Top 3 things Kellan & Zoe are thankful for (in the below order).
Kellan:
1. Baseball
2. Family
3. Food
Zoe:
1. Free things
2. Whole family
3. Stuffed animals
We had a pretty mellow day, Jim cooked, I took the kids to Target; it was closed. Zoe & I went and saw Tangled. She asked to leave through the entire movie. It was a tear jerker (at least I thought so), still a good movie. We are off to Uncle Tom's house today and Sat./Sun. plan to start with the X-mas decorations. I tried to hit one store for Black Friday. I realized I was going to wait in line for 1 plus hours for either 1. A savings of $10 or 2. A bunch of stuff I really didn't need even though it was on sale. How often do I get an hour plus to myself? I figured I'd much rather spend the time with the kids & save the hour for another activity.
A couple weeks back, G-Ma Chloe and Uncle Mike came for a visit. Poor G-Ma was sick most of the trip, but we all still had a great time. Uncle Mike played for hours with the kids. Dexter is really warming up to people and even let Mike hold him...a lot.
We can no longer let Dexter out of our sight (Jim probably would have said that weeks ago; I'm not as attentive). The kid gets crazier by the day. He loves to stand up on things; his toy chest, coffee tables, bar stools, toys, his siblings, his dog... He insists on walking down the stairs now, sometimes holding onto the railing, sometimes not. He'll typically put his hand out for assistance from Kellan & Zoe, which isn't always the best assistance. Today he said a new word - "Hot" and will answer questions "Yes" with a nod of the head or "No" with a violent, sideways, shake of the head. Jim and I have been holding him to eat or let him wander around the house with food. That got old and we brought up Zoe's princess booster seat from when she was a toddler. He is very happy to have graduated to the big kid's counter, even if it means not eating anything. He still loves helping himself to food in the pantry. All of our food is going to be only on the top two shelves soon.
I went to parent/teacher conferences for Zoe & Kellan. They remain model citizens and their teachers love them. Kellan has come a long way with his reading and needs to work on fluency & subtraction. He's perfectly average in academics. All the kids love him "especially the girls" to quote his teacher. Zoe is doing great in afternoon pre-school. A little, friend from our block is in her class. She says she's going to marry him one day. Oh No. She's reading a bit and writing really well. The biggest thing she needs to work on his being more assertive??? Other than that, she'e more than ready to move on to kindergarten.
Wearing dad's cap
