Sammy read his first sentence!

Sammy loves to make words. His favorite videos right now are Leap Frog's Talking Words Factory and Talking Words Factory 2. He has some 3-D hard plastic letters that he plays with while he's watching the videos, and he makes words right along with them.

He also likes to make words in the bathtub with his foam letters. Here are some of his creations from last night.

First he decided he needed to make the word "big."


Then he made the word "cat." I let him know he had the letters backwards, and he fixed it immediately.

Then he decided to make even more words. Tad is the main character in the Leap Frog videos.
Then "met."
And "run."

This is what Katie thought of the word-making!

Sammy made even more words.
Seeing these two together gave me an Idea.
I moved three of the words he made together, added 2 more words, and voila! He was able to read the whole sentence. And was quite proud of himself for doing so! He must have read it about 15 times!

We Are Gonna Play Blue's Clues

Zachary came over to visit last week. When he found one of our Handy Dandy Notebooks in the toy box, guess what he wanted to watch! Katie was of course happy to join him. We haven't watched much Blue's Clues lately for all the Leap Frog and Diego videos that are the current favorites.

Basement Report

The sheetrock is all hung. We are about to put up the corner beads. Tomorrow the tapers/mudders will come turn it all into long contiguous walls and ceilings. When they are done, we will be ready to paint. My buddy Julie helped me pick out paint colors, which is good because I am completely inept when it comes to anything decorative. I bought samples today and am going to slap some on the leftover drywall to see which shade(s) I really want. I am so excited!!! When the painting is done, we get to hang cabinets, lay tile and laminate flooring, get the electrical and low-voltage (TV, Phone, Ethernet) wiring top-outs, and lots of other fun stuff.

We are not moving to Omaha

(For those of you that knew about this possibility and were wondering...) Thank you God! They finally announced the contract winner day before yesterday. Only 2 weeks late. The new contract starts on Tuesday. It would have been a lightning-speed move. Away from my not even finished basement. Words can't express my joy. 'Cause if I have to move, I want to move to TX!

2008 RMCHEC

Those of you in my area, please let your Catholic homeschooling friends know:

The 2008 Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educators Conference has Early Registration rates through April 30. The discounted rates at the Colorado Springs Doubletree Hotel are only good until April 7. Visit www.rmchec.org for the schedule and information about speakers and vendors who are coming to the conference.

Katie owns everything

At least, that's what she thinks. If she sees something she likes, it's "Mys!" If Sammy has something she wants, it's "No, MYs!!!" Every time Sammy asks to nurse (which amazingly is a LOT less these days) she says, "No, MY nurse!!!"

This started (at least on a verbal level) about a week or two ago. Sammy got a backbone about 4 days ago, so now at least 12 times an hour I have to go stop the ever-loudening tyrade of "Mys!" "No, Mys!" "No, Mys!" "No, Mys!" "No, Mys!" "No, MYYYYYS!" and remind them that "We share." and show them how to. (I also think it's hysterical that while I'm pretty sure Sammy knows the word "mine," he says "mys" like Katie while they're trying to rip whatever it is out of each others' hands. Does he think she knows how to talk better than he does??? Is he trying to talk to her on her level to make sure she understands???)

Kid update

Lots of growing going on here!

We're hearing a lot of "No, my do-id it!" from miss independent Katie. And the beginnings of complex sentence structure. And today about 4 "No, Mommy!"s before I finally presented a dress she thought was worth wearing.

We're also seeing a lot of good logic and problem-solving, and 3-letter-word reading from Sammy. And a lot of practice using good manners, and helping his sister and other things that "make God so happy." (He really likes it when everyone is happy. Especially God and Mama.)

And they play with and by themselves for 30+ minutes these days! Wow! I never thought I'd see that day!

My first meme tag

(Thanks, Marie!) ... and I totally missed it! I have 208 unread items in my Google Reader, in case you were wondering. And that doesn't count the 300 or so that I accidentally marked as read with one wrong click of a button a month or so ago, which is probably how I missed this one.

At any rate...

The Book Meme:

1. Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

1: Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood (Not technically the nearest because I had to walk past my bookshelf to get to it. But it is the one that was on my nightstand waiting to be read.)
2-4:

...She used a different strategy for dealing with restaurant rampages. Susie was having a very bad evening, so bad that she began spreading mashed potatoes in her hair and wailing, "Yucky 'tatoes! Yucky 'tatoes."

Mom picked up her cell phone, dialed a number, and said, "It's time!."

(My note: What happens next is pretty funny! And if you have young kids, this book it totally worth checking out!)

5: Kerry, Elle, Ander's Mom, Mamaebeth, and Aunt Sharon

Technicalities

Sunday evening we had dinner at Kerry and Mike's house. To entertain the kids while we played cards, we put on Noggin. There were a bunch of goldfish crackers in a little red bowl on the kids' table, that Katie kept bringing to the living room with her. After the third time of me reminding her that the bowl of crackers needed to stay in the kitchen, she brought the bowl back to the table, and proceeded to pull every goldfish out of it and stuff them into her hand, and in the crook of her arm, which she held against her body to keep the goldfish from falling. Then she went back to the living room so she could still watch Blue's Clues with Zachary AND still eat her goldfish.

I really should have clarified what I meant, but I couldn't stop laughing! This is definitely my child! We are going to have to work extra-hard on helping her form her conscience, or we are going to be in for some BIG trouble later!!!

The Shrinking Easter Bunny

I am glad my darling husband had the idea to (attempt to) re-take this picture every year:



And while I'm comparing...

Fun Time with cousins

A couple of weekends ago, we made a quick weekend trip to Texas to meet baby Lilly and attend her baptism. We also got to see Rachel, whom we watched while her parents were in town on business.

Everyone had a great time on the playset!


Lilly is a sweet, sweet girl!!!


Grammy and Grampy came up, too. And Aunt Julie, Julian, and Emily came down. It was so nice to see everyone and spend some time with them! And play with new toys!


We brought Lilly a Beco baby carrier that we bought from Baby Cotton Bottoms. (Have I ever mentioned how happy I am to have a cloth-diapering store that I can drive down to and browse???) Brooke and Lance tried it out, too. It is pretty sturdy and I want one for myself! (But I can't justify spending that much money on a baby carrier when neither of my babies want to be carried much any more!)


Someone had bought Lilly and Brooke some adorable "Little Sister" and "Big Sister" shirts. Lilly was much more cooperative about letting me get a picture of her shirt than Brooke was.


Lance is as handsome as ever! And so much fun to play with!


MawMaw was visiting us from Louisiana. She did not know she came all the way to Colorado to drive 2/3 of the way back home (and then back to CO to catch her plane home!). We didn't even plan the trip until after she got here. She was a good sport to agree to the trip!


Grammy, as usual, brought bags of stuff for the kids, and we came home with a lot more than we went down with. Their favorite has been the set of Dora the Explorer books.

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a happy, joyous easter! Here are a few photos from this morning: