Brain and J-Boo

 It wasn't long ago that Brain and Leah were sleep buddies. Brain waited for Leah everyday in her room. Leah loved it and we have some adorable pictures of them snuggling as they napped. Juliet has taken to taking naps in our bed. Brain LOVES it. He is back to waiting for his girl every day and cuddling next to her. There's just never been a better cat. 

Matilda the Musical

A few weeks ago I noticed that Matilda the Musical was coming to Detroit. I felt like we were called to go. Matilda was the first family movie that ever captivated Leah. That lead to it also being the first chapter book we ever read aloud to her, which really prompted her to begin reading chapter books of her own. It seemed fitting that it would be her first (traveling) Broadway musical. The theater doesn't allow kids under 5, so Juliet stayed home with Daddy. 

 This was also right in the middle of our SECOND round of sickness this year. We already dealt with the stomach flu at, literally, the worst possible time this winter. Then we got the flu bug that never seemed to end. Juliet was sick with 103-104 degree temps Monday night-Friday that week, rallied for Saturday and Sunday, but by Sunday night was screaming with an ear infection and a fever that came back Monday-Tuesday. We visited the pediatrician (twice) and discovered her lungs were also constricted, so she needed regular breathing treatments over several days. Leah got sick Saturday and kept her fever until Tuesday night. Between Chris and I, we needed to cover the 7 days they needed to miss school. It sucked. Matilda was right in the middle of this, but Leah was determined to go. Our show was the last day it was in town, so I let her go. Don't judge me. 

 Leah picked out a special dress and hair style, and Juliet wanted to be "matchy matchy" with her. Leah loved the show. She took the entire experience very seriously. It was so cute to watch her experience the show. 

 We bought the CD, and both kids love singing the songs and dancing to the music. They also love to watch You-Tube clips of the actual show. They try to recreate the dances, voice and facial infections. It's adorable. I'm much happier with them recreating Broadway as opposed to Taylor Swift. 

Juliet kept me entertained with dances, costumes, and sass while Leah took a 4 hour nap.  She needed to study the dances before recreating them. 

100th Day Project -- American Girl

 Leah's 100 Day Project. Her teacher suggested that we look on Pinterest, but so many of those projects looked like they were parent projects. C and I gave Leah a few suggestions, and she liked the idea of collecting American Girls the most. She did the entire project herself. It took 2 catalogs. She cut, tallied, organized, and glued them all down. Chris and I tried to check that she had 100, but kept getting mixed up. Chris ended up having to cover them all up with Post-It's and count them based on that. She is right next to me saying, "I worked super-hard on that; to get all those American Girls."

She was so proud of herself and her work. We were proud, too! 

You can't really tell, but I did use bubble letters to write "Leah's 100 American Girls". Leah colored in the letters and gave the entire project a background. 

 Miss I-don't-take-naps-anymore has been taking naps again on the weekends. I love this picture of her and all of her dolls. I love when she gets into them. Leah's never been a huge creative-imaginative-play girl, so I love when I see her act like that with her girls. Her dolls are quickly outgrowing their closet and her closet (where all their furniture is kept), and Leah has been pushing for a bigger place for her dolls. Chris and I have been watching the real estate market in our area daily. Unfortunately, there have been very few houses that interested us. And, it's a sellers market which works well for us on the selling end, but not so good on the buying end. I don't want to live in an apartment while we wait. Now we are entertaining the idea of finishing the basement. Who knows!?