New Stuff

I meant to post this last week, but as usual, things got away from me & I'm just getting to it today.

We had some major accomplishments at our house last week.

On Monday, Clara did a "belly flip" at Little Gym (that's when you are holding yourself up at the bar at your waist and you spin forward and all the way around)! She got stuck halfway on the first one and needed some help, but after that she did four or five on her own (and then repeated it again in class just yesterday).

On Tuesday, Gracie succeeded in tying her own shoes! Her kindergarten teacher has been working with them on this (I had tried, but we had only gotten the first knot down), and Gracie finally did it all on her own! She was very proud. And she even ties double knots since she has extra long laces on her favorite school shoes. This week, she tried to advance to tying Clara's shoes but that proved to be a little more difficult than she expected and I was called in to complete the job.

And I know I should have a matching day entry for JM, but it's hard to keep track of all of his new tricks. Here's a summary of the new ones I can think of off the top of my head. He can almost jump (one foot goes up and then the other) when he's on the ground and give him a bed and he bounces away (yes, we let them jump on beds). Sunday he started practicing his "gu" sounds in the car. He can say & sign "ease" (for please) and he can also say quite a garbled "thank you" (na-noo). Oh - he's got a new favorite vegetable. Broccoli! And last, he's quite a maniac on the tricycle (it's a low one) - he doesn't pedal yet, but that doesn't slow him down. He just pushes his feet along and steers in circles around the driveway.

And Mike & I - well, we're just busy keeping up with the crew. No time for new tricks for us!