Third week of November

Another fun and busy week... It's interesting to me as I am going back and blogging to see how much we do EVERY week yet so often I feel like we just sit around the house...

My baby in her little winter cave - this time around I got the car seat cover

Max's graduation picture on the board at swimming lessons

Nice guns!

We enjoyed a date night of wine tasting and treats made by my friend Tida.  I enjoy the treats but mostly we go for the chance to visit with Tida and Jason.  (The fancy treats are crazy delicious though.)

Max was invited to Sadie's 5th birthday party.  He wouldn't pose for pics but Emmalyn would...

super cute idea, right?  the kids also went swimming which was super fun

My Little Mermaid

Crawling around at the party

This is how she plays with her activity table now

It's snow!

It might have only been a dusting but Maxwell still went outside to check it out.

These two boys love their Emmalyn

Look how big those PJs are on her.  They are the correct size for her age but she swims in them.

Landen loves his Emmalyn

We had some fun painting.

Video - The depth of his vocabulary cracks me up.  I love hearing him use new words all the time.

Peter and I went to a surprise party for our friend in our neighborhood, Erica.

Peter and Jake

The cute couple - Erica and Jake

Some of the girls

Jenga - - who knew it could be so much fun as an adult?

I am so grateful to have such great neighbors.  We have a great time!

Peter is not getting up in the middle of the night to change Emmalyn anymore.  It's now just me.  She's only getting up once in the evening around 4 am the past few nights.  That's super nice but it's been hard to get her to go to bed originally.  She keeps waking up and needs her binky and also doesn't want to be in her crib.  So, a few nights have been spent completely in our bed.  Not good, but sometimes you just need to be able to survive.

She is starting to pull up to her feet.  Like, if I am sitting down she will crawl over and pull up to her feet on me.  

She is saying "guh guh guh" so her baby sounds are growing.

Maxwell will talk to her and calls her "Emmowhen" or "missy" or he'll say "pretty girruhl" (girl).

Max now stays dry during his nap at school - whew.

We had Maxwell's first parent teacher conference.  I was really excited to go and hear more about what he was doing and how he was doing.  I was so frustrated after it because I felt like what the teacher shared about Maxwell didn't fit the kid that I knew.  It was almost like she didn't know him at all.  She shared specific things he would do or say and it just didn't fit.

She said that he gets upset easily and doesn't want people to think he's silly so he won't participate in some group activities - like when they take turns dancing in the middle of the circle.  She also shared that he gets really upset if he has to get his hands dirty like when he's supposed to finger paint or if he spills his yogurt.  

Her comments were way more negative than positive.   She pointed out that he wasn't able to jump on one foot.  (not sure I'm super concerned about that).  Then she went through a bunch of points of evaluation and he didn't get one "above average" ranking for his age.  Even when it came to reading - he was just average for his age.  I wanted to call BS on her.  Are you telling me it's typical and average that kids read at 3 years old!??!  Argh.  It ruined my morning because it felt so impersonal.  She certainly didn't seem connected to Maxwell at all.