Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Thursday, February 19

Our Little Guppies

I tried real hard to get a picture of these cute kids in the locker room before we headed out to the pool on Saturday. Kelsey was being pretty shy and Drew was being a total ham! Total opposites, per the norm. This past class, we had to ask Auntie Tara to help because Craig had grad school. And of course, it was not the usual "fun" class but the "water safety" unit. So Tara learned how to save Kelsey and swim back and forth from the "island" to home! My sister was/is a natural in the water, kinda like Kelsey.





After swim lessons, we stopped at the farmer's market at the Domes. We went the first couple weeks of the season but it is SO busy that we only go now as a special treat. We got all the essentials: eggs, apples, valentine's cookies, and ice cream:) Kelsey used a valentine's gift to buy homemade peanut butter ice cream and shared with her brother! (Thanks Aunt Mary!)



On Sunday, we made a road trip down to IKEA! So fun and it's been years since I've been there. Since we were in the area, Craig contacted old college friends to meet up for lunch. Drew buddied up with Brian pretty quick and by the time we got to their house, they were old pals! (It only makes sense that anything belonging to Craig would fall in LOVE with Brian; Craig's dog Martin, would whimper and cry any time we mentioned he was coming or when he saw him. Of course, Marty lived with Brian for 4 years.)  Brian was showing them all his cool police stuff, gave them "badges", and was goofing around in the basement until everyone was tired out:)



Wednesday, February 11

Toddlers No More

Kelsey and Drew have been in their cribs with the one side removed for a year and yes, they were in their cribs until they were 3. They never tried to climb out, so we had no reason to convert the cribs and they dislike change. We had been talking about getting big beds since before Christmas. Everytime I looked online at beds, mattresses, and comforters, I tried to get Kelsey and Drew involved. There were a couple times Drew told me to stop looking at new beds ;). We are still easing them in to the whole idea of twin sized beds. The mattresses were delivered over the weekend and we are going to start with them on the floor and get use to sleeping on a bigger area.Then this weekend we are going to pick up the beds. Drew already told me last night that he wants his bed to be higher - guess he doesn't want his mattress to be on the floor for too long!


From this...


...to THIS!

Monday, February 2

First EVER Teacher Conferences

Well, besides being at my OWN parent-teacher conferences as a kid (and I wasn't surprised by what any of my teachers said), I had no idea how this was going to go. Overall, she didn't tell us anything we didn't already know about their personalities EXCEPT I was surprised to hear that Kelsey really leaves Drew alone at school - which is mostly the opposite at home and at the sitter. There are times she will be in the playroom without him but I see her "mothering" him a lot - making sure he has his buddy, his blanket, that he gets his coat on when it's time to go. Mrs. W said that absolutely doesn't happen in class. When I volunteered in their classroom one day and Mrs. W wasn't there,  Drew was throwing an "I'm done with this whole learning business today" attitude and it upset Kelsey as well. She said she has never seen Kelsey affected by Drew's tantrum's but we see the opposite at home.Overall, they are learning and growing on track. We do need to work on tracing squares and circles to help build the muscles in the hands necessary for all the writing they do in 4k and kindergarten.
What is happening here kills me. They put the chairs like this and had
their own little conversation. They are becoming best friends.



I signed the kids up for swim lessons and trying to find a class that fit my call schedule, their gymnastics day, and Craig's things we decided on a Thursday night beginners class. And we ended up being the OLDEST kids in class. Since it is a full class of 16 kids, 14 of them 2 and under, she asked if we wanted to move to a Saturday advanced class with less kids. I don't want to force these classes on them but I really want them to learn to be safe around water. (Pictures to follow because in the older class, they have to wear swim caps!!)