this february

I've been steering away from posting lately, in an effort to not be too negative.

It's a fine balance. Personally, I loathe the always-pooing-rainbows-and-unicorns blogs. On the other hand, the constant negativity I see on Facebook sometimes gets annoying, too. I realize I sound a little superior here, because this negativity doesn't bother me when I deem it understandable. And how judgmental is that?! I might think someone else's problems are no big deal, but really, the complaining over minor things might really be about hiding something bigger. We often never truly know what someone else's battles are. 

That being said, I like to find a balance between the good and the bad, and in my own life I'm struggling with that lately. My mother has requested an update though, so I will write about my girls. 

Aili is now halfway through her kindergarten year, I can't believe how fast it went by! She is loving her new independence, loving riding the bus and making new friends. She told me today, "my BFF's are Ari, Kate, Kandaz (yes really that's the spelling), and Hannah." She is quite the social butterfly. I find notes from other kids on her bus, inviting her to play dates and such. I'm glad she is enjoying learning and the social aspects of school. With this has also come some sassiness though. I think it's kind of a "I have all this new control over my life and a life outside of you now mom, so I'm gonna make the decisions at home, too" (Except, um, NOT). That part has been challenging. I'm working hard to compromise with her though, like, she can get up by herself in the morning, but she is only allowed to serve herself whatever I've put out for her, not raid the pantry or eat on the couch. And she can watch tv alone, but no winx or bratz. Getting into my ipad is also a favorite pastime- this girl even figured out my pass code! She must've been looking over my shoulder when I wasn't aware because I was careful! I've discoverd that Aili enjoys taking selfies...

As well as documenting the trouble they get into when I'm out of the room...

(Not.smart. Leave no evidence!)

On another note, after deliberating over what to get Aili for Christmas, we finally decided on a tablet, so that she would A, stop stealing ours (seriously, she would sneak over my head in the morning and steal it off my nightstand all stealthily while I slept!) and B, maybe learn something if we added lots of educational apps. This seems to be a way of learning she enjoys, so we thought we would go with it. Well, one day with a phonics app and she was sounding out words and doing better than she had all year, so I was sold. Since preschool I have worried about making sure my girls get a good education, and kindergarten especially had me nervous since it is part-time here. I just didn't see how they were going to get a comparable education to those kids going full-time. I felt as though I needed to supplement their learning somehow, but wasn't really sure how, and didn't have any sort of formal plan. So, for the first half of the year I've just been reading with her, doing her homework with her, and doing extra workbooks now and then. Lately though I have happened upon some homeschooling/online schooling info and have gotten interested. It was never anything I wanted to do at.all. Now though I'm looking into it. We are still going to utilize public schooling for our girls, but I want to supplement it with a home program, especially during the summers. Washington actually has some of the strictest homeschooling requirements in the nation and I think that's good. To homeschool  you have to be approved by the superintendent, have taken at least 45 college credits, submit your plans, have your kids meet with an outside teacher once a week, and have your kids take outside tests/learning assessments regularly. None of that really matters since I just want to use it as a supplement, but it's interesting. Right now I am researching curriculum and lesson plans and drafting up a curriculum. I am planning 8 areas of study: reading, writing, arithmetic, technology, social studies /geography, art /music/sports, science, and life skills. For example, my goals for reading are sight words, phonics, comprehension, story structure. For math it's addition/subtraction, greater than/less than, and money. For science it's learning what an experiment is/means, and life skills includes things like directions, paying for something at a cash register and making change appropriately, basic cooking, and personal information, Etc, etc. for each of these things I plan to research and make lesson plans, and plan field trips accordingly. We will see how this goes. I've ordered books, apps, and tool kits to get started. 

Andie is doing pretty good. She is my little cuddle bug. She likes to sleep in with me in the morning, unlike my early bird, Aili. I quite enjoy it. The other day we took them out to a nice, (quiet) Thai restraint, and explained beforehand that it was a "princess" date, and they needed to behave and be quiet, and they did so good. I was so proud. We got compliments on their behavior. Shocking. They sat quietly, nicely, and happily and ate all their chicken satay and jasmine rice. They loved it. 

Avery is now 8 months, and as cute as can be. She is the.sweetest.baby.ever. She is so easygoing, and happy. I sure do love her.

I was in California last week, and got in touch with my creative side- I just brought baby, so I had time to paint oil paintings, take walks, get brunch in the park, and mom even introduced me to a friend's calf I got to bottle feed. It was a good trip. I needed my mama, for sure. Hopefully I'll be back soon. I got to see her house remodel too which was fun. 

I think I'll leave it at that, for now. I've been kind of off the radar lately, hopefully I'll decide to rejoin life again soon. If not, you bloggy readers will be subjected to more tales of my girls!