High Five

Claudia is super into learning now that she's back in preschool.  We're doing some pre-reading activities like sounding out words and basic math like counting, addition, and subtraction of single digits.  She loves worksheets, so we have a couple preschool/kindergarten books, I make up some of my own, and her teacher makes monthly "journals" for the kids.  At school she has made good friends with a couple of girls and in fact says that she likes the boys too because they aren't too wild.  On the weekend, she's taking a co-ed tumbling class at Seattle Gymnastics.  She really likes the trampoline and after a few times watching, got the courage to try the Tarzan swing.

Now onto Teagan, my wild child.  The week isn't complete until Teagan gets at least one bruise on her face.  She even got stung by a bee on her face!  She climbs and stumbles through her day.  The nice thing is that she burns so much energy, that she's a great napper and sleeper.  She really understand instructions like "sit down" or "come here", so that's fun.  She's super into baby dolls (already!) and likes to snuggle one and carry it around.  I'm proud that I just taught her how to do a high five and a low five  We recently started a weekly mom and infant class, which is a lot of fun.  Teagan is dominate over Claudia at home and is quite bold around the house, but she's surprisingly shy during the class.  We will see if that changes as things go along.  Part of it might be the timing because she's used to taking a big morning nap, which she misses when we have class.  Teagan has added some new teeth, first a bottom molar and then bottom second incisor.

I'm sad to report that my Grandpa J (my mom's dad) passed away in September.  It wasn't unexpected, but we're very sad over his passing.  He had dementia and has been in nursing care for almost a year.  I was close with my Grandpa and spent a lot of time with him growing up.  He taught me to play cards, darts, pool, chess, and shuffleboard.  I also "assisted" him with lots of manly chores around the house, yard, and motor home.  I'm very thankful for all the wonderful years I got to spend with him.  This first photo is of my grandpa holding Claudia in April 2009.