2/3s

Holiday Programs

Here's a link to pictures from the Holiday Programs. One program for Tia and one for Kira.

I'll try to upload some video footage, but we'll see what happens. Maybe I'll get time to do video editing in 2009.

Lightsaber battle

May the force be with you.

Quote of the day goes to Nick's friend Chris who said, "There's something really cute about a little girl with long blonde hair about yay high (gesturing to Tia's height) with a lightsaber." Or something close to that quote.

Upcoming

The end of the semester was a lot of work, but it was good. But, I'm behind on posts... I have to put up pictures of Kira and Tia's Holiday programs and Christmas day.

Little California Girls

We went to a friend's beach house yesterday. About 55 degree air temperature and 54 water temps, but we couldn't keep them out of the ocean. The best part was probably Tia wearing the winter hat with ear flaps while frolicking in the ocean. They played outside and in the water for about an hour and one-half before they froze.

Merry Christmas! 2008

Yesterday, the girls saw Santa. We didn't believe they'd sit on his lap, but they did and we even got a cute picture out of the deal. I guess they are growing up.

Rudolph and Clarice

The little girls watched the story of Rudolph. Nat became Rudolph and Kira became the little girl reindeer (his girlfriend) named Clarice.

Oh Christmas Tree

(Photos by Katie)

Need to learn to inhibit, not just deny....

I was carrying a broken toy and Tia saw me...

She said, "I didn't break that."
I said, "Okay."
She said, "I didn't step on it and break it, Mommy."

Heh. I love thinking about the processes of the frontal cortex. I love seeing evidence of the frontal cortex not being online yet as Tia so aptly demonstrated. Her little brain is developing, but she needs a few more connections to help her out with NOT telling me everything.

A Neuroimaging study showed that the prefontal cortex is active and developing by age four and then continues to develop through adolescence. Probably by the time Tia is four, she won't feel the need to confess without being tortured.

Judi decorates

Achievement

Natalie learned to tie her shoes sometime last week (~12/11 or 12/12). Maybe I can get a video of it soon.

We told Nat when she learned, we could all have ice cream to celebrate. When we were eating, Tia said, "I don't want to learn to tie dentist shoes" (or something like that). Apparently tennis and dentist sound alike. Heh to Tia and Yay to Natalie!

Look out Santa and Rudolph

You've got competition.


(Photos by Katie)

Kira Claus

Merry Christmas!

Super Big Sister

The fifth graders at Natalie's school had a flea market yesterday. Natalie went and found a book she wanted, and found two stuffed toys she wanted to get for her sisters. She didn't have enough money to buy it all (and doesn't yet know about haggling) so she bought the toys for her sisters and didn't buy the book for herself. Wow.

They read a story in school about how good it was to give and how good it makes you feel and she said, "It's true! I feel so good. I loved giving Kira and Tia their toys. They love them."

Model

A set of pictures showing Kira posing for Natalie as she draws a portrait of Kira.

Ballet

Kira and Tia took ballet this fall. They seemed to enjoy it. Kira says they don't want to take it again though. (That seems odd to me!) Anyway, here's a shot of the class, by Katie.

Grading

Where'd I go? I've been grading. I'm wrapping up the semester with the grad students. They are fabulous students and I've been having a great deal of fun and learning lots with them.

I hope to get some new photos up soon. In the meantime, here's a blast from the past.

Topping

Any one remember why we have Ben and Jerry's on the top of our tree?

More to follow

More of these kinds of pictures soon.

Jamba maker

Go Tia go!

Tia says, please click.

Baking fun

Impressive Baking by our self-sufficient 4.5 year old. Kira says, please click!

the season

Kira and Tia made these trees with Katie.

Tia has been playing hard a lot ... like the bruises on her legs?

Nata-pan

Nat's been enjoying the Peter-Pan video and decided to make herself a costume. It's complete with red feather.

four and one-half

Here is Kira celebrating. Yea, it's blue ice cream--cotton candy flavor and then marshmallows on top. You're only 4.5 once so you ought to live it up!

Last Saturday (11/22/08)

Nick put the girls to work chopping down the pine trees that we didn't like (on the side of our house). Here, they are with their pile of wood. Good job girls!

Monday

On Monday morning, Kira was eating some soup, chicken noodle, she finally decided she liked it, and some hard bread. She came over to me and said, "Mommy, the bread hurts my tooth." She'd been complaining that different things hurt her tooth for a while and I said, "Come here, and let me see."

This is what I saw...



There was NO tooth. Whoa. (I grabbed the camera right away. You can even see the bread still stuck in her teeth. I try to do real time documentation! Heh.)

Our little 4.5 year old lost a tooth! She's a lot less dramatic than Natalie. In fact, Kira's very efficient! The only problem, she swallowed the tooth. Here's the letter she wrote to the tooth fairy to explain why there was no tooth.



It says,

Dear, Tooth Fairy
I lost a tooth By accident
I swallowed it

Love, Kira K______

She even wrote in fancy script. Pretty impressive for a 4-year-old.

Here's the little girl a day later. She's pretty excited to be catching up to Natalie. She wants to be as big as Natalie.

Fancy, and it looks like 1982

Kira loves fancy stuff. This outfit qualifies as fancy. Note the polka-dot leggings, and the bow and the ruffles, and the sparkly shoes (they flash!)--what could be fancier?

I say, Olivia Newton-John, LOOK OUT!

smile

I don't think she could get any happier.

gymnastics party

Our neighbor had her 4th birthday party... The girls had an upside-down time!

Fitting

Kira went with Katie to a dress fitting (before the wedding). Kira loved the whole process...can you tell? Kira and Katie had significant bonding over the wedding. So much fun!





We're voting Kira most likely to want a fairy tale wedding.

Beds

A couple of weeks ago, Natalie turned her bed into a castle. Kira and Natalie slept inside. (Natalie put together the paper, drew the decorations and hung it up.)






Here are some pictures during story time.


Then, Nat turned Tia's crib into a castle.



Cool, eh?

Wow.

Really inspirational. Barefoot College in India.

Look out Cute Overload!

Cute overload is pretty cute, but so are these pictures!








Photos by Katie of the new kitties and the little girls. (Don't worry, they are Katie and Matt's new kitties!)