Claire update

Claire had her first follow-up appointment since her ADHD diagnosis. She is doing really well. Her grades have come up some. She's getting her work done in a more timely fashion. So that means she's getting to go outside for recess and have Fuzzy Friday (a couple times a month, kids who have all their work done, and haven't had any behavior issues get to watch a movie and eat popcorn, or do another fun activity). Her teachers are very impressed with the improvements they've seen at school. Claire's feeling so much better about herself. She said that she feels like she "gets it" now. Especially with math. The school also recently had the kids take a standardized reading test that they do 3 times a year to see how the kids are progressing. Claire went from a year behind and in the below average group to right where she should be for 3rd grade, 7th month. Everyone was very impressed. Her 3rd quarter parent-teacher conference was the first one I've had with her where I left feeling happy instead of stressed!

Eric and I have also noticed that she's a much better conversationalist, and is more confident when she's playing with her friends while she's taking her medication. So we feel that we're doing the right thing with her. The doctor said everything sounds great, and we're to watch this month for changes in the perfectionism issues. They're thinking that a lot of it may stem from her need to have something that she could control, so we're hopeful that she will relax a little now that she's feeling and doing so much better with school. Also, she isn't having any side effects and hasn't had a decrease in appetite. They weighed and measured her today and she's exactly the same as last month. We go back for our next follow-up visit in a month.

Emilie lost a tooth

After weeks of anticipation, Emilie has lost her 1st tooth. Since she's one of the youngest in her class, most of the kids have already lost a couple of teeth. She has shown everyone her loose tooth and has been soo excited that she'd soon get a visit from the tooth fairy. Emilie had been wiggling her loose tooth whenever she could in the hopes of making it a little looser. We'd noticed that it was pretty loose the last couple of days, but she said it hurt too much whenever we tried to pull it. Finally last night while I was helping her brush her teeth, I brushed a little harder up front and sure enough, out it came. She was so excited that while she was trying to spit out her toothpaste, she accidently spit her tooth right down the drain. After a moment's hysteria, we convinced her that the tooth fairy would still leave her a dollar as long as we included a note about what happened. The tooth fairy might even fly down the drain to get the missing tooth. With that, she happily went to bed with her tooth fairy pillow and the note :-) Sure enough, she found a dollar this morning. She's now dying to go to the dollar store to spend it.

She cut that tooth when she was 6 months old. We went out to dinner at El Nopal, and she was fussing in her car seat while we were eating. The only thing I could find in my purse to entertain her with was my Dasani water bottle. She went to work chewing on it, and by the time we left the restaurant, she had a new pearly white tooth poking out on the bottom, and she was no longer crabby. Here she is showing off her gap tooth grin:

Zoo trip

The girls are on Spring Break this week. So we decided to spend the great weather today outside at the zoo with the girls' cousins, Liah and Cedar. After we got through the incredible traffic- didn't dawn on me that the St. Paddy's Parade might create some traffic problems, as well as all the other people wanting to get to the zoo to enjoy the warm weather- we finally got there and had a great time! We rode the carousel, the train, saw some animals including the now almost 1 year old tiger cubs (So cute!) and spent a little time in the Children's Zoo. Here's a few pictures from our afternoon:

Checking out the guinea pigs :-)

On the train

All the girls

Chloe's 1st carousel ride

Emilie and her new hat

Emilie's new haircut

Here's an Emilie post since I haven't written about her in a while. Emilie got her hair cut on Saturday. She decided that she wanted a shorter 'do than she's ever had before. She LOVES her new look. She's been asking Eric and I all day if she looks cute. So I told her I'd take her picture and put it up on the blog. She is definitely the most "girly" of the girls :-) She cannot wait to show her friends tomorrow. She says she thinks they'll like it after she tells them who she is. She's convinced that no one will recognize her.

She is a sweetheart. She's doing great in school. I'm really impressed with how well she's reading. She also has a great memory. She has her first loose tooth. We think she might lose it by the end of the week. She's also done really well with ice skating lessons and is currently enjoying cooking class with Claire (although their teacher has remarked that Emilie has some "creative" ideas about food. To give you an idea what she means, Emilie loved peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches when she was in preschool. My rule is, as long as you eat it, I don't care what you mix it with...)

She also hates any form of her name other than "Emilie" right now. She won't let anyone get away with Em or Emmie. Her name is Emilie, end of story :-) She is also a big arts and crafts fan. And she had a great time at the symphony today for their spring family concert. They had a dance troupe perform a couple of choreographed dances with the symphony. Emilie loved watching the dancers.

Anyway, as promised, here is Emilie's new hair cut:

Elise's Birthday Party

Here's some pictures from Elise's "Purple Pet Shop" birthday party. She's been wanting to have a party with this theme for close to a year now. So I think between the Pet Shop decorations and the purple balloons that we made it work. She also got to go shopping ad pick out hr own party dress which she loved. She had a great time today.