4 month old Sophia

What is Sophia up to these days?

* well, she's been rolling over this week - that's fun to watch. She doesn't like being on her tummy, so she has motivation to roll onto her back. But not vice versa.

* started on some baby rice cereal, but not too thrilled about it yet.

* enjoys sitting in her bumbo seat and watching everyone around her.

* if you put a rattle in her hand, she loves to shake it and tries to put it in her mouth, every time.

* Caleb and Sydney have been taking turns playing "peek-a-boo" with her and love to make her laugh over and over again.

* Sophia has gone for walks in her stroller (for the first time) this week. Temperatures have been in the 60s all week, so Caleb has enjoyed going to the parks with her.

* If the TV is on while she is drinking milk, she will turn her head towards the TV. She's probably wondering what's so interesting that everyone else is starring at.

* At dinner time, she has to be in a bouncer right by the table or be held, otherwise she'll start to complain. She wants to be with us!

* She's already starting to hold her bottle by herself. Good, strong grip!

* Enjoyed sitting in the baby swing at the neighbor's play center this week.

Piano lessons & Tumbling

Sydney has already had a one month of piano lessons with her music teacher from school and she is doing very well ! Ms. Nielsen gives her private lessons every Wednesdays after school and says that Sydney is very musical and has great finger movements on the piano. A few months ago, I was told that Sydney might be a little too young for piano lessons but Ms. Nielsen thinks that Sydney is very ready and keen on learning. She will ask me if she can practice the piano almost everyday but she doesn't like to practice the difficult pages. I can relate to that. We are so proud of her. Now, Caleb asks if he can practice the piano as well. I love the way the "positive" things rub off on him as well.

Caleb is doing tumbling / beginners gymnastics at Twistars in DeWitt. He loves it...and he's always bouncing around and asking me to look at him doing all his fun flips and kicks. His favorite is the trampoline and doing donkey kicks. I hope to enroll him in kids soccer this summer because I think he'll enjoy that too.

I wonder what Sophia will be interested in.

Sunday school humor

After church, we came home for lunch as usual. I often like to find out what the kids learned or did in class. Sydney had a lot to say about her lesson....she even went as far as saying that Abraham lived in a city called "Ur".

On the other hand, Caleb learned about Daniel in the lion's den but he wasn't interested in talking about his class. Mommy still decided to ask questions and the conversation went like this:

Mommy: Caleb, did you make a lion puppet today?

Caleb: **silence** (but nodding "yes")

Mommy: Who was in the lion's den ?

Caleb: Noah

Mommy: Noah? Noooo.....

Daddy: "Was it David in the Lion's Den?"

Caleb: Nah....

Mommy: Caleb, who was in the lion's den?

Caleb: ** still no answer**

Sydney: (she always has to try and say something on behalf of little brother) It's Daniel !

Mommy: Caleb....why was Daniel in the lion's den?

Caleb: Uhm....because Daniel liked the lion's den.

** rest of the family laughing... **

Mommy: Did Daniel pray to God when he was in the lion's den? What did God do?

Caleb: God spanked the lions.

** Daddy, Mommy and Sydney burst out laughing **

Needless to say, I stopped asking questions after that. Looks like Caleb's learning a lot!

Fighting over the broom

I don't think it's too early to start a 5 and a 3 year old on chores around the house, right?! After dinner, John usually does the dishes and Mommy ends up on the couch feeding the baby. Somehow, we came up with the idea that Sydney and Caleb can help clean up as well. There's usually food crumbs that surround their chairs so we've asked Sydney to use the big broom to sweep the crumbs into piles and Caleb takes the small broom and sweeps them up. They usually fight over who gets to do what and both seem eager to clean up. Caleb has to learn to stop running to the trash can with the little dustpan as he often drops everything he cleans up. Sydney has to learn to stop giving so many directions to little brother, who's only concerned about sweeping a little here and there and running to empty it out. Mommy has to learn to be patient as she steps onto little crumbs that have fallen all over the kitchen floor because she's got to do the job all over again with a vacuum cleaner instead. If only the excitement about cleaning kitchen floors could last till they become teens!