Steven was so excited for his piano lessons on Monday. Mr. Anthony said that he has wonderful questions. Steven’s very excited to earn the certificate at the end of his beginner piano book.

Checking out his certificate…

On Tuesday, at lunchtime, I took Steven back to the eye doctor for a check in after ~5 months of patching. The eye doctor saw progress! She said that his left eye had been 20/20 corrected and his right as 20/40. Now his left is seeing at 20/30 and 20/25. His depth perception is also improving. Go Bobes! We are supposed to keep patching for another 4 months and are getting a 2nd opinion in early March just to be sure we’re on the right track.

With their weekly reading assignments, the kids also got a sheet of 100 CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant). They’ve loved reading through the list.

Mr. Piano Practicer pounding out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

This two were playing “Family” during story book time and Steven was cuddled up to his “mommy”. 🙂

Goofballs. (Amaya wouldn’t sit up because she wanted to be sure you can tell that Steven is sitting on her lap.)

Jason recently added labels to our pantry which, I think, was the inspiration for Steven to create labels for his room.

Sleeping spot, picture spot, book spot, clothes spot.

It was a very creative week for Steven. Here’s his ambulance and hospital and his school bus and school. I’m particularly enamored with the sound waves coming from the ambulance.

This week brought us two snow days. The kids were thrilled. Jason and I, not so much. On Wednesday Jason stayed home until noon when Gabby arrived. On Thursday I worked from home and Gabby came early afternoon when her class was through. I didn’t want anything to do with the outdoors but Steven, Sammy and Amaya all had fun sledding, playing on the play set and shoveling our deck.

Sammy has been into Mario lately, thanks to Owen from school. He needed a new sweatshirt and picked this cool Mario hoodie.

Friday night was the Novi mother/son dance! We had a great time. It was casual and easy. The boys picked out new button downs and even put on jeans!

A photo staged by Steven. (Preceded by a photo shoot carefully art directed by Amaya.)

Sammy was most excited for the chocolate fountain, which he was sure would be there after Amaya’s report from the father/daughter dance.

Steven and Sammy bumped into a 3rd grader from their bus. He was a nice boy who paid attention to them and they hang on his every word, especially Sammy.

A highlight of the night was the balloon drop. Sammy parked himself right in the middle of a ton of bigger kids. I could barely see him in the mix. I think he was really proud of himself for getting in there.

Lots of moms with cameras waiting for our boys to catch balloons lol.

My boys. <3

Steven has a rubix cube that he couldn’t solve so he gave Jason a challenge to complete two sides for him. Surprise! Jason did it!

Our Saturday morning routine now includes watching Lego Masters together. Our Lego Masters it the making are all loving the show and have their personal favorite teams.

Sammy literally had holes in his shoes so the kids and I ventured out to get him some new sneakers. Amaya, too. I love watching them make decisions. Sammy tried on three different pair and ran around the store to see how fast he was before picking a pair.

Amaya was mostly concerned about style. Which isn’t surprising in the least.

This weekend Steven and Amaya got back to sewing. Steven has been working on this fox for a while now. He likes to sew but has doesn’t have a terribly long attention span for sewing. Which is, of course, totally fine.

Amaya worked on, and finished, a cute little snake. She’s interested enough that she can sew and stuff and sew until she’s done.

A proud girl.

Amaya wanted to be patch buddies with Steven yesterday. I told her we can’t make a daily habit of it but she could try it for a day, as long as she was willing to wear the patch the whole time Steven did. (Because it’s not a game or a toy for Steven. He doesn’t have flexibility.) I was actually surprised she went for it because she’s afraid to use band-aids out of fear it will hurt when she takes them off. But she did, and she lasted about 15 minutes lol. Sweet, sweet Steven saw she didn’t like it and told me, “It’s okay if Amaya takes off her patch. She doesn’t have to wear it as long as I do.”

I love this picture of my macaw twins.

Book time with daddy.

This morning Jason took Amaya to Hebrew school and I took the boys to a classmate’s birthday party. It was a sports party and they got to play flag football and dodge ball. They loved it!

Before the sports started, the kids battled with pool noodle light sabers. Such a clever idea!

The girl Steven is battling is Elin. She’s been a favorite friend of his since the start of school. When I ask who he likes in his class, her name has always been at the top of the list. When I told her mom that today she said, “Elin always says she’s going to marry Steven.” <3 <3 Unfortunately Elin is moving to Dallas in July so their future seems unlikely. 😉

This child was so excited about flag football.

Most of us stayed off the field for the sports until the kids came upstairs to tell us it was time for us to play Parents vs. Kids in dodgeball. The kids actually took a round – the first, when we were still timid.

Steven was his usual “loving his mama” self and, before each game started he’d yell, “I love you, mama!” Sometimes in the middle of games, too. Everyone got such a kick out of it.

A Storm Trooper cupcake!

The boys and I picked Amaya up from Hebrew school and surprised her with a cupcake of her own. Another happy child.

Steven, Sammy, Amaya and I went to a Purim event this afternoon. It was held at a place called Friendship Circle, co-sponsored by Temple Israel. Friendship Circle is right by the JCC but new to me. It’s an incredible center focused on programming for individuals with special needs. The programming teaches life skills and addresses sensory needs but is grounded in forming friendships and social skills. Pretty amazing.

The event we attended included lunch and a Purim scavenger hunt. Amaya and Sammy decided to make Haman’s hats from their Hamentashen.

The kids all colored Purim masks.

For the scavenger hunt, the participants toured around an indoor cityscape and answered questions about the holiday in exchange for treats for their misloach manot baskets.

A look at the cityscape.

It’s becoming tradition for the kids to help me with dinner over the weekend. They’re getting more and more comfortable in the kitchen and more and more proficient. I love it.

That’s it for us. Have a great week!