A Lyttle News: 2016

Thursday, June 2, 2016

School's Out!

Chloe finished her first year of preschool last week. There was a cute end of the year presentation where everyone sang their own version of the song, and clapped to their own beat. 3 & 4 year olds are awesome. It was so encouraging to talk to her teacher and reflect how far Chloe has come this year. She went into preschool with very little understandable language to people that don't live with her. Her teacher even admitted she was a little concerned at the beginning of the year. But as I talked to her on the last day of school, she told me how Chloe blew all her expectations out of the water! Chloe's language has come so far this last year! We are still looking at speech therapy for next year to help with her pronunciation, but she speaks in full and complete sentences now. Other skills learned this year: Counting to 10, recognizing letters, spelling her name, she knows all her shapes and colors, cutting with scissors (glad there is preschool for this skill... i hate the clean up of a million pieces of paper), and so much more. We will go into pre-k 4 knowing that Chloe is on track to head to Kindergarten with her peers. We are very thankful to her loving teachers.

First day of school

Last day of school

In other news, our house has grown again! We are now fostering 2 little ones (2 and 6 months). Everyone has adjusted really well to our new "tribe" size. The babies have been with us for a little over a month and we aren't really sure how long they will be with us. Chloe has adjusted well to her big sister role, enjoying bossing around the two year old. The big kids are such huge helpers, and have really stepped up to the plate in helping around the house. I just love our kiddos.

So, yes our house is loud and crazy, but the best part? It's so chock full of love. Even on the most challenging days (and those are plenty), I wouldn't wish for anything else.

Chloe's first fun run, Ben did a mile run

Celebrating her second "gotcha day"

On a visit to West Palm with Teagan's girl scout troop

Monday, February 1, 2016

4 years old already

Chloe has been anticipating this birthday for some time. It is such a huge change from last year, when she really didn't grasp the concept of birthdays. She has been having pretend parties for the last month, complete with the birthday song, and pretend cake! She welcomed everyone to her party with Happy Birthday! When asked who's birthday it was she would say "Happy Birthday Towee (aka Chloe, still working on speech)!" She then ran off with friends and happily played at the park, no real interest in the presents on the table. When it came time for cake, you could see the excitement on her face. Everyone sang to her and she just beamed. The wind took most of the candles out for her, but she had to work on the last one, blowing it repeatedly before it finally went out. After we cut up the cake, she ate her normal two tiny bites and declared she was done. Presents came out and she opened each one slowly, exclaiming excitement with each one. We would ask her to go give the person who gave it to her a hug, and she happily ran to them with big hugs and thank yous.

When I compare where Chloe was a year ago, I am just so thankful and amazed. Last year was confusing for her, she didn't know what she was supposed to do. This year she nailed it! Her joy came not from presents but from the family around her, celebrating her life. Of course she did enjoy the presents too, but I think if there were no presents she would have been quite happy. Its been so great to watch her learn what these special occasions are all about, and enjoy the excitement, family, and fun.