79 months

September in Florida is just as bad as July so we started each day with PE class, we'd ride our 3 mile loop around the school, they would scooter around the dog park and sometimes we would be nice and let them do exercises/yoga inside the house, we always started out as a group which was nice for C and then would head to the respective house(s) based on what day it was. C wasn't a fan of PE time and would complain about the bike ride being too long, her legs hurting while they scootered and that she couldn't keep up. The only time she was happy when she she got to do Kids Cosmic Yoga by herself.

C has been reading since the beginning of kindergarten, the start of first grade called for working on sight words and things that were VERY boring to her in language arts. It was hard to keep her engaged in her work but she had to do it to be graded, she complained and flew threw the work, sometimes missing things because she was too fast, not because she didn't know the right answer. They completed their diagnostic testing towards the end of the third week of school and her teacher realized how far advanced she was (she was reading at an almost third grade level and comprehending at a second grade level). I had been telling him how she needed more challenging work and he finally gave her some to do, only problem was this required more help on my part! It wasn't work for her to be graded on, she still had to do the "boring" work, but was more geared towards comprehension and her understanding what she is reading and being able to dictate things back. Her and I worked on this the days she was by herself at the house. 

Her favorite part of the day was working on their weekly writing assignment, this was an assignment they worked on throughout the week, adding more to their work and then learned how to go back and re-read/edit their work to make it their best. She really enjoyed watching the other eLearning teacher teach and write on the topic of the week, I knew when it was writing time because I would hear her in the playroom giggling away. At first she would write 1-2 sentences but then her teacher commented on her work and challenged her to write more and in more detail, leading us to start talking about verbs and adjectives. This also gave her an opportunity to work on her handwriting, something she was really focusing on and trying to take her time at.

By the fourth week of school her teacher had assigned their small reading groups (of course C was in the highest group), she got on a live team call twice a week with four other kids to read a story and then work on comprehension questions. Just this little interaction with her teacher and the other kids is what she needed for a little normalcy! I felt a little bad C was by herself and didn't have a friend to work along side, so once a week when J was schooling at BH's house I would take her on a special mommy and C date for a drive-thru lunch and a trip to Walmart or Sam's for groceries to get us both out of the house!

We all looked forward to fun Friday afternoons at the end of the week! This month with BH's mom/dad they went to the beach to look for shells, no pictures of that and then swam and played Barbie's at this house the other day. At our house they painted butterflies, C's was opposite and they discovered they could put them together to make a whole, and painted personalized jack-o-lanterns with their names on them for Halloween.

The sister bond these two have has become that much stronger since we've all been home in March. They have always pooped together and slept together on the weekends, since March they  have slept together almost every night, I asked if they wanted to share a room in the new house and they said "no, we need our space". They love reading together and are pretty much reading the same books now, J is a little possessive of her books and now that C can read them too isn't sure how she feels about sharing them, thank goodness the school librarian is allowing the girls to come to school every few weeks to check out books, they are book worms and are always reading! I am not looking forward to when they are older and they share their "time of the month"! I had to stop into CVS to pick up prescription and they saw the Flu Shot table and they both immediately crossed their arms and started shaking their heads no that they weren't getting them, low and behold to them they did get them a week later at Target, daddy bribed them and bought them a new game for their Switch! They said it didn't hurt and now only want to get shots at Target from the pharmacist (who really was great and gentle with their skinny arms).

Our Canes were back in action and we all looked forward to watching them on Saturdays, gave us something to look forward too and do. We did miss watching the games with our Canes friends, this is probably the first time in a few years where we won't have a picture of all the kids in their Canes gear, maybe I can photoshop one together! We celebrated Grandpa's quarantine birthday with a quiet dinner at our house, they girls thought it would be funny to use up all of their numbered candles and put them on his birthday pie, we used daddy's 40 too, made it a lot less candles!

 

They  got to skip school one Friday when we were in Miami, they worked ahead that week and got all of their work done so they didn't have to miss a day or school while we were gone. We had a fun Saturday  on the boat fishing and eating lots of snacks! We tried to take the kids out to the ocean but it was too rough for them even when anchored, so we hit up the little creek and while we didn’t catch anything to bring home they caught lots of little fish, it was a day we all needed to relax and unplug! Later that night we watched the Canes game, while it was a short weekend it was just nice to be together with a change of scenery. 

 

She got to model a Christmas dress this month, it was hot taking these pictures, we were both sweating in the 90 degree weather! Our new house also finally got to the point where the girls could identify their bedrooms and stand in what would become their new room! C is excited to have her own bathroom and not have to share with J anymore!

Here are the pictures from the month.