The Harris Family

Big, bad ice storm after 80 degree weather = Texas kids who 1) have a random assortment of cold-weather gear that is ill-fitting and 2) have no idea how disgusting it is to eat icicles that hang off of the trampoline and chunks of ice picked up off the ground. :)

Hello, icicles!

Yummy. :)

Lainey stretching

And, interestingly enough, the entire city shut down for the weekend except for Lainey's dance convention at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Dallas. The annual Children's Medical Center Holiday Parade and the Dallas Marathon were both canceled due to the weather, but not Lainey's dance convention. So, my dad (Tuck) graciously drove up to Plano to pick Lainey and me up on Friday, drove us to their house to spend the night, drove us to the convention on Saturday, picked us up, allowed us to spend the night again, and drove us back to Plano on Sunday. :) Thank you, Dad! Thank you, Mom! It was a fun stay-cation at their house!

playing on Saturday morning before the convention

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Here are a few pictures from the event. The girls had so much fun; the convention is always a blast and the instructors are just amazing. And funny. And amazing.

This picture is funny. I love candid shots.

And this one. I love Lainey's concerned face.

Lighting is always off for me in these settings. I also didn't have the right lens…oops. But this is Lainey being Lainey. Look at her little muscles!! When did that happen???

So cute. They were playing some game before the instructor came in.

Tap!

This instructor was so funny. He's teaching them a dance to the hilarious clip that's floating around You Tube right now… "What Does the Fox Say?"

A cute picture of Eva.

nervous habit

Another awesome instructor - Ms. Kim. She's funny, too. She keeps all the adults laughing!

The kids, on their way to the stage. They have masks (as they are playing a variety of animals for their performance) and were so funny on stage. I'll post the video! Not all that exciting but funny. :)

This is one of those un-fun posts. The ones where I write facts and cute things about the kids…and, of course, some not-cute, somewhat-irritating things. :)

Walker:

Always fights for the pink popsicle holder, probably because his sister wants it. Thankfully she’s gotten really good at sharing with him and taking turns (most of the time).
Says really funny stuff. Once, his movie paused, so he said it was “taking a breath.” Yiyia once told him, "You crack me up." Walker replied with, "I crack my face up."
He likes to "read" his books - his favorite at the moment is Lost Sloth. He basically summarizes the pages (give or take several words). I think this is because Lainey is reading to us at night…he feels like he needs to, too!
First love - trains. Second love - cars. Cars are beginning to make a comeback after almost two years of trains having taken over.
Still likes to squeeze my cheeks, especially if I'm at his eye level. He squeezes them hard and talks in a funny voice; it's like he's squeezing a baby's cheeks and talking in a silly voice to that baby. It's like I am his baby.
He also likes it when we make our faces "frozen" and he can use his fingers to move our lips to make happy/sad faces. Hilarious. He makes us "happy, sad, happy, sad." Hehe. :)
Sometimes starts his sentences with, "Mommy. I have to tell you somepin'." Or sometimes, "Mommy. I have to show you somepin'."
Refers to the past as “last morning” or “a long day ago…” or “a long, long, long, long, long day ago…. (As in, "A long, long, long, long, long day ago we went to the swimming pool.")
He talks with his hands… He has started to imitate how his sister talks to him. He, in turn, talks to me that way. He'll say, “Mommy. [Blah blah blah blah.] No, Mommy. Like this. [Blah blah blah]….” And he uses his hands when trying to make a point. Hilarious.
He's silly. Found two veggie straws and used them as "lips."
Wants to race. All.the.time. He's very competitive, and gets mad if he loses and mad if Lainey doesn't want to race him. He loves to race his parents, too. :)
He notices numbers everywhere. Grocery store checkout lanes, numbers on cars, numbers on signs, numbers everywhere. He also counts everything. Everything. However, when counting, he almost always skips 13 and 14. He says he "can't say that number" (13) so instead of trying, he just skips it. :) A little perfectionist! He also wants to know "what equals ____." So we have to go through different number combinations. (This is a Mommy activity; Walker has no idea what equals what…but he's curious. So far he has "1+1=2" and "2+2=4." That's a start!) We work on combining groups of objects, and he usually gets the answer when I present it that way. He also asks how to spell things, except it sounds like this: “What does K, P, E, T, O spell?” (Um, nothing. Again, something he's picking up from his sister.) Or, sometimes he sees written words and identifies the letters and then asks me what word the letters spell.
Sweet words: "lello" (yellow); "winner" (won); "ghost-es" (ghosts); "cuh-cwise" (surprise); "cuh-t" (put); "kecause"(because); "somepin" (something); "my tone" (my turn); "lemoname" (lemonade); any word that starts with an "sp" or a "sc" or a "sw" usually comes out as "sf" or just "f". "Scratched" is "Fwatched." And "switch" is "fwitch."
Loves his tricycle…and he just pedals it around the house, with his blankies in the back, binky in his mouth…yes, we haven't given up that bink yet. He loves it so. And he never pedals with shoes on. He's always barefoot! Always.
He will put away his binky and blankies if he knows big boys will be around…he says, "They will see me" and tucks his blankies/binkies away.
Ducky Blankie is is favorite. He's rubbed the little satin duck on the front so much that it's starting to become threadbare.
He uses the words "awesome" and "beautiful" and "dangerous" often. It's funny.
He always seeks out flowers to pick for me.
Prefers to go outside barefoot. He really only wears shoes in public places…or if it's cold. But walking around the neighborhood, going to get Lainey from school, going to a neighbor's house, inside our house…he never has shoes on.
When he doesn't want to do something, he always gives us the excuse that he'll do it in "2 years" or "when [he's] ten years old" or "when [he's] five in a half."
Walker has finally stopped crying when I drop him off at school. It took about six full weeks. One day, as we were practicing being brave while walking into school, he looked up at me with a very fake smile and said - through his clenched teeth - “Look at me! I smiling.” A few times he told himself "I can do it" to boost his confidence…it didn't always work. :)
When faced with an obstacle in the sidewalk/path/hallway, he likes for one person to go “dis way” and one person to go “dat way" and then we reunite when the path meets up again. We can't ever go the same way.
When he misses me, he says, "I miss you more than ice cream.” (I think he got this from “I love you more than ice cream” – from the storybook character (turned TV show) Frances.)
He delays events by saying, “just a minute" or "just a second."
He will tell me, "I waiting so patiently" or “I waiting so patient.” He sometimes waits patiently.
Walker has asked us to "follow these directions." (I can tell he's been listening at school!)
He does NOT like it when things take too long….he'll complain, “It’s takin’ too long!” (Getting home, getting to the gym, staying at the gym, staying in Sunday School, being in school, my phone calls, my trips to the grocery store…etc.).
He constantly tries to talk over whoever has my attention at that moment. He wants my attention. We're working on this…he's getting better.
He loves the TV show Wild Kratts on PBS Kids.
Generally, Walker is my rule-follower and does what I say. He's very sensitive and kind-hearted and a pretty good listener. He's my sweet little buddy. My angel. I always say that I want to eat him because he's so cute. Ha! :)

Lainey:

Oh my sweet girl. Creative, energetic, joyful, and spunky….yet stubborn, whiney, emotional, argumentative...she's everything, all rolled into one person. She's got a range of emotions, and she feels them all strongly. This has mostly been since she started Kindergarten. I think she's just pretty tired. If she's content, it's because she's being challenged, staying busy, feeling motivated, or put to task…well, a task that she wants to do. She's really good when in class at dance because it challenges her the whole time and she likes that. Back at home, however, it's a different story! We get the grumpy side of her. Over Thanksgiving break we saw "old Lainey" a bit -- she was back to her own, happy, compliant self. I'm looking forward to Christmas! :)
She still wants milk the second she wakes up ….in a sippy cup….in her bed. Definitely tells you her age.
Lainey is still very, very oral. She puts everything in her mouth. It's almost as if it's gotten worse lately. I'm thinking it's because she has 6-year molars trying to make their way into her mouth...
She is a little tornado. She makes a giant mess wherever she goes. :)
She's very sensitive to people who have disabilities…a little girl at her school walks differently and Lainey thinks it's cool because “not everyone can do that.”
Her innocence is precious. She comes home singing Indian songs that she's learned from her Indian friends at school, and knows her friend Suraj likes things that are “American Style.” :) Her school is very diverse, and I love that she has many different friends who come from various cultures. She asked me where India is, because her friends live there, so I showed her on a map. :) One of her good friends lost her mom recently; this was a big deal for Lainey. She has spent some time processing it and has discussed it quite a bit with me and other people (sometimes at inappropriate times…I think she told her entire tap class about it). She's even drawn a picture for her friend and has written about the mom's passing in her diary. A whole page! She might have just repeated the same sentence over and over but still…she wrote about it. I think it affected her deeply, and she cried quite a bit when I told her the devastating news. I'm glad that she has a sensitive heart…but yes, that innocence of hers is waning. OH! I almost forgot. She recently learned two bad words - one is "hell" (but she thinks it is helld) and the other is "dammit." :) Hmm. Ok. Here we go….
Is an excellent excuse-giver and before-bed staller. Really. She's the best. Nothing can be done on my time…only hers. (Opposite of Walker…he's usually very compliant. Lainey always has to finish one more thing or do one more thing before obeying me.)
Refers to the rock as "granick" not "granite" and, before she knew the difference, referred to "You Tube" as "You Tub." :)
Calls me "Muh-MAH." (I wish she'd call me Mommy, because "Muh-MAH" makes me crazy.)
She rarely watches TV for any length of time anymore. Her favorite show is Cyberchase on PBS Kids.
She gets so very easily distracted.
She loves scaring people and sneaking up on people to scare them and playing hide-and-seek.
Lainey doesn't do well with spontaneity, especially when she has a routine or plan in place. She must have a plan, particularly when it comes to being with people. Friends, parents, and grandparents included. If we can discuss the plan prior to doing it, then it seems to go better. For example, one day Walker and I surprised Lainey at lunch at school. And she refused to sit with us! She wasn't upset, per se, but she was thrown off. So, we took a break and talked with some other friends, walked the book fair, and then came back to tell her good-bye. And then, of course, she starts bawling. She gives so many mixed signals. :)
She does have a sweet heart. After Sunday School one day, we went to a friend's house and her friend's sister got upset. Later, Lainey said, " I heard God in my heart today. Izzy was sad and He told me to help her.” (YAY for Sunday school lessons sinking in!) Once, we read a book called Flood, and it made her sad. She started to tear up (it's a good book…doesn't have words, just very powerful pictures).
She loves playing with her dolls and doing anything creative and crafty. She often "talks" to herself while doing things, like making bracelets with her Rainbow Loom or drawing and coloring or playing school. I think she's adopted some verbiage from the You Tube videos she watches that show how to make the Rainbow Loom bracelets, and she's also adopted some verbiage from her teachers at school…she's quite specific with her instructions. :)
All in all, Lainey is a kind and responsible kiddo - especially for people other than her mommy. She lights up my world, makes me ache for her baby days, and gives me the opportunity to see things from a different perspective. If I were five or six years old, I would like to have Lainey as my friend. :) Love you, sweet girl!

Side note: Lainey is WAY into our Elf this year. She is obsessed. She loves talking to him and drawing pictures and showing him tricks (like cartwheels or dance moves). Yesterday I made the mistake of telling her that one of Walker's classmates' elf made him and his sister Rainbow Loom bracelets. So Lainey laid out all of her loom supplies…and thankfully, our elf took the hint and made Lainey and Walker bracelets, too. He was a bit intimidated by the big loom and Lainey's request for him to make a "triple single" (whatever that is), so he opted for the smaller, simpler loom. He made three bracelets - two for the kids, one for himself. :) To add to the excitement of the season, we're also doing two Advent calendars. One is the "chocolate" Advent house (the kind you grew up with…and yes, they open the "window" first thing in the morning and eat the piece of chocolate before breakfast) and the other is an "activity" Advent calendar that I (partially) created for them (thanks to Pinterest). We get to pull open the drawers of our Advent house (that I did not make) and do the activity listed on the piece of paper (hidden inside the drawer). Many of them are silly and fun - like "Jump with Mommy on the trampoline"or "Eat dessert before dinner" but some are geared towards doing things for others or for their family members…like "Make something for your teacher" or "Do something nice for your mom and dad" or "Bake cookies for the mailman." So far, so good - the kids (Lainey especially) are excited about both Advent calendars! :)

the "activity" Advent house

the "chocolate" Advent house

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Ok, whew! Long post! Ice storm approaching us here in Plano…we're waiting to hear about school closings and whatnot. Crazy Texas weather. When will we ever adjust? :)