Monday Randoms and Ramblings

Hi, everyone! Another week has begun, so I thought I'd do a post with some random thoughts and favorite pictures from last week. 

Last Friday, Brianna completed her first full week of school. She is loving it so much. Generally, she's not what I'd call a morning person . . . just meaning that she likes to sleep in (later than Brenson, for sure) and can be a little cranky if we have to wake her. Ever since school started, she has jumped out of bed on her own just so eager to get dressed and ready to go. She's so adorable during drop-off. She jumps right out of the car and walks into school like she owns the place. The music teacher stands outside and directs traffic every morning, and one morning he had his hands up signaling for the cars in the drop-off line to stop so a few kids could cross the parking lot. Brianna walked by him and high-fived his raised hands! Haha.

On Thursday, Bri came home from school and told me that a girl said a bad word to her. I was pretty nervous, but as it turns out the girl just said, "dumb". Apparently, this girl doesn't get along with anyone in the class, and according to Brianna she is in trouble quite a bit. I feel for the little girl . . . she probably just needs lots of hugs and some boundaries. Anyhow, Brianna relates to me that the troubled girl approached Brianna and another little girl in the class after they made an art project and told them that their art papers were dumb. Now, Brianna is pretty feisty, so I've been a little nervous about how she'd handle someone not being nice at school. I asked Brianna what she did when troubled girl called her paper dumb, and Brianna said, "I was just silent and stared at her until she looked away. I didn't say a word." Lol. I am glad Brianna isn't intimidated by other kids, but I'm also very glad she didn't hit her! We have prayed for troubled girl that she can start making better choices and make a few friends. 

We are still adjusting to our new schedule and routine. The main problem is that we have to pick Brianna up from school right during the middle of nap time. Bren has adjusted fairly well and quickly, but the babies are struggling. 

One really great thing about Brianna being in school is that I get one-on-one time with Brenson during the babies' morning nap. Of all the children, he probably gets the least one-on-one time with me simply because Brianna by nature demands a lot of attention, and the babies obviously require a greater amount of attention right now. This makes me sad for him, but now we have time each day to spend together. We are both loving this! 

At three years old, I personally believe most learning should come through exploration and play. However, I have started taking about 30 to 45 minutes each day to have a bit of structured learning time with Brenson. And - no surprise - he loves it. I've decided to do a "letter day" a few times a week where we choose a letter to explore and "study". Last week, we had A day. 

He made an A using our Lite Bright!

We also made an A using stickers and stamps.

Then, he practiced writing A on a small marker board.

We also sculpted As out of Play-doh. Bren loves to sculpt and build, so this was right up his alley.

After creating a big A, he took it apart and created several little As.

Finally, we went on an A scavenger hunt finding and collecting objects that begin with A.

Here he is with his A loot . . . airplane, apple, Apple Cider Vinegar, anchor, album, and A paper.

We also had a B day last week. 

His favorite part was the B scavenger hunt! He found LOTS of objects that begin with B! After our scavenger hunt, we headed to Taco Bueno for lunch and ate bean burritos :-).

The other day, Bren was playing with something he isn't permitted to touch. I walked in the room just in time to see him drop the off-limits object. As this happened, he looked up at me with the most innocent little face and soft voice and said, "Momma, you're so pretty." Hahaha! They learn so young how to work a woman! 

On Thursday, the babies had their 6 month photo shoot. We were planning to do at least part of the shoot outside, but we ended up having a big thunderstorm. We carried on with an inside session, and I'm so excited to see how the photos came out. After returning home, I put them down for their morning nap (and they were ready . . . smiling for the camera wore them smooth out!), and Bren and I decided to bake cookies.

I love how he's double-fisting the cookie dough . . . beater in one hand, spatula in the other!

He said, "Mom, this is so fun!" several times while we were mixing up the dough. His future wife will thank me for teaching him to cook!

Miss Brooke Ellie had a little bit of a tough weekend. I thought she was dealing with some allergies as she was sneezing quite a bit and had watery eyes, runny nose, etc. However, she also had a fever yesterday (low-grade), so maybe it's teething? Who knows. What I do know is that she's been pretty miserable. Saturday night, she woke up struggling to breathe. I woke Chris so he could help me suction her nose and mouth (one of us has to hold her hands while the other suctions). She ended up getting choked on the excessive mucous and puked ALL over our bed, herself, and Chris (we had her in our room so as not to wake Brecklyn). It smelled TERRIBLE. So, there I was at 4am giving Brooke a bath in the kitchen sink while Chris took a quick shower. Then, we had to change the sheets on our bed. UGH. 

So, so pitiful :-(. The hair, however, is as awesome as ever :-)!

We've found that Brooke is super sensitive when she doesn't feel well. Every loud noise (and let's face it, our house is nothing BUT loud noise, ha!) has her startled and showing her pout lip. Poor baby girl . . . such a sad little cute pout. 

The girls are almost 7 months old, but it still surprises me how much attention we get when we're in public. People just make a big deal over twins. I don't fully understand this as I know a lot of families with twins, and I see them out and about all the time. Regardless, they draw tons of attention, and people say/ask the funniest things. Today, we went to the library where a gentleman was asking me 100 questions about the girls (which I generally don't mind . . . it's kinda fun to talk to people as long as they're not being super negative about having two babies). Then he said, "A boy and a girl, right?" Below is a picture from today to show you how they were dressed.

We've actually gotten that question a lot, and I always wonder who they think is the boy? My girls are pretty much always wearing a headband when we are out in public, yet they still get mistaken for boy/girl twins. One day, someone said something about them being a boy and a girl, and after I corrected them, they said, "Oh, well one has a black bow in their hair so that made me think it was a boy." Hahaha, really? I don't know about you, but I don't generally (EVER) put a bow in my son's hair . . . regardless of the color! I should do a post just about all the funny things people have said to me about the twins. 

Okay, enough chatter for today. I've got to get dinner prepped. Happy Monday!