alright, so it's been forever, i'm committing from this point on to post more though so i expect to be held to that.
things with the kids are wonderfully chaotic. claudia is loving kindergarten, joe is finally (finally finally finally) mellowing out at school and we're not having nearly the behavioral issues we were at the beginning of the year. theia is just like her momma, the class clown that gets everyone else in trouble!
claudia surprises me everyday with her empathy. just today when she was getting ready to go on her over night grandparent date i had to tell her that their dog just died. we got there and when she saw she was really gone and saw grandma lisa had been crying claudia totally started to cry for her too. i can't believe how passionate and compassionate she is for a 6 year old! she worked really hard on a picture she drew at school and asked me if she could give it to grandma "to help fill her up" since she knew she'd be empty having lost her dog. it's just such the sweetness for which only children are made.
joe is totally 'mother hen' at school. he's the oldest kid in his class because policy doesn't allow him to be in my class as his mom. he's such a helper and loves scooting the other kids around and keeping them on track. we still have ultra defiant moments every once in a while but i have to remember how far we've come and stay positive. he's turning into such a smarty and has a smile that dares the sun to outshine it. love those dimples too!
theia is in a delightful little stage referred to as "terrible twos". gah. need i saw more? on the positive side, she's such a snuggle bug and loves doing 'big girl stuff'. clears her own plate after dinner, throws her trash away, likes to wipe her own nose and talks talks talks talks. in a weird head-scratch-and-wonder way she's really in tune with music. she's really particular and there is some music that makes her cry and scream for me to turn it off, other music makes her dance and laugh her head off. it's really really quite strange and i'll be interested to see how she describes it and her experience hearing it when she's old enough to apply concept to it.
more to come, i promise!
