dyeing eggs

 papa always gets to head up the task of dyeing easter eggs.  i love how they look, but to be honest i don't have the patience for the dyeing.  with the most patient papa on the planet, these kids have the perfect partner for this job. 

good friday

we enjoyed Good Friday with our friends the Nawroths.  First, we had them over for a playdate and easter egg lunch.  Janet and I filled plastic eggs with lunch food (cheese, crackers, fruit, nuts, etc) and then hid the eggs for the kids to find.  it was super fun!  the kids really enjoyed finding their lunch and thought it was hilarious that they were eating out of eggs (or from a big pile on the table) rather than a plate.  later in the day, we met up with the Nawroths again at Holy Cross Church in Mt Adams for their Good Friday fish fry.  this has become a tradition for our families the past few years (we took greta and ella when they were just 5/6 months old and have gone every year since) and i hope it continues each year!

who dey!

speaking of teeny tiny greta, here's an old video of her singing the bengals fight song. this never gets old.

dance dance dance

 greta started taking dance classes at a studio called dance express.  it's been fantastic...she loves it and has actually learned quite a few "moves".  this winter, she had her first dance recital.  the picture above was right around the time she looked at me and said, "i'm not dancing".  but our girl was so brave....she did dance and it was such a delight to see her on stage.  when she is nervous she sucks her bottom lip in.  hence, the face she is making in the pictures.  but she did her moves, despite her frosty the snowman hat falling off as soon as they started.  greta, we are so proud of you. 

yoga

greta got a yoga mat and a yoga dvd for her birthday, and she tried it out today. well, she and otto tried it out. they both laid out mats, and then greta moved through the poses like an experienced yogi while otto sat on his mat with the boppy pillow, sucking his thumb and staring blankly at the screen.

child's pose, anyone?

birthday girl

so our greta girl turned four. we had a day of beautiful weather to celebrate our girl with our family. it was a fun day, complete with a princess cake (per request)!

this girl

she continues to amaze us. you would think that having a degree in early childhood education and working in this field with 3-6 year olds for over 10 years would mean that not much would surprise me. but when it's your own child.....it's all pretty much amazing.

we all know that our girl can read. i mean, READ. like chapter books. it's crazy.
and she can compose words with the moveable alphabet at school, using wooden letters to "write" words.
but now she is starting to put pen (marker) to paper and actually physically write. STORIES.

she didn't want me to take a picture of her story, but i had to. the part in black says, "one day a princess climbed a tree and fell and a prince saved her"
look closely. very closely. and you can see some of the words. "wun da"(one day) are the first two words. and you can see "tee" at the end of the first line (tree). and the last few letters in black say "sav hr" (save her).
yes, she's got a ways to go to get from phonetic spelling to conventional. but give her a break. she just turned four.
we think she's amazing.
even with green crayon on her teeth and mucus running out of her nose.

another trip around the sun

our sweet greta girl turned four! i was lucky enough to get to observe her birthday celebration at school, just like last year. looking back at the pictures and posts from last year, it is crazy to see how different greta looks. i mean, obviously she's bigger. but she just looks so much more like a KID and less like a toddler. her face and her body have thinned out. where did that baby girl go? it was amazing to watch and see how much she has grown and changed in just one year. she is still our sweet, sensitive girl. but she is also confident and capable and more outgoing and is just turning into such a amazing person.
i like these pictures because you can see how lovely her classroom is....and some of her sweet little friends are in the pictures.
happy birthday greta josephine!

yo gabba gabba

yo gabba gabba has been a family favorite around here since before our kids were born. joe discovered this show and we realized that it was decent to watch....had good lessons, funny characters, and real rock music with bands we like. we sort of decided that if our kids HAD to watch tv, they should watch this show. luckily, they like it too.
we decided to take greta to see yo gabba gabba live when it came to cincinnati last week for an early birthday present. she was a little under the weather and the show was right at naptime, so she was a little less enthusiastic than i'd hoped she'd be. but we both loved the show. we sang along, we danced, and had a great time. the best part (we both agreed) was when biz markie (that's right!) came out and did some beat-boxing and then he had kids up on stage to try it out. and then his dj played some old school music (think early michael jackson) and it was a big dance party.

twinkle toes

greta has been asking to take dance class for a while now. so a few weeks ago she started class at dance express in ft. thomas. we had to get all the gear....tap shoes, ballet shoes, leotard, etc etc. and she loves it! i was nervous for her for the first class, as we all know how greta is with things that are new and not our typical routine. but she did great! the parents got to stay in the room for the first class, so i think helped.
it's so cute to watch the class. to get them all to face forward, the teacher will say, "look and see how pretty you look!" and all the girls turn towards mirror and smile shyly at themselves. maybe i shouldn't like that part, but i do. and there's lots of turn taking and listening and all those skills that are just as important as the dancing.....

can you spot greta in the photos?
otto was enthralled when he got to go watch. something tells me we might have a little billy elliott someday soon.

super greta

even superheroes like to read. while sitting in the bumbo seat.

bronson arroyo

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a few weeks ago, our whole family plus ellie, jacob,and grandpa hansbauer, headed down to the ballpark for yet another reds game. on this particular day, the giveaway for kids was "bronson arroyo plush doll". we had been telling the kids about this doll, and they were super excited. they like to call it by its full name, such as, "have you seen my bronson arroyo plush doll?" ellie didn't want hers, so we actually ended up with three. and poor bronson(s). within a few minutes of being home, all three of them were stripping naked. they've sat in the bumbo seat, been fed raisins in the car, and most recently i caught greta breastfeeding one of them. hilarious.

natural reader

sound and letters have been greta's 'thing' for some time now. when she was little, she was constantly asking us what the sound and name of letters was. by the time she was 2 or so, she knew the names and sounds of every letter in the alphabet. she was able to memorize parts of books and repeat them easily. after she started school this year and started composing words with the Moveable Alphabet, she began to read. she was able to read 3-letter, phonetic words (cat, mud, tin, etc). we checked a set of early readers (BOB books) out of the library, and she could read them. however, she wasn't all that interested and would get frustrated easily. i mean, come on, she had just turned 3 and was READING. so we let it be. we knew she was getting the stimulation at school to encourage her skills, so we just let it be. this was tough for me, but i knew it was best not to push.
lately, we have noticed her reading words more and more. words in books, on signs, cereal boxes, everywhere. so when school let out this summer, i thought we'd check out those BOB books again and see what she thought this time. these books are very simple text, starting out with one or two words on a page.
so....we're at the library. i'm looking for the simple books when greta says, "hey! we have these books at my school!" and points to another set of books. also early readers, mostly phonetic, but definitely more advanced. she pulls them out and starts reading them. not sounding them out, not that halted, slow reading that beginning readers do. but READING THEM. flying through them. my jaw dropped.
so we checked them out. and she read all ten of them as soon as we got home. and it was like a gate was opened....and she (and we) realized she could read. and now she's reading everything. in the first video below she is reading a book from that set of books from the library. the second two videos, she is reading the book 'big dog little dog'. two things about the video....first, sorry for the HORRIBLE fuzziness of the video. and also, i left out the middle section of the book that she read. so if you're trying to follow the plot of the book, you might be a bit puzzled. :)
and tonight at bedtime she read a 'frog and toad' story. she still needs help with words but she has an amazing ability to remember words.

i know everyone thinks their own kid is the smartest, the cutest, etc. and i know i'm her mom, but as an educator i am also truly amazed by greta's skills. everybody has their something....i think this is hers.

three's a crowd

my mom took the day off today to accompany the kids and me to the zoo. i wasn't sure i could manage the outing on my own with all three kids, and boy was i right. the zoo is just so much....in and out of the stroller, holding kids up to see animals, snacks, etc. i am SO thankful my mom was able to go. and that our kids are such troopers. maybe i could take them to the zoo on my own, but i can't really wrap my mind around how that would go.
we got there right when they opened, which was great because it wasn't yet too crowded or too hot. fast forward 2 and a half hours later and we were all pretty toasty and ready to head home. but we got to see a ton of great animals. usually i avoid the children's zoo because it always gets so crowded, but we were able to get in there no problem.

selma had her first ride in the stroller, and let's just say she was less than thrilled. i guess she really just wanted to be pressed against my sweaty body in the baby bjorn.
all three kids went right down at naptime and all three slept for 3 hours!! and even grandma joan took a nap.

school house symphony

this past week was greta's last week of school for the year. it's so funny to think back to those first few days (weeks) of school when she was having such a rough time transitioning. she loved school right from the start, but she did not love all the changes to her routine. in fact, i don't think i ever really blogged about it because it was pretty traumatic for all of us. greta is a lover of all things routine, and she adjusts to changes but it takes her a while sometimes. school was a doozy of a routine buster.....it just took us a while to get used to school as our NEW routine. man, i could cry just thinking back. but she really did love it, even when she was dragging her feet and crying. she would come home FULL of stories and songs. she knew everyone's names right from the start, and she would lay out my yoga mat and pretend it was a rug. and then we all had to "choose work" and bring it to the rug. and she'd give us lessons, show us how to "walk on the white line", etc. there were a few rough patches during the year, especially right after selma was born, but overall greta really blossomed in this first year of school. montessori is such a good fit for her. when we'd go to observe her in the classroom, she was so BUSY. moving from work to work...choosing math work and art work, stamping work and the writing desk (her favorite). over this year she has learned to read (YES, this girl can read)!! and she has learned many things, such as "no one can live on the planet mercury" or "hanukkah is when the oil burned for 8 days". she has made friends and learned how to be a friend. we are excited for the summer, but i'm sure greta will miss school.
anyway, 3 times a year the program school house symphony comes to greta's school and the musicians perform for the children. the first time they came this year, greta had a bit of a hard time because it was a break from the normal school day. the second school house symphony visit fell on one of the days that greta was out of school for selma's birth. so this third time, greta LOVED IT. she has been talking about it nonstop, telling us all about the instruments they played and how they played a "superhero song" and also told a story with their music. in these pictures, greta was being one the musicians. she told me where to sit, how to clap when the song finished, and that i needed to "sit very still and just listen".

love day

greta came home from school today with her bag of valentines from her classmates. she was very serious about pulling each one out of the bag one at at time, looking at it and wanting to know who it was from. if it had a heart on it, she would say, "and that means that i LOVE natalie" or whoever the card was from. i think she really enjoyed looking at them, but she was so stoic and serious that it's hard to tell. i do know that she was busting-at-the-seams excited to take HER valentines to school today to pass out. she was definitely tickled that each of her teachers made her a valentine.
it's amazing how little it takes to spark joy with children. i made heart shaped pancakes today for breakfast, served them up on heart shaped plates and you would've thought i'd presented greta with a lifetime supply of dolls or toys or candy. she was thrilled....it was so cute. and so easy. i also handmade each of the kids a valentine, and she kept looking at it and saying, "you MADE this? for ME?" it was literally red paper and sharpie marker....nothing fancy. through the eyes of a child.....

be mine

valentines day is fast approaching, and this is a pretty big deal for a number of reasons. and no, it's not because joe is going to buy me a dozen roses surrounded by baby's breath or a heart shaped pendant from a grocery jewelry store. but a girl can dream, right?!

no....valentines day means a lot because it's sort of our last "milestone" before the baby comes. we've been talking about all the big events or holidays that would happen before the baby arrives, starting all the way back when our list included thanksgiving, christmas, new years, etc etc. and now here we are.....
greta has taken this countdown very seriously. when her gymnastics teacher asked her last week if the new baby had arrived yet, greta replied, "no, it's not valentines yet!!" as if her teacher was ridiculous for even posing the question.

valentines day is also a big deal because greta is making valentines for her classmates at school. when i taught at center room, this day was always such a neat celebration for the kids. it doesn't involve sugary snacks or anything elaborate. the kids just all decorate a bag the week before, and then on the day of, they each get a turn to pass out their valentines. most kids make handmade valentines, which i love and i also think this has so much more meaning for them. the picture is greta working on her valentines. notice everything all lined up just so on the counter....that was her doing. each valentine got one sticker, one stamp, and then we had to write "from greta" in a coordinating color. she wasn't too pleased that i was taking her picture for some reason. i hope she enjoys the day....she looked through her clothes the other morning to see what her options were for heart covered shirts and dresses. :)

refining her skills

greta has been writing her name more. here is her latest version.....

drawing

greta has been drawing more and more representational pictures lately. the other day she drew a ladder (bottom photo). then she drew a "therm-monitor". we have been watching frosty the snowman and she is sort of obsessed with how frosty melts when the "therm-monitor" gets red. you can see her thermometer drawing in the middle photo.....see the really bold red line!!
the drawing them morphed into an apple tree, complete with leaves and a brown trunk. i love it. i just love watching her create and draw things from her own mind....