the girls are pretty specific in how things need to be done or where things go. They even tried to help Steven when he switched to day shift how they get ready for bed. She kept telling me they made her do this and that and I am assuming that things didn't flow the way she is used to or how it is comfortable for her. All in all we think she had a good day. She had both good and bad things to say, she  just needs to get used to the new environment.

She did like her lunch. The school provides the lunch and snacks. They eat lunch in their classroom and it is self serve. They get to put the food on their own plates and they have to at least try a little bit of everything. Lilly has no problem with at least trying things and 9 times out of 10, she usually likes it. They had turkey, stuffing, carrots, tangerines, potatoes, rolls, and milk. She said it was all really good. Hopefully she gets used to her new schedule sooner rather than later because she was so excited to start school again. I am sure she will like it more and more as the days go on.