Friday, May 30, 2008

Notice anything a little peculiar in this picture??? The clothes look a little funny, at least on Josephine anyway!! Josephine and Maureen were playing "baby." So Josephine had the idea to dress them up in baby clothes. REAL baby clothes. As in Veronica's baby clothes! So Josephine and Maureen, who wear size 5T and 2T, squeezed into Veronica's 12 month size clothes! They're both skinny enough, even the pants fit in the waist!


This picture is actually from a couple weeks ago, I just forgot to post it... this puzzle has 100 pieces, and Josephine did a good portion of it on her own. I helped her, of course, but she was still very proud that we finished such a big puzzle!

We will be going to the Pink Palace tomorrow - it's a group of museums, or something like that! There's a museum, nature center, imax theatre, planetarium, and a couple other things, all in one place. I managed to get a free trial membership for the whole family for June and July! So we'll be going at absolutely no cost! I'm sure I'll have good pictures to post from that visit tomorrow or the next day...

Sunday, May 25, 2008


Here's a video of Josephine's 3 out of 4 recital pieces. Her fourth piece was recorded at the highest quality setting - too high and too big a file to post on this free blogsite. I tried uploading it yesterday, but it didn't work. I thought she did such a great job for her first recital, at the age of 5!

Friday, May 23, 2008


We have a magnolia tree that has started to bloom - it smells very good and looks pretty, too.

Here's a picture of my students at their recital.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Whoa! it's been TEN days since I last posted! Oh well... I seem to do good keeping up w/ posting for a few days, then bad for a few days.

Well, my first recital here went really well last Saturday. I was very pleased with how it went. All my students played well (especially my Josephine!) and I was proud of them all. 3 of my students earned trophies, one of those students were Josephine. She was SO thrilled to get one. She really deserved it- she practices so much I have to fuss at her sometimes to get OFF the piano! I wish I could practice the piano as much as she does!

Josephine has gone through her most recent set of books in about 3 months - most students take about 6 months or longer to go through a set of books. Of course, it helps to have a piano teacher for a mother! She gets mini-lessons just about every day.

... my students all chipped in and got me an Amazon giftcard - I was able to buy each girl their own book, a shared book for Maureen and Josephine, and a book for myself "The no-cry sleep solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night" by Elizabeth Pantley. Click on the "No cry sleep solution" button/link on the left if you want to read more info. about the book and author...

We used the "Ferber" method for both Josephine and Maureen, and in retrospect, I feel bad for making them both cry (even though I went in periodically to comfort them). I'll give this method a try for a couple months, and if it doesn't work I'll have to resort to the Ferber method for Veronica. I don't think I can take much longer of her waking up through the night, every single night!

Maureen continued labeling things with her own made up titles... (remember she was saying "chocolate hair" lately for brown hair?). Well now she has a "big leg, arm, eye, and ear" (her left leg, arm, eye and ear) and a "little leg, arm, eye, and ear" (her right leg, arm, eye and ear). She'll say things like, "I hurt my big leg!" or something along those lines... Also, a couple mornings ago, as we were still cuddling in bed, she pointed to my bra and called it "bumpy." I gently explained to her that it was called a bra, and she said, "Not, it's not a bra, it's bumpy." I thought that was hilarious!

Veronica continues to stand on her own - she can go from sitting to standing without holding on to anyone or anything, and is taking a couple steps on her own. ALSO, other than "uh oh" she is also saying "cat" and the sign for cat! I've only been doing sign language with her for about 3 weeks (only cat, book and eat) and she's already doing cat at the age of 11 months old! I'm very amazed. She is a smart little girl just like her big sisters!

Michael and I have both applied for summer jobs... we haven't had any luck in getting hired, but will continue searching. I have a prospective organist/pianist job at a Baptist Church... I will meet with the music director person next week.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

I hope all you Mother's had a good Mother's day! Michael cooked a nice dinner for me (meatloaf, mac. n' cheese and mashed potatoes), complete with a heart-shaped cake. Before that, he watched all 3 kids for 2 hours while I went to Walmart. I only bought a few things that we needed and "window shopped" the rest of the time. I love browsing toys, baby stuff, kids' clothes and even looked at women's clothes. I had a nice time by myself!

I forgot to mention how much Veronica weighed at the last Dr.'s visit... she weighs 24 lbs. - only 3 pounds less than Maureen! She's a big girl! We even buy the same size diaper for both Maureen and Veronica - we've been doing that for the past couple months. She also got 3 shots... she's already over the effects from those.

Maureen does pretty well with her potty training- I'm not being consistent, though, in putting her in panties. She would do better if I were more consistent! ...she said something funny today, totally unrelated to potty training. She was telling Josephine and I that we have "chocolate hair," meaning that our hair is the color brown. I thought that was hilarious!


Here's a video of Maureen playing piano... high sounds, low sounds, middle sounds, and then playing two and three black keys. She's understanding a lot for only being 2 1/2 yo!


Here's a video of Josephine playing her recital pieces. The recital will be this Saturday!


Finally, here's a video of Veronica "reading" a book. Notice that she points at the pictures with her finger and makes a noise at the same time. (you may have to turn your volume up to hear it... she's not making a really loud noise...) She's actually been doing this for a while, I just now finally caught it on tape. She's also saying "uh oh" in the proper context...whenever she or someone else drops something, she says "uh oh." It's very cute.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Just wanted to post something since it's been a week since my last one! Well, I took off this past week from homeschooling... We all needed a break (we didn't take an Easter or spring break). It was a nice week, enough of a breather that I'm ready to finish out Josephine's school year. We have 5 weeks to go (the last week is mostly testing). We got behind with our trip to LA last Dec. w/ all the illnesses and the van, ect...

My students had a rehearsal this morning. They all did pretty good. I was very impressed w/ Josephine - she played really well, and then sat still and quiet while listening to the other students. I was worried she'd get fidgety or bored watching the rest of the students play... anyway, next week will be the recital for my students.

I have a couple pictures, but will have to upload them some other time. I'm going to go to bed earlier than normal tonight... Veronica didn't let me sleep much last night.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

I'm not going to say much - just wanted to post some pictures! Things have been busy around here... Michael is finishing up his last few days for this semester, so he hasn't been around very much. He'll be done after this coming Tuesday, thank God!



Jarod, if you happen to read this tomorrow, I hope you have a great 13th Birthday! I can't believe you're really 13! A TEENAGER - OH MY!!!







Just a short video of Josephine being giggly, and Veronica giving her slobbery baby kisses :)