Update of our life

A quick update of our life for the past few weeks. We've been very busy trying to find a house. Hopefully soon we will get one. It's turned out to be more of a headache than I imagined. But we need to be picky since this is the biggest investment we will ever make. And I really need to learn patience. Whenever I take the girls somewhere they ask if we are going to look at homes again. They like it just as much as I do. They like to run around and pick out which room they will sleep in. They've done it to every home we've looked at. It's funny.

Téa still loves Kindergarten. I always ask her how her day was and she gives me a play-by-play of what transpired on the playground. Then I have to ask again, being more specific, what she did at school IN THE CLASSROOM today. She is finally getting homework and loves it. She has to read a book that is sent home and I sign off her sheet saying she read it and then she'll receive the next book and so on. I sure hope this love of homework continues for the next 12+ years. Téa has also been the biggest help to me. If Piper is crying while I'm doing something she will play with her until I'm done. She can make Piper laugh just by saying the word 'bubble'. It's hilarious. I've never seen a kid love to take care of her sisters so much. She watched Piper while I was in the shower this morning and told me that in a few minutes she would check on Calista to make sure she wasn't getting into anything. She loves having responsibility.

I've been trying to have "school time" with Calista every day while Téa is in school. Last week we learned the letter 'C'. If I can keep it up I'll do a different letter each week. There is a really cool website I found here to print out cool pages to practice writing the alphabet. She loves them. And I'm happy to say that we are 95% potty trained. Woo hoo! We are just working on waking up with a dry pull up every morning. I can't believe I am now down to 1 kid with diapers. Sweet. My offer still stands for a bunch of size 6 diapers for sale. I'm to the point that someone can just take them off my hands! Calista's also learned last week how to draw very good pictures of people. Her pictures actually are decipherable now. She's getting the eyes, nose, mouth, arms, legs down now and even went as far as making a shirt on one of them. This is a major step in her artwork ability. If you can all remember the lovely artwork she left on my sister-in-law's wall...she's gotten better. And thankfully I think she likes to draw on paper now. Phew.

Piper...what can I say. She's just cute. Her cheeks are taking over the world but are dang cute. She's on an awesome schedule now. She has a great nap in the mornings while Téa is in school. Then another nap around 2 pm and then she's in bed at 7:15 just like her sisters. I've got my nights back so I can read or watch a movie with Mark. She's still waking up once around 3 am, but she eats and goes right back down until 8 am. I have nothing to complain about. Piper loves to swat at her toys now. She's even grabbed them a few times and held on. She started cooing and laughing at her toys the other day in her favorite farm animal toy. (See picture below). I'm so lucky to have such great kids. Having a baby this time around has definitely been easier than the last time. I've got great helpers and I think I've just mellowed out a lot.

Piper loves, loves, loves to suck on her hands now. She now has the nickname slobber girl.
Calista feeding the goats at Thanksgiving Point Farms. Still our favorite place to go.
Téa has no fear now when feeding the goats.
And here's Piper's favorite toy. My friend Leslie gave this to Calista when she was born and it is one of THE best toys for babies before they start rolling. It plays music and the middle chain moves. Piper started talking to it the other day. Very cute.