otto and the chair

while greta was creating at her easel, otto was busy getting himself stuck in this chair. greta likes to sit down while she draws at the easel, often pulling up a chair or a stepstool. otto has followed suit, which usually means that drawing at the easel turns into a power struggle of whose chair is where and who has more room. sibling rivalry already. otto had enough of the struggle, so just gave up on coloring and focused on his chair. little stinker.

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....

snuggle buddies

otto really likes to lay in greta's bed. greta is not usually a fan of this, but on this day she thought it was tolerable.

she keeps on writing

after greta wrote "greta", she wrote mama (the bottom photo), otto and papa (the top photo, otto on top and then papa below it). she sounded out mama and papa on her own, so she actually wrote "M O M O" and "P O P O", since the sounds she hears in those words are the short 'o' sound (like in hot or dog).

way to go greta! this was really hard work for her, and she worked so hard and was so proud. it takes a TON of strength and control to be able to manipulate a pencil to write letters.

greta writes greta

tonight while i was cleaning up after dinner, greta was at her easel. she asked if i could help her write an "r". she said she was writing her name and had already written the g. i showed her how to write an r, and then she wrote it next to the g she had already written. then she said, "i know what comes next and i know how to write it" and she wrote an "e" and a "t". then she asked me how to write an "a", so i showed her and then she wrote one. and here it is....
g...r...e...t...a. she wrote her name all by herself!! can you see it? i could stare at this picture forever, i think it's so amazing. and she was so proud. i mean, SO proud. and guess what she did next??

a girl and her papa

hot chocolate

after we decorated the tree, we decided to have hot chocolate. for greta, this needed to include "snuggling under a blanket". great photo op! listening to christmas music, watching our kids snuggle together sitting next to our christmas tree....i don't think the holidays get any better.