Lexi:
Lexi is such a wonderful little girl, and honestly such a great big sister to her brother. She has been involved in quite a few activities lately, and I am so pleased to see how well she is doing in all of them. She has begun taking dance lessons at the same school I danced at as a kid. Her teacher is Miss Kelli (my dance teacher's daughter), and I'm pretty sure it's her favorite time of the week. She has so much fun with Miss Kelli that I decided to take an adult tap class. It's just for fun, though quite a bit more difficult than I realized it would be.
Lexi is also taking swim lessons at the YMCA. We tried switching to an independent swim class, but she did not like the teacher, and I was worried it would make her hate swimming lessons. So the only choice was to switch back to Mommy and Me classes. It's fine for now. She is swimming very well with the bubbles. She can easily swim back and forth the length of the pool and goes very quickly. She seems to improve by leaps and bounds every week, and we're all thrilled.
She is also taking a yoga class at preschool. It's perfect for her because of all the stretching and she really enjoys it. She loves coming home and showing me all of the poses she can do.
She is doing so well in preschool. She has lots of friends and also really enjoys learning. We both love looking at her artwork when she comes home (though there is a ridiculous amount - at least five pieces each day!!). She is also beginning to read and write and doing so well with it! She can read a few of her early reader books all by herself, and loves sounding out words. This morning she wrote a note all by herself that read, "LEXI. POPPY PROM (which should have been "from") LEXI. Later she added "GIGI".
Zach:
Zachary is turning into a little boy. He is beginning to interact with us quite a bit, and is getting better at letting us know what he wants. He loves to sing "Row, Row, Row your boat" (he sings "rowrowrow") and "Old MacDonald" (he sings "eieiooo"). He's stingy with the "mama's", but will occasionally call me if he's really sad. He does say "bye bye Dada" now to the phone, but still prefers to say "hi", which he still says in that southern drawl. Of course his favorite word remains "catch" and it's the only warning you'll get before he throws anything and everything at you. He's quite good at playing catch, and if he actually has a ball I'll toss it back and forth with him for awhile. He loves it, and has a great throw, and impressive catch. He can also sign and say "all done" and signs "more".
Zach could walk anywhere, but still prefers to make it a big deal when he does. He'll stand there with a HUGE smile on his face and wait until you're ready to catch him. Then he'll take these little steps, one at a time, and come crashing into your arms. If we keep backing away from him, he keeps walking, but doesn't yet seem to understand that he can do this without us holding our arms out in front of him. He'll get it soon enough. Walking must be boring to a boy who will climb anything and everything. We've had to baby-proof every inch of our home because this boy is on stools, tables, chairs...nothing gets in his way. I keep thinking that he'll learn his lesson once he falls, but he doesn't seem to fall...so with a cautious eye we let him climb anything that's vaguely safe and hope for the best.
Here are some pictures of the kids from the past few weeks. As you can see, they play so nicely together and there is just nothing better than listening to them laugh together. The last two pictures are from yesterday. I took Lexi to Princesses on Ice with my friend Andrea and her daughter (Lexi's friend) Elizabeth. It was a fantastic show and a wonderful day with the girls. Andrea and I both admitted to each other that we got a bit teary a few times during the show...sitting in that arena with probably over a thousand little girls dressed in princess dresses, and in awe of what they were seeing - it was magical indeed.
