I am so behind! Part 2

I had wanted to put Maggie in a group piano class. Her piano teacher actually suggested it and I agree. Maggie is so social. The only time she EVER gets in trouble in any of her classes is for talking to the other kids. And she loves the opportunity to be around other kids. So I thought a group class might be better for her.

I asked my homeschooling FB groups if they knew of any piano group classes in the area and they suggested Mansfield Music Place. It is fantastic! They offer piano, theater, and comedy classes for Maggie's age. I gave her the choice and she chose comedy. Surprise!

She loves it! I can't watch the class so it was hard to get to clear a description of what happened but it's definitely game-based. She told me about a game called, Kitty in the Corner, where you have to make eye contact. So. There you go. She has a monologue she's working on from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. She's Sally and she's so excited about it.

I'm actually thinking about adding piano too. It's super expensive and of course, more time requirements but I love the place and think she would enjoy it.

We're going to one of our homeschool group's play dates. It's at River Legacy park. Maggie and Ella made a friend last week. She's 8 years old and lives very close to the house we're trying to get. Hooray!

Other than that, we've been trying to go on lots of walks. Maggie still complains but I love it. 

Ruby is walking up a storm. She's so darn cute. It's so funny. I feel like our days revolve around but then there's not much to write. She's just so sweet and cute and funny. 

I am so behind!

I don't think I've written since we moved to Laurie's house. Everything is so insane.

We're still working on buying a house so we're still living with Laurie and Jeff and Ella and Jilli and Roscoe and Lucy and Cheetara and Jack and Charlie. It's a full house for real. Everyone is on top of everyone else. We are so grateful for the place to stay and hopefully we'll be gone real soon.

My work opened a new department that provides therapy for children in the foster care system. They asked me to join and I am so excited about it. It is a truly amazing opportunity and work that I really, really love and care about. The only downside has been all the training. I had to be in training all day for an entire week. It was sooo hard on poor little Ruby. Then I had to do a ton of online training. But! I'm done! I should be able to start working next week. My supervisor has asked me to take 7 clients. Woo hoo! It's still contract so I'll still be working part-time.

School started back up but you wouldn't know it. I've barely looked at any of it. Ugh. Ruby's sleep is a mess because of all the craziness so I can't depend on that time to work. So I'm working when I can but there's just too much with two jobs and grad school in the pockets I can grab. I'm going to have to figure something out.

We've done Maggie's school here and there. It's too crazy to try and really dig in. So we're doing lots of reading. I read to the girls, Maggie reads to me, and we listen to audiobooks and podcasts in the car. Not perfect but. . . eh.

I went ahead and signed Maggie up for all of her classes I want her to take. It was quite odd but all of her classes just ended in May/June-ish. Her karate and swimming weren't offered over the summer and her piano teacher moved away to start college. So we took the whole summer off because I didn't want to have to drive 40 minutes to go to classes by where we would be living in the fall and I didn't want her to have classes for just the summer then change again.

She started karate. We're going 3 days a week. It is so cute. She got her first tape stripe on her birthday which was very exciting. Three stripes and you can test for the next belt up. She does quite well in karate. She keeps up well, asks questions, looks at the other kids. All good things. 

We started back in swimming. Ruby's taking classes too! It's so cute. This time Ella and Maggie are in the same class. Poor Miss Alex! But they are sweet little fishies.

Ruby was so cute in her little bathing suit. And she loved swimming around with Mommy. We had so much fun. 

Walking

Ruby walks now. She took her first step on July 28 and from there it's gone quickly. She walks more than she crawls now. I suppose that's normal; it's just not at all what Maggie did. From her first step to the point she walked more than not was months. She had no interest. Ruby is busy. 

She talks a lot too. Mama. Ma (for Maggie). She signs bite and milkies. 

She's still very little. She had that growth spurt at six months and that's about it. Although she's been eating a ton lately. 

Look at these sweet babies!

A million homes

We've been house hunting which has been surprisingly difficult. Apparently companies are buying up property as rent homes. We lost two houses because they got full cash offers. Crazy! 

We finally got an accepted offer. There's still inspection, appraisal, yadda yadda. Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly!!!!

Maggie was only interested in any pets in the houses. Every time I told her, we don't get to keep the pets. They don't transfer. But still every house, she'd run up and announce, they have a cat. She even named a few. 

If they didn't have pets, she took pictures and videos. 

When we finally had an accepted offer, I had to remind her of the house by which pet was there. 

In other fabulous news, my diastasis recti is fixed!!! Woo hoo! I can exercise. No more grouchiness. Well, less grouchiness. 

Hi Siri. Ok great.

Maggie playing with Gran Gene's grandson, Joseph. 

Ruby getting into everything!!!

Looking sweet. 

Maggie pulled up Siri the other day. Siri asked her what she wanted and Maggie, hurriedly said, "Hi Siri, ok great, I want cat videos."

Buttons

Ruby was sitting on Richard playing with the buttons on his shirt. He said something to her about buttons and she said back, clear as day, buttons. Our chins hit the floor. Unfortunately it was a one time thing. She says, mamamama and dadadadada. It was so crazy because it's a big word and it was so clear. 

A few weeks ago, at 5 am, Ruby wanted to get up for the day. I put her in her baby bed because sometimes that helps her go to sleep if she's wanting to play (she can't see Maggie or Dreamy). So Ruby stood up and slowly, carefully said, Mama? Because it was 5 am I ignored her. A couple of seconds later in that same slow careful way, she said, Dada? So sweet!

I love this picture! Catching some rays. 

Oh. Little baby in little chair. 

Dentistry with babies. 

Beautiful girls.