Finally an update…

 

 

Audrey:

Audrey’s schedule has slowed a bit since the school year is winding down.  She finishes on June 13th and I’m not sure she even realizes how quickly that will come.  She loves school, but mostly just the elective type classes like Art, Music and PE (they swim during the last school quarter).  I think she is starting to slip a bit in math – when she gets home from school the last thing she wants to do is more school…. but we need to make it more of a priority.  She has been spending more time indoors since the heat is here – but keeps herself busy making tents in the playroom, drawing, coloring with Will and writing stories.  She is such a wonderful helper as we all would predict and is enjoying interacting with her baby sister.  Her two front teeth are still missing, but sadly the big teeth are just waiting to bust through any day now.  Audrey is big into having her “privacy” and will no longer take a bath with her brother.  She tells me when she grows up she wants to be a veterinarian.

 

Will(iam):

We’ve been calling him Will (unless he is in trouble) but lately he is telling us that his name is not “Will” it is William.  He started this after he learned how to write his name at school and naturally at his British school they properly call him William and taught him to write it that way….and when he sees “Will” monogrammed on just about everything he says, This is NOT my name!  He is still our headstrong child.  We are working on compliance and manners constantly with him and see improvement inching along.  He started taking speech therapy about 2 months ago every Tuesday (his day off of school) to correct a few sound substitutions and a lisp.  I have been impressed with how well he is responding to it and starting to see him implement what he is learning in everyday language.  Will continues to be pretty lazy when we ask him to help out around the house and recently threw a crying fit for over an hour instead of honoring my request: picking up 2 toys.   When he’s bad, he’s bad, but when he’s good he melts your heart. He is becoming more independent and wants to dress himself and brush his own teeth. (He recently had 2 cavities filled so we have to intervene here). William is obsessed with drawing and coloring right now, he proudly displays his artwork taped up all over his room as well as distributes them to classmates.  He looks more and more like his handsome daddy everyday and similarly is a total home-body.  This picture is of him last week on a school field trip.

 

Julia:

This sweet little nugget is 8 1/2 months! She’s finishing up breastfeeding this week and is transitioning to formula just fine.  She prefers the bottle now and is also wanting table food instead of baby food.  Her infancy and baby-ness is slipping away quickly since she is crawling and pulling up and making us chase her all over the house.  She still has no teeth but it does not stop her from eating just about everything we do… thankfully she is not picky (yet).. last night she had salmon, rice and zucchini for dinner. Julia is down to 2 naps a day and has recently started to protest bedtime.  no worries, I’ll win.  Her favorite toys are musical instruments and play food.  she is still really flexible and can function after a 30 minute nap or 3 hour nap.  I encourage this flexibility {since it is necessary with three kids} and do not push an exact schedule. We just roll with it.  She recently went swimming with us for the first time and just loves the water -  not surprised since she adores bath time.  Her meanest moment of the day is drying her after bath and trying to get her dressed…. very similar to what Will used to do, I remember comparing him to putting a cat in a straightjacket.. same/same with her.  Julia likes to be out of the house and is content for a while in the stroller except when I attempt to go shopping for myself.

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We booked our flights for the summer and will travel in July 3rd and stay thru August 14th.  Will has school until June 25th and in the past we just took him out early, but it would make for too long to be away from daddy and too long of a stay away from our home base here.  The good news is that I get some quality time with Audrey (such a rarity) while William is at school since she finishes about a week and half before he does. The kids are already talking about the trip and are looking forward to Mere and Cappy’s camp as well as Nana and Papa’s beach condo.  We are soo looking forward to my sister’s wedding and all the festivities leading up to the big day! 

 

P.S. I found another helper and she is wonderful!!