Firsts in the Greene Family

Well I guess it is time again to update my blog! So since my last post we have had a few adventures and new things in our family. Ethan started preschool and he absolutely LOVES it! I can not believe how much he has already learned in the first month. I knew he was smart, but he still surprises me daily. He really loves to show me his art projects and sing me the new songs he has learned. I am so grateful for his wonderful teacher Miss Stephanie.

It is sometimes hard to know what to teach your kids and what things they need to be learning and doing. So I am grateful for some outside help with this. Like I had no idea that puzzles are good for young children because they help develop brain skills that they use for reading. So his teacher said that Ethan was too good at the easy puzzles so I needed to challenge him with hard puzzles. So the next day I bought a race track puzzle with 30 pieces that said for ages 5+. I thought this would challenge him because the puzzle was mostly a race track so I thought it would be a little bit tricky for him. So I got it out for him and walked away to help Sophie and when I came back 5 minutes later he had finished the puzzle all by himself. So I figures that I needed to challenge him a little bit more so I bought a 100 piece puzzle with smaller pieces it was of a Boston Terrier eating a piece of watermelon. He needed a little bit of help but I was amazed at how much he did all by himself, and he was telling Shaun and me where pieces went and he was right.

He also tells us things out of the blue that he learned in preschool, in September they were learning about the rainforest. So one day I was helping him out of the car and he was looking for his toy he had with him. After a little bit he said "that is okay I will just leave it here for later, kind of like a monkey leaves his banana in his tree." I laughed so hard, it totally caught be off guard. But I guess he had been learning about Monkeys in preschool and how they live in trees. He also learns spanish at school so one day he said "mom did you know that mariposa is butterfly in spanish and la rana is frog" (I probably misspelled) I am just so thankful to have someone that is teaching Ethan these things that I do not think of doing myself. He is so excited about everything he is learning and about and all his new friends he is making.

Sophie is doing great she is growing up so much and is also learning so much. She talks a lot now and says some of the funniest things. One day Shaun and I were out with the kids and Shaun said something to Sophie about how she was his baby Sophie's response was "I not a baby." We were shocked and thought maybe we heard her wrong so we called her a baby again and she said it again. I have to admit it made me a little sad she is only 18 months old and she is still my baby! She is a little lost without Ethan on the days he is at school, but I think she enjoys having mom and dad to herself those days. I also think it is important for the kids to have their own things separate from each other. Sophie also had her first haircut recently her hair was getting so long I hated to cut it. But it was growing more in the back so it was starting to look like a mullet. So we took her to cookie cutters and she got a cute A-line cut. It really fits her personality.

Shaun and I are doing well his Real Estate is keeping him very busy which is a good thing. Shaun and I did something that was a first for us we left the kids for a weekend and went to Moab for our 7 year anniversary. It was a blast we went camping in his new truck tent and did some hiking. The biggest adventure for us that trip was we decided to go kayaking on the Colorado river. Neither of us had done it before, so we were a little nervous. We thought we could do a 7 mile stretch, but we were wrong. We got in the river and realized that we were not prepared for that long of run. So we just did a short run that took us about 2 hours. It was a lot of fun a little scary but a lot of fun. We only did 2 very small sections of little rapids, but that was enough for us beginners, I actually think Shaun was more freaked out than I was. But we were brave and we did it! We really enjoyed our time together without the kids. We really needed it! But we were sure happy see them again we really did miss them. So that is all for our recent adventures. I hope we have more soon!