Life Update

(This post was started a month or so ago and finished today)

Zinnia

She now goes to a little preschool class daily from 9-12. This was necessary because I started teaching at the school (more on that later). My kids have begun preschool at progressively younger ages as I've moved through motherhood. :) The teachers tell me that she is opening up more and getting involved. She has basically stopped crying when I drop her off. Today the teacher even picked her up from my classroom (she stays with me for a little bit while I prep in the morning) and she basically went without a fight. When we walk home from school she says, "I good day" ("I had a good day") and she'll tell me that she went to the playground or played on the seesaw. I don't know if these things actually happen or if she's just repeating them from previous discussions she and I have had. It's cute, though! She still likes to nurse and will frequently ask for it (pronounced "nös"). I am really trying my darndest to limit her sessions to nap time and bed time. However, she still nurses through the night...sigh. We moved her into a big girl bed up in Jasmine's room. The routine is this: I put her in bed when all the other kids go down, we'll nurse and then I'll tell her I need to "brush my teeth" and that I'll "come back later." She never puts up a fight and will eventually fall asleep on her own. Around midnight she wakes up and cries, and since I don't want to disturb Jasmine too much, I go up to her and spend the rest of the night with her in her bed. We'll get her sleeping on her own eventually.

Zinnia eats pretty much anything. Common snacks for her are cheese (she used to love Babybel but is moving more toward Tolle Rolle now), corn puffs (like Cheetos without the powdered flavoring), crackers, etc. She goes through little phases/obsessions with blueberries, peanut butter, yogurt pouches or yogurt drinks, baby corn, etc. She was liking deli sandwiches at one point. I never made them for her because I thought they would be hard for her to eat, but she likes to take nibbles out of others' sandwiches (lettuce and all)!

Zinnia likes to sing and will frequently sing/recite "muh muhkeys dzuppin on bed!" ("No more monkeys jumping on the bed"). She always does it with the wagging finger, too. :) She also does "Wheels on the Bus" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."

She loves her siblings and has a special kinship with Jasmine. Jasmine is usually so patient and good with her; I am so thankful these two have each other.

Zinnia usually scowls at strangers who try to engage her. I think that she's just very observant and thoughtful, and only allocates smiles once she's really sure they're deserved. :)

She loves pointing out doggies in the neighborhood and likes feeding our guinea pigs. She likes to put on other people's shoes. Sometimes we struggle with her wanting to go out the door with too-big shoes on her feet.

Jasmine

She is just finishing up kindergarten. She has a jolly personality and likes to really ham it up in the right setting. She likes watching craft/beauty DIY videos on YouTube and has a cute little sense of style. Sometimes she puts her outfits together a day in advance and sometimes she likes to coordinate with her friends. She really loves having one-on-one time with her 2-3 close friends. She just finished her first year of Daisy Girl Scouts and made some great memories with that, one of which was going to an overnight camp in a cute little German A-frame cabin.

Jasmine has a sweet tooth and likes fruity things (of course, chocolate is never turned down). Her favorite food would probably be noodles of any variety. She doesn't really like meat sandwiches; just peanut butter and jelly. She is also pretty good about eating some veggies, like raw bell peppers or cucumbers. She also likes corn and has recently been enjoying eating raw peas from our garden.

Currently she has a little trouble saying her "th" sound, so she usually substitutes "sh" for it (e.g. "wish" instead of "with"). One day she got a little emotional because people were having trouble understanding what she was saying. She is very articulate, though!

Jasmine is a great big sister to Zinnia and will patiently play with her. She didn't put up any fight about Zinnia sharing her room and will sometimes even go in Zinnia's bed if Zinnia cries. Sometimes she likes to make matching outfits for her and her little sister.

Jasmine is a good artist and she will frequently be working on some little craft project at the kitchen table. About 1/2 a year ago she took a few piano lessons, but that fizzled away. She will probably start up again at some point. She likes dancing and there was a time when she would occasionally come to my Zumba classes. She wanted to do ballet as an after-school activity this year but the class always filled up too fast for us to register. She did do a mini dance class as part of a unit at school (it was something she chose from a list of options). She also chose a cooking class a few months ago. 

Simon

He is a bright boy with a good sense of humor. He likes to analyze one's words literally and make jokes out of them, or point out the error in them. He reads up a storm! I cannot keep up with all his novels and he's always asking when we can go to the library next. He draws cute little pictures. Rose's drawings are a little more wispy and whimsical; his are more mechanical with awesome detail.

Simon tends to worry about things and get emotional. Sometimes at bedtime he will break down with an issue. I think he blames many problems on the fact that we move around too much, but he has come out of his shell a lot in recent months and seems to be more comfortable and confident. He is a self-proclaimed introvert, meaning that he needs alone time to recharge. Recently he has been hanging out with a neighborhood boy named Ethan who's a year older than him. He is a good, smart kid and I'm glad Simon has found a buddy in the neighborhood.

Simon was recently accepted into the bilingual program at school because he is at the top of his German class, but he really didn't want to do it. He was afraid of being one of the few non-native speakers in the class and feeling isolated from the other 4th grade classes. In the end we honored his wishes. He has had enough moving around within the past year and a half, so we didn't want to disrupt him once again.

Simon is a good little violinist and plays by ear. He still doesn't really know how to read music, but he memorizes his Suzuki songs and just plays them by heart. I am really amazed by him.

He's a good eater and will eat or try most things. His favorite meal is steak with mashed potatoes and green beans. He also likes Armenian dolma.

Rose

Rose is a confident, leader-type. She really wants a dog and has wanted one for a long time. She has done a lot of research and demonstrated her responsibility, but I really don't want to deal with the hassle of another pet...especially in this lifestyle where we move around a lot. Perhaps when Zinnia is a bit older and I have slightly less responsibility on my own plate.

Rose has engaged in many other little projects to keep her busy. She likes to grow plants in our house (like a huge bean plant in our window), and she even tried hatching quail eggs.

Rose has a sweet tooth like Jasmine. She loves chocolate. She likes pizza quite a bit, and she likes Asian food too. She has some Korean friends and has taken a liking to their culture and diet. She likes to watch nature documentaries, especially about wolves, huskies, and the arctic. She just read Henson at the North Pole, which my mom has used to teach 11th grade English. Rose is also a good reader like her brother.

Recently Rose has gone on a couple of little runs with Sevak and has enjoyed them. She also likes to bike with him (as does Simon). 

I used to think Rose didn't worry about things like her brother...she's never really had emotional breakdowns about friends, etc. However, I have noticed that she can get worked up about homework and things. Sometimes she writes little reminders to herself, and once I found a note in her room that said, "Tell Mom I'm too stressed." The other day she was also saying how it felt overwhelming to clean her room (we had recently done some room rearranging, and there were a lot of things on her floor). It was like she didn't know where to start, and so didn't want to do anything at all. Sometimes that happens with homework, too. She'll just kind of shut down and give up when something seems hard. She has definitely demonstrated perseverance in other areas, though--I think they just have to be self-initiated projects.

Rose is making good progress with harmonica. She has a nice German lady for a teacher. I think Rose will drop violin next year and just focus on harmonica. It's wonderful that she actually wants to practice this instrument. Our big girl is developing into a young woman and it's a pleasure to watch her learn and develop independence.