Finding Time...

Trying to find time to update is difficult. In a world of time-outs and hyper kids, it's hard to just take a moment to think about the good things.

My kids are now at the age that they are constantly at each other's throats. Jealousy abounds in our house lately. If one gets something, the other is in tow, wondering where their prize is. If one is being good, it's inevitable that one is being naughty. Such is the life of 2 and 4 year olds.

Ridley is starting to get full-on ready for Kindergarten. Learning her address, phone number, and other such items is hard for her to comprehend, but she's getting there. She's writing all of her letters really well, and is finally getting the concept of time. She now calls tomorrow tomorrow instead of yesterday. Small goals, big rewards! She'll be taking a test in January or February to get into Hawthorne Elementary's ELP program (Extended Learning Program). This is an all day kindergarten program for advanced students. I don't want my kids to get bored in school like I eventually did, so we need to make sure to keep them challenged as much as possible. This program also includes after school hours for a number of different activities, like piano or violin lessons, basic gymnastics, and a lot of other choices. Once the time gets closer, we'll let her choose her after school activity. This is a great program, especially for us, since I cannot change my work schedule easily. Knowing that I'll be able to pick her up from school around 5:30 is a great relief.

Harper is talking up a storm and loves to have books read to her. She is doing everything she can to keep up with big sis, and is acting older than her 2 years all the time. She's climbing, jumping, yelling, hitting, running - everything and more you could expect. Her speech is growing by leaps and bounds every day, and we can actually understand almost everything she says now! Even though Spongebob Squarepants still comes out as "Baba Dada", we know what she means :)

Work has been steady for both of us. There have been layoffs all around me at my work, but I'm confident that I'm in the clear, at least for now. Andrew's business is finally starting to pick up at work, which is a good sign for holiday retail sales. If he can keep having up numbers, he might even bonus, but we're not keeping our fingers crossed.

I'll do better at keeping this updated. This is much longer than I had originally intended, so hopefully I've got it all covered :)