March Madness

The end of February/beginning of March brought dumping snow, warm sunshine, slushy roads and more dumping snow! What a whirlwind for us to keep up with. It seems we were switching up our outerwear every other day! Welcome to "spring" I guess. Lem's state Model United Nations conference went well and he seemed impressed by the performance of his students. Special Olympics Local Games went off without a hitch as well-hooray! Lem and I also got to go on a super special date to the Star Wars exhibit at the Museum. Apparently, in the "I grew up addicted to Star Wars" world, it's a pretty big deal so I figured tickets would make a good Valentine's Day present for Lem. We checked it out on a Tuesday afternoon which was great since there were literally about 10 other people in the whole museum. We encountered none of the excruciating lines and long waits everyone's been complaining about.


Ella had a check up this month as well. For a kid who eats non-stop with a ravishing appetite, she sure didn't gain any weight! She's still only 18 pounds and didn't have quite the growth spurt I was expecting. So, she's still riding rear facing in her car seat :( but we're hopeful that maybe, by the time she's 2 she can ride forward facing. So much for 20 pounds and 1 year! Despite the lack of, um, mass growth, she's sure not holding back in blossoming in other areas. She's got some pretty humorous phrases these days, "pushin' me" "hurtin' me"- generally when she is pulling on your leg or there is no one anywhere near her. "no thank you"- generally when you're asking her to do something she's not interested in complying with. Every morning starts with a request for "apple juice" and "fie-ya on" (fire on) so we can get our snuggling time started. Other fun words she's mastered: princesses, bakey-bug (ladybug), Dora soup, there it is among about a hundred others I can't even keep track of anymore. She's also decided that she's ready to use the potty. She's been telling me for a while when she needs her diaper changed, even bring me a diaper and trying to "pat pat" herself with a wipe (on the outside of her clothes) but now she's asking to go on the potty, too. I'm certainly not a fan of pushing it with potty training so we're totally on her time table and following her lead, but she has had a fair amount of success. She does go pretty much everytime she asks to go on the potty so that's a really great start.

Sycely is getting ready for her Spring recital at ballet school. Her class is doing a pink flamingo family dance and they are just so super cute. I can't wait for her to have the chance to perform on a real stage with a real, live, non-family audience. She sure is developing a flare for the dramatic, which I hope is no indication of what to expect from her teen years! She's producing about 15 drawings a day and recently started experimenting with oil pastels, one of her new faves. She's also been enjoying time with her friend, Scarlett. They do all kinds of girly things together, but their favorite is dressing up and being princesses. Lem and I also went to the Optional program open house at Sycely's potential school for next year. We have to apply for a zone exemption for her to attend there since it's not the school we're zoned for, so we won't know for sure where she's going until fall, but we're praying that she'll be able to get into Chinook so she can go through the open optional program and have the added benefit of being right next door to Daddy's school.

Spring Break was full, but not exactly busy. We had two visitors from Sycely's class-the class bunny and the stuffed husky, Elim. (More about our time with the foster bunny and the Elim project in their own blogs). We spent the first couple days of spring break down in Homer (more about that in its own blog, too), started our bathroom re-decorating project. So far we've got the new paint on the walls and have painted the door and window trim. We still need to get, cut, paint and affix the new floor trim. Lem and I got to go on one lunch date, too. Since Nanny and Papa were gone we didn't have our usual babysitters so we had Teacher Courtney (one of the student teachers from Sycely's school) come and watch the girls for a bit. Her and Sycely have developed quite the bond and Ella's been around her quite a bit too, so it went really well and they were all super comfortable with each other already-much easier than introducing a new stranger.

Special O State Games also happened during spring break. I got to go with my team to opening ceremonies which was pretty neat. It was pretty exciting to get to see hundreds of special athletes totally charged and ready to kick off their competitions. The competition itself went well (and quickly!) and I was so happy with how everyone skated. They all worked so hard this year to learn new programs and I had 4 athletes skating at new levels this season, too, so they had new compulsories to master, too. Everyone really enjoyed the season and the team gave me a beautiful pink pashmina as a gift.