Fairy tale room

One of the things Sophia really wanted for her room in the new house (besides a red room) was fairies on the walls. She was never really happy with the plain squares of pink and polka dots.

While shopping yesterday, I just happened across a program for my die cutter with Tinkerbell and friends. I got some chocolate brown sticky vinyl to cut. Here is the result...



















She loves it!!!



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While Sophia swims...

Jacob runs amok at the pool! He loves to run up to the edge of the pool to watch all the other kids swimming. Then he turns to me and smiles his devious smile and takes off. One day, I am sure he is going to end up in the pool. I guess all of this makes up for the fact that he can't swim right now. We will be signing up for classes in July.








This is what amok looks like!




Sitting on the vent....a cool place to be (literally, it's sweltering on the deck).




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Joy in the Water

Still more pictures of my fish...err...my daughter. At least she is super happy...

























Yup, she loves it!!! And her instructor is great...she just keeps getting more and more comfortable in the water, and her skills are increasing in leaps and bounds. So proud of her.



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Growing up...

Well, now that Jacob finally surpassed the 20 lbs mark, we decided that it is time for a big kid bed. Thank goodness for Costco...takes all the thinking out of buying a mattress...you just go in and get it.
















This is him "sleeping".

Yeah, he looks a little small in it, but he seems to like it. It's on the floor right now until the bed frame arrives. That way he can get used to it. We did make the minor mistake of setting it all up just before nap time....needless to say, not a lot of sleeping happened then. But that was the only issue we had. Jacob sleeps happily and comfortably in his new big bed.



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Preparations for Flower Girl stardom

It's just less than a month now until Uncle Todd and Auntie Dea's wedding and Sophia is super duper excited. Super duper excited! We finally got all the stuff together for the outfit, and she had to try it on and model it. Thankfully, Nana (who was here visiting) took the stuff home so that the ivory dress would stay that way. But we did snap a few pictures...











We haven't decided on the flower colour yet, although the red one is not for the wedding...not part of the colour scheme.




Jacob wanted in on the action too....


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Firefighters and tattle-telling Four Year olds.

The preschool had their annual trip to the local fire hall. Sophia was so excited, and they had been doing a whole bunch of fire education. We were there for an hour, and got tours of the ladder trucks and a regular engine. They went over stop, drop and roll. We we first got there, they sounded the alarm that the firefighters hear in the station, so that we knew when they had to go, if there was an emergency. Thankfully, there wasn't.




Showing how they knew to crawl under the smoke




Ready for action.

Then the two firefighters got talking about smoke detectors in our houses, and if they had ever heard them before. Well, leave it to my wonderful, vivacious, gregarious, and completely extroverted daughter to come out with the following statement: "Sometimes it goes off when my mommy is cooking. She makes the food smoke." Thanks kiddo. As I left the station at the end of the time, one of the men looked at me and asked: "So is Daddy cooking tonight?" Me:" Nope, I am." Fire guy: "Well, we'll see you later." Har de har har. Yikes.

Later on, they were telling the kids that if they are trapped in the house during a fire, and see firefighters they are to yell as loud as they can so they can be found. In comes Sophia with some more tidbits from Gerhard family life: "Sometimes my Mommy and Daddy yell at me and make me cry." Really??? She just said that??? OMG, I was sure that Child and Family Services was going to pay our house a visit. I have got to teach Sophia to keep her mouth shut.

Anyway, she had a great time, and learned lots.







Hey, he sounds like Darth Vader!!!











Yup, that's my kid.

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swimming like a salamander

We've had another round of swimming lessons this fall. Both Jacob and Sophia started in late January. Unfortunately, one week after he started, Jacob broke his leg, so he had to withdraw, but Sophia continued on. She loves swimming and is doing a fabulous job of learning all that she needs to know.




Being tree seeds before growing and being chopped down...an exercise for learning to jump into the water.




Jacob watching forlornly from the sidelines. He really, really wanted to swim.







Happiness is a soggy four year old.



Front float!

She's doing well. This is her second time in Salamander. Not unusual to repeat as it takes a little while to get some of the skills down. Each time she gets better. She might need to do it once more, but she is doing super well. She happily jumps in, blows bubbles, floats, and putting her head completely under the water. She loves it. Maybe she'll be a water polo star....


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Reading

Well, we always knew that Sophia was a genius. This just prove our point...

Our little four and a half year old can read... yup, all by her self. Well, okay, with a little help, but this is still impressive.

You have to listen really closely. Turn up the volume.

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Freedom

Jacob's cast came off on Monday, Feb 28th, 2011. Finally. What a long month for all of us. I don't think any of us was really sad to bid farewell to that blue fiberglass peg leg. Well, I don't think Jacob was sad about it, but removing it did hinder getting attention a little. He had nothing to point at anymore. He was really good about showing people his cast.

David and I were a little concerned about what might be waiting for us under the cast....thankfully it was a scaly, dried, wrinkly, slightly smelling leg, not much smaller than it was before the cast.

He has a pretty distinct limp still, after a week. It doesn't help that he was jumping from the bottom stair and landed wrong...which sent us to the clinic this morning to make sure that he didn't re-break or break anything else. Thankfully, that x-ray didn't show anything but a healing fracture. Whew. He forgets from time to time that his knee is bendy, and will sit down with his leg straight out from him, or walk with the leg fully extended. But then he remembers, and bends that knee. I think the toughest part is the stiff ankle. He still walks with his foot turned out and drags the foot a bit. That joint is very stiff after a month of not using it.

So, all in all, he hated the saw they used to remove the cast. He hated the
x-rays he had done right after the cast came off, but he is thrilled to be moving easier. He's a tough little trooper, my Jacob is. Makes this whole thing a lot easier.






















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