There hasn't been a lot to report since school started. The first two weeks were hard on everyone in some way but it could have been much worse. James is loving his classmates and teacher and has not once said that he doesn't want to go or doesn't like it. I am so thankful for that. He did however come home with a really bad attitude for a while. I think that he realized school is a world where he doesn't have us breathing down his neck and he feels like he has a lot more control so when he came home he acted like our rules didn't apply to him anymore. That problem seems to be mostly gone. Kinley reacted to the change by becoming destructive. She started doing things like coloring in marker all over the fridge and dish washer, spreading our cash from our cash budget all over our bedroom, biting Mallory, dumping all the water out of the bathtub, etc. If you remember, the first day of school when Josh and I were crying she said she wasn't sad bubba was gone but happy, well last week mid morning one day she said "I weally miss bubba" and I said "well if he were here right now what would you do with him?" she said "pway dinosaurs...he's a weally good dinosour player". So sweet! I have stared structuring her day more and doing "school" time with her and it is seeming to help her not to feel so lost without James.

Yesterday Kinley was in the bathroom while Josh was taking a shower and he started to get out and she said "ahhh I don't want to see your privacy!!" Josh said well you can either leave or get used to it but I have to get out of the shower" She said, "I'll get used to it" and went along with her game. We were cracking up because she's never seemed to care before and the drama with which she said it then came to terms with it were so over the top.

Kinley, Mallory, and I had a real tea party this week. You can see below Kinley's favorite part of a tea party...eating spoonfuls of sugar.

Mallory is in love with tea! She drank 3 cups and was begging for more. I had to cut her off because it was almost bed time and it had caffeine in it. See how she even drinks with her pinkie up!

Mallory has finally figured out how to crawl traditionally! Yes she is 14 months old but we'll take it. She is crawling more than scooting these days and she is pulling up on more and more things. She has been getting worse and worse about fit throwing. I think she definitely wins the worst temper award of the three kids. I'm sure the next year or so will be really fun in that respect. I'm not sure I've put this in the blog yet but she is a really good hugger. She will wrap her arms around out necks and squeeze so hard and smile. She is waving hi and bye and says "bye bye". She and Kinley stared one day of preschool two weeks ago and they are loving it of course. I am going up to James' class and helping his teacher while the girls area at school and that has been great. I love getting to know James' classmates and see him in that element.

Josh is doing really well at work and we are 99.99% sure we will get to go on another diversification trip this spring! We are thinking Rome at the end of February! I think we are really going to be spoiled by Edward Jones...but we're ok with it!