Zeke is Reading!

This is a video of the first ever STORY TIME with ZEKE! Or, at least a small clip of it. The way we're having to upload videos right now only lets you do 90 seconds. If you didn't see it, don't miss the Sierra Sweetness in the post below.

Sierra

So, this is supposed to be a really cute video of Sierra waving bye-bye and giving a high five, but alas, blogger has been blocked in our country and thus I can't get the video to load.

Note: Oh good, mom says it's working for you guys even though we can't see it here. Enjoy!

Sunday Morning Conversation...

Zeke has been sick the last few days with fever, but it's been over 24 hours since the fever left. Sierra, however, started running fever yesterday and continues today, so this morning, Dan was planning on taking Zeke and Kaiyah to church. Sierra was going to stay home with Tami. We explained this to the kids, and this is the conversation that followed:

Zeke: "I don't think I should go to church either, since I still have a snotty nose."

Tami: "The fever is the bigger deal, and you haven't had fever for 24 hours, so it's probably okay for you to go, but if you feel like you should stay here, that's okay, too.

Zeke: "I think I better stay here."

Tami: "Okay."

Dan: "So, just me and Kaiyah will go then."

Kaiyah: (high fives Dan)

Five minutes later...

Zeke, to Dan in the kitchen: "Actually, Daddy, I think I should go with you."

Dan: "That'll be good. Why did you decide that?"

Zeke: "Well, I thought Mommy was going to play here, but she said she's just going to listen to church and study."

Fun stuff.

Be sure not to miss Kaiyah's story below...

Kaiyah cuteness

The last few days Kaiyah has been wrapping her arms around me and saying, "You're my hero." This morning she got stuck behind a chair and I got her out. She came over, gave me a hug and said, "You're my hero, mommy, you're my hero. [Sierra crying in the backgroud]. And you're Sierra's hero too!" Too cute, but do you think she watches too much Higglytown Heroes?

Salad Party!!!

Yay, a salad party! Wait, what?

That's right. We got invited to a salad party at Zeke's school today. Not knowing what to expect, we showed up at the school and were led to Zeke's classrooms, where we saw a rather large group of adults seated in kids' chairs along the wall. We joined them and watched as the students were marched in wearing their special chef outfits.

The students gathered around a table filled with all sorts of salad items, some of which included peas, carrots, potatoes, and corn. They played some music and told the kids to make a salad until the music stopped. Some kids were piling their plates high with salad. One kid was crying. Zeke was slowing making himself a very very small salad.

Once the music stopped, the kids stopped making salad, and the kids were led one by one to their parents to give them a taste of their salad. Zeke, when he saw the first kids giving it to their parents, he started to sneak more food onto his plate, I guess knowing that he didn't have to eat it.

After most of the kids went, we got our bite of salad, exclaimed how good it was, and put a little paper metal around his neck. Then all the students were marched out, we were thanked for joining, and that was it. It took about half an hour, but it was fun, and definitely educational. (-:

New Years Party

Our New Year's Eve celebration in this house was nothing to blog about. However, Z had a costume party at school for the occasion! When they told us the children should dress up we asked, "Like spiderman?" knowing we had a spiderman costume at home. But, spiderman was unacceptable apparently. Luckily, Maw Maw and Paw Paw's Christmas present to Z came to the rescue and he went as a fireman!

And she is off . . .

Let's Have a Tea Party...

Kaiyah got a tea set from Zeke for Christmas and she really likes to play tea party with her baby, whose name, incidentally, is Baby. Today, she was playing and Dan turned on a kids' song called, "Let's Have a Tea Party." Kaiyah stood up and said, excitedly, "That my tea party song!" and then she asked it to be played over and over again. Fun stuff.

Sierra, continued...

Here's what Tami was talking about in the post below (read it if you haven't). Sierra loves the camera. She can be pitching a really big fit about something, and if we pick up the camera and take her picture, she immediately stops crying and starts smiling. Usually, we can't even get a picture of her when she's crying, but the picture below shows a progression of about 10 seconds. She's a mess.

Sierra is 6 months old!

Yesterday, Sierra was officially 6 months old. Where has the time gone? At six months, here's a little bit about Sierra:

* She can sit up for a few seconds, but isn't really stable yet.
* She is up on all fours and lunging around the living room. I have no doubt it will be a full blown crawl in no time.
* She loves to eat and is pretty good at feeding herself "fist foods."
* She does not like crowds . . . AT ALL. We discovered this Thanksgiving Day, and it was confirmed again last night at our Christmas party. Our typically laid back, happy baby becomes pretty hysterical in crowds, to the point of being a challenge to calm down. It's the strangest thing. She has also developed 'stranger anxiety', crying whenever someone she doesn't know well talks to her. Notable exceptions, there have been several 30-something single guys that she has been perfectly happy to spend the evening sitting in their laps.
* She is her daddy's girl, whenever she is crying, Dan gets out the camera to take a picture and she IMMEDIATELY starts smiling. She's a mess!

From the mouths of babes

Picture Tami in the kitchen washing dishes . . .

Zeke: Can you play with me?

Kaiyah: Can you hold me?

Tami: Do I look like I can play with Zeke or hold Kaiyah?

Zeke: God should have given you 100 hands so you can do everything your kids want.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Indian and Pilgrim planting corn"

"What I'm thankful for"

Smiley Sierra Nicole

This little girl melts my heart...

Our little monkey...

Fun in the Leaves!!

Last weekend we happened upon a bunch of trees with fall leaves! It's funny the little things in life that can bring such joy. Trees and leaves aren't the most common sight what with living in a big city. All the kids wanted to do was to make a pile of leaves and jump in it . . . so, that's what we did!

Zeke the Realist...

Zeke's our little realist...

From Tami:

Zeke was feeding his Bonko Bear. I said, “Aww, you’re a good daddy.” Zeke looked shocked and said, “I’m not a daddy. This is just a pretend bear. I’m just pretending to feed him.” I looked at Kaiyah feeding her baby. “Are you that baby’s mommy?” Kaiyah, “Uh-huh!” Zeke to Kaiyah, “That’s just a pretend baby!”

The other night we were eating dinner and Kaiyah called me Daddy. So I took it upon myself to call her Zeke and call Zeke Kaiyah. Kaiyah thought it was the funniest thing in the world. She laughed so hard she got hiccups. Zeke, in the meantime was on the other side of the table yelling, “NO! I’m Zeke, not Kaiyah!” He kept saying, “You’re just joking, aren’t you, Mommy.” I finally told him I was and he said, “Well, why did you joke like that for so long?”

From Dan:

A few weeks ago, we were on a boat and Kaiyah started to pick something up off the ground, or at least I thought she did. So, I held out my hand, and she dropped something, which appeared to be nothing, in my hand. I proceeded to pop the imaginary food in my mouth, chew it up, and swallow it. She giggled and bent down to get me something else. Shortly thereafter, she held out her hand and I did the same for her. This was the first time I had tried this game with Kaiyah, and she's the one who instigated it. I tried something similar with Zeke when he was about Kaiyah's age, and he said, "But there's nothing there." He has also always felt a need to clarify whether things are real or pretend, whereas Kaiyah, pretends that everything is real. It's really funny.

Ah, the differences in children…

Zeke's speaking Turkish!!!

Well, a little. We picked Zeke up at preschool the other day and his teacher said, quite excitedly, "Zeke said 'Hayır' today!" Then, today, when we went to get him, she said, "He's not just saying 'Hayır' anymore. Today he said 'Yapma'!" "Hayır" means "no" and "yapma" means "don't do that." Well, it's a start. (-:

All the happenings . . .

Zeke just completed his first week of preschool! Friday was a little tough, but in general he did incredible, far better then I ever expected. I'm so thankful! So far we have been very pleased with how the school manages everything. Zeke's favorite things about school thus far are getting to play computer games and getting fruit tea for breakfast!

Even with all this growing up he is still my little boy. Periodically he will come up to me and say, "Can you cuddle me mommy, since I haven't had much cuddle time today?" Such a sweetie.

I wasn't sure how Kaiyah would respond to Zeke being gone so much, but I think she is enjoying getting to rule the house a few hours every day! There is also a big park right by Zeke's school, so she has enjoyed getting to play there a few times this week.

I love listening to Kaiyah talk. It is sometimes hard to pass on the cute little things they say and do at this age. An example is this: "Kaiyah shewwee not, mommy." or "Want to play hide and seek not, want to play beach ball." When she answers a question affirmatively, she often says, "Uh huh. Oh yea!" And the other day we were playing brown bear, brown bear. At the end of the game Kaiyah told me to ask her "Brown bear, brown bear what do you see?" She responded, "I see mommy's blue eyes looking at me!" Ha.

Sierra is 3 months old today! She can roll both directions, but more typical is for her to roll from back to front and then squeal until someone flips her over. Then she promptly rolls over again, and so the cycle continues. She is still a pretty easy, laid back baby. She goes to bed between 7 and 8 at night and wakes up between 7 and 8 the next morning. We'll take that! It is fun to watch as she starts to observe her brother and sister. She'll be in on the fun before we know it!

Rolling Over Now!!!

Alright, enough of the smiles. (See the video below.) Sierra's rolling over now! She learns something new every day!

Sierra in the morning...

This is a video from the last day of vacation. There will probably be more later. Sierra likes to give her Daddy smiles in the morning...