This is going to be a big brain dump, because I haven't blogged in a long time. Because #threekids.
1. We are currently residing in California. Jordan has been here almost 3 weeks. The kids and I flew here almost 2 weeks ago. Yes, you read that correctly. Go ahead, call me super mom. (KIDDING.) More accurately, call me crazy. The flight was actually really great. The kids were awesome. But I don't want to do that again for a long, long time.
2. We will stay in California while Jordan does some training. I am only allowed to post this on the world wide web because there are people living in our house and because I am using all sorts of non-specifics, thank you OPSEC. Since arriving here, we have adjusted to a two time zone difference, made friends with all of the animals on the ranch we are staying at, made multiple stops to Targets, grocery stores, Costco, etc., found a library to check out books, been to the beach, attended a rehearsal dinner and participated in a wedding for great friends (Emberly was the flower girl), hosted friends at our ranch home for 4 days, and found Disney Land. No big deal.
3. On Monday we went to Disney Land. PEOPLE. It was amazing. I kid you not, we could have stopped after the bus ride from our car to the park and we would have been winners. They were enthralled. We were total skeptics, but the girls loved every single moment. The characters, the rides, the food, the parade, the shows, the company. It was just a win win win win win. As we were riding the bus back to our car at 10pm, Emberly was telling everyone jokes on the bus. There was not one single tear shed by any of my children in the 8 hours we were there. And let's be honest... that hardly happens at home.
4. Grayson is finally starting to be able to be distracted beyond his belly. This is my favorite, because I can convince him to wait between feedings if say some other child is having a meltdown or something. (This never happens...) He also finally has a nap schedule and is putting himself to sleep at nap time during the day. Unfortunately, his nighttime routine is not so predictable. My sweet baby who was sleeping for 8, 10, or 12 hours through the night several months ago is now waking up once, twice, or even three times during the night. It's usually a quick wake-up and right back to sleep, but I'm ready to be done with that any time. Grayson is also worming his way around on his belly... it seems that crawling is inevitable. He has all kinds of opinion on what he wants and thinks his sisters are just absolutely hilarious.
5. Piper is really coming out of her shell. She seems to bounce, jump, or leap off of any and everything. She's still struggling with putting things in her mouth, but it is not nearly to the degree it used to be. She sounds like a big kid when she talks, and plays really well with Emberly (most days). Her default is to scream whenever she can't get words out to communicate what she needs or wants fast enough... but even that has become a lot better. Her imagination is crazy great, and she is always dancing, singing, or twirling in some way. She knows about half of her alphabet, and has pretty much no motivation to learn the others. :) She is her own animal!
6. Emberly is reading. READING! It just sort of happened in the last month or two. She can read beginning readers, lots and lots of sight words, CVC words, many long vowel words, and many common daily words. She wants to read everything, and is always asking us about signs while we are driving or labels on boxes, etc. We have decided that she will start kindergarten this year, even though she misses the age cut-off in our school district by about 30 days. We are going to give homeschooling a shot, so worst case scenario, we will just slow way down or stop until next year. I can't really imagine this happening though... she is a very motivated learner. But you never know! So stay tuned for our crazy home school life posts that are sure to come...
I think that is about it for now!
