First Day of 1st Grade, etc.

School started for Madeleine on Monday. She is thrilled with her new school! It's directly across the street from us (behind us). A short and sweet walk there to take her and pick her up. Ian still complains about the long walk, but I think that's mostly because it's quite hot in the afternoon. Anyway, Maddie said her favorite thing so far is her new teacher. Get this: there are 9 first grade classes at her school. Is that crazy or what?? We know quite a few other first graders but they are all in other classes. Not surprising when there are that many classes, right?

Our days at home are much quieter now with Maddie at school all day and next week Ian starts preschool (on Tuesdays and Thursdays) so it will get even quieter. I'm excited for Ian to do preschool. I know he's going to love it! And I won't lie, I'm going to enjoy my time with just Alayna. Look at the chubby cheeks on that girl! She seems to be getting so big! Other people still comment on how tiny she is, but I think she is really getting huge. She's still such a good baby. Last night she only woke up once to eat in the night. Little angel!

Can you tell that Ian's eyes are dilated? We noticed recently that he seems to cross his eyes sometimes and one eye seemed to be kind of lazy so we talked to the doctor about it and she referred us to an opthalmologist. That's where we went today. We've had this appointment set for a few weeks and Ian has really been looking forward to it. He thought the doctor was really nice except for when she put the drops in his eyes to dilate them. She was really great. She agreed that he crosses his eyes sometimes. The reason is that he is very farsighted so at times when he is trying to focus, his eyes cross. Also, his vision in his right eye is a little worse than his left, so that eye gets lazy sometimes. He needs glasses and hopefully that will take care of all of it, but we'll go back in a few months to see how his eyes are doing. He picked out some very handsome glasses so be on the lookout for pictures of him in glasses.

Alayna

There's not a whole lot of exciting things going on with Alayna. She's a month old now and while she is awake and alert a bit more, she still spends most of each day sleeping.

Madeleine built a wall of pillows around Alayna one day on the couch. There was very little chance of Alayna going anywhere, but Madeleine wanted to be sure her baby sister was extra safe.

And since this is what she does most, here's another picture our little sweetheart sleeping.

conversation with Ian

Today we were watching tv and I was feeding Alayna when Ian came over. Here's how our exchange went:

Ian: "There's this kind of soap that makes babies sleep better."

Me: knowing what he was referring to (pictured below) "yeah, does it come in a purple bottle?"

Ian: "Um, yeah, it's from S.C. Johnson. They're a family company."


Hmmm, either he has a freakishly good memory or we've been spending a bit too much time in front of the television. He is really smart, but I suspect it's the latter.

about Madeleine...

We recently started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone together. She loves the Harry Potter movies (the first three are the only ones she's seen) so we thought we would give the book a try. She is liking it and since she is such a great reader she decided to get the book out and read a little on her own. I came out from my room and saw this and I thought it was so cute!

It's no secret that this girl has amazing hair, but here's a picture to show it off.

And here is a picture to show the spot at her hairline where she cut some of her hair. Why, why, why?? I thought when she cut her hair at age 3 it was traumatic enough that she wouldn't ever do it again. Guess I was wrong on that. And this cutting was obviously so intentional! I really don't understand what could possibly have been going through her mind. Growing that out is going to be a long process.

Luckily a side part hides it well enough. Please ignore all the clutter in these pictures. Some day we'll be totally settled, but let's be honest, there will probably still be some clutter in the background then too.

One other thing about this child of mine: we have been working on teaching her the addition facts and she is doing so well! So far she knows them up to seven and this week we're doing the eights. She has been begging to get her ears pierced so we made a deal that when she knows her addition facts all the way to ten, then she will have earned it. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. If we stick to our schedule she will be getting earrings in just a couple weeks. Wish her luck!