First Day of School!

First day of school was yesterday (pre-school that is...but I think the kids may be ready for first grade at this rate). Jack can read quite a few words now, and both of them have amazing vocabularies. They really impressed the teachers yesterday (except that Claire keeps calling the teacher "Hey teacher" instead of "Ms. Moore." Claire literally did like 10 activities in the first 5 minutes of being there including playing with play doh, painting a picture, feeding a dolly, playing with beads... I am not sure there is a lot left for her to do for the rest of the year!

Anyway...here are some pictures.

Princess Dance Camp pics!

Last night was the final night of princess dance camp. Their class put on a show for the parents. I will try to post video later. It was funny. Claire didn't listen to directions at all. She kept staring at me or the babies in the audience and didn't dance much, but it was still cute. She said she had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures.

Dentist, Dance Camp and more!

First of all...what a difference 6 months makes! Claire had a break down last time we went to the dentist (specifically, after they put that purple stuff on her teeth, she screamed and wouldn't stop, so she couldn't get her teeth cleaned). She went to the dentist yesterday, though, and did great! I am so proud of her! She made me promise she wouldn't have to get the purple stuff, and I did as long as she promised she would get her teeth cleaned. She had one other requirement -- that the nice lady with the ponytail would clean her teeth. Luckily, there was one hygenist there with a ponytail. Claire did live up to her end of the bargain -- she didn't cray, she cooperated. Her teeth look great! Jack did well too, but was a little wiggly. He wasn't able to get his x-rays because he couldn't lay still, but other than that, he did fine!! I am very proud of them both. So...they both get special presents! Claire has been wanting to go to Princess Dance Camp, so next week she gets to go every night. There will be dancing and tumbling and crafts and snacks. I am not sure who is more excited (me or her! -- I want to know if there is an adult version!) I went today and got her ballet shoes, tap shoes and leotard. Here she is prancing about the house showing us how she can "ballet." Jack gets a special present too, but there weren't any classes or camps the he wants to go to yet. So daddy took him to the toy store and got him a special truck that he can put some of his matchbox cars in. He is very happy!!

Pictures!

Just a couple of funny things that Claire has said recently...

Nick tells Claire that there is a hound dog outside -- she says," I wish I could have a hound dog someday."

Claire just comes up to me one day and says, "Hey mommy, did you know vegetarians don't eat meat or chicken?"

She cracks me up. Her big thing right now is to say the word "poop" and "butt" about everything. I hope this is just a stage...

New pictures

Will post pictures soon

Had to share some funny stories -- first, my daughter's favorite song is is "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." She literally sang it 15 times today and sings it in the shower and the bath. Hilarious. I have a video of it that I will try to post later. My son is funny because to him, everything is a "store." If he wants a matchbox car, he says, "lets go to the car store." If he wants ice cream, "lets go to the ice cream store." If he needs a haircut, "Are we going to the haircut store?" I love it... I wish they could be this age forever. Too cute. Too funny.

No visuals for this one...

I don't have any good pictures for this yet...
Jack is finally using the potty! I am so excited! He peed in the potty 3 times day without any prompting and was dry all afternoon. I am so proud of him. We haven't been able to get him to do the other one in the potty yet, but in due time!

I, of course, had to get him a reward (I gave him a little matchbox police car). He loves it so much. He loves all cars, trucks, firetrucks, dump trucks...anything with wheels pretty much. He even plays all the games on my Ipad that are related to cars (his favorite plays videos of cars and firetrucks etc).

Claire got a treat for being good and cleaning up the room. I am proud of her too, but she has been potty-trained for a while now and wears big girl panties every day. She got some play-doh which is one of her favorite things.

Lately they have been a lot better at sharing and being loving to one another. Jack will just say out of now where, "I love you claire bear." or "where is my Claire bear"(when she is still taking a nap). It is very cute.

Cute words and pictures!

Some of my favorite lines from Jack and Claire --

Claire says to Jack: "Thank you for being my friend today."

Jack says to Claire: "I love you Claire Bear. I love you." (in a very deep mumbling voice)

Claire says to Jack: "No hitting. You need to go in Time out."

Jack says to Claire: "I not. I not sharing. I'm selfish."

Claire says to me when I leave the house everyday: "I love you. I miss you. Be careful."

Wonderpets!

The kids love "Wonderpets." I am not sure why. Well, Claire I can understand (she loves animals), but Jack doesn't seem as interested except when it comes to "Wonderpets." See attached video of them painting together and singing the "Wonderpets" theme...

Sweet story

Quick sweet story -- last night Claire wouldn't go to bed. She kept saying she was scared of the shadows (which I think meant she was afraid of the dark). I finally told her that Jack would protect her. Jack came over next to her and cuddled up next to her on the floor. He held her hand so she wouldn't be scared and said, "I will protect you." They fell asleep on the floor holding hands! It was very sweet!

Birthday pictures!

Happy Birthday!

I am going to add some pictures soon! I just wanted to say that the kids had a wonderful 3rd birthday. Claire was overwhelmed! She kept saying" Pizza and cake and Monkey's Joe's and balloons and presents and streamers...I am so excited!" That sums up most of their birthday. Of course Claire wanted a strawberry cake. Jack wanted a "banana" cake, but wanted it to taste like chocolate. They both got lots of presents. Granny and Peepaw and Curt came. Grandma has been down here all week. She was able to be a part of their birthday as well as their recent 3 year-old check-up.

We went to the doctor today. Jack is literally off the chart on height (plotting above the curve at >99 percentile). He was almost 42 inches. Claire was 39 and 1/2 and was at 90th percentile. Jack was 90th percentile weight and Claire was 75th percentile. Both are growing very nicely. They passed every one of their milestones with flying colors (heck, they even passed the milestones for some of the 4 and 5 year-olds).

More to come...

Being Sick and Dentist appointment

Last week the kids were sick for the first time in a very long time...I was at work on a shift and got a call from Nick around midnight. Apparently Jack was puking in his bed, and as soon as he got them cleaned up, Claire started puking too. Luckily it never came out both ends, but they didn't feel well for several days. Jack felt so bad one day that he wouldn't eat or drink anything or even play with his train! When they finally both got better we decided to take them to Monkey Joe's as a treat. Claire has just gotten officially potty-trained. She usually never has an accident. She was wearing a pul-up today because she had been sick, and I didn't want her to have to worry about an accident in her panties at Monkey Joe's. When they were going up and down the slides I noticed that Claire had gone up into the slide (through the tunnels etc) but hadn't come down the slide yet. I heard some chatter behind the slide, so I came around to see what had happened...I saw my daugther there with her pull-up and pants around her ankles yelling, "I need a new pull-up, Mommy!" I was too funny. I quickly had to tell her to pull her pants up, and we would deal with this in the car...

Later this week, they both had their first dentist appointment. Both of them brush their teeth every night (Jack usually requires some major coaxing), but Claire is good about it. We have been reading the Dora book where she goes to the dentist for 3-4 weeks now to get them prepared. I guess nothing ever really prepares them. Jack was fine, but Claire was not. They started out ok -- the dental assistant asked them to brush their teeth. They stood at the sink and did that fine and seemed to like it. Then, the assistant asked Jack to put this purple stuff in his mouth so we could see the plaque. The minute Claire saw how "messy" Jack was with his purple mouth, she wanted nothing to do with the dentist. She was screaming and crying the rest of the visit. We tried everything to calm her down, but she would get quiet for a minute and then get upset again. They eventually told me I should wait 6 months. We were able to get enough of an exam to see that she had no cavities (neither did Jack), but that was it. Jack finished the whole cleaning and exam. I hope it goes a little better in 6 months! We are going to get them each a little electric toothbrush so they can get used to the instruments the dentist uses...