Ballet, Board Breaking and New Teeth

Dear Kids,
This past week has been busier than I expected. After Ama left, Hailey started to sleep horribly. Like really badly. Nighmarishly. I think God is using her to help me become a future sleep consultant. This girl comes with all sorts of sleep issues. I'm actually thinking about coming up with a sleep problems flow chart but I'll work on that later.

Anyways, Nathan attended a week of Kuk Sool Won and on your last day, you were able to break a board in half with the heel of your palm. It was quite the emotional roller coaster ride as each child stepped up, was briefly coached, and then attempted to break the board. Some were successful upon their first try, for some, like Nathan it took a couple of tries, and then there were the kids who took a few more tries and when they finally broke the board, I felt all sorts of emotions: Goosebumps, tears of joy, pride for the kid. It was pretty much like watching the last episode of an american idol. Who knew martial arts can be so emotional.

 Hannah attended rainbows and unicorns dance camp. I kind of expected you to not like ballet as much, but you told me, "I don't like it...I love it!" I think we'll keep you in gymnastics for another year and then you can try dance. During the recital, you were the kid who pretty much stood there and looked cute while the other kids twirled and followed the choreography. I still think you like the idea of dance but will enjoy gymnastics more in the end. We'll see.

For Father's day we just took things easy. Ate Daddy's favorite foods (including doughnuts for breakfast).

The weather has been nice enough in the morning for us to go to the playground to play.

 Hannah wanted to show us that you can now go across on the monkey rings. You are still too short to dismount, so you just drop down before the last ring.

 Hailey, you are not crawling yet, but you are scooting across the floor when you are sitting up. You can spin yourself around 360 degrees, and your main mode of getting from point A to point B involves rolling. But the new thing this week is pulling up to standing.

At some point along the way, we cut off the straps to the high chair because they were getting really gross, so now, being the third child, you get a strapless high chair. While this sounds like the latest baby accessory, this can be very unsafe especially for a little girl who is very eager to practice standing up. I'm sure we can come up with a solution in the next few days. In the meantime, you will be having lots of picnics in the kitchen. 

 On Saturday, we went to a swap meeting at church and Hannah picked out these salad claws. BEST thing ever. Not because we can now toss salad without getting our hands dirty, but because it has converted Hannah into a salad lover! In your words, "I don't like salad, I love it!" (Except the purple leaves)

On Monday we went to the library to get new books and we ended up having a little picnic at the gazebo by the library. It was a fun impromptu event. 

On Tuesday, we had super fun camp and our topic was Oceans. You all learned about oceans. Camouflage

 Sorted sea shells...

 played games to help support reading and learned about Jonah.

It's been rainy the past 2 days (which is awesome because we totally needed the rain) so Hailey has not been able to go swimming as often. You still enjoy watching Nathan and Hannah swim.

 On the day you were able to get into the water, you really enjoyed hanging out in the baby spa floaty.  You are also happy after I dunk you under for a few seconds.

And today concludes swim lessons for Nathan and Hannah. Nathan can now swim completely across the pool and Hannah is able to swim freestyle, but still needs to practice breathing. The important part is that you are now not afraid of being in the water anymore....which is huge! 

And yesterday, Hailey's 4th tooth broke through. This could explain the horrible 30 minute naps that you've been taking, but I'm happy to see that you are back to your happy self. Despite being a bad sleeper, you are still generally happy and pleasant to be around.
You love to take things out of buckets, you love turning board book pages, you like to grab my lips while nursing, which can be quite painful if your nails cut into my skin just the right way.
I think you can sign "more" and you are waving at people. You are very interested in Teddy and will often reach to pet him if he is near. You, however, don't like Teddy kisses.
Next week we have VBS and then the rest of the summer is plan free. Hopefully Hailey will start to sleep better and have a more predictable schedule so that we can do fun things.
Until next week,
Love,
Mom