The Boy and The Girl

The kids have been growing and changing like crazy lately. I can hardly keep up with them. AnDee is full on reading now and loves to pick out all the words she knows everywhere we go. This is especially impressive to me because I struggled badly with reading. Like REALLY struggled. I think I was probably in second grade before I was at the level she is now at 4.
 She is trying to earn enough money to buy an Anna dress (because we are obsessed with Frozen in this house. My kids have never been obsessed with a movie before but Frozen has become our first) She babysits for me every morning while I work out and she cleans and cleans and cleans. She is almost there! Only 2 more dollars and she will become the proud new owner of a Princess Anna dress. I can't wait until she walks up to the counter at the Disney store and dumps out a giant bag of quarters for the cashier to count! I really don't know what I would do without her. Im being very sincere when I say that. She keeps me motivated and makes up for me in the areas I lack. She is the best little mom to her brothers and as scary as it might sound I trust her completely to take care of them. She is only 4 but I swear to you she acts like a 10 year old.
She of course is rocking it in gymnastics. She was only in a class with kids her own age for a couple of weeks. They have now bumped her up two classes and she is in what they call the "pre-team" class. Basically she isn't old enough to  compete with the team but as soon as she is they want her to. She even got the attention of the owner of the gym. He found me after class last week and explained to me that she has a natural ability that most kids don't. I guess her form is almost perfect already... which essentially means nothing to me because I know nothing about gymnastics but I guess its a good thing?

 Her hair is getting SO long and just incredibly awesome. When it is wet it goes well past her waist. She slept in her braids a few nights ago and when we took them out it looked like this.

When I told her she looked just like Merida she tried to put on a happy face but I could tell that she really wanted me to say she looked like Elsa or Anna but seriously, who can deny that she is a Merida look alike?

When I showed her that picture her reply was "My head is NOT round like that!" Grasping at straws? and what 4 year old has such opinions about head shapes?
Both AnDee and Pep love to sing. Its is super entertaining and I love to secretly listen to what they say. (they always stop if they think Im actually listening so I have to pretend to be preoccupied by other things) A couple of weeks ago Pep started singing Jingle Bells cause you know... it still looks like Christmas time around these parts... except he wasn't singing "jingle" bells he was singing "tinker bells" I guess the song got stuck in Andrews head because a few minutes later he was singing it too except he WAS singing it "Jingle" bells. Pep quickly interrupted him and explained that he was singing it wrong. "it goes like this dad: Tinker bells. Tinker bells. Tinker all the way" So of course I had to chime in with "Yeah Dad! Its Tinker bells!"  Peps reply: "yeah... Im just dads teacher"
AnDee has learned how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the piano (she also knows all the notes and scales) and she often sings along with it while she is playing. "Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Mary had a little lamb who's life was very slow."... Really though, there is a pretty good chance that the lambs life was very slow. Which is probably why he wanted to follow Mary to school one day. He was bored and was looking for some action!
Joseph also loves to sing his ABC"S and like every other kid the L, M, N, O, P part is a little difficult. He found a way to make it pretty simple though. Instead of trying to spit out all those letters so quickly he just says W. Yup thats it. ABCDEFGHIJK...W. Easy peasy.
AnDee is always helpful with Pep. I  find him in her clothing on a regular basis. Apparently he is often cold or wet or dirty so she has to change his clothes for him. Andrew is beginning to think that he is experiencing some gender confusion. I guess finding him doing dishes in his sisters clothes would put that idea in a fathers head.

Notice how he is wearing the same shirt that AnDee was wearing in her pictures?  And yes... I do the dishes with my feet too. Thats where he got the idea.
He is a TALKER holy smoke this boy can talk and I can't even tell you how many parents I have had stop me and ask me how old he is and when I explain that he is two (almost three) they are all baffled at how well he talks and with the words he uses. He loves to talk to adults mostly. He doesn't have a lot of interest in talking to other kids, especially kids his own age. When we went to register AnDee for kindergarten he kind of stole the show. I was filling out paper work and AnDee was being shy and kind of hiding from all the adults. Not Pep. There was a sign on the wall behind where the teachers were sitting and he walked right up to them and told them all the letters on the wall. 2 minutes later he had a group of about 6 adults standing in a  semi-circle behind him, quizzing him on everything they could think of. One of the teachers pulled me aside afterward and told me that he was "gifted" and that I really need to make sure he is being challenged. He is a pretty sharp little fellow, I do agree.
He is also enjoying gymnastics but doesn't take it nearly as seriously as his sister does. He is mostly just there to play and flirt with his teacher. He rarely has any interest in doing what he is actually supposed to be doing but he is almost constantly seeking out the attention of his coach.

These two little people are the best. Im so lucky I have them to entertain me and make me laugh.