Kindermusik Birthday Party

Gabi turned 6 years old last week! She invited all the girls in Kindergarten to a Kindermusik birthday party.

Best Friends: Isabel & Gabi

Katarina watching the big kids

Circle Dance - running to match the fast tempo

Scarf Dance - moving with the musical style

Crash! Resting when the music stops

Lexi & Lawler check out the inside of the piano

Ring Around the Birthday Girl

Gabi shaking the tamborine

Gabi and Bella play the rhythm sticks

Katarina gets rhythm sticks, too!

Musical Colors (similar to musical chairs)

Everyone made a shaker to take home

Grey is excited about the cake

Gabi designed her own birthday cake!

Gabi selected strawberry cake with fresh strawberries between the layers, and she specified different colors for the music notes, her name, her age, and the border.

Ashley in a party hat

Kati pointing at the balloons

Time to open presents!

Thanks, Olivia!

What did Grey give you?

Reading Ava's card

Thanks, Ashley!

Caught by Amelia

Veda improvising a hat

Birthday Celebration at School
On Gabi's actual birthday, I brought chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream to share with Gabi's classmates at school.

Gabi was wearing a "Feliz cumpleaños" tag
from her birthday celebration in Spanish class

Gabi, Isabel, and Ava

Presents waiting for Gabi at home

Happy 6th birthday, Gabi!

Indoor Fun

The weather is warmer now, but the month of January was so cold that we spent much time indoors. Katarina loves the freedom to move around, and she scoots on her bum all over the house. (It's kind of like crawling but with her right leg underneath her.)

The girls enjoyed the indoor time to play with all their new Christmas presents. They liked Lolo and Lola's new toys, too. Here Gabi is sitting at Lolo's new kid-sized table at their house, playing with Lola's iPad.

At home, the girls entertained themselves with puppet shows.

Gabi is a great big sister, and she loves any opportunity to help take care of baby Katarina. She even gets to feed her baby food sometimes!

Of course, feeding the baby is generally messy, so Katarina often requires a bath afterward. She loves taking a bath like a "big kid" and scooting all over the tub. She really enjoys these new bath toys from Santa, too!

Bella has a wonderfully elaborate imagination. She loves to dress up like a princess - every day. Here she is hosting a tea party for baby sister and Mommy.

The girls' new personalized coloring books have provided continued indoor fun as well. Thanks to Kimba for making these special books! The girls love them.

After three rounds of antibiotics, Annabelle still had the ear infection from Thanksgiving, so on Thursday, I took her to the ENT. Her ears are no longer infected, but there is still fluid in them. Since Bella has had noticeable hearing loss, he sent us to Audiology.

Bella had a flat tempanogram.

Bella failed the hearing screening they use on newborns.

Then Bella went into the "fish tank" for some "games." She was given a tiny puppy figure and told to listen for it to whistle. When she heard it whistle, she would throw it into a bucket, and the audiologist would give her another puppy. Bella did really well at first, with the loud sounds, so she obviously understood the game. But then the puppies stopped whistling for her. She frowned at her puppy, shook it by her ear, and then handed it back to the audiologist saying, "This one doesn't work." The audiologist took that puppy back and gave Bella another one. After awhile, Bella looked at her puppy and commanded, "Come on, puppy! Whistle!" and then banged it on the table. It was so cute, really, but she was very frustrated. Poor girl.

Finally, the audiologist tested her bone conduction, and she passed, which means that her nerves work and it isn't permanent hearing loss. So we scheduled her to get tubes in her ears.

We are hopeful that Bella's hearing (and speech) will be fully corrected after the surgery, but in the meantime, we have been collecting amusing stories caused by this problem.

Michael: "You're my daughter, and Mommy is my wife."
Bella: "Because she wifes the floor?"

Gabi: "In school, we learned about liquids, gases, and solids!"
Michael: "Oh yeah? What's a liquid?"
Bella (showing us her spoon sticking out of her yogurt cup): "Liquid I did!"

Melissa: "A quesadilla is cheese in a tortilla."
Bella: "No, it's cheese in a day!" (queso-día)

Bella has an odd pronunciation for several words. "BuhZER" for dessert, "Bajamas" for pajamas, "wah-ker" for water, etc. I was trying to check her pronunciation for dessert, so I asked, "Bella, what would you call it if I gave you a treat after dinner?"
Bella answered, "A good plan!"

And, of course, one last picture: my adorable baby in my cute new hat.

More Snow

Little Rock had 5 inches of snow in January (with Mon. & Tues. off school and snow lingering the rest of the week) followed by 70-degree weather. My previous post mentioned the dusting that caused a snow half-day. Then we saw another 7 inches of snow last week (canceling school Wed. through Fri.), and now it is 70 degrees again. How crazy to see this much snow in the South!

Gabi gives Mommy and Bella a starting push

Here are some pictures from last week of us sledding on our street with neighbors Preston, Kristin, Grace and Gavin.

Gabi helps Kristin get into a sled

Whee!

Katarina watches us fly past

The snow melted over the weekend, so the kids returned to school today - just in time for Valentine's parties. While they were at school, I made the girls these Valentine cards to highlight their lovable qualities and strengths:

I'll finish this post with more pictures from last week's snow. (Unfortunately, my good camera is in the shop for hot-shoe repairs.)

Michael had six inches of fresh snow powder to drive through on the way home from work last Wednesday, so he shoveled the driveway before it turned into ice.

The girls and I tried to build a snowman, but the light fluffy snow did not compact easily. Even with two huge buckets of water added, this was all we could get to stick together. (Their snow angels in the background were fabulous, though.)

The snow did look beautiful, and the kids loved throwing it up in the air.

Katarina sat on a blanket on the porch and watched. It was a bit too cold outside for her.

On Thursday, the girls tried to roll bigger snowballs for our snowman.

Just running through the snow and making footprints was more fun; besides, it kept them warmer in the 20-degree weather.

Katarina sat in her bouncer-saucer on the driveway to watch us sled with the neighbors.

Friday was beautiful - 30 degrees and sunny.

Bella resting on a snow pillow

Each day, after playing outside in the snow, the girls came inside and took a warm bubble bath to thaw out. I think the bubble baths were the highlight of their snow days!

Katarina is just learning to hold on to something and stand, but her legs don't support her weight for long. She's generally more interested in sitting and scooting, but watching her favorite playmates splash in the tub was worth the effort of standing for a short while. She's so proud of herself!