Tooty seven

The kids are pretty entertaining when their imaginations agree on a specific story/setting, without fighting. The other day I saw them playing 'knights' and here they are...Olivia is the noble steed, and Lucas the knight, with a lego jousting pole thing, and shield. It was pretty cute.

I am behind on pictures and posts and video...there have been some amazing benchmarks in schooling with them. It means so much to me because i've need some validation that this is possible for us. I've noticed lately that Lucas is really hard on himself and loses motivation. And since he isn't in school or daycare or anything really regular with groups of kids, I was worried that he may not be susceptible to learning with mommy. Which is why I put him in tball. Speaking of which, he has gotten much better and really likes to hear encouragement from daddy. He catches the ground balls in his glove, and turns to us with bright eyes screaming happily before attempting to throw to 1st base :) He also hits the ball off the tee pretty well. He cried at practice last week because a bigger kid ran into him and I think knocked the wind out of him, but he kept on and stuck in the game. I am thinking since the season is almost over, we will let him try out gymnastics or indoor soccer next. We will see what he likes more. I am just hesitant to sign up for things I may not be able to make with Frankie's impending arrival...

   Anyway, I am so proud of the improvements Lucas has made regarding his schoolwork. He is proud of himself and I can see his confidence growing and encouraging him to keep learning. I will have to get some video this week, but I just want to document his progress:

--this week he stopped using the toy animals to add numbers...he began adding in his head, but was unsure what this was called, so he says, "mommy! I was counting in my tummy!"
--we also picked up this book set from costco for beginning readers, sight words. It has 16 short books, with flashcards. I needed some guidance on what to do with phonics after he was familiar with the letters and their sounds, but seemed unable to sound words out. And apparently, these BOB Books have figured out a different way to start reading, which is basically memorizing sight words, whole words, as opposed to each letter sound. It makes sense and I have to say, it's working so well! He is beginning to recognize what groups of letters sound like and look like, and the normal structure of a sentence, as well as punctuation. He can read 5 of these books already, and I know it's more reading than memorizing the pictures, because he points to each word as he reads it. Video soon!
   
Some cute stuff:
   while learning to count by tens, he forgot some of their names. So when he would add figures and come up with the answer "27," he reads the problem out loud to me, and then pauses at the answer and finally says, "two-ty seven?" Although familiar with numbers 1-20, he sometimes forgets the teens and says "19" as "one-ty nine" or "52" is "five-ty two". Frustrating because his logic is right on, and the english language shoots him down with their weird exceptions and pointless (silent) letters...but I am very pleased with him and love to see his pride after finishing his work or reading a book---excited to read it to everyone in the house. I recommend these book sets and will be getting more. I also recommend dollar store instruction books--he just finished his phonics book and his addition book...I sorta dread burdening him with learning subtraction now! I am learning not to be too hard on him since he is already on himself, and to slow down and foster the skills he is adept at, until he is ready for the others.

     He had a short game this weekend in the rain, and it got pretty cold (one day it's 90 degrees, the next it's 60) and daddy took him, while I stayed with a sleeping Olivia. When we went to pick them up, the coach's wife told me how impressed she was with Lucas' progress :) Nice to hear.
   Then we went to McKinney to support Susan in her Hike For Life event. It was a little shorter than I thought, and was more of a family event, with mostly walking, so Susan "won" or came in first, and ran around the track again :) It was crappy weather for the hike, but there were still a lot of people there to support local pregnancy counseling centers to help women choose life. She also made her goal of $625 in donations! So worthwhile. My camera battery was already dying here, so I didn't get the best pictures, but here are the 2 family athletes this weekend:

I also got a tshirt for John :)
   Olivia is also doing well in her activity --dance class. I know it's just the basics right now and so it's really to me, seeing how well Olivia behaves in a classroom setting and follows direction. She may be a brat at home a lot, but in the class, she pays strict attention to Ms. Amanda, and follows direction. She takes it seriously and is a big girl when I have to leave and pick her up later (I was a cry-baby even when I was 2 yrs older than she is!)
   Olivia has a recital and Lucas has a game on november 2nd, which is RIGHT around my due date...so we shall see what happens! John's parents will be visiting for 2 weeks then, so I am sure we will get 2/3 done right ? :) Can't wait to welcome #3 ! (and be able to use my ab muscles again!!!!!!! I don't remember feeling like a prisoner in my body so much in the other pregnancies...my body can't handle this much longer...)