Adwoa und Ama

We haven’t really pushed E’s reading… we have waited for her to grab the bull by the horns. We have read to her almost every day of her life, of course. And she clearly loves books. But no real push from us for her to read on her own.

About a month ago, she could read and recognize maybe 40 words. And she could sound out a lot, with effort.
Today she sat down and read The Cat in the Hat to me, with almost no help, the first time through.
The other night she did the same with a new library book she got.
It’s really exciting to see how quickly her reading has taken off.
Consider the horns grabbed.

As for J, she is really funny. Last night I was leaving for a PTO meeting at E’s school and J walked me to the door… and said “Be careful driving, Mommy. The roads are bad out there,” as she turned the doorknob to open the door for me. It was pretty hilarious coming out of her mouth, but she was serious.

They have both been really cooperative lately… we seem to have passed a bad couple of months of obstinance with J. The best part is still to watch what great sisters they are… they love each other a lot and play so well together and watch out for each other.

We know we’re delinquent on the posts. But we know you’ll forgive us…. Right?

Really belated, we know. But here are the photo highlights from a great few days in Streamwood for Christmas…
Sunny was a happy pup, lots of people and toys to play with!

Grandma and E decorated this little tree with some favorite ornaments

The girls love working out on Grandma’s exercise machine… even better when you can exercise while licking a candy cane!

As usual, Santa and the elves filled the stockings to overflowing. And the girls, especially, had huge stacks of presents!

J was amazed by her Ariel doll that came with a horse!! Two favorites! Thanks Aunt Deb!

E got a very special gift from Grandma and B-Pa…. an American Girl Doll named Elizabeth. E chose this one from the catalog because of her pink dress. Grandma got her a few additional outfits, and Elizabeth has had many outfit changes in the last month. E is treating her new baby with lots of love and care.

For any of you “Castle” watchers, Aunt Nine found herself with Rick Castle’s book about Nikki Heat, as the character wrote on the TV show…

B-Pa enjoyed his presents, too.

Nine and Lee surrounded by their “loot”

Aunt Den with her beautiful dragon mug… her favorite thing!

Liz got her silk turtleneck! Apparently, Liz’s younger niece predicted this would be on Liz’s list (as always).

Edgecomb Pottery was good to all of us, via Sunny. Thanks, Sunny!

Lee was pretty happy with his drill sharpener, and the training video that came with it was excellent!

J also got a special new doll– her American Girl Bitty Baby. It came with a very cool backpack and lots of outfits. She, too, has been quite the fashionable baby. Aunt Nine and Uncle Lee gave the girls art kits in these tubes, which the girls loved.

Hugs all around for all the great presents!

In the afternoon, we went to Nine & Lee’s for Christmas dinner. Delicious and fun.

E & J loved playing with K, in their coordinating Christmas dresses and with matching art kits!

Everyone got into the fun of Wii Bowling!! 5-year-old E and 87-year-old Dorothy and everyone in between….

Aunt Cecilia wasn’t too bad at bowling, either! Here she and Leo admire presents.

Rich tried on E’s new princess shoes and he found them to be a lovely addition to his outfit.

J wasn’t too interested in posing at this point, but K and E were quite happy to… with Aunt Nine’s tree!

J and Sunny had great times, as usual.

B-Pa always gives sound advice, especially with Sunny there to supervise.

Grandma read to J

And B-Pa played Princess Yahtzee with E (it took 3 adults to read and understand the directions)

Overall, it was a great visit. Everyone had fun, Santa didn’t forget us, and there was lots of down time to enjoy each other’s company.

Before we arrived in Streamwood, we stopped to viist Jerry, Michelle, and Blink. We had a nice dinner and the girls loved cuddling with Blink. She seemed to like it, too.

Old friends are so special, and we were really glad that we had a chance to see them. Our thoughts are with Jerry and Michelle this week as Michelle will need to undergo some surgery. We love you guys.

Christmas pics will come soon. I promise. I keep hoping my sisters-in-law will get to it first, but no. So… coming. Really.

However….. you know how you hear results of a national poll and you say, “What? Who do they talk to for those crazy responses?”… Well, I was surveyed in the recent CNN/ Opinion Research Poll. And it took like 20 mins. to get through all the questions. Here’s what I, and 1000 other people, said….

What is interesting to note is that the write-up here and the link to the document with all the responses on it only show the questions related to terrorism/ security as the article details. However, the survey itself asked LOTS of questions about political parties and candidates in the upcoming 2010 election.. who you plan to vote for, etc. That is not reflected in this write-up or in the document linked in the artlicle…