Abigail's fashions

we've been having unusually warm weather.  but still, Abigail was anxious to wear her hat, scarf, and mittens.  she walked downstairs, ready to wear this outfit to school.  how do you find that balance of letting your kid confidently wear clothes they love and protecting them from outfits that will have other people making fun of them?  

I let her wear the whole thing except that I had her put on full length black leggings... and I brushed her hair, which naturally broke up what she had going on above her shoulders... since she had on the hood of the hoodie and then the hat and then the scarf.  I can't remember exactly what she looked like when I dropped her off, but it was a significant improvement considering I only asked her to change one thing.

here's our daily Andrew picture.

monkey see, monkey do.

I did a reading lesson with Brady out of his reading lesson book.  for the first time since October 14th.  the book made a pretty significant jump where it dropped all of the special symbols (like a line over the long vowel sounds) and font and went to a regular font and no symbol clues.  it was sooo confusing/frustrating for Brady even though he was fine reading that font in regular books that had no special symbols.  after a few days of frustrating lessons, I just dropped it.  we did some "lessons" of just him reading books to me (mostly bob books) but that eventually faded out too.  he's not a fan of bob books because there's really no plot and his questions never get answered.  so, mostly, he's just been reading random stuff that he sees around and sometimes reads some easy reader books.  I decided to try the reading lesson book again and Brady and I were both pleased and surprised at how easy it was for him again.  so even without formal lessons, the time off was still a time of learning for him.  anyway... we'll see what kind of schedule we do with it going forward.  it's just nice to know that it's an option again.  and just to note... the first lap was reading all of the words two times through, the second lap was reading the story the first time through, and the third lap was him reading the story the second time through while pausing at points to answer reading comprehension questions.

Brady told me a few weeks ago that he wanted a drum for Christmas.  it was the first I'd ever heard of it so I thought it was a fleeting thing.  not the case.  he's really into drumming now... with Lincoln logs and a boppy pillow.

Christopher had a bishopric meeting at 8:30 and bedtime was ROUGH... especially because Brady was exhausted and out of control.  I sat in the hall and waited for my kids to fall asleep while I read this conference talk about how hard is good.  these are screenshots of some of my favorite parts.

and honey and I watched some this is us before bed.  I love that show.