Sophie - First Haircut

It was a long time coming. Sophie had her first hair cut and loved it. She didn't want to cut too much, but it was so long, that the three inches we cut off was hardly noticeable.

Before

During

After

Mia - Five Years Old

Mia, this year you have really come in to your own. You are much more calm and comfortable. You're also very willing to try new things. You have gone on roller coasters, mini free-falls, skiing, ice skating, baseball, water slides and the list goes on. You're also playing piano and swimming often. Your willingness to try new things is really fun. You also amaze me with how graceful you are in ballet. Two years ago, ballet was one of the most painful places for you to be. You'd want to sit on the side and count the minutes until class was over. I was really skeptical when you asked to take a ballet class this year. But, you loved it, and I was routinely amazed at how engaged and graceful you were in the class. You still can get a serious case of the wiggles from time to time, but you are much better able to take a nap, or get a snack, or just a few deep breaths and regain composure.

You have all your own style with hats and head bands and fancy shoes. You pick your clothes out independently and it's always a surprise to see what you've come up. Lately, it's all about dresses, stockings, layers, and when available, Hello Kitty. As I write this, you're changing in to a new dress, of course layered over other things you've already assembled.

Your reading and writing continue to develop. You can sound out words and recognize words that you use regularly. You also memorize books. You write lots of notes, and I often find papers with I love Mommy, Daddy, Sophie or Zoe written on them. You and Zoe like to play school, and in general, you often want to play with Zoe and Sophie.

Your birthday was during the week this year, and we celebrated with the typical Montessori celebration at school. We collected pictures from each year of your life to tell your life story and put them in a display board. You also walked around the globe while the kids sang to you and then we had fruit kabobs. 

Later that night, we had a family dinner with a very particular cake that you requested. Strawberry cake, strawberry frosting, and "glitter" on top. Pink sugar crystals were the best I could do for the glitter.

For your birthday party, we had a bowling party with an even more particular cupcake that you requested. Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting with whipped cream, strawberries and cherries on top.

When you were turning five, I gave you a choice to get birthday presents from family and friends or birthday presents from family and then have your friends bring gifts for a charity. You immediately said you wanted your friends to bring gifts for the cats in the animal shelter where we volunteer sometime. You were really exited to bring over all the cat loot.

In general, you're a very generous little soul. You wanted to make sure that your sisters had something to open on your birthday and so you got them each presents. You are also sure to bring each of your sisters a treat whenever you're offered one at the stomach doctor that we still visit on occasion.

Happy 5th birthday Mia! Each year is better and better!

Love,

Mom

Zoe Update

At 7 years and 2 months, you are morphing in to a more and more independent little lady. This comes with lots of excitement and newness and also quite a bit of struggle for you.

First, you love math. You constantly challenge yourself with math tables. Lately you've been memorizing multiplication equations. Your favorite is 81 x 81. One afternoon, you came home from school with an art project that was a self-portrait. You had drawn a face, and then on the cover where you wrote your name you also wrote 81 x 81 = 6561. You will experiment with numbers, and use my calculator to see what they turn in to when they are added, subtracted, multiplied or divided. This is usually really fun for you. You are however dogged by a very bright boy in your class who likes to challenge you. You tend to shy away from competition and challenge, and so you often get really frustrated by interactions with him. In general, you get very frustrated if you don't know something and you can be hard on yourself if you do something and it doesn't come out as well as you'd like.

You are writing and reading more than ever. We just finished reading a Beezus and Ramona book which you loved, but I didn't really like. You and Mia have been quoting a lot of the language about "being bad". I'm looking forward to that wearing off. At school, your teacher encourages you to write about small moments. You are encouraged to think of a tiny moment, and then add details to make a more complete story. You have come home with many, many stories about finding crickets in our basement. Here are a few of my favorite stories that you've written.

"Hallawin is ckuming (coming) up. It is Octobr 22 and Hallawin is Octobr 31. Is is going to be fun. I am going trikr treting (trick or treating) with my friends and nabrs (neighbors). We are going to swich trns (take turns). I wile ware (will wear) fire on my costume. My two sisters are going to were (wear) a monkey and a cklowne (clown). I dont know wate (what) my mom is going to be for Hallaween. I have my deckrashons (decorations) in my front yarde. I like to go trickrtreeting at night time. You dont go trickrtreeting in the morning time. I am icksided (excited) for Hallaween." October 22, 2012

"Last night i saw a sentupede (centipede). I saw it in my basmint. My mom was exrsising (exercising) and i was plaing (playing) in the basmint wen i saw it." November 1, 2012

"For my birthday my sister gave me rasbarise (raspberries) for my birthday presint. We ate thum (them) for are brecfist (our breakfast) snack but thay savd sum (saved some) for me for the sext (next) day." November 8, 2012

"This morning I saw a crickit in the bathroom. I was yoosing (using) the tolit wen I saw it. Wen I saw it I shode  (showed) it to my sisters and thay scremd wen thay saw it. Wen I stud (stood) up I scremd to. And I nevr saw it agen." November 20, 2012.

In addition to the fun you have at school, you also are getting more engaged in after school activities. You want to sign up for soccer as soon as it's available. You're swimming, dancing and starting piano lessons. You also are in Hebrew school on Sunday morning. This is the most you've ever done outside of school, and you seem to really enjoy it. At dance class, you were allowed to wear "holiday" clothes to the last class before winter break. You loved dancing in your fancy dress.

You rarely tell us when you're tired or not feeling well. This means that when there is a lot of activity going on and you're tired or not feeling well, we may notice because you'll get unhappy or frustrated more easily. We need to make sure that we have as much down time as possible, keep a decent bedtime, and have healthy snacks on hand at all times.

You love music. We have a new piano that you pluck at often as well as a little guitar. You couldn't have been happier in the store when we were getting daddy a new guitar for his birthday. Surprisingly, your main calling was the drums, and I was almost tempted to get a set since you were having so much fun.

It's a really amazing time to watch you grow - the beauty and the natural tension of it - just like all things in nature.

Fancy Nancy New Year's Eve 2012-2013

The tradition continues!


Again we all dressed in our fanciest of fancy and headed out to Old Ebbitt Grill for our Fancy Nancy New Year's Eve dinner. The trend this year was layers. The girls had many fancy elements that needed inclusion in their outfits, so they dressed in layers of sparkly Hello Kitty shirts and dresses and costumed what-not and dance recital pieces. There were jewels and crowns and Happy New Year hats. There was sparkly glitter polish, lip gloss, and glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets. And yes, there were horns. It's no wonder that the staff at the restaurant now recognize us each year. They are incredibly kind to us, and the service and the food are both great. That plus goody bags that we bring for the kids usually make for a positive experience - fingers crossed.

This year I got my first dose of what it will be like to have a house full of girls getting ready for a special occasion at the same time. In prior years, picking a dress and some costume jewelry was a relatively simple affair. This year, all three kiddos really cared about what they were wearing and kept checking themselves in the mirror and primping. It was a high energy experience.

We normally go to the Willard Hotel first to listen to music and have apple cider or hot cocoa, but they were done with music for the year so we went straight to dinner. Afterwards we strolled around the White House christmas tree and train display.

Zoe getting ready - round 1. The arm bands and gloves stayed. More jewelry was required.

Sophie partying it up.

Yippee!

I think Sophie's hat is as big as her head.

This hat may actually be bigger.

Rabble rousing on the streets of DC with tool spilling out from the hems of their winter coats.

En route to the White House christmas tree and train display

Happy New Year to all!