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Last Updated: Monday, June 30, 2008 |
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Filyaw Family |
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June 28, 2008 Hi Everyone, Did you think I would never update? I know it’s been awhile. I’m taking advantage of the 10 hour drive to Ohio to update. I figure I can work until the laptop battery dies.
Everyone had been busy with work and school. Let me do a quick recap for you and then you can check out the photos and the videos. Yes, I have updated both.
The girls got cameras for Christmas as I may have mentioned. Well Brianna is becoming a little photographer. She sets up photo shoots with her Barbies and her babies. She even does “still lifes” with the doll furniture and plastic food. Some are actually quite good. I’ve included a few in the photos section. I also have a whole collection of photos of her school work. I can’t possibly save everything that comes home. Brianna and I went through the piles of stuff and selected which we would keep, give to Nanny & Papa, give to Grandma & Grandpa or trash. We took pictures of most everything. Some of the pictures I have put in the photos section. Her penmanship has greatly improved from the beginning of the year. She can write her first and last name. She recognizes all of her letters and knows almost all of their sounds. She also recognizes her numbers up to 20. She even knows some Spanish! We are still working on counting up to 100. Her 4K teacher gave them summer homework. Basically a little assignment for each day, about 10 minutes. Her speech is much better. She still has a tendency to baby talk a little when talking to adults or when she gets excited. It makes it difficult to understand her. Once again I was told she is very quite in class. Her assistant teacher would never believe that she could talk a mile a minute. However, her teacher knows she can. Every afternoon when she got in Nanny’s car she would just start talking non-stop. Her Summer Camp instructor, Courtney, is actually her 4K Teacher’s daughter. Courtney asked her mom the other day if Brianna ever stopped talking. I guess the good thing is Brianna knows she is not supposed to talk during class. Of course the last few weeks of school she did get in trouble for talking!
Kiersten has grown up so much in the past 6 months. She is fully potty trained. We still use a pull-up at night because it’s just not worth the occasional middle of the night upset. She has given up her pacifiers—yikes. That was painful for us too. At times I still just want to give her one. She’s a lot more whiney now. It used to be when she was tired or upset she would self sooth with the paci. Now she wants to be vocal about it. However, she still falls asleep easily, thank GOD! She finished up at Mother’s Morning Out and is now at Summer Camp with Brianna. They are both at All Saints. Of course they are in separate classes. She gives Nanny a hard time during drop off but she wants to go back every morning so it must be fun. We had a small party for her on her birthday. Just a couple other families with small children. It was so much fun. The 31st was a Saturday. So the next day going into church she told me she was a big girl and was not going to the nursery anymore. I could tell she was willing to put up a big fight over this proclamation. Normally we promote in August. However, it being summer and folks being on vacation and attendance at times low I asked if she could go to 3K early. Well not being one to cause a scene the teacher that morning said sure come join us. Well there was no turning back. She loved it and she was ready. I keep checking to make sure she is not being disruptive and they tell me she participates, listens and seems to follow the lesson. She does try and give us a recap during lunch sometimes. One of her Sunday school friends is in her Summer Camp class. She thinks she is grown!
Both girls sang in the Half Notes choir performance at the Methodist Manor, which is a retirement community in town. It’s a small crowd so we let Kiersten give it a try. She tried to steal the show. I do have a little video of it. We still haven’t let her perform on Sunday morning. There is a big difference between 20 people and 300+.
In April we went to Disney World. Wow, we all loved it. The girls were in awe. It was very magical. I have lots of pictures. The drive was long but OK. There was a lot of “are we there yet?” We also had some afternoon melt downs which drove Brian crazy but of course he usually misses the 5 pm bewitching hour at the house. Overall I think they did wonderful with the super long days packed with one excitement after another. Magic Kingdom was their favorite. Brianna will tell you all about it, if you ask be prepared to sit for awhile. Brian bribed Brianna to ride the Star Wars and Tower of Terror in Hollywood Studios. She picked out two small sets of figurines (similar to Polly pockets). Star Wars was not so bad. She didn’t want to do it again. However, after Tower of Terror she told me she would never ride it again. It was scary and she wanted her toy! She had asked for a big castle playset and Brian told her she could have it if she rode the Tower again. She didn’t ask for it again. The last night we had dinner with Cinderella at the castle. It was worth every penny and it was the best meal we had, mmm prime rib. We also bought the extra tickets to attend the Pirate and Princess party after hours. There were a limited number of tickets so rides had no lines. We finally got to ride the race cars in Tomorrowland. The girls enjoyed “driving”.
In May we had dance recital and end of year festivities. Both girls did great in their recitals. I don’t really have pics, you’ll have to wait until I get the video. I do have their official dance pics though—very pretty/adorable.
May 22nd Brian’s cousins Christy & Ebben welcomed Maddox and Mallory. However, Mallory and Maddox were a little to anxious to join us. They were born at 25 weeks. Both were under 2 lbs. They are doing well all things considered. Maddox is over 3 lbs and Mallory is 2 1/2 lbs. When you read this please say a prayer for their continued progress.
Brianna had a big girl birthday party at Fundaygo. Fundaygo is a big indoor inflatable play yard. It’s all the craze with her age. The theme was littlest pet shop.
I have been traveling a lot recently. I’ve been to Brussels and Luxembourg (yes, in Europe) and Philly. I’ll be in Richmond, VA and Circleville, OH in July. Hopefully August will be quiet.
Now we are off to Ohio for pre-4th festivities.
Take care everyone. {{{HUGS}}} and XXXKissesXXX
Monica, Brian, Brianna, and Kiersten
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