The Harris Family

Thursday, December 15, 2011

2nd Annual Christmas Sing-Along

This morning, Lainey sang at her school's Christmas Sing-Along. Holy cuteness! The kids were darling...so funny. Lainey was so animated and very into the singing and hand movements. She did some great singing, would take bows at the end of the songs, and only occasionally did she pick her nose. :) Here are a few pictures of the performance!

Ring those bells, girl!

The kids are listening to Rev. Stacey talk about the reason we give presents to one another at Christmas. Do you see Lainey's face? How her lips are stretched and she's smiling? Like she's in a wind tunnel, sort of (think of the movie Spies Like Us)? Well, this is how she shows true excitement. She makes this face and giggles whenever she is proud of herself, or when she shows me something that she's very proud of, or when she's very giddy and/or excited. She also shakes her little fists back and forth, too. And usually gives me a hug. :)

a profile shot of the "excited face"

Ok, these two pictures (above and below) are hilarious. There were some kids being silly and loud in the back and my little Lainey could not keep her eyes off of them! She would sing the entire song and do all the hand movements while still trying to see what was going on in the back row. I couldn't tell if she wanted to join them or reprimand them.

Yep, still looking at the kids. Good thing everyone else was facing the right direction!! :)

And this little cutie is Clara. She is a friend's daughter. How adorable is she? I just wanna eat her up.

And in case you want more...here are three short videos of Lainey during the performance!

Writing!

Thanks to an episode of Dora, Lainey decided that she wanted to give Santa a present. She's pretty confident that Santa DOES leave presents under small trees and she assures me that she wouldn't be scared if Santa came into her room to take the present she made for him and leave a present for her in its place. And so began her present-making adventure. :)

The "presents" that Lainey made for Santa. Each present contains pieces of paper that are folded, taped, and stapled together with the gift giver's name on the outside of the present.

Lainey wrote these names completely by herself. I could not believe my eyes! The two presents in the picture on the left are from Walker...you can kinda make out his name. She knows how to spell his name, but forming the letters is still a bit challenging. And the three presents in the picture on the right are from Lainey. She mostly writes her name correctly but if she runs out of room then the letters just go everywhere. As is normal.

And this one is from me! Again, written completely independently. I wasn't even in the room! The top picture shows the front side - and yes, that's a little face with really big eyes drawn next to "Mom"; and the bottom picture shows the back side.

Lainey made this present for Santa from Daddy. (I did remind her how to spell this one. She thinks "DAD" is spelled "DOD." But she did write the letters all by herself!)

the kids' trees in their rooms with their presents for Santa

And this final picture is from the other day. I wanted to add it into this post because it kinda relates. Lainey wrote my "other" name a few days ago...I was in the bedroom and she was in the kitchen and she came in and showed me what she had written. I know we've talked before about how to spell my name, but I had no idea she could write it completely on her own. So impressed!

***

Anyway, I realize that this is a very "proud mom moment" post!! Ahh...yikes. :) In all reality, I am very proud of Lainey. I'm proud of her for having confidence (which is one of the hardest things about writing) and I'm proud of her for taking initiative to try something new. I didn't know she could write this many things without assistance or guidance. I think this about sums up the words she can write, however. I don't know if she knows how to spell anything else, and I don't think she's trying to spell words phonetically yet. I am so proud of my big girl! She is growing up way too fast. Love you, Lainey Lou!

Monkeying Around

Favorite activity at the playground after school: the monkey bars. This is far as she gets, though, before jumping down. She will do this over and over and over again! Ainsley likes them, too, but I think that most of the time she likes to hang on that higher bar on the right.

Walker loves hanging like this on the lower bar at the playground. He does this completely unassisted. He is strong!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Workin' Hard

Spent a long day working in the coal mines, this one.

Here's the reason for the black marker...we made a felt Christmas tree! (Not my idea...can't take credit for its cuteness.)

Walker's strengths were not recognized during this project. His favorite thing to do was color with his black marker on the felt, the table, the chair, his face... He also liked using the (kids') scissors to pick up tiny pieces of felt (working on those fine motor skills, right?) so he'd open up the scissors, hold a handle with each hand, and try to pick up the pieces of felt. He was so proud of himself when he was successful!

Lainey did great with her scissors! An adult pair since I couldn't find my second pair of kids' scissors.

I am pretty sure this is Lainey's "circle." I am not sure where it is but it didn't make it to the tree.

I think that's just a person of some sort.

The felt tree! Please ignore my tribal-looking snowflakes. I have forgotten how to make them! Good grief. I need to practice! We used cookie cutters to make the recognizable (and some of the unrecognizable) ornaments! Be sure to take notice of the spider web (red), a snowman (red), a gingerbread man (brown, near the top), and a big heart (I helped Lainey make the heart, but she did most of the cutting!). Hopefully, we'll make a few smaller ones to add. The point is that the kids can decorate and re-decorate and decorate and re-decorate this felt tree as often as they like!