Keeping up with the Manssons: Orange Picking Good Time

Henry being silly. He said he was a Knight.

I know it seemed like a long time for me to update the second part of the vacation, but it was because we were prepping for the Orange Picking Party. That plus the fact that Jillian's sleep schedule is all screwy from the vacation. It took her most of the week, while on vacation. to get on CA time, and when we got home she reverted even more to somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean time. After two weeks, I am pretty sure she is back on Phoenix time...at least as much as she has been before.

The OPP was a success this year. To date I have received 4 Thank yous for hosting the party. That is a first. Andrew and I were definitely debating whether to host the party or not, but we decided to. This is because we looked into how much it would cost to have a Food Bank come and pick our trees. They wanted $30 a tree. We have ten trees so that is $300...to 'donate' our fruit. We decided to invest that money into the party and hang out with our friends for the day!

Queen Jillian doing her princess wave.

Let see what I can give you as an update on the kids. Henry is doing really well at school. He has just recently because the youngest reader in the classroom. He is reading (sounding out) 3 letter words with the 'a' and 'e' sound. He is so cute when he sounds out the word, then things for a second, then shouts out the word. We are so proud of him. Can't believe he is reading at 3.5 years old. He is also doing really well with practicing writing his name. It is pretty legible now. He knows all his shapes 2D and 3D. He is doing really well with all his colors (including white, silver, and black). So basically, he is doing great. Jillian is also doing really well. Other than the sleep issues, she is such a sweet, happy baby. She has been transition to a sippy cup without a problem, but has no interest in weaning at the moment. Which I am okay with, but as soon as she wants to stop, I am ready. She still gets up once a night to eat (which we need to break, but she still actually eats a pretty decent meal), and we are trying to plan our strategy to get her to give up the pacifier. We had every intention of having taken it by now, but she is SO good about finding it in the middle of the night and pacifying herself and she already doesn't sleep...so we just haven't. I know...bad parents, but we have to sleep sometime! She is also signing quite a bit. She does not have that many different signs, but she has the same signs that she uses in different context and means different things. She is also doing such a good job with making a bunch of different sounds. She says things now like: 'Nana' for Banana, 'Dodee' for cookie, 'Dat' for that, 'Daker' for cracker, Mama, and dada. She does still do mostly D sounds, but she is adding the M, B and S sound. She also makes a "Raaaa" sound when you ask her what sound a Lion makes. Very cute. She is also doing really good with the potty. She is growing like a weed, fitting in her 18 month stuff and getting ready to move into 2T/24 Months. There is a consignment sale at the end of the month that I am going to scour for new stuff for the summer. Hopefully there will be some great stuff for her at the 1/2 sale.

Now that the holidays, vacation #1, and the OPP are over for the year, we are in good shape to have a couple of weeks of rest and relaxation. Well, maybe not rest and relaxation, but at least not crazy busy.