Ritter Record: March 2011

Every Wednesday is Christmas

If you know me, you know I love the library, and I'm glad my kids do too. Every Wednesday is an exciting day because we get to bring home a loot of books, enabling us to learn about different places, peoples, times, or just exploring imagination. Wednesday is a good day. We've been going to the library 1-2 times a week since Seth was about 5 months old and I don't have very many pictures so I thought I'd document a little bit today.

I was a second too late from the cutest shot. All three kids were holding hands down the brick line towards the library... but Raya decided to do what she does best: RUN. The girl does not walk anywhere anymore. And, she is such a stinkin' tease! (and what happened in this picture) The boys will start walking ahead of her so she'll start calling out "hand, hand, hand" with her arms extended. Once they come back to take her hand, she'll laugh and take off! -- Anyways, back to library...

Library love:

We were there early so the kids rode on the boat ... what do you do with a girl that makes faces like this?

I didn't document Raya's story time.... but here's the thirty minute break before Levi's. These pictures were all taken within a minute of each other, showing how the kids just situate themselves so comfortably in the library:

Levi is so cute ... he is reading so well lately too! He can sound out three letter words and I was taken aback a little bit ago when we were reading and he knew the words like ... "goat" or "gate." He loves books, especially very adventurous books, with a lot of imagination in it. oh... and I'm glad I documented the "Canada" book. Seth always finds this book and gives it to Levi... Seth is convinced that Levi loves Canada and will live there one day ... and I don't know why.

Here's Seth perusing the isles. Seth loves (loves) nonfiction books. I have to limit the number of books that he can bring home.. because he would break his back pack. I'm seriously considering bringing a suitcase to the library.

Shoving more books into his backpack:

Storytime:

In between book activity. Great practice for fine motor skills.

Pretending to be turtles:

Seth let me take a picture of him! (!!)

Levi concentrating very hard on being a turtle... and Raya looking up at Ms. Kathleen. Raya loves Ms. Kathleen. She was following her all around the library today.

Closing it up with flannel board stories.

I love the library, I can't wait for summer!

I won!!

http://thearthurclan.com/2011/03/lightroom-preset-giveaway/#comment-22872

After a really crappy, (crappy, crappy, crappy ... I don't think I can say this word enough (and I don't even say this word often...)) week... month... semester. It's nice to win something unexpectedly.

Hmmmmm....

I'm not a big... nic-nac person, or holiday decor person, but I am a book person! So for St. Patrick's day I got the kids: "Where is the Green Sheep?" by Mem Fox.

I love books like these. Great beginning concept book for Raya, great beginning to read book for Levi, and the text is in English and Spanish so Seth can learn some new Spanish vocabulary.

It's green, I'm a happy mom.

Notice the festive confetti? That's the extent of my holiday decorating --

Last night Jeff brought work home so I was dinking with my Silhouette, figuring out how to merge shapes (the four leaf clovers are made from four hearts)... etc ... I look over at what Jeff's working on: His stuff looked a lot more complicated than my paper clovers... haha, hmmm... and I'm pretty sure I fretted more over my silly paper than he did his equations.

And ... documenting my random husband and his attempts in getting a jumping action shot. Didn't work, but there's a nice little shot of the flowers he got me "just because" a few days ago. He is pretty nice :)

18 months: Raya

I can't remember the stats themselves... but 55% for Height, 85% for Weight, and 90% for Head.

She's starting to slim down!

She likes to put on shoes lately, here she is sporting Levi's boots. We were getting ready to go swimming and she took the initiative to get ready. She is very punctual!

More signs of Independence... she wants to dress herself. Almost there, but not quite.

And... she's starting to really express her emotions... ok.. well, she's always been like that, it's just gotten louder... You never have to guess what Raya is thinking or feeling! (I love her more for it)

Some generalness about Raya:

She wants to be big. She doesn't use a sippy cup anymore, she has to have a placemat on her high chair because her big brothers have a placemat on the table, she actually throws a fit now when I put her in the high chair because she wants to sit at the table, there's so many things... she wants to be big.

Words she knows: mama, dada, ee-i (Levi), ehf (Seth), gramma, dog, cat, ball, water, bath, yellow, eye, nose, mouth, ear, hair, car, baby, zebra, giraffe, horse, cow, book, sheep, duck, up, down, no, yes,

-- her words are coming, and she's at the point where she can repeat what we say. A lot of her words are slurred and if you're not around her all day you may not understand when she says something like "Baby Beluga" (her favorite song) because it sounds more like "bebe burga."

She likes to sing and dance, she claps and sways. Some of her favorites are: Baby Beluga, Down by the Bay, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Old McDonald, twinkle twinkle...etc.

Her favorite rhyme is "Bumble bee, bumble bee" and she goes about the house saying it and tickling.

Signs she knows: more, please, thank you, play, baby, horse, cow, pig, sheep, duck, bird, rabbit, chicken, mouse, cat, gorilla, dog, hot, cold, book, story, read, blocks, ball, banana, cracker, cheese, cookie, candy, apple, bread, milk, water, cup, eat, flower ...

I'm sure there's more.

Raya can understand basically everything that we're saying now... we can giver her simple tasks like "throw this away" or "put these in your pj drawer and get some pants" ... "where are your shoes?" I'm just waiting for her word explosion, because I know she comprehends a lot more than what she can say, but then I see her signing so much, maybe she just prefers that for the moment. She's starting to combine her signs, like she'll sign: cup, water, please.

I just want to add that "Raya" really is the perfect name for this little girl (it means "friend").

She is kind'of special to me... :)

Some Firsts

It was Raya's first day of nursery and Levi's first talk at church today!

It was fun watching Levi get excited preparing for his talk and practicing it, then when the time came seeing the excitement turn to some nervousness. But, Levi did great, he spoke clearly and loudly. My favorite part was when he said "revelation," why is it some words are so cute when children say them?

As for Raya, I was a bit concerned. Especially since when I walked her into nursery, instantly one of the boys came over to hug her ... then began smushing her chubby cheeks (that cute little cherubic face is irresistible). It was a bit of a chaotic hour so I decided to stay -- I didn't want Raya to have a bad experience. But she loved the organized structure of it all. The snack time and music time, clean up, lesson and book time. She is very punctual and followed all the cues. I decided to leave for the second hour since the rambunctiousness had settled down and Raya seemed comfortable. When I came back an hour later I found her in the middle of a gaggle of little girls: one on each side of her and another two in front of her, all intently watching her put on her shoes. What can I say? Raya always attracts a crowd.

$leep Number

This beauty came in today.

We had to get this mattress because it was the c4 series (Jeff works with c4 plants, he took it to be a sign).

So what weirdo blogs about their mattress? This weirdo. We were way over due for an upgrade in our mattress. We've been sleeping on a full size mattress that we got from Jeff's brother... 7 years ago (?) and who knows how long he had it before that, ... and we stuffed it into our corrola during one of our many moves (I would'n't reccommend stuffing your mattress in a car).

I'm going to sleep so well tonight.

Cookies.

So cute.

I thought she looked so cute and grown up this morning, I had to take a picture of her.

My cute girl.

The boys heard I was taking pictures ... so here come the brothers:

HELP knitting site names

I've been in cahoots with a local photographer -- I knit her hats, she takes my family's photos. She suggested that I make an etsy and facebook page to sell my hats and she would market them on her already established sites. I think I might give it a go ... but what's killing me is that I can't think of a name!

Vanilla knits

Savvy knits

Fuse photo props

RR Knits

Miss Knit

K1P2

I can't think of anything I like. Knit is such an ugly word -- think about what rhymes with it -- bit, fit, hit, it, pit, **** -- short English lesson: sounds help derive the meaning of words.

Jeff suggests: Big Bad Knits, Nightly Knits, Buy My Knits, Crazy-go-Knits, coo-coo for co-co knits, co-co knit, go knits knitting, go knits nutting, Hungry like the wolf knits, baseball starts soon knits, I'm knit crazy!, She loves me, she loves me knit, knitting ball, moonlit knits, Knitting with your host Rachael Ritter, I'm sitting on a couch knitting you a hat, knit happens

Sorry, the above was for my own amusement, but I have to say, "I'm sitting on a couch knitting you a hat" has a certain ring and is pretty tempting!