Anna’s reading has improved so much in the last couple of months.  It really amazes me how quickly she’s picking it up.  I have no idea what her “sight” word count is up to, but she knows a ton of sight words now (those are the words that she doesn’t have to sound out anymore…she knows them by “sight”).  She’s really good with words that have short vowel sounds (cat, hat, fish, hog, wash, etc..) and is doing really well with words that have the long vowel sound and a silent “e” at the end (rose, hike, kite, etc..).  She’s also remembering sounds that are a little more difficult like ea, ow, aw, ar, er, ir, etc.  It really amazes me.  She can figure out most words now, though there are a lot of those weird words that I have to help her with.  “Yes, ‘ow’ says ow like in ‘gown’ but it also says oh like in the word ‘show’.”  So confusing for young kids.  She’s getting it though.

She’s almost done with the first half of her online reading program, Headsprout.  I think she has 2 lessons left of the first 40 lessons.  We’re still unsure if we’re going to purchase the second half because I feel like she’s way ahead of the program at this point because she reads to us on a daily basis and also goes to other learning websites (Starfall.com is another good one).  We’ll see though.  She still really enjoys doing the lessons and asks to do her “alien game” (because the first few lessons involved aliens) on a daily basis.

I’ve also been having her do some activities out of a 1st grade reading/writing activity book that I picked up at Walmart or somewhere.  She can already do most of the first half of the book.  I’m enjoying sitting down with her and going through the activities.  She can pretty much write all the letters now, though there are some that still give her trouble (Z, e, g, q, z).  I have also started introducing her to basic addition concepts.  I took some macaroni noodles and dyed them a bunch of fun colors and we’ve practiced adding groups of noodles together: “2 red noodles and 3 blue noodles makes how many noodles?”  It’s fun for her and she’s learning at the same time.  And then when we’re done we put all the noodles back in the big tupperware container and she lets her little princess dolls swim in the noodle pool..  :-D

I’m really liking teaching her, which I guess makes it good that I’m still going for my teaching degree.  We’ve been tossing around the idea of homeschooling for awhile now and I’ve been researching more on that to see if that’s something I think we could (and should) do.  Anna can’t start Kindergarten here until Fall 2011 so I think we might try a trial run with homeschooling next year.  She’ll still do Pre-K preschool, but we’ll do some learning at home on a regular basis as well…….though that’s probably going to cause her to be ahead of a lot of the kids when she would actually start Kindergarten.  We’ll see though.

Here is Anna’s latest reading video.  This was a couple of days ago:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vy-RIIiXcs

On to gymnastics…  Since my last update we decided to pull Anna from the really nice gym that she’s been taking classes from and put her in classes at the YMCA that we’re members of.  They have a decent gymnastics program and Anna has been in the free preschool classes for a couple of months now.  I talked to the gymnastics director about what is involved in the recreational and team programs to see whether they could get Anna in, because she definitely wasn’t being challenged in the preschool program.  The director had me bring Anna in and she had her do a few things and said that she’d like her to start on their Level 1 pre-team.  She decided that she would start up a new group of girls and has about 6-8 new girls starting with the Level 1 group and they’re all 4.5-5 years old, so I am very excited about that.

She’ll start that next Monday and it will be twice a week for 90 minutes each day, so 3 hours a week.  She’s going to love it.  The director told me that she is going to coach the group herself (her daughter will be in the group too and is only a month older than Anna…they’ve played together a couple of times) and wants to keep coaching them throughout their “career”, or whatever, at the Y.  She told me she’s going to try to have them ready to COMPETE Level 3 in the fall!  I don’t know if that’s possible, but it will be fun to see how she progresses now that she will be in the gym for so much longer.

I got an email from the director which made it seem so official.  She said each of the girls, now that they’re part of the team, get a cubby.  We’ll be contacted by that level rep who will let us know about the booster club and all that goes along with that.  It’s pretty exciting!  Anna doesn’t really get it at this point, just knows that she’s starting a new class next week at the Y.

Here are a couple of videos of Anna’s gymnastics.  The first was at home (obviously).  She got her pullover on the bar recently, and also her backwards roll.  The second video was today at Open Gym.  She didn’t have gymnastics or preschool this week (Spring Break) so we found a gym that looked like they had a fun open gym and tried it out today.  She had a blast.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSm6vW-WnEA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wIMzOqbVFE

The last Anna thing, which I almost forgot about but just saw the video that reminded me.  About a month ago, Dan’s brother, Steve, and his wife, Kathy, came for a visit and we went down to Mt. Hood, OR to ski for a couple of days.  Anna skied both days and did SO GOOD!  Before Anna was even born I was awaiting the day that I would be able to ski with her, so this was very exciting for me.  The first day we used the harness with Anna (like we did last year) and she did really good with it.  The next day I took her to the magic carpet beginner area and had her try it by herself.  She had the little thing on her ski tips so they would stay together but other than that she did it by herself!  She did so well there that I took her to the beginner chairlift and she did awesome coming down that slope.  We probably did that slope about 15 times.  We took a couple of runs down harder “green” runs and she did so good.  I probably had a smile plastered to my face the whole time.  It made my year watching her ski.  I’m not sure that we’ll be able to get out anymore this year which is a shame since she did so well.

Here’s a video of her skiing all by herself:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOEh_moeuk0

That’s all the Anna updates I have.  I have more non-Anna updates too but I’ll save those for another post.  I promise it won’t be 2 months from now the next time I post.  I PROMISE!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVzhZiaQ0Xg

Anna turned 4!  Can you believe it?  I sure can’t.  Where has time gone?  I think I say this every year, but this is such a fun age.  She’s very independent and loves to play on her own but she’s so smart too.  She picks things up like crazy.  She can consistently count to 40 and has counted as high as 70 with no help.  She can write a bunch of her letters, and has been able to write her own name for a long time now.  She knows the sounds that most of the letters make and constantly asks us what words start with certain letters.  I’ve recently started to try to teach her how to sound out simple words and she’s starting to catch on a little!  There’s no doubt in my mind that she’ll be reading before she starts Kindergarten…especially since she won’t start until the Fall of 2011 when she’ll be turning 6.

Anna also started preschool right after we moved back here in October.  She goes twice a week for two hours each day and LOVES it.  She loves her teacher Ms. Cathy, and has a lot of fun with all of the other kids.  The preschool she goes to is a co-op preschool, which means that each day, three parents stay to help out.  So I’m there about twice a month working in the classroom which Anna just loves.  Every school day she asks if I’m going to be a “teacher” in her class that day.  We’ve gotten to go on two field trips with her school, one to the pumpkin patch in October and then to a Christmas tree farm a couple of weeks ago.  We were supposed to go to a fish hatchery in November but it rained the day we were supposed to go.  (Rain in Seattle?  Shocking, I know.)

We’re in our new house!  Hooray!  We moved in the second week of November and are so happy to finally be settled.  We’re still working on getting furniture…but we’re getting there.  While it was nice knowing that we have GREAT friends here who shared their homes with us when Dan moved back in June, and then all three of us (plus the dogs!) once Anna and I moved out at the beginning of October, it’s great to finally be in our own place.  We have a ton of space to fill and Anna loves all the room to run around…especially our 3rd floor bonus room that she has decided to call her “gymnastics room.”  It’s a great house, and seems like a great neighborhood.  Hopefully when the weather warms up a bit we’ll meet some of our neighbors.

School.  I’m still going for that teaching degree that I’ll hopefully get someday.  This last semester was pretty rough with all the moving around, but I finished up at the end of November and started a new semester December 1st.  I get a lot of teaching courses this semester (Classroom Management, Testing, Diversity & Inclusion..) so those should at least be a bit more interesting than the boring old Econ and World Civilizations I had last term.  If I continue as planned, I should do my student teaching in January 2011 and graduate in June 2011.  I just need to keep on keeping on..

We had a small little Thanksgiving feast with just the three of us, which was nice.  We cooked a full Thanksgiving meal complete with turkey, ham, stuffing and all of the other fixin’s.  Anna actually ate pretty much all the food you see on her plate.  She loved it!  We had a second Thanksgiving with some of our friends on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so needless to say, it was not a very healthy long weekend….but everything sure was yummy!

Anna’s gymnastics is going very well.  We tried three different gymnastics schools before we found one we really like.  She’s in a preschool 3-4 year old class right now and since she started there has only been one other little girl in her class so she’s gotten some great individual attention.  Her instructor told me that they’ll be moving her up to the 5-6 year old class before too long (even though she just turned 4).  She still loves doing her cartwheels and handstands and has gotten really good at them.

Probably the biggest piece of news is that my best friend, Mary, and I decided to start our own photography business.  We’re calling it Giggle & Click Photography and we’ll cater to children and families.  We’ve been working hard getting the business license and all the stuff on the business side of things (Mary’s taking care of all that) and also getting the website going.  We plan to “launch” on January 1st and will start advertising soon.  If you want photos taken of your family or children, let us know!!  We’re very excited about it and I’m super excited to turn my hobby into a business.  I think it’s been a long time coming but it feels great knowing that we’re getting everything going and will be in a business we’ll both enjoy.  Oh, and become a fan on my Facebook Giggle & Click page!  You know you wanna.

So that’s about it with us.  Christmas is coming up fast and though we’re spending it without family and there may not be as many gifts under the tree as in years past, I know we’ll still have a joyful time.  This is my absolute most favorite time of year and I love seeing it all through Anna’s eyes.  She’s so excited for Christmas and keeps eyeing the gifts under the tree.

I’m going to try to be better with the blog (I know I’ve said that before..) but if I don’t post before the holidays, I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

(Ok, does this win the award for my longest blog post ever?)

The weekend of October 3rd, we headed up to Charlottesville, VA for my sister, Andrea’s wedding.  Anna was the flowergirl and the wedding was absolutely gorgeous.  We had a great time and Anna had a blast running around with all of the kids.  The brought in a hot air balloon and tethered it so that it didn’t go up very high and everyone, especially the kids, had a blast watching it and riding in it.  Anna didn’t want to go up in it until they were putting it away and by then it was too late, unfortunately.

For all of my pictures from the wedding, click here for the different albums.

Immediately upon getting back to Chattanooga, with the help of my mom we got the house pretty much packed up for the big move back to Seattle.  We left Tuesday, Oct 5th to make the drive out.  The first day we were in the car 11 hours and made it to Kansas City where we stayed with Dan’s parents.  They threw a little birthday party for Anna and let her open some gifts.  She had a blast (as usual) with her cousin Alex and he even stayed overnight and had a little sleepover with her.

On Wednesday, Oct 6th, we drove 12 hours to Cheyenne, WY and stayed in a hotel.  When we got there it was probably 65-70 degrees.  When we woke up the next morning there was snow on the ground!!  It was about 25 degrees outside and FREEZING.  We definitely weren’t expecting that!  Anna had walked in the hotel in flip-flops so I had to go dig some tennis shoes out of the car.  Crazy!  So it was a little slow going getting out of Cheyenne with the snowy weather.

Thursday, Oct 7th was a nice, “short” 7 hour drive into Salt Lake City where we stayed with a friend who I met on my online “mommy” message board.  She has twins who are a couple of weeks older than Anna, so they all had a bunch of fun together. (The first two pics below were at a stop in Utah.  The last is of Anna having fun with her new friends.)

Friday was my longest day.  I was determined to make it into Seattle by the end of the day so that we’d have all day Saturday to spend together for Anna’s 4th birthday.  I think I was in the car a total of 13-14 hours.  We left Salt Lake City at 7:30am PST and got to Puyallup around 11pm or so at night.  We hit traffic right before coming over Snoqualmie Pass (the only real traffic of our ENTIRE trip) and that tacked on about 45 minutes to an hour which was very frustrating since we were so close and SO TIRED.  We had a short stop in Snoqualmie to visit our friends Andre & Mary and their kids, and then we headed down to Puyallup.  We were exhausted but happy to be home.

Saturday, October 10th was Anna’s 4th birthday!  I can’t believe it she’s 4!  Time flies.  (I think I say that every year..)  Since we’d just gotten to town the night before we didn’t really have a birthday party planned, but we did have a little impromptu one with some friends and let her open presents.  She got her “big” presents when we got back to the house: a new Disney Princess bike and a balance beam!  She loves both.

That last picture I took on her birthday at exactly 9:25pm, the time she was born.  :)

Saturday afternoon we went to the pumpkin patch with our friends David & Claire and their kids (and Claire’s mom & brother too!).  Anna had a great time with the boys and I got a lot of great pictures.  Here’s a few, but check out the whole album here: http://theboghs.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=104

Tuesday, Anna started preschool!  She goes Tuesdays and Thursdays for 2 hours each day.  She had a lot of fun and seems to love it.  She’s very excited because she gets to go on her first field trip with her class next Tuesday to the pumpkin patch (again).  I get to go with her so I’ll be sure to get even more pictures.  I didn’t get a “first day” picture on Tuesday, but here’s one of her right before going in on Thursday.

Tuesday afternoon we tried out a new gymnastics class.  In hindsight it was probably a little much to do her first day of preschool and first day of gymnastics in the same day, because she was pretty tired.  The class that they put her in was way above her level…all 6 year olds (though it was supposed to be a 4-6 year old class) and I think the instructor didn’t really know what to do with her.  Here are some pics of her on the beam though.  The rest start here in the Fall 2009 album on my website.

So I think that pretty much catches you up with what’s going on with us.  Anna and I both have colds now, but hopefully those will go away soon.  We’re trying out another gym class next Wednesday (not on a school day again!) and hopefully this one will be a better fit.  ‘Til next time…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_65TyEhyyr8

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ksjd75P4Q

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdYfUrcK-iA

(She’s getting pretty close on that kickover.  She did others that were really close that I didn’t get pics of.)

…and one more cute pic from today:

You can see all the pictures HERE.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ERrMXK70xM

Caption from the video: In gymnastics this past week, Anna was taught how to do a little jump forward roll into the pit. Well, she decided to get on the trampoline and do the same thing with no prompting from me! (I promise!) She also did the closest thing to a backward roll that I’ve seen her do on a flat surface. She can sometimes do them down the incline mat at gymnastics, but she did a few really close ones on the trampoline! Anna is 3 years, 11 months in this video.

Throughout the whole class I debated with myself on whether to ask her instructor if Anna could go ahead and move up to the Preschool 3 class.  I think they generally don’t move the kids until the end of the session, but the session just started (week 3 of an 8 week session) and this is our last one before we move, so I thought maybe they’d make an exception.  Plus, Anna does seem to be doing pretty well and I want her to continue to learn new things.  So at the end of the class I started to ask her instructor and before I could get the question out she told me to go ahead and bring her to the Preschool 3 class next week, that she watched Anna and she thinks Anna definitely needs to be moved up.  So YAY!  I didn’t even really have to ask.  The Preschool 3 class is the one I guess she would have skipped if she would have been able to start the pre-team at the beginning of next session.

Here’s a video of Anna doing handstands and cartwheels in the living room today.  They’re getting better.  The last cartwheel in the video is pretty good, I think!  :)

(Sorry about the poor video quality.  I recorded it with my Blackberry.)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-KXqa268_o

Today after Anna’s gymnastics class I was talking to her instructor (who is AWESOME) about the preschool open gym thing they are starting back up.  She told me after that to be sure to let Anna’s new gym in WA (because we’re moving back for those who didn’t know..) know that they were going to move Anna up to pre-team!  I was like “WHA..??????”  I had no idea that that was even an option, let alone that Anna, at 3 years old, was about ready for it.  Craziness.  So I was pretty floored, and it makes me even more sad to leave because her current gym is just awesome.  I’ll be hardpressed to find one that’s equally as good.

Anna, however, has just continued to improve really quickly.  She’s only done gymnastics for about 4 months (since April 2009).  In that time she has gotten a full bridge, with her head off the floor and everything.  When she first started she barely got her feet off the ground doing a handstand or cartwheel and now her handstands getting closer to vertical and her legs are a bit straighter and just today in her class she did a straight legged cartwheel..a really high one at that.  I was shocked.  She can sometimes do a backwards roll down the cheese mat.  She can flip over the bar…  I’m just amazed at how far she’s come in such a short time.  Tonight she was showing my dad a handstand and she kicked so hard that she started to fall over forward and actually tucked her head and did a forward roll out of it!  Before, if she actually kicked hard enough to fall over…which very rarely happened…she’d just flop over to the side or onto her back.  That shocked both me and her speechless.  Anna just kind of had a look like “what happened?”  Heh..  Kids just learn so fast.

So anyway, I think it’s probably hard for anyone who is not a parent to understand, but all these little things just make me SO SO PROUD.  I can feel myself just beaming when she finally “gets” something.  I don’t know if she has any exceptional talent or not…of course, as her mom, *I* think she does…OF COURSE!  But I’m really excited to see where all of this takes her.  I’m trying my best not to tell her how to do things at home because I don’t want her to think of gymnastics as work yet.  It’s all fun right now and I want to keep it that way.  But gosh…to be told that they wanted to put her on pre-team, which I guess would mean skipping the next level of preschool class, that just floored me.  I’m still really shocked by it all.  I’m just so proud of her.  :)