Cianna's revalations

Cianna is developing a great relationship with God and is learning that when someone is not nice she should pray for them. This weekend Justin said that he didn't want to go to church anymore, this has been pretty new to him anyways, but I couldn't get an answer why. Maybe just adolescence and he'll change his mind next week. Cianna's response was: "Why is Justin giving up on God? God won't give up on Justin." She amazes me with her wisdom. I received a really nice compliment about her from her teacher at conferences. She is often so helpful to others in class. Last week, a group left their station a huge mess during reading workshops. Cianna went back there and cleaned the whole section up without being asked and she wasn't even in that group. Yesterday, there was a substitute teacher and she led the whole class in making a card for her teacher signed by everyone to leave for her when she got back telling her what a great teacher she is and how much they like her.

Natalia communicating

Natalia has become such a great communicator in the past few months. I decided to teach her some baby signs, just for fun and to see how she would do with it. She picked them up so well. Her first one was please, and she quickly learned the word "please" to go with the sign, so she now uses that any time she asks for something. Must be one of the best mannered 14 month olds around. She has also learned milk (to ask for nursing time), eat (to tell us when she is hungry), more (to ask for more, mostly food), ball (to play with a ball), dog (to call the dogs or just any time she is around them), no (to tell the dogs no when they try to steal her food). She has several other words that she doesn't have the signs down for yet (momma, daddy, sissy, pot (for her teapot toy), hot, night-night, bye-bye, baby, stop, Peyton and my favorite is when I tell her "I love you" she blows a kiss in response. I have been amazed at how quickly she picks up the signs and her language development too. She is very bright and eager to learn.

Natalia swimming

Natalia did 2 sessions of the mom and baby swim class and loved it. She was having so much and was willing to try everything. Today I had cianna take some pictures of her and I was showing daddy after class. She looked around trying to see the pictures too. When I showed her each picture she let out a little giggle each time. I wonder if she knew she was looking at herself. Lol!

Baby doll

I looked over and peyton was pushing natalia in her doll stroller. I told her that was not a good idea, and not safe for her. She kept doing it and told me she'll be fine mom. 5 seconds later "thud...waaaaaahhhh." oops, she fell out of the doll stroller. Nothing a few kisses from mommy can't fix and Peyton learned that her baby sister is not a doll.

Funny Nicknames

Cianna explains in the car that all the kids have nicknames: She is "Cici" Natalia is "Nini" and Peyton is "pee pee." As soon as it came out they just busted out laughing so hard. I explained that maybe we should find a better nickname for Peyton because it wouldn't sound very appropriate shouting pee pee at her all the time. LOL!

Peyton's behavior

Peyton has been getting more and more difficult with her behavioral issues and at school gets in trouble fairly regularly, so coming home with a green smiley instead of a yellow or red one is very exciting. This year, she has received detentions for 1. Spitting at a kid who was "being mean" and 2. kicking a student for touching her stability ball, which was her substitute chair to help with her hyperactivity. This week was a whole new one, she got a red for "showing her butt to a friend." AHHHH!!! What do you even say to that? I am sure I have a ton more surprises ahead of me with this one. I need some extra patience if I am going to make it.

Cianna and gymnastics team

Cianna was invited to join the competitive gymnastics team in fall of 2012 when she was only 5, which was very exciting, but she was not really ready then. The practices are 2 hours long and we tried 2 out and she was in tears on the way home from being so tired, so we just did another year of recreational gymnastics at a level higher. She joined the team in 2013 and loved it, had a great year. She even got a first place on bars once and man that was really exciting. She learned all the skills for level 2, including her backbend kickover, which took a lot of practice. At the awards ceremony, she recieved the fun "drama queen" award. She is a great athlete, but does tend to draw out those injuries for a little extra attention. This year she is on team again at level 3 and it has been difficult to do this along with soccer, but she was not ready to quit either, so we are just making it work. Luckily the club she goes to is very flexible and let her just do what she can, without penalty. She is working on learning her back hand spring this year and really enjoys all the team activities they do like gladiator night, team sleepovers, parent's night out and summer camp.