Another long overdue update

No one who knows our schedule should be surprised that our blog posts are very infrequent. Part of it is sheer busyness, but most of it is probably due to a desire to spend the little time we have at home playing with our two wonderful children! Both Ben and I are entering the insanely busy portion of the school year, so our chances to just sit around and be a family are few and far between!

So, news worthy of updates:

• We spent a long weekend in February with Grandpa Talsma and Grandma Jeannee, which was a lot of fun. We are looking forward to spending more quality time with this set of grandparents now that they have moved back stateside. I'm pretty sure they enjoyed their time with the kiddos as well--although their eardrums may need some time to recover from Miles vocalizations. :)
• For all the Iowa people who read this blog and are still digging out from having more snow than we do--we are enjoying a week of 40 and 50 degree weather, and have lawn in our backyard. The downside is that we only got 4 snowdays this year, so I'm still hoping that we have a good spring ice/snow storm yet. You get used to averaging 8-10 snow days a year--4 is just not enough.
  
• Miles had his 6 month appointment in late January (so he was really closer to 7 months) and is still on track to be the next giant to grace this planet. He weighed in at 17 lbs., 10 oz., and was 28 in. long. Earlier this week, I stood him up by Violet's height chart on the wall, and he is even with her 1 year mark.
  
• Having Miles around has made us realize that we were quite spoiled with Violet; EVERYTHING goes in his mouth from cheerios to paper to cat fur to flower girl petals--you name it, he's had it in his mouth. It has also made for some great stories that will be sure to come out on his graduation day or his first date, but I"ll save those for his baby book. He is quite the talker--there is never a quiet moment, and if there is, it usually means there's something in his mouth and we should hurry to get it out.
  
• Miles is showing signs of wanting to scoot or crawl (and at that time we will be in big trouble)--but only if we're not looking. If we're around, he will let us know what he wants with some very loud expressions.
• Violet is... AN EMERGING READER. I like to say she is reading, but we still have to sound out quite a few words, but she is blending in her head, and knows some words just by looking at them. We read a book together last night, where I read one page and she would read the next--that is a very very cool feeling, and one that is very difficult to describe.
  
• We are currently planning on sending her to preschool to see how she does in a couple of different peer groups; with her birthday, she falls right on the cut off date for many states, so we have that difficult decision of do we send her early or sort of late. Michigan is one of those strange states that has a Dec. 1 cut off date, and as a former kindergarten teacher, I know how different a 4 year old is from a 5 year old at the beginning of the year. It made for some very interesting class mixes as well--you could have almost a two year age gap in one room. This particular preschool has told us that they would work with us to let Violet be in preschool this year, and if we decide we don't want to send her to kindergarten, that they would make sure she could have a different preschool experience the following year. From an academic standpoint, she's ready--that is not the difficult part of the equation. The difficulty lies mostly in which social peer group she would fit best in--one in which she's the youngest, or one in which she is the oldest. And part of me can't believe we're to this point in her life already.
  
• Violet's 2nd appointment with the cardiologist is April 6. That has brought a new wave of anxiety and worry, so prayers would be coveted. We knew this appointment would happen, and we hope that after this appointment we will have some more concrete information. However, having it set has brought it back to the forefront of our thoughts.
• Ben and I are still enjoying are positions at Crossroads. Ben is eagerly anticipating (and I am secretly dreading) opening day of track and field season on the 15th. It looks like the team should have a lot of talent, and he's hoping that it will also be large in numbers.
• This is the crazy time of year in my position. I have been working on completing grant applications, meeting compliance deadlines, and attending more meetings on how to do things and what form follows what form than I care to. I'm also very tired of hearing, yes that does sound like a great thing for your students, but no you can't spend the government's money that way. Even though it's disappointing that Michigan did not qualify for the Race to the Top funds, I am secretly relieved as it means I won't have another book to read on how we can and cannot spend the money.
  

So, that's a quick update. I'm sure I"m missing something, but I'd rather get this posted and have to add then have this sitting in my draft posts for another week. I'll try to get some pictures posted soon!