update

M's school term ends on Friday, so we're in the middle of end-of-term activities. Although I feel bad that the baby has precluded me from donating time to the school, there is a certain ease in knowing that no one expects me to do anything. So far, the parents have hosted a bake sale, decorated the school secretly, served cookies and cocoa while the kids decorated, and prepared Santa's grotto. (Our big kids visited Santa last week on St. Mikulas day. M's comment: He was real.) This week, we have an evening nativity performance, a special Christmas lunch (served by parents), and a class party. Parents also sort the school mail every day. Kids get to post letters to friends at the school during the Christmas season. M spent 2-3 afternoons making Christmas cards, labelling envelopes, signing his name, etc. It takes a long time!! But he was really excited about it. Anyway, I confess that I find the activities a bit much! Less is more and all that ...

V has big news this week: she's learning to read! She's been very excited about learning letter sounds the past few weeks, which is great, because we use M's homework to practice her skills. It makes her so happy to be involved. And a couple of days ago, she was sounding out on Starfall.com and then read the word all by herself! (b-a-g bag!) She's done it a couple of times since, and it shocks me every time. It is so adorable to see how proud she is of herself. I know she can tell that I'm genuinely surprised at how clever she is, and she just glows.

M's big news this week: he had the last meeting of his Saturday morning football (soccer) club, and they gave out awards and goodies. He was so excited about his trophy that he didn't even want to have lunch at McDonald's on the way home -- he had to show Mommy right away. (Daddy takes him to football club.) The trophy has since been in various pockets, in M's bed, at church, in the car ... anywhere M goes, the trophy goes. I don't know what we'll do when the little plastic trophy breaks!

E doesn't have any huge news, although she did sleep longer than normal last night, which is really great. We have an appointment to get her birth record and passport papers filed tomorrow. The only tricky part is getting her passport photo -- we'll try to get it before the appointment, and just hope that I can get her to open her eyes ... I'm beginning to wish I'd gotten extra copies of V's baby passport pics -- I'm sure no one would be able to tell the difference. (Just kidding!!)