Easter Sunday & Addi Updates

We spent Easter Sunday with my Dad, Michelle and her family, and Charles' family. Mom went to Belmont to spend Easter with her brother and his family who were visiting for the weekend.

Here are some of the pictures from our day in Charleston. I wish I had a picture of the cake Michelle made. It was so pretty!

wearing the ears the Easter bunny gave her

PaPa with the kids and the dogs :)

We could not get a good picture of them in matching pjs

Addi is thriving at her new school. Being in the 3-year room has been great for her and she enjoys learning about the sounds letters make, learning how to trace various shapes, and participating in group activities. Her teacher is really creative. Some of the things they have done include writing stories together (each child tells the next part of the story...the end result is hilarious!), going on leprechaun hunts (for St. Patties Day), painting rocks, etc. She gears a lot of their activities around letters of the week (painting rocks was during "R" week and bringing in sun shades (sunglasses) to wear to search for he leprechaun that messed up the classroom but left gold chocolates was during "S" week). Now when she sees letters she not only says the letter, but she also says the sound the letter makes. They do a lot of physical activity as well and can go to the gym if it is rainy or cold/hot and of course there is a lot of structured and unstructured play. The only downside is that at 4:00-4:30 it turns into an afterschool program which is basically TV and playtime for the remaining kids. We do our best to pick her up by 4:30, which is where being close to family is beneficial. Mrs. Marie works next door to me so she picks Addi up once a week usually and has already been really helpful as all of our parents have. It is really wonderful having them around to be a part of our day-to-day lives. Addi has also become more independent and wants to do EVERYTHING herself! She is starting to have tantrums, which aren't fun for anyone. Her vocabulary is constantly increasing and she picks up not only phrases and actions but tones from people. She still loves to read and likes to pick out books each night. Sometimes we read them and sometimes she reads them. She is starting to get where she wants to wear certain things, but we are able to still give her options. She is really imaginative which is good, but sometimes she scares herself thinking that a dinosaur is in her room or that the lion is going to get her. We play Candy Land and Match, and I am going to look into more preschool level games that we can play together. She likes to honk at Aunt Nita's, Mimi and Granddaddy, and Sitti and Papa's houses each time we drive by. She says, hit the button and wave hi to X. She can still wear a lot of her clothes from last summer and seems to be growing taller and losing her baby fat. She now tells us that she is a big girl but she still likes to cuddle and occasionally asks to rock like a baby in which we hold her like a baby and cuddle and rock.  Time sure does fly!