NASA.....here she comes :)

We always tease that Anna is going to grow up to do something brilliant. That kid learned to color at age 8 months- I have pictures to prove it! She also learned to talk in sentences quite early and knew her numbers, colors, and the alphabet in record time. However, sometimes the common sense is just seriously lacking. Case in point- Alex has been bringing home books from school daily. These are for his readers workshop and they get progressively harder each day. Today, Chris and I were helping him read his latest book he brought home. Anna was watching intently (as she always does) and whenever Alex was struggling with a word, she would tell him what it was. She then started reading the sentences. Now, I'm not sure if this is from memorization or actual reading, but either way, we were impressed. Then reality hit- not even 5 minutes later, I was showing Sarah some pictures in Anna's Highlights magazine. There was a story about dogs that herd sheep that had a bunch of pictures of, you guessed it, dogs and sheep. So, I said to Sarah, "Look at the puppy". Anna came bounding over, looked at the picture and said..."That dog looks just like a sheep". Yep, call em up, we've got their next rocket scientist tucked neatly in bed :)

You can't make this stuff up.....

As the kids get smarter, the phrases that come out of their mouths just make us laugh even more. If someone were to just hear parts of the conversations that occur with a nearly 5 year old and 6 year old, this is what they may hear:


"I think I must have left my kidneys in the snowbank today"

"Anna, you and your striped throat need to stay away from me and Sarah"

"That pretty pink basket looks just like the one I had for Thanksgiving"

"I will not wear those stupid mittens, my hands need to do important things with my friends and I can't find my fingers in those things"

"Can I have corn with my pancakes?"

And my favorite of the day:

"My gym teacher got hit really hard in the crotch while snow tubing and now his arm is broken. Oh yeah, and he farted in class today"

And yes.....these were all just from today. I should just start a blog that outlines every insane statement that leaves their lips. I won't tell you who said what, I would guess most of you could figure it out!

Anna plays the Piano

Alex and the Piano

Sarah Really Loves Hair

Sarah still loves hair

Sarah Loves Hair

Little Sweethearts

Here are some cute pictures of the girls from Valentine's Day. They had matching outfits and looked sooo cute. I'm pretty proud that it took my almost 7 months before I made them dress alike. I think part of that is that it's hard to find the same outfit in size newborn and size 5, but a bit easier in a 12 month and a size 5. I've also included a really funny picture of Sarah in her bouncy chair. It, along with several other items, has been mostly rendered useless and sometimes dangerous as she has figured out how to get out of many of them. She's our little Houdini, that's for sure.

Parenting Lessons, Alex style

Just a quick post because I had to share the antics of Alex and his advice. Yesterday morning, we were all (including Sarah) laying in bed watching "Franklin". For those who haven't seen it, it's a cartoon that has a turtle as it's main character and he is friends with other animals like bears, geese, etc. Anyways, they all talk and live in "houses" like people. It's actually one of my favorite cartoons because it's not overly obnoxious and it's NOT Spongebob (Anna's favorite vice). So after a few minutes of the show, Alex says - "You know, you guys really shouldn't let babies watch this show." Me- "Why is that Alex?" Alex- "Because it is poisoning her mind. She is going to think that animals can really talk and ride bikes and play soccer- she is going to be so confused." I couldn't really argue with that logic, because it is pretty confusing when you think about it.....Sarah's first exposure to such animals is while they are wearing bike helmets and going to school. Leave it to a 6 year old to make you feel like you're doing a bang up job raising your kids!

Posing

Sarah seems to recognize when you take the camera out now and she loves to "pose" for pictures. I have captured some really cute ones lately that I thought I'd share. She isn't crawling yet, but the other day she figured out how to lift up her butt and scoot forward a little so she's getting close. She has mastered the rolling around the house technique though and she thinks she's pretty funny with that.

Life has otherwise been fairly uneventful. I'm sure with Valentine's Day coming up we'll have a few stories, especially from Alex (aka Casanova).......

Winter Wonderland

We finally got the kids outside this weekend to enjoy winter. Sarah got to "play" in the snow for the first time. She is still our "outdoor" girl and was just really content to sit in a pile of snow. Although, she kept looking at me and then looking at her hands, almost like she was thinking..."Um....this is great, but it sure would be a lot more fun if I could use my hands!" We brought Sarah in for her 6 month checkup on Friday and she weighed in at 18 pounds already. She is growing and thriving. The pediatrician said she is more like a 7 or 8 month old with her level of activities that she can do. I attribute it to the Alex and Anna factor- she knows she needs to keep up. She used to be quite content to sit in my lap and watch and even just over the past few days she has started getting really fidgety when I hold her, like she wants to get down and play. We still haven't truly re-babyproofed the house so we better get on that fast. I'm sure soon she'll be getting into absolutely everything. We are just trying to enjoy our last few weeks of the "easy baby" stage as we both remember how much harder things get when they don't stay where you put them. Oh well, at least she has become a much happier baby and for that we are soooo grateful.