We have take off!

This is what Elena did on one of the first days of school!

This was what we saw across the street when we went out for school one morning.

I meant to write this sooner, but haven't had a chance. I guess it was about 3 weeks ago, Everet started taking a little steps here and there, but he was really cautious about it. Then he worked up to taking maybe 3 steps at a time, but crawling was still his main way of moving. It was kind of like he would forget that he could do it so he kept on crawling. Last Sunday, he got it all figured out. (Coincidentally, it was the same day the Ema took her first steps 7 years ago.) We'd look up and he was just walking everywhere. Now he hardly ever crawls. He can walk all through the house. It's so cute how he shuffles his feet like an old man! Now he doesn't really want to be held unless he's tired or trying to get away from someone (ELENA), especially if we are somewhere new. Like Hastings last night, he was pulling everything down off the shelves, so I picked it all up, picked him up and he'd start doing the floppy baby move where he puts his arms up and tries to slide out of my arms. You know the move. It's fun and exciting to watch him grow, but at the same time I think, "he can't be walking already. The house isn't ready yet and neither is his mommy." But I do like the fact that I can set him down somewhere and not have to worry so much about the germs he'll get when he puts his hands down on the floor!

Ema and Eli started school on Aug 18. They are both really enjoying it. Their teachers are great-Ema's is a really bubbly exciting teacher, and Eli's is an older grandmother type which is good for him. Eli's class has tickets every week that allow them in to "Fun Friday." If they get a warning, they have to move their card, and if they keep up the wrong behavior, they get a hole punch. If you get 3 hole punches, you can't go to FF. He was telling me that a couple of people had to move their cards, but he didn't have to. I honestly don't know what he'll do if he ever has to move his. He is a strong boy, but he's very sensitive too. If someone speaks harshly to him, he goes to his room for a while. In that sense, I feel kind of like he may not have been ready for kindergarten. But he is so smart-he knows all his letters, shapes, colors, and he's been reading for a while now. He's always surprising us by reading things to us. At the beginning, we didn't know if he had just memorized things and was repeating them, but he was reading signs that he had never seen before. He is learning to write better now-more controlled. He is enjoying it very much.

Ema is also doing well in school. She is an excellent reader and speller. She gets into a little bit of trouble from talking or mothering the other kids. She tries to help them with their work, but the teacher is trying to get them to be independent learners too. Her teacher is trying to come up with some things to challenge Ema, because she gets bored easily. Especially with the beginning of the year review things. She is hopefully going to start the Rosetta Stone Spanish course that the school is doing and the teacher is going to have her test for the gifted and talented program. That would allow her to go to another location and do something fun and challenging with a group of other kids. I was in AA (Academically Able-do you think the people who came up with that name really thought it through?) but I remember how fun it was to get out of the classroom and go work on the computer or something. I can't remember much of what we did-just the getting out of class part. Of course, now the computers are already in the room, so they have to leave the building to find something new and fun!

Elena is enjoying the quiet time during the day, but she gets bored pretty easily. She's always asking me to play dolls with her. I do a lot, but I do have to try and get my jobs done too. Then she follows me around saying in a sweet, motherly (and sometimes British) voice, "daughter, you can't do that. Daughter, you have to sit here." And then there are the other pretend games like "bwetend you are a bad guy and you got me." or "you're Jenna and I'm lena, no you're Kyle, no you miss Jonana." and my favorite, "I was a princess, and you saw me." Whenever that one comes up, I cringe because-well I don't even know how to explain it. I pretend to be the prince and see her and come up and try to talk to her, then she goes and pulls a Snow White on me and runs away. Then I have to go chase her down and try and talk to her, and she keeps running. She also throws in some Ariel because she can't talk either. It gets a little annoying. But overall, we have fun together. She's got such a silly personality-she makes me laugh quite often.

Everyone is back home now after daddy took them to Town & Country, so I better get off the computer. I'll try to get some pictures on here too. Oh they posted at the top and now I'm too lazy to move them around! I posted some on Facebook too.