Victory!

We have been trying to get Reed interested in learning to tie his shoes for quite a while, with no success. Granted, the great majority of the shoes he's had in his 6 years have had velcro straps or otherwise didn't require tying, so there hasn't been much opportunity.

But when his report card came home last Monday, Reed was motivated to learn to tie his shoes as that was the first time he's been graded on shoe tying (he got an "I" for "inconsistently demonstrates"). So, we took him over the weekend to buy a new pair of tie shoes - he picked some cool black skater-style shoes, and as of yesterday, he is officially tying his shoes on his own! YAHOO!

Reed gets more self-sufficient every day. This past Sunday we took the kids ice skating (well I say 'we' - I watched from the sidelines, camera in hand, and Tod and Jennifer skated with the kids). Reed was like a new man out there, he was so much more resilient than he's been in the past. He'd fall down, but he'd jump right back up. Not a whine, not a complaint. Just got back up and kept on skating. I was so very proud of his effort, it was amazing to see.

This was Amy's first time ever on skates. Despite the fact that the only open skate of the day fell smack in the middle of when Amy should've been napping, she did great! She tried so hard, and really really didn't like falling down a lot, but she was a trooper. We'll see what happens the next time we try to get her on skates!

More about music

At times I kick myself for having allowed the kids their own musical choices when we're in the car, especially going to and from child care. Way back when it was just Reed and I in the car, I'd have a selection of CDs to fill our 6-CD player and he'd choose what he wanted to listen to. Of course now we've (thankfully) progressed to having an iPod so we have access to every bit of our kids music library - which means even more requests for specific songs are coming out of the back seat. Not to mention the approximately eight million times I've been asked to turn the music up or down (ugh!).

And while this does drive me a bit crazy, and while I would love to be able to listen to my own favorite music, I realized the other day what a valuable lesson they've getting -- they've learned to love music because they can connect to it. These folks sing songs that really mean something to the kids - they sing about the alphabet, counting, dancing, losing (and finding) a favorite toy, cleaning up, wearing hand-me-downs, going on trips. So I'll happily go along with it. Music loving kids = happy Mama.

Wordplay

Amy is so into music - which is wonderful because it's something we can share. We've gotten two new CDs recently by a children's artist named Brady Rymer. Today in the car we were listening to one of his CDs and Amy asked me "Why doesn't Brady Rymer have braids in his hair?" - I chuckled and tried to explain that the name 'Brady' is different than the word 'braid'.

As long as she's been able to talk in complete sentences, Amy has been such a complimentary and sweet girl. Yesterday as we celebrated Great Grandma and Great Granddaddy Allder's 60th wedding anniversary, Amy said to me "Doesn't Nikki look so beautiful today? She got her hair cut." She's always telling me things like "I like your shirt, Mommy" and giving other compliments. Such a sweetie. Most of the time. :)

"Wow Mom, your Nana was a lot smaller than our Nana"

That's what Amy said when she saw a picture of her Nana (Janet Allder) with my Nana (Lena Patton). Exhibit A: