FOUR

Dear Marta-

It is that time of year again where I wish so badly that I could just plop this note in the mail so you could see what all our daughter is up to. I know you wonder what kind of life she is living, if she is loved, if she is what you thought she would be. OH MARTA... she is all of that and more!

Our daughter is a head turner! We cannot go anywhere that someone is not stopping us to ask us about our princess. She is so beautiful, so petite, and so precious! She can bat those eyes like nobody's business and grin a little grin that will sheepishly melt your heart. We love her with all of our hearts and cannot imagine our lives without her. Her brothers think that she hung the moon and have even been known to try to take her place in HER time-outs. They spoil her rotten and protect her with everything that they have. She is a great big sister and loves playing and teaching her baby brother. She is just learning how to play with him now that Silas is in school, but she is loving her role as the oldest in the house while the big boys are at school. Her favorite thing to do with him right now is to take his little hands and help him practice walking. She is so patient with him and so sweet when she encourages him as he walks.

We have started dance classes and even though she was shy on the first day going in, she is loving it. She shows me all day long how her feet are supposed to be in dance, and how you hold your "bowl". And she loves that we bought her her own hairspray for her bathroom so we can spray all the little wispy hairs when we try to put it in a bun for class.

She is also getting so much better with her speech. She is talking so much more and I can understand more and more of what she is saying. She is very smart and I cannot wait for her speech to catch up to that brain of hers. But you must know that I think she still remembers a little K'iche. When she gets upset or starts talking too fast she rattles off sounds and words I have never heard before. I smile and think of you every time she does that.

Just a few weeks ago we were talking about "her Mala-mala" and I thought it was time to show her your picture. She loves it and smiled when she saw you. I am not sure she understands it all yet, but the other day she did want to talk about you some more and talked about growing in your tummy. She was very proud. You will always be honored in our home. I also allow HER to tell people who ask where she is from. She knows where she was born and already knows that it is special.

This daughter of ours is something special, and I hope you know that I will never take the gift of her life for granted. I wish you could see her now. I am praying that today you feel a sweet kiss of peace knowing that we love her more than words can express, and we thank you for the sacrifice you made so that we can experience this unspeakable joy.

A little sweet...

and a little sass!

1st Time Out

Cruz has been a PILL for the past few days. I don't know if he feels bad, I don't know if he is needing extra attention, I don't know if he is tired and cranky, I DON'T KNOW. What I do know is that he has been driving me CRAZY!!! He wants me to hold him ALL THE TIME (I really wish I had the time and ability to do that some days, but there are some days that I need to get dressed and look presentable not to mention that some days it is nice to run to the potty without a cheering section). He cries if I put him down, he cries if I pick him up, he cries if I try to snuggle in the bed with him. I cannot get a single thing done. Tonight he cried during dinner until I got up and sat on the couch with him, where he was fine... until he climbed off the couch and sissy sat beside me. Then, MELT DOWN. We snuggled some more and then I tried to clean up dishes... picture me standing at the sink with him wrapped around my legs screaming (and I mean head.back.wailing). I was putting utensils in the dishwasher and he decided it would be all right to play for a minute in the dishwasher... until he climbed up on it, pushed the top tray and fell on the bottom one, MELT DOWN. We both had enough and I decided it was best to remove him from the situation, so I went for our typical time out chair. I sat him down and went back to shut the dishwasher and dry my hands. I could not believe that he stayed in the spot, just crying. So, I did what any blogger mom would do... I went for my camera.

This is Cruz "I PITCH FITS FOR FREE" Jones sitting in his first "time out"!


and this is seconds after he realized that I was snapping pictures of his fit, see how quickly he can turn it around... and giggle even. This rotten stinker, what am I gonna do with him?

"Ba-way"

I have... um... I mean SHE has been waiting her whole life for this!
I know she has 4 brothers, I know she is destined to play ball, and be the roughest little squirt on the elementary school playground. I KNOW THIS, but it does not prevent me from trying this out because I have always dreamed that one day I would have a precious princess who would wear a pink leotard, put her hair in a little bun and dance on her toes. Dreams really do come true!!!

The Letter Aa

First things first, I did not sit down and create all of this. I used my resources! I have been pouring over blog sites for a while now trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I have to start small, and I need to go along with the schedule that we have. This seemed like the best way to work it into my system. It may all change over time, but this is the beginning.

The letter Aa... this is my general plan (below you will find all the links to the activities)






Alligator Craft ( No Time for Flashcards Blog)


Apple Craft (No Time for Flashcards Blog)

Vocab Cards- the idea came from here on the Rising Rock Stars portion of 1+1+1=1 blog. But she begins with the letter L because for all educational purposes you should start with letters that are easy to form and easily recognizable. But since we are following our Mom's Day Out schedule we are starting with the letter A. She has not completed her downloads yet for all the letters, so I worked my hardest to make cards like hers. I really feel like Eliza needs vocabulary focus with her speech issues. I hope I can keep them organized and add to them and review them like Carissa does on her blog and in her Rising Rock Stars Preschool. (I can share them in a link through e-mail. I tried to on here and I am just not that tech savvy yet... working on it)

Name Tracer Pages- You can make anything you want on this page to print out. We are working on our name.

The copy/ color Aa page was a page that was in my files from my teaching days. It is a Carson Dellosa and you could probably go to any teacher store and pick out a practice book with these in them. If you would like a copy of it to look for the book in the stores let me know.

Pom Pom Numbers can be found here. I have had so much fun printing out all of her resources and her resources and laminating them. (my printer and laminator are on FIRE... be prepared it can be overwhelming but FUN!)

The Do-a-dot page and the Aa cutting page I got when I downloaded the Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum. She has all kinds of activities that could keep you busy every day of the week. I am just going to pick and choose what I am doing from that. Here is her post from the letter A but not everything is included in the post that she has in the packet. It is totally worth $10!


A few other notes:

The Bible Verse I got from an A-Z Bible Verse site.

The books I just happened to have on hand, and pulled more from our personal library.

The videos were just because.

Alphabet Stories is from my Kindergarten teaching days. It is just story cards that over-emphasizes the A sound in a short little story.

I think that about covers it. I'd be glad to help if you have more questions... but I am off to plan letter B before this week gets away from me =).

My preschool brain is in OVERDRIVE

Okay...so... where do I begin?

I have been feeling like I am slacking on Eliza. She is almost 4 and well, she has speech issues that we are struggling with. I started thinking about what we needed to do to get her going, motivated, learning, focus, and improving (yes she is in speech 2 times a week). This year, I have a lot more time and energy on my hands so I am making it my goal to focus on her and learning. Tot School and my friend Tonya Dodd were my inspiration, and if you remember... I did a few post last year about some Tot Tools that I made. (so it has been brewing for a while). So I have started planning. My goal is to spend 2 days a week focusing on the Tots in my house (mostly Eliza, but Cruz goes along for the ride). Since she is in Mom's Day Out on Tuesday and Thursday, I thought that I would spend Monday and Wednesday doing fun, focused activities. I also thought that I would share, because when I was a teacher, I loved doing fun stuff, but I did not enjoy planning it as much. So, since I am working on planning stuff... it is yours for the taking. My plan is to do our focused learning to coincide with what she is doing at school. They typically do a letter of the week (doing 3 a month with a week for review) so we are going to try to groove with that.
I am going to try to post what I do with links or ideas on what we are doing with enough advance timing that you can do the activities too if you so wish.

So, come along for the ride.

First Official Day

Off we go!!!

Just STAGGERING

Today was Silas' staggered day of school. I know everyone says this, but how did this happen? He was my baby! I think that he is going to enjoy school, he is fired up and ready. I also think he will be more recptive to learning at school. He has come a long way from basically not knowing letters in December, but his personality is just sensitive and slow. He does not like to be pushed into things and he likes things on his own time. Thankfully, he is ready for Kindergarten.




After going to school for his first day from 9 until 1...he said that it was a WONDERFUL day. He said that he made a new friend. He said the he thinks he is going to like school. He also asked to go back tomorrow and then promptly fell fast asleep in the car.