7 year update

Ok so,

The girls are now 7 years old and continue to grow steadily. They're in the first grade and unfortunately, both are struggling with those preemie issues. Bella is good in math, which is crazy for me since that was my worst subject ever. Lily says she's an artist and loves doing her own crafts at home, much to the dismay of my clean home. She's had an IEP at school since her kindergarten year but ADD and SLD were added to the mix. Autism may also be a consideration we're currently exploring. We're just going to have to work harder, people!

Bella still remains true to Ryan, her "boyfriend" of 4 years now. The both of them live to see each other on play dates. 

Last June, we took a trip to Florida to take a cruise to the Caribbean and to spend some time at Disneyworld with my best friend, Amee, and her family. Even with the terrible heat, we had a blast. The girls both ventured into new worlds they had never seen or tried before- riding fast rides for the first time and sampling German food at Epcot. 

In December, we took another cruise- this time to Hawaii. What a blast we all had visiting the islands and experiencing a luau. The girls learned to Hula dance and spent Christmas and their 7th birthday on the beach in Maui. The sites were breathtaking.

When we returned, I started my crusade to clean the house and purge all the grown-out-of toys. It was sad to see some of them go but happy that the girls were not particularly upset about it. Perhaps this is because of their recent foray into the wonderful, exciting and expensive world of American Girl Dolls. AG and Barbie seem to be the only toys they play with these days. 

While Bella is understandably unsure about what she wants to be when she grows up, Lily is sure she wants to be a farmer!

As for Augie, he's been promoted to 6th grade counselor at work and I continue to teach my AP students as well as my beloved 11th grade US history students. 

  

5 year update...

ok so,

The girls are 5 1/2 years old now. I know, I am remiss for not having posted for 3 years now but a lot of things have been going on. We've moved to a great new place in another county. The girls are in a great school district and have even just started kindergarten in public school! Hard to believe, I know!  Unfortunately, both my mother and father have passed away and the girls no longer have grandparents. Still, the girls are thriving and happy and beautiful.

Lily is a girl's girl, she loves pink, dress-up, tea parties and pretty things. She colors quite nicely and loves to sing and dance. Bella was recently diagnosed ADHD. She is high energy, super intelligent and very creative. She's sensitive and cooperative and loves to be the little helper. She loves to make up skits with her sister and the two of them often do crafts together to add to their pretend play. They both are mischievous and Bella is often then leader of their kinder follies. Partners in crime, they are consummate frienemies and each others' security blanket.

Easter 2010!

ok so...

Another Easter, another great year. What big girls I have here! We finally moved to toddler beds in February after Lily climbed over to Bella's side one afternoon naptime. I was so, so sorry to see their beautiful corner cribs go. I was able to sell them on Ebay for the same price that I bought them on Ebay originally for. However, I also included the Pottery Barn Kids bedding that we bought for a mint (and tailored just in the nic of time before the girls arrived in late December, 07).

Bella & Lily have both mastered "the sentence". Bella excels at anything language oriented while Lily is great at almost anything physical. They both LOVE to be read to and when they play alone, they'll "read" books on their own. They've also started cooperative and pretend play. They LOVE to have tea parties almost as much as they love to sing. Both of them know many of the words to many children's songs including the "A, B, C" song. Bella's favorite song is Rock-a-Bye, Baby while Lily loves Itsy, Bitsy Spider. Lily also loves to rock out to just about any music she hears on TV or the radio. They both love to pretend that they can fly and will sing Peter Pan's theme You Can Fly, You Can Fly, You Can Fly, especially when they're on a swing at the park.

They're both still under 30lbs and, according to their 2-year check-up, will not be terribly tall as adults. 5'3, Dr. Starzack predicts. Sure does make a change from their mama!

The Terrible 2's x 2!

ok so...

I thought turning two, even on Christmas day, is warranted of a separate post, so here it is:

Along with Christmas dinner, the girls had their second birthday party at Aunt Judy's house this year. Luckily, they were pleased as punch about it and didn't even mind that mama left their birthday presents at home. After spending all morning opening Christmas presents, the girls (especially Bella) was more interested in eating cake. Lily was very dainty about it, eating the cake and ice cream neatly and exclaiming "all done" after a few small bites. Bella, however, threw herself right into eating as much cake and ice cream as she could get her hands on, finally settling on 2 slices of cake...and in record time! They had a great birthday. They each got a baby doll (one with blue eyes and one with brown) from nana that they fell in love with.

Christmas 2009!

ok so...

To offset the passing of their Grandpa Bakenhus this summer, Santa was VERY generous to the girls this Christmas. Along with loads of birthday gifts, the girls were showered with more than enough Christmas presents...so many that some of them still lay under the tree awaiting their opening in the days to come. Along with oodles of books and dvd's, Choo choo trains and Tinker Bell were the most noticable themes this year, but Barney, Teddy Bears and everything ballet was a close second. The girls opened about half their gifts Christmas morning and off we went to Aunt Judy's house to open more presents, see the rest of the family, pop English crackers, hear daddy play the violin, play the drum with Uncle Ken, run around the hard wood floor and most importantly, celebrate the girls' second birthday with a party.

After several wardrobe changes, Uncle Kenny showed off his holiday photography skills yet again: