I DO IT MYSELF!

These are words that are heard around the house from the angelic faced Malena. I put them all in caps, because that is how she says it. No one better get in her way of experimenting with whatever newly discovered skill she wants to demonstrate. This is difficult for big sister to understand. Up until this week, Caity has been able to treat Malena like a mini me life-sized doll of sorts. The screamed, " I do it myself!" is followed by an even louder, "Fine, I was just trying to help!" bellowed into the ears of little sister. We have tried to explain that help is only help when it is wanted by the one you are trying to help. Wow, that is convoluted! I guess I can see how that is a hard concept to grasp.

Malena is embracing her 'big girl'. She picks out her clothes, dresses herself, potties, helps make her lunch, pours her milk, and whatever else Malena wants to do. She absolutely refuses help. At her first dentist appointment yesterday, the dentist kept asking her if she wanted to hold a hand, doll, or anything to comfort her. She was obviously scared as there were tears welled up in her eyes. She would not have anything or anyone comfort her. It was probably a good look into the future with our Malena. We can't figure out where she gets that stubbornness. OK, stop laughing. I guess Chris and I had it coming.

Compare/Contrast Paragraph

Caity had an assignment this week to compare and contrast something in a 10 sentence paragraph. She chose to do it on the fictional characters found in the popular Junie. B. Jones book series. This is what she wrote.




Junie B. Jones and Lucille are best friends, but they are different.
They both love Grace as a friend. They go to the same school and class. There is more to say. Lucille looks good when she goes to school. She wears expensive clothes. When her school picture came back, she looked like a star model. Junie looks funky. She has funny clothes and messed up hair even on a picture day. Lucille is rich and Junie B. is not. They are best friends, but they are not the same.

Little Man's Trick

Colin rarely gets single camera time without the competition of his sisters in the background. When we had a few minutes today, I took the opportunity to capture his new stunts. He has been waving for about a week, but I guess he doesn't do well with command performances.

Crusing, Writing, and Regrouping

We had a fun weekend with a long overdue get together with our new neighbor friends. The girls had such a good time playing upstairs while the adult-kids played Guitar Hero. Chris is still champion, but I am gaining on him.

Colin has been busy figuring out the cruising phase of his exploration. He keeps falling, but stays determined none-the-less.

Malena has completed her Kumon tracing book which means she has demonstrated the appropriate pencil skills to begin writing her letters. She is very excited at this new prospect and is beginning to see that being a 'big girl' has some advantages. Let's hope that encourages her to complete the ultimate big girl step... fingers crossed.

Caity is back in full swing with the new addition of piano lessons. She is loving her new teacher and Malena and Colin enjoy playing with the teacher's children during the lesson. This gives Mom a much appreciated mental break. Caity is now regrouping in her subtraction math problems. The best thing I have heard in along time is when she said, "That's it? That's easy." I guess all the pre-regrouping skills we have been working on actually helped. Thank you Horizon Math.

This week is crazy busy and I am loving every bit of it. I won't bore you with the details, I will just say that I feel incredibly blessed these days with the people that God has brought into all of our lives.

Story by Caitlyn

In Caity's English class she was given a picture to write a 10 sentence story. This is what she wrote and typed by herself. She would like to share this with all of you. Comments are always welcome!

There was a geek from school called Leny. Timmy The Bottlehead was trying to crush Leny. The Bottlehead was mad because Leny got 100% all the time. The Bottlehead was missing class because he throws people in the garbage a lot.

The fight started on Sunday morning. Timmy tied Leny to the church bell. Because Leny was smart, he got out of the bell. A woman saw him and called 911. The firefighters had a nice warm blanket. They check him out and Leny went home. Timmy got in trouble.

Happy Belated Birthday to Aunt Natalie!!!!!!!!!!

For some reason the video we did is not uploading correctly. Bummer. We hope you had a good birthday.

Back at it!

We started the third quarter in homeschooling. Much to my surprise, the first day was not met with trepidation but excitement. She sat down and made goals for this semester and talked about what she would like to do. ( More on those adventures later.) All the while, Malena was at my side BEGGING for some school stuff to do. Caity kept informing her how lucky she was doing her "baby stuff". Colin's new skills made the day a bit more challenging as he was not happy to just sit and watch. He wanted to pull up and see the world from his new perspective and inquired for his dad by his repetitive "DA,DA,DA" cuteness. Now that he has discovered the joy of this percussive syllable, he no longer will say "Ma,Ma,Ma--- Well, at 4:00 am the "Ma,Ma,Ma's" come out just fine. Figures!

New Year's Resolutions

From the nine-month old: learn to walk and continue capturing hearts.

From the 3 year-old: "Color things for Santa." I'm guessing Christmas had a huge impact on her. She still thinks there is more coming.

From the 7 and a half year-old: "I think I will not just say O.K. Mom, but I will actually do it." I am guessing this one will have a short life-span.

From the 30 year old-Stop thinking things out so much, that they never get done.

From the 32 year-old-Take his wife away somewhere...I think this is my favorite resolution.

Here's to a great 2008--Leave anxiety, frustrations, and sorrow in 2007; have joy, laughter, and love through out and beyond 2008!

Look Ma, no hands! (well almost)

Happy Birthday Patti

Have a wonderful day!

Pictures as promised

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you all did. Now the house needs to be put back together, so the Christmas stories will be told at a later date. Suffice to say there were many sweet moments that Chris and I will cherish. We missed our extended family, but it was was great for the kids to come down their own stairs and see what Santa had been up to. Santa created a Barbie extravaganza. I guess I am passed the whole, "My girls won't ever play with Barbies" stage. Peace to all.

Merry Christmas! (Eve)

What fun we have been having with all the Christmas traditions. We have made and decorated Christmas cookies, baked biscotti (Caity help to paint butterscotch on them), created our own Ginger (graham cracker) houses, and enjoyed so many classic movies. Caity is still undecided about St. Nick. It looks like this might be the last year for that magic, but she is discovering the other joys of the season that are so much more important in the scheme of things. This morning she told the Christmas story (abbreviated and with great liberties) to Malena who was more interested in trying to take the candy off her candied house. Speaking of Malena, she is right in the thick of the 'magic of Christmas' age. It will be so great to see her face when she comes down the stairs. Colin is just pleased to get a hold of the wrapping paper and have a good ole' time. Merry Christmas!

Colin's Nine Month Resume

Objectives:

• Make it through the first year of life with my dignity intact, as my sisters have already taken to combing my hair and dressing me up in various things.
  
• Steal the heart of everyone who spends five minutes with me---So far so good.
  
• Continue keeping my mom on her toes with my ever-changing schedule—she only thought I was going to start sleeping through the night. Good thing I’m cute.
  
  Education:
  
• A steady balance of musical training and physical activity.
• Sister says that I say her name—maybe I do, and maybe I don’t.
• Begun my football training by evading my dad’s countless tackles as I try to reach for my desired toy.
  
  Experience:
• Seen the ocean.—OK, I slept through that
• Traveled across the country—I slept, but it was not my fault. The car made me do it.
• Saw beautiful Christmas Lights—Yep, I slept.
• Attend church every Sunday.—I don’t sleep at all. In fact, that is when I feel like trying to wriggle out of the grasp of anyone brave enough to hold me during this time.
  
  Skills:
• Rolling over and crawling in my own special way
• Sitting up and pulling to a stand all by myself
• Growing teeth—I have four
• Eating bananas and Cheerios—Yum!
• Babbling and Singing
• Tipping the scales at 22.4 lbs.
• 28” long
• Make Dad's eyes twinkle
• Melt Mom’s heart

Happy Birthday Grandma

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We decided to take in the lights at the Memphis Zoo which we have never done before. I got so wrapped up in the family fun that I didn't take as many pics as I had intended. It was very cold... (cold for us in the mid-south) All my northern friends stop laughing now.

We broke out the mittens, hats, and swaddled Little Man aptly. He slept through the whole evening which was nice to be able to focus on the girls. Daddy and Big Sis went on a 3-D snow ride while Lil' Sis and Mom discussed Santa Claus. She said that she wanted to give him a big hug, so he would give her a big Barbie house to take home. She gave me permission to sit on his lap and get one too--I declined.

Big Sis says that she is glad that she knows "Santa's fake" so she will not be scared of him anymore. Looks like we need to read and watch The Polar Express a few more times. We have chosen not to agree with her developing opinion. We just ask her what she thinks about the whole deal. We shall see Christmas morning.

My Apologies

So, I had my facts wrong about the artist that this blog mentions. I have searched and found out just how wrong I was by calling him late. He survived a near death experience and it fueled him for a comeback album coming soon. At least that is what I read. This site isn't a dedication page; however, I wanted to clarify.

Marc Cohn is ALIVE!
Thanks to anonymous who brought that to my attention.

Malena's take on Jingle Bells

Last night, Malena wanted to sing this Christmas song. The video is bad, but I had to use it anyway for the vocals.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way,

All when time I do the chuck,

When I'm dying to say-ay.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,

Oh McTime I do this stuff,

ever and after that day--hey!

Cute quote #1

Malena says at breakfast...

"Mom, 'member when Colin was baby Jesus and you were Mary? 'Member that? Yeah, that was cool."

Mind you, Colin or myself have never depicted The Virgin Mary or our Savior in any way. That's Malena for you.

Caity's Dance Performance

Caity's dance class had an open class performance tonight. She looks forward to every Tuesday night when she can go see her friend and dance teacher. She is very lucky to get such intimate training with an instructor who is truly passionate. This video has an expiration date of one month. I posted it for all the family that could not make it. She will have a big recital in June that will showcase all the classes.

Reasons Two and Three why I love Colin

I don’t know if it is a boy/girl thing, just his nature, or the legacy of the ‘Martinez men’… (To be explained later) He is so EASY! Here we are now at eight months and he is sleeping through the night. I wake up in the morning still amazed at this. It has happened for a few weeks now. He literally cried for only ten minutes one night and then that was it. Now I sing him one song (I even get to chose it) and lay him down. He is out for the night!!! Now before the new moms roll your eyes and cry… I have paid my dues. The Venus children were quite the opposite. This magical moment did not happen until after the first candles were blown on their cakes. I co-habitated with Leny the first few months on the couch night after night after… Sorry, I am back now. This fact alone would be enough for my elation, but there’s more. He likes the water. I can put him in his tub and he is all about the playtime. There are squeals of delight and not torture. In fact, I have included a picture of Leny to prove that she got in the tub. This is a new thing as she usually takes a shower with me. It makes shaving very complicated, as she wants to be held during her shower. Now, I know the girls are getting picked on here, but I know the time will come when I look down at my sweet boy’s face and say…” Why can’t you be more like your sisters?”