Venily Reading and Thanksgiving!

We got a bunch of BOB books from the library and Jason and I were still laying in bed one morning.  Venily got one, sat right next to our bed and started reading the whole thing front to back (there were 4 stories in the one book).  We couldn't believe it!  She's known a bunch of sight words and could sound out words for over a year, but hasn't ever had a book before at her reading level.  She thought it was the greatest thing ever and wants to read everything now!

I'm really proud of her and she's SUPER proud of herself!  She's excited that I can sign her up to read to the dog at the library now! :) (it's a real dog that comes into one of the rooms at the library and kids can sign up to read to it, haha).

Here's a video of her reading one of her stories:

Thanksgiving:

I love when people ask my girls if they were going to eat a lot of turkey or if they did eat a lot of turkey this Thanksgiving and I tell them that we are vegetarians.  LOL!  Some people look at me like I just said something disgusting or ridiculous.  It's kind of funny.  The bank teller a few days ago though told me "Good for you!  That's an amazing thing you're doing for your family."  She had been a vegetarian for 3 years and stopped, but wanted to start back up again!  Nice to hear something positive for a change, lol!  I've been a vegetarian for 15 1/2 years and I don't miss eating meat at all.  The thought of eating it makes me gag!  (I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but there is a little boy in Venily's class who is ALSO a vegetarian.  He's really cute.  I hope they get married someday!  ♥ )

No turkey aside (not that it affects us whatsoever), we had a great thanksgiving!  We went to Jason's parents house first, ate, and went straight to my grandparents where we ate again, lol!  :)  The girls had a great time playing with all of their cousins and 2nd cousins and were pretty well behaved despite not having a nap and having their schedules all messed up for the day!

I went shopping Thanksgiving morning for some last minute Xmas presents!  I am mostly done, but still have a few more things to buy.  I didn't go out at all Thanksgiving night or on Black Friday.  No, thanks!  Haven't ever done the craziness and from what I've heard, I'm just not interested!

The girls have been so excited about Xmas and Santa!!!!!   It's the best bribing tool ever!  We sent them videos from the Portable North Pole and they were amazed.  Venily isn't on the nice list yet.  I debated not sending her a video that said that, but she was being really naughty and I decided to go for it, lol!  It has actually helped tremendously.  She is very serious about wanting to get on the nice list to get her presents so she is working really hard on "listening to her parents"!  We saw Santa last weekend and the girls actually did really well!  They both stood next to him for a picture and they both talked to him!  (though Haven was relieved to get away from him ASAP, haha).

I think we're going to spend the day today getting our Xmas decorations up!!!!  The girls are so excited!! :)

LISA IS HOME.. LISA IS HOME... LISA IS HOME!!!!

My sister Lisa is home after being across the country for 10 months working for Americorps!  I only got to see her for a few days in July, other than that she has been busy working in the east coast and in the south on different service projects.  The girls sent her videos and Skyped with her a few times and talked about her ALL the time, but I was surprised at just how much they acted like she never had left!  She came home on Friday and as soon as she walked in the door, Haven ran up and hugged her.  Then I had to leave to bring Venily to school 30 minutes after she had got here and she wanted to stay at my house with Haven while I left.  I didn't think Haven was going to go for that but she couldn't have cared less!  I LOVE having another person to be able to watch after the girls if I need to quick run somewhere or something!  I am SOOOOO glad she's back!!  (even though she's leaving for Colorado next summer for a year! :(  )

More Videos of the Girls! ♥

A Message to Santa From Haven
I LOVE this!!  I love that she says "Wuggles pets are junk!" (they totally are) and asks if Lisa has reindeers.  LOL! (Haven- 2 years, 1 month)



 Girls Crazy Dancing
Disclaimer- I did NOT teach them to dance like this.  They do NOT watch dancing like this.  This is all their own, lol!  I think they are really good dancers! :) (Venily- 4 years old, Haven- 2 years, 1 month)


Haven singing Adele
This is actually My, Venily's, and Haven's "song".  We like to turn it up in the car and sing as loudly as we can, lol.  Haven actually knows almost all the words, but this isn't that great of a video, she has a cold and is distracted.  I just thought Kylee was super funny in it, lol.  (And she was right!) (Haven- 2 years, 1 month old)


Carving Pumpkins!
I forgot to add this to my Halloween post!  LOL!  Talk about perfect timing.... haha! (Haven- 2 years old, Venily- 4 years old)


Haven- Halloween and Ballet
This was pre- trick-or-treating!  And showing some of her ballet moves as part of her "home-therapy"! ;)  (Haven- 2 years old)



And One From Haven's Birthday

Tooth #19! And cradle cap... (or something)!

A few days ago I realized that Haven got her top right 2 year molar.  ONLY ONE LEFT TO GO!!! (I should probably check again to see if the last one is in yet)...

Oh, and I made an appointment for Haven's crazy cradle cap stuff she's got going on.  It actually has been there for a few months, but we thought she just kept banging her head into stuff and it was scabs from that.  It is REALLY gross right now.  It looks like crusty scabs on her scalp (you can only see it really when it's wet though).  And when the "scabs" get pulled up, it is taking huge chunks of her hair up with it!  YUCK!!!  I have been trying to GROW her hair for over 2 years straight now and it is just coming out in nasty chunks, leaving bald spots! :(  Sooooooo..... we have a doctor appointment on Wednesday to see if she has any advice!

Venily's 1st Qtr Repord Card!!

I got Venily's 1st quarter report card today and she is doing terrific!  She got:

• 29 S's (S= secure and is the highest "grade" they can get)!!  

• 2 D's and 1 D+ (D= developing)

• NO B's (B= beginning and is the lowest grade they can get)

They have a TON of things they get tested on in various categories- Language and Communication, Reading Readiness Skills, Math, School/ Social Skills, Self-Help Skills, and Fine Motor Skills.

Her D's were in 

• Zips/buttons/snaps independently (no clue why since she does them all, but is maybe lazy about it at school?)
• Uses proper 3-finger grip (MY fault since I do not do it correctly and taught her wrong, lol, and they are now reteaching her the "right" way!)
• And a D+ in "Uses language to solve problems with others".  Something we are working on at home as well! 

 And the "S's" I'm MOST proud of are the following:

• Willing to speak in front of others!
• Participates in discussions!

Super happy with her very first ever real report card, lol!  ♥

And on the home front, we are hard at work on learning to read!  The words she is reading now blows my mind!  I am super proud of her!  I have the old school "Hooked On Phonics" series that we are playing around with and also a TON of library books on hold for beginning readers.  I've heard good things about the BOB series and am excited to get those in as well! 

The Fly!

There was a fly in my house that's been driving me crazy!  I got out the fly swatter yesterday to kill it and Venily says "What are you doing Mommy?!  You can't kill that fly.  He's my friend!  You are only allowed to kill mean bugs like bees and wasps!".  Right, I forgot, lol.... Well, today while Venily was at school that fly was driving me NUTS again.  I thought "well, what Venily doesn't know won't hurt her!".  I took the fly swatter out again and swatted the fly.  Haven looks at me and says "MOMMY!  Why did you hit that fly?!  He's nice!" so I scooped it up on the fly swatter and said "Look, I'm bringing him outside!".  After I closed the door she gave me a sad look and shakes her head and said "Why can't you let that friendly little guy stay inside?"

LOL!  What have I done?!  haha.  I'm actually really happy that I'm raising such thoughtful and considerate children! ♥

October Resolution Review!

I'm only worrying about my main resolution for the rest of the year!  I am also working on my resolutions for next year.  I have about 30 so far.  I had planned on 100, but I think that's really unrealistic since a few of them are really involved (like reading 100 books again!)!

 Resolution #1- Read 100 books this year.  So far I've read:

January- 11 books

February- 5 books

March- 10 books

April- 8 books

May- 11 books

June- 9 books

July- 5 books

August-  6 books

September- 9 books 
October-  9 books

 TOTAL: _84_ books (should have 83 1/3 read at this point!)

Status:  RIGHT on track.


This month I read Books 10-13 in the Dark Hunter series as well as a short story from the series (the more I read of them, the more I like them!).  I finally read the Sookie Stackhouse Companion book (I'd been on the waiting list for a long time) as well as Down These Strange Streets by Charlaine Harris.  And I read The Death Cure by Dashner (the final in the Mazerunner trilogy).  FANTASTIC series, even though the ending was pretty sad (not trying to ruin it for anyone).  I think the trilogy is very comparable to The Hunger Games trilogy.

ETA- I forgot!!  I also read The Help this month since EVERYONE talks about it and I've found that (unlike movies), if everyone says it's good, it's good!  I loved it!  I am dying to see the movie now!

Halloween!!

Also late, lol!  Oh, well!  I think Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!!!!

Halloween collages!

Venily wanted to be a butterfly this year and Haven wanted to be a pirate girl and a butterfly.  I was a butterfly as well!

Here are some pics from pumpkin carving!  Venily and Haven BOTH drew their own faces on their pumpkins and Jason carved them out for them!  I was really impressed with Haven's since I just handed her a marker and told her to draw a face!!!  She drew 2 mouths one on top, one on bottom, so we had to connect them, but other than that it was completely drawn by her!

(Venily's on the left, Haven's on the right!)

Venily had a pajama party at school to celebrate Halloween.  They also had a Halloween party in her classroom.  

THEN, they had a school-wide Halloween party AFTER school from 5-8pm, for all the students and their families!  I was impressed.  They had free pizza, punch, cupcakes, candy, and games, and a costume contest!  Jason threw a costume together last minute w/ stuff we had around the house and won 1st place for the adult costume contest!  I laughed so hard!!

On Saturday we went trick or treating at Spooky City in Burlington at all the businesses in town.  We had my niece and nephew with as well.  The kids had a lot of fun!

Saturday night, my niece and nephew spent the night and the next day we had more trick or treating fun around Lily Lake!  Venily decided to do her own makeup for that round, lol!  It was kind of cold, windy, and rainy, but the kids had fun nonetheless!  (except maybe Venily who fell and scraped her knee on the rocks in our driveway and insisted on being in the stroller the whole time.... :(

Overall, it was a great Halloween!  We did miss out on going on any hayrides this year... have to remember that for next year!!

I also have a Halloween clearance addiction! :)  I have gone out 3 different times and got a TON of stuff!  I just love it, a bunch of it I am giving to the girls for Xmas (new wigs, new costumes for dress up, etc).  We also got new hair color in every color imaginable!  (which we use all year round, lol) 

Venily- 4 year old updates!!

Obviously this is a little late, lol!  She turned 4 on October 13th! :)

I can't believe I now have a FOUR year old!!!!  Ahhh!  Happy 4th birthday Venily Autumn!!!!

PAST COMPARISONS:

3 1/4 year update:

http://youngmommyandwife.blogspot.com/2011/01/venily-is-3-14-years-old.html

3 Year Well Check:

http://youngmommyandwife.blogspot.com/2010/10/venilys-3-year-well-check.html

_________________________________________________________________________

Her measurements at 3 years:

HEIGHT: 39 inches (85%)

WEIGHT: 32 pounds (62%)

Her measurements at 4 years:

HEIGHT: 42 inches (92%)

WEIGHT: 35 pounds (62%)

Interesting that she stayed the same %ile for weight, but increased in height by 7%!

At 4 years old, Venily is a sassy, funny, always singing, always dancing, goofy, loveable, silly, passionate, crazy, caring, detail-oriented little girl! ♥   She amazes me each and every day with how smart she is and how well she can drive me nuts, lol! ;)

I always talk about how the nursery rhyme that fits her EXACTLY- and it is still as true as ever!!!

There was a little girl who had a little curl

right in the middle of her forehead

And when she was good,

she was very, very good

And when she was bad,

she was horrid!

LOL!  (Well, besides the curl part). :)  She can be SOOOO good and she can be SOOOO bad!  Luckily she has always been good at school so far and her teachers love her!  She saves her naughtiness for at home!  Sleep is definitely the #1 culprit, but sickness and hunger bring on her naughty side as well!

Venily and I definitely have had our issues this past year.  Our personalities don't quite mix as well as I'd like, but that's what keeps things interesting and fun, lol! Right?!  I love her with all my heart and she was the first person who taught me what being a mom was all about. ♥

She skipped terrible 2's all together and made up for it with the Terrible 3's for sure!  Now that she is 4, all that is going to change.  (at least I can hope so!)

AND SOME RANDOM UPDATES:

She still has the absolute most amazing memory.  She remembers things weeks, months, YEARS later that I have to really think about before it finally comes back to me.  She has also taken to reading road signs and memorizing street names (like # and letter roads).  I have only started learning roads in the last couple of years, lol!

Just a few days ago she asked me if she could go back to the IKEA drop off day care place and then went into a detailed description of everything that was there and everything that she did during that one hour she was there (that was last December, lol, over a year ago!)!

Her favorite things to do right now are to color.  She colors CONSTANTLY!!  She also wants to write letters CONSTANTLY!!  In her take-home folder I also get like 5 colored pictures each day from school too! :)

I overheard Venily giving Haven a lecture on "mutual respect".  I kid you not, lol!  I was listening in in the next room and trying not to laugh! :)  I love her school so much and her teachers are AMAZING!!!!!!  I was talking to one of her teachers the other day and she was telling me that Venily (even though she's the youngest in the class) is the most "with it" in the class.  A teacher will ask the class a question and she'll look around like "what, don't any of you know the answer?" before she'll raise her hand and answer.  (Super funny b/c I was the EXACT same way in school!).  She also gives kids "looks" when they aren't behaving or are talking while the teacher is trying to talk.  Is it bad that I'm happy that she's a little teacher's pet?!  Haha!  :)  She gets her 1st report card this Friday!

(And I should add that the 20 hour Venily-free break a week is helping me out a lot!!!!)

She is a great big sister and loves to play "babysitting" where she is Haven's babysitter and takes care of her.  She runs around after her saying "Your babysitter will help you!" and then helps Haven do things that she already knows how to do all by herself, lol!  They definitely play nicely together more often than they fight still, but they do fight on occasion as well.  I'm hoping they are able to keep this same balance for the rest of their lives!

Venily loves all of her friends.  She has a few really good friends from school that she talks about constantly.  She also loves riding her bike and power wheel cars around the block and with her neighbor friends, Hailey and Parker.  Hailey and her parents have been over to our house several times now and the girls love running back and forth between the 2 houses and trading toys on the bus, haha.

One time she was at Hailey's house and her mom made her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Venily bit into it and said "I think I'm allergic to this sandwich!".  LOL!  Her mom freaked out, but Venily is only allergic to Amoxicillian, I guess it COULD have been really bad if she was allergic though!  She also asked her one time "Do you have any meat?".  !!!!!!!!!  She wanted to eat meat at their house even though she has been a vegetarian since conception and has NEVER eaten meat!  I am in so much trouble with her!...

She has a sense of style that is all her own.  She would wear dresses and skirts every single day if I let her and loves to combine very interesting pieces of clothing together, lol.  The other day she insisted on wearing tap shoes to shop with me at Walmart.  She also had a T-shirt, wool skirt, w/ pants on underneath and colorful socks, LOL! :)  We went to Jason's grandma's 80th birthday and days before she insisted that she wanted to go as a cat and did her own "cat" makeup before we went, lol!  She also ALWAYS asks me to put colors in her hair.  We stocked up on tons of new colors from Halloween clearance!  I'm so excited, lol! :)

She is doing a little better with the whole "no nap" thing.  She still gets insanely hyper when she comes home from school and then crashes pretty hard though.  On the weekends I can still persuade her to take a nap, so that's good!  She goes to bed between 8pm and 8:30pm most nights and wakes up at 6:45am most mornings.  For a while she was sleeping in even later than that, but with the time change now everything is all screwed up! :(

Tooth #18

Haven has been a crabby patty for the last 2 days straight.  She's been sticking her fingers way back in her mouth, so of course I know it's her darn teeth!  I checked today after LOTS of whining (which is very un-Havenlike), and her bottom left 2 year molar has cut through!  I was thinking it was going to be the other top 1st, but nope.  She is still working on one more on the top and one more on the bottom (they look close).  I'm hoping they decide to cut through soon as well!