Good Morning! Today I have a few minutes to update; so here's a bit about the kids:

Caitlin has a seven o'clock game tonight, which is a little bit late...but since their team has started to rally (after three straight losses to start the season) I am looking forward to the game. I am going to try REALLY hard not to scream from the sidelines. (it's harder than you think!) Caitlin is also getting ready to take the CRCT next week; she doesn't seem to worried about it...more annoyed at the interruption than anything else! She loves school and loves to "teach her animals". I spied on her a few days ago while she was teaching in her room and it's too cute. She sets them all up on her bed and reads to them, then asks them questions about what she read. The best part is when someone gets in trouble...usually for talking. She is really stern with them!! While she likes this game, she doesn't want to be a teacher when she grows up-she wants to be an artist! (I'm thinking architect...that way she can draw AND pay the bills.)

This morning Matthew was so excited because he got to take his book of drawings to school...over the past few weeks he has been working on drawing pictures to decorate his room:

Yesterday afternoon though he decided to take them all down and make a book out of them. We used a three ring binder and made a cover for it and everything. Matthew added captions to each picture and is going to share them with the class today. I'm anxious to know how it goes. He is my little explorer; he loves to go outside and hunt for caterpillars, and while Caitlin usually stomps them ("they are eating all your pretty plants!!") Matthew wants to save them all-he carries them to the woods and to a new home. Actually he decided to keep one of them the other day...he made it a nice home; assured me that he had gotten ALL the different leaves it might like, and put a wet paper towel in to give it water and named it "Kay Tay" (that may be the Jefferson equivalent of Katie...my children have developed a bit of South in the Mouth). I warned him that sometimes animals in captivity don't live, but he really wanted to keep her. He checked in on her throughout the day and she was fine...but unfortunately overnight..she died. He was devastated and promised that he was never going to do that again! I felt so badly for him; he really took good care of her, but I do think it was a good lesson.

Hannah bo seems to slowly be coming out of the terrible two's...she is very sweet and is showing signs of wanting to do the right thing (instead of doing the opposite of what I tell her to do). She has also developed an interest in letters; she can identify the letter S and sometimes the letter P. This summer I think it will be a good time to start Hannah on some "school"...I'll probably get Caitlin to teach her actually-they would both love that I think! Right now she is bringing me some of Ben's baby food-Peas-which is her FAVORITE food. Ben never gets peas because Hannah eats them all! She won't eat them whole...she only likes them baby food style.

Ben is crawling around everywhere! He got into the dog food for the first time yesterday; no kid can resist it! Poor Chassie always sheds about 15 pounds when the kids first learn to crawl because we have to put her food up all of the time! He is also starting to eat more "people" food (especially since Hannah steals all of his food)-he loves graham crackers and yogurt...but generally makes an enormous mess. He is still wearing a bib all the time. He continues to get us up around 530 to eat, which is getting a little old; I'm not sure if he actually needs to eat...but having a baby cry it out for the last hour before it's time to get ready for the day just doesn't feel like a good option right now!