There's a bird at Queenie's house

Queenie has a new attraction at her house.

It's a BIRD!  My girls really love birds.  They always have.  "Bur!" (Bird!) was one of Faith's first words.  After seeing the bird, Grace decided she really wanted that bird to sit on her shoulder.

So she dressed up like Little Red Riding Hood trying to entice it.  But her costume didn't work.

So I picked that bird up and almost lost a finger but I managed to successfully place it on Grace's lap.   And that silly bird started walking right up to her shoulder.  Then Grace wanted it off.  Meanwhile, Faith said she wanted to hold the bird, too.  So I set her on the bed then almost lost another finger picking bird up again.

As soon as I put bird on Faith's lap, she catapulted her body backwards screeching like a banshee yelling "Off!  OFF!"  Apparently she changed her mind about wanting to hold bird.  Poor thing.  Lesson learned:  Faith has always loved birds but she loves them best from  a distance.

School room

One of my goals this year is to work with Faith and "preschool" her.

So I converted part of our craft room into her preschool.

Each morning we work on her ABCs and 123s.  We also read books together and do some crafting.

Then she gets "work" off the shelf to do by herself.  This helps her learn to be independent so she feels like a "big girl like Grace."  It also teaches her responsibility and reinforces that she cleans up after herself.  That's a little trick we learned when Grace was at Montessori.  Eventually we'll put Faith in at Montessori, too.  But in the meantime, I want to give her a head start.

Each tray on the shelf contains a different tasks like play dough.  I change the items out every couple of weeks.

Tinker-type toys for fine motor skills.

Puffs to practice counting and sorting.

And cups and bowls for stirring and pouring.

Faith loves doing her "work." 

To her its just fun.

And even Benjamin likes "going to school."

Two in the bed

I heard somebody giggling this morning.

And it turns out that Benjamin had a visitor this morning.

Faith climbed into the crib and sang him our Good Morning song to wake him up.  Faith is one that firmly believes that everyone should be awake as soon as the sun comes up.

They couldn't be more different

Grace has an inherent sense of romanticism.

Grace loves to dress up and pretend to get married and live happily ever after.

A sweet neighbor gave Grace this dress a while back.  And Grace loves to wear it with her makeshift veil.

She dances and curtsies in it and pretends to go to grand balls with handsome princes.  She even speaks like a princess by using a high pitched falsetto tone.  Put a fancy dress on Grace and she transports herself to a wondrous imaginary and magical world.

Put that same dress on her sister and you get a slightly different reaction.  Faith is more of a realist.

It's here! It's finally here!

My new camera has finally arrived and I couldn't be more excited!  I opted for a nice little upgrade from my old D60.  It was on backorder for several weeks but I am certain it was well worth the wait.  I can hardly wait to start taking photos again.

One just isn't enough

But three apparently will do the job.  

I should probably mention that she also had another 5 in her hands... just in case.

Cotton candy

We've been making cotton candy around here.

Lots of cotton candy.  I had no idea it would be so easy.

And we've recently branched out by making different colors with food color in our sugar.

Even Benjamin likes it.