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Nat was scared after a show so guess where I found her tonight? In her little bros spare bed. With the light on.  May they always love each other this much

Natalie loving on her Daddy…

Happy Birthday to the sweetest boy -who has been counting down to his birthday since early january. More text to come later but here are some pics!

Elliott’s parent-teacher conference isn’t for another few weeks, but I’ve been so impressed with him lately!  Tonight, we were reading an Arthur book about a Spellathon, and he confidently said he’d win his spellathon at his school because he knows how to spell out the words.  I asked him DOG and CAT, and he got both right on the first try!  We tried BIG and BED next – some trouble with the short vowel sounds, but he did great with the consonants.

Even more impressively, this was a conversation the other day….

Elliott: “Mom, did you know that 10, one time is 10.  10 two times is 20.  10 three times in 30.  10 four times is 40.  10 five times is 50.  10 six times is 60.  10 seven times is 70.  10 eight times is 80.  10 nine times is 90.  and 10 ten times is 100.”

Me: “Whoa, bud, that is amazing.  How do you know that?”

Elliott: “Its easy peasy.  I can just figure it out in my head.  And, do you know that five four times is 20?”

Now, to be fair, he struggled today when Auntie Becky – a math teacher – quizzed him on two different ways to make 10.  So, we’ll work on that next.  But, what’s best, is he seems to like learning and is proud of his learning.  He’s also learned so many letters and improved his writing so much this year.  I cannot believe my baby is really getting kindergarten ready!

Natalie had her second parent-teacher conference of the year!  I’m so proud of our star student!

• She is reading above grade level.  She was even chosen as one of the two best readers in the class to read at an assembly for black history month!  She’s probably at K level, but only “needs” to be at “I” by the end of the year.
• She wrote that her favorite subject is “siyents” (science).  She loves the science-related kits and projects that Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike have gotten her, and her favorite constellation is Orion, I believe.  She esp. likes chemistry.
• She wants to get better at her writing.  (She works really hard at her writing and is a good writer – but wants to get even better.)  At the beginning of the year, she wrote a “small moments” book about our trip to Cape Cod and used a lot of detail.  She really likes writing how-to books, like how to make a pepperoni pizza.  She recently wrote a book about her favorite color and opened with an interesting question to grab the reader’s attention.  (The book was about the color blue, which isn’t really her favorite color but the teacher chose pink and Natalie knew she wasn’t supposed to copy that.)
• She works well with others – even her math partner who sometimes picks his nose and recently “blamed” her for “pushing him” off the stand-up desk, even though he really just fell.  (This was a BIG deal to Natalie, who is a teacher pleaser, and definitely didn’t want to be viewed negatively at all – luckily, a neighbor boy game to her defense.)

She still misses kindergarten – more choice time, and her lovely, caring teacher.  She doesn’t LOVE 1st grade like she loved kindergarten, but I’m happy she seems happy each day (although she cheers for snow days).  Her favorite time of day is usually specials, especially Gym on Tues & Fri and art and technology on Thursday.

We’re so lucky to be the parents of a sweet girl who tries hard and is pretty smart (and cute).

Some pictures from our recent trip to Woodstock, VT…no kids! Alison offered to fly in to b hang out with the kiddos so we took her up on it.

We missed them, but not too much. Snowshoeing, a spa at a swanky hotel, breweries, racquetball, today, and shipping. It was a fun 54 hours!!!

Elliott and I had some time to play computer games while Natalie and Mom were at a birthday party.  Check out his creations!

He wants to make sure I mention that the car can travel over OR under hot lava, and the robot can turn into the car.  Whoa!

After months and months of counting down, We were so lucky to have Lala visit! It was a very happy reunion!!! She jumped right back into her old routine – saying hi and hugging Ed the crossing guard, convincing Ms April to allow her to sneak a peak during Natalie’s dance class, reading at LMI, etc.

Last night….

Me: “is there anything special you want to do tomorrow?

Natalie: “can we just have a lousy morning?”

Me: (chuckle) “Do you mean lazy morning? I don’t think you want to have a lousy morning”

Natalie: “I mean lazy! What does lousy mean?”

Me: “bad. So you asked for a bad morning”

Natalie: (hysterical laughing) “I mean lazy! I mean lazy!”

I love when the kids try out words they aren’t exactly sure about! Funny to hear and I’m proud they are taking a risk!