I just typed up a big post about Jenn's visit, which included the kids, on my other blog. But I wanted to do an update of each child here too, so I'll remember what is exactly going on in their lives right now.

Ella - She's lost 2 teeth and is trying to grow up before my eyes. Everday she is less little girl to me. Oh god, it just breaks my heart that she's growing up. I'm waiting for the day she doesn't let me kiss her in public. I know it's coming and I just don't want it to get here.

She's doing great in kindergarten and trying very hard to stay "on green" everyday. When I pick her up, I can tell my her little face she lost her green. Awww, she tries so hard! But she's too much like me and I know how hard it is to keep our mouths shut.

Today is a skate city party, which Tom is hopefully going to take off of work and take her to. I wish I could be there too, but with so many kids skating, it'd be unfair to take Allison and not let her skate.

Allison - I'm watching her personality change and develop everyday. Now she's home with me during the day sans Ella, she's a different little girl. It was hard to play alone and first, but she's getting the hang of it.

I have noticed some strong separation anxiety with her when I take her to daycare now. She only goes twice a week and instead of just dropping her off like I used to, she'll cry and hold onto me. I'm sure it's because I'm home with her everyday and it worries me about her going into kindergarten. Hopefully when we're there, she'll get used to the daily drop off and tears will be a thing of the past.

Karl - He's just amazing. All my kids are amazing, but in Karl's case, he is an amazing mover. You sit him down and he's immediately on his knees, crawling somewhere full speed. I can't believe how fast he can be. You take your eyes off him for a moment and he's already down the entire hallway and into a room. I actually have to be all "where's Karl?" and go searching for him.

He's also big on cruising now. He'll stand up on practically anything and he'll walk around it as much as he can. He'll even reach out and go from toy to toy now, which is new. I bet he'll be walking around a year old. Another month and a half. Whoa.

I seriously don't understand where the time went. Seriously. He's over 10 months old. Ella is more than 5 1/2. Allison is almost 4 1/2. How did all of that happen? I swear, all I did was blink.

An awesome gift

Check out this sweater and hat Jenn ~hand crocheted~ for Karl! It fits him and is so freaking adorable too.



What a great guest she is. Not only does she fly across the country to come visit me, she brings all kinds of gifts! (I collect shot glasses and magnets, so she brought me two shot glasses and magnets AND she got me ~two~ over the knee socks! Yay!)

I've got a smart kid on my hands.

Now I have the proof Ella is a smarty pants.

I got her first report card along with the results of her first Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. Her results are as follows:

Word Analysis: 96th percentile
Language: 88th percentile
Mathematics: 99th percentile

CORE Total: 93rd percentile (which means she scored higher than 93 percent of kindergarten students nationally.)


She's just like her mommy. ~wink~

No cruising allowed.

Karl is starting to cruise around the furniture. Not much yet, but he'll take some small sideways steps before sitting down and crawling to where he wants to go. My guess is he'll be walking by the 1 year mark. He'll be 10 months old next Tuesday, so he's got 2 months to learn it. And he seems to be on the same time frame both girls were on.

I can already see one major difference between him and his sisters. This boy is a climber. I ~have~ to strap him the grocery cart when we go shopping because if he can stand up, he will. I have images of him falling out of the cart when my back is turned for 2 seconds.

I wonder if this is a difference between boys and girls or just the normal differences between babies. Only time will tell.

15% off coupon for gymboree

It's in today's newspaper, in the "P&G Brand Saver". It's right underneath the coupon for those tide stain boosters (which TOTALLY work, by the way).

It's valid through 12/24/09 so it's a good coupon to clip out and keep in your wallet for the next trip to gymboree.