Catching Up

I'm not sure where to start since it's been so long since I've posted something. I'm still struggling with my health a bit and am getting behind on a few things. I get to have a neck ultra sound tomorrow and then I get to collect my pee for 24 hours. Fun Fun! I'm eager to figure out what's going on so I can get busy with my 3rd Triathlon training! Let me catch you up on the girls now.

ELYANA

This blows our mind...she's reading somehow. We made flash cards of the list of words Mikayla needs to learn this year in Kindergarten. Ellie picked them up a few days ago and began to read words such as: yellow, blue, green, go, see, the, two. The ones she didn't know she'd ask. After I told her, she would repeat them quietly to herself as if she was making a mental note of them. We watched an old home video of Ellie just learning to sit up by herself and was pretending to read a book to herself. She has always had her nose in a book. What I'd like to know is how she figured out how to read on her own. I was wondering if it would bug Mikayla, but she seems to think it's fun doing flash cards with Ellie and playing teacher. The funny thing is, it's motivated me to get her potty trained because it's in my head that the natural order of things is: wean from the bottle, learn to walk, potty train . . . go to school and learn to read. It seems unnatural that the milestones should be out of order.

The other thing is nap time is slowing being fazzed out which is really difficult for me. After battling with her for an hour yesterday, I went in to see what she needed again and she says, "My little feet are hot." Too cute. At least that's one I haven't heard before!

Here's a picture of her first braid in her hair. Doesn't she look so grown up?!

MIKAYLA

She's still loving school but it's hard to get her going in the morning. She's also making good strides in Awana on Wed. nights. She's trying to learn the books of the New Testament. This is something I'm trying to learn along with her. On Thurs. nights she's been taking gymnastics. We tried having Ellie take a gymnastics class that started about the same time, but I think she has a little more growing up to do. It was way more of a battle than I desire right now. Mikayla had another Mikaylaism the other night. We were admiring how cool the crescent moon looked. She said to me, "It looks like a big toenail clipping." I'll never look at a crescent moon the same way.

The girls have started to dress up together (Ellie is trying to understand the concept and calls it "Halloween time") and put on "shows" for us. Mikayla of course is the main star and calls Ellie her assistant. After about 15 seconds, the assistant runs away and Mikayla is yelling, "come back, come back, we're not done with the show." Here's some pictures of their show costumes. (By the way, Aunt Cyndi, if you're reading this, Kayla's show name is Cyndi.)