Growing up

Makayla is finally learning how to ride her "two-wheeler", aka, her bike without training wheels. When she just turned three her friend tried to teach her how on a bike that was way too big. Needless to say, all she got out of that was a fear of riding without training wheeels. Last week I finally convinced her to try riding it on our back lawn-I told her it would hurt a lot less falling on the grass than on cement. She was finally brave enough to do it, and guess what! She's doing it! Well, kind of. She can ride clear across the yard pretty good and steadily, but we still have to work on turning. We didn't have a big enough spot for her to turn around without running into the snow. Yeah, that kind of slows her down. Later that night we got several more inches of snow, so for now, riding her bike is on hold, but we're all confident she'll soon get it! Go Kayla!

Kelli has discovered scissors. Yeah, I know, kids love scissors and maybe I should have introduced her to them before now, but really, she didn't know what she was missing out on. Yesterday we were cutting some things out for Makayla's valentines so Kelli wanted to cut her own things out. I told her she could, but she had to wait until after I changed Laney and I could help her. She asked why she couldn't do it herself, and I proceeded to tell her why they were dangerous, and how the only thing she can ever cut with them is paper. I then put the scissors clear up in the cupboard. Apparently, while I was in the other room, Kelli pulled a chair over to the counter, climbed up and got to the scissors-she's a monkey! It didn't take me that long to change Laney, but when I came back, she was sporting a new style. Thankfully not a new hairstyle!!!!! Remember back in the 90's when it was popular to wear clothes with fringe on it? Like levi jackets that would have a line across the back with fringe that was several inches long? Well, Kelli's shirt had fringe on the ends of both her sleeves and on the bottom by her belly. Real nice. Let's just say she won't be using the scissors much for a while...

Laney has finally discovered that she can talk. Up until now she really hasn't said many actual words, though she definitely lets you know what she wants. Now you can tell she knows what several words are and she tries to say them, though they still aren't all that clear, except "baby", which she affectionately calls the doll she loves to sleep with. She's also decided that it's about time for her to take turns saying prayers too. Whenever anyone starts praying she folds her arms, gets this adorable look on her face, and starts her gibberish. It's so hard for all of us to keep a straight face. Makayla and Kelli can't help but smile or laugh, so Laney feeds off of that and continues to ham it up.