Look who can...

Tie his shoes!

(notice the cute haircut)

This is a huge success for both Matthew and I. I told him that when he learned to tie his shoes, we would go get sporty new sneakers that tie. I have been teaching/having him practice about every other day. He has to tie it 5 times, usually taking him about 10 minutes. I got a Melissa and Doug shoe back in October for the children to learn on. It has bounced around and been used for other things, until lately. I went online to learn 'the best way to teach children to tie shoes' and didn't find anything to be that helpful. I got some advice from a friend and Matt and I tried a couple different ways. His little fingers seem huge when he is trying to get the lace through the opening, but he was patient. I think he was also eager to do something before his big sister! Princess Aliya said she has tried, and that she can't, tie shoes. Why should a princess have to tie shoes anyway? I mean isn't there someone to do it for them? Actually don't princesses wear shoes with straps and buckles? Yeah, never mind! So, on Thursday he was really fast at tying them. I also noticed that he did better when I wasn't watching. On Friday he did it all by himself and brought it to me. It was tight and neat. That's when it hit me; he can do this, he tied his own shoe and I taught him! :) We celebrated momentarily before going to walk at the mall and planned to do some shopping after for sporty new sneakers that tie!

And look who is getting a school uniform! Is this not so cute? I went to order Aliya's school uniforms (for next year) and saw a doll sized version of it. I asked the clerk where to get them and she steered me to a website.I checked it out when I got home and just had to purchase one for Samantha. After all, Aliya will be turning 7 years old on April 6 and this will make a great birthday gift! I think it will be great for them to have matching uniforms and she will have it forever to remember her elementary school uniform!

Here is Princess Aliya in her uniform.

We went to the library for a special activity about money. The first activity was to match the presidents to the coin they are on. Aliya knew most of them and learned the rest. The second activity was to fill in a Needs/Wants paper (seen above) with pictures they could cut from flyers and magazines. We talked about needs verses wants and she went to town cutting and pasting. Note that there is a cat and dog under 'Needs'. According to Aliya, no matter which way I explained it, she insisted "Me-maw and Pop-Pop cannot live without Jazzy!" The third activity was to make a piggy pank with construction paper. They earned 'library dollars' to purchase toys once each activity was completed.

I helped Aliya cut some pictures out, but my hands were otherwise unavailable. You see, a certain cranky pants needed a nap, and it simply couldn't wait any longer. I decided against waking him when we got to the library, due to said crankiness of the pants, and so I just held him. While my arms were heavy, my heart was full. Something about the innocence and peacefulness of a sleeping child!