Updates

It strikes me that there are a lot of just little details, none of which would constitute a whole post by itself, but all together, there are a bunch of little details I don't want to forget...

Jessie - she's officially an adolescent.  Okay, so she's only nine, but I've noticed a huge increase in the drama and emotional freak outs.  And they're more adult freak outs, she complains of me nagging her all the time, her clothes don't look right, her hair isn't perfect, her brother is making her nuts, etc.  She's become obsessed with doing her nails - and also, oddly, drawing out pictures of her house that she'll have one day.  She's planning on four kids, Tziporah, Emma, Megan and Jackson, and spends what appears to me to be an excessive amount of time planning and decorating her imaginary house that she and her husband and four children will live in.  She's also become excessively picky.  It's not that she won't eat, because if I give her one of four or five items (three of them are candy, cake and ice cream, the other two would be chicken and mashed potatos, wait she'll eat tuna as well), she'll eat and eat until she's full.  But if I don't have those things, she's not eating.  Literally.  Just won't eat.  And she's SKINNY.  I'm legitimately concerned that she's not eating enough.  It's freaking me out...

Sam spent the night at his buddy Harrison's house two nights ago.  My clingy, almost pathologically shy boy - voluntarily packed his bag and went off for the night at his friend's house.  And then had to be dragged out sobbing the next afternoon, because he didn't want to come home.   He's doing very well with the homeschooling thing we're doing.  Because he was behind in kindergarten (they really do need preschool), he needs to catch up in order to go on to first grade.  So we're working at home every afternoon on letters and numbers.  He's super motivated (because for every educational game we play, I give him a star - 10 stars and he gets a dollar to spend at the dollar store down the street), and I'm really impressed at how fast he's picking it up.

Julianna - holy moly, is that kid cute.  She's talking all the time, chattering away.  She's still relatively easy to handle, although we're rapidly approaching the terrible twos.  She's opinionated and loud, making her thoughts and feelings abundantly clear.  She's still obsessed with the Little Einsteins (Pat Pat, in our world) and asks for it 24/7.  She also sings all the time, and one the cutest songs is when she just sings different names - Mama, Yaya, Abby, Abby, Abby, Mama, Yaya, Yaya.... over and over again.  It's like her version of My Favorite Things.