For the past couple of months, Noah has been doing something very cute - Hannah has picked up on it recently, too. At first, it started when we asked "Where's my hug?" and he would hug us and say "It's right here - here's your hug!" Now, he will hold his hands out in front of himself and say "here's your hug!", then slip his arms around our shoulders & give us a great big hug. It's so fun to ask "Noah - where's my hug?" Hannah sometimes will put her hands in front of her the same way, or just give us a big hug and say "Here's your hug!" It's so sweet to get such great hugs & kisses from such sweet kids.
Noah is also learning to read simple words. He's starting to understand to "sound out" simple words. He knows how to spell Mom and Dad, as well as No, his name and his sisters. Some of that may be memorization, but he's picking up on letter sounds. He has shown a little more interest in coloring and art projects at daycare, attempting to write his own name, but his art still "appreciates white space" and hasn't had the time invested in it as Hannah's art has.
Hannah seems a little interested in words, but really loves to draw and color. Her coloring pages are very colorful, and although she doesn't stay WITHIN the lines, she does a great job of keeping the color within the area of an object's bounds. She also has been drawing recognizable things - many people with long legs, short legs, long hair, knees...she really has variety in her drawings. Tonight she drew a tree, but when I asked where the green leaves were, she said she didn't know how to draw a leaf, so it was just a brown tree trunk. Oh, to understand what goes on in that creative little head would be fascinating...
It's been a routine week -work and daycare 5 days this week. We took the kids shopping for pirate costumes (for Mom & Dad) on Monday, and they behaved pretty well (we only had to take a couple of walks around the stores to quell tantrums...) and earned themselves a dinner out. How convenient that they asked for noodles in front of Noodles & Company!
We got to play outside many nights with the neighbors. The swings in our yard are definitely getting well used, as is the neighbor's castle playhouse.
Saturday, both kids decided they wanted to join Mom at a baby shower. Thankfully, the hostess has kids, so her house was beautiful but childproof. Though no other kids were there, Noah & Hannah were fairly well behaved and didn't destroy anything...Then we came home to play for a little while before getting Megan, their daycare provider's daughter, to come babysit while Mom & Dad attended a murder mystery party. Mom & Dad had fun and Noah & Hannah really enjoyed having Megan come to play and put them to bed.
Today was the last day of Sunday School. Noah & Hannah really enjoy Sunday School - Hannah asks to go to church & Sunday School often. (Honestly, we do to go Sunday School every week of class - though we don't attend church service quite as often.) We were a little bit late, so we missed the opportunity to sing "I wanna be a sheep" song that Noah & Hannah have been singing lately. (They sing that in large group before class starts) It's fun to hear them sing songs we hear often, although their interpretations of the words are often a little bit off. Next year, they'll be in the 3-yr old class! The past 2 years have been in the little lambs class with infants all the way up to them being the oldest. They've learned all about the bible stories, though, and talk about them even when we're at home. Next year will be fun to see what they learn when the class isn't in a nursery with lots of distracting toys.
Have a great week! We'll be busy this week getting ready for guests next weekend. Noah & Hannah will be so excited when their cousins Ben & Lauren come to stay the night and play with them!
Until next week...
Mom