a mind of her own

28Jan09

MISS INDEPENDENT:

Ella warning Sam

As the title of this blog suggests, Ella is certainly making us aware of her independence.
Although much smaller than Samuel she will not back down when she’s upset. In fact, she fights back if Sam gets too rough. Usually she just screams but she’s now graduated to biting. The last bite was hard enough to draw blood and put Sam back in line.
Here’s a quick list of her new words and their meaning: up (meaning up, down, off & on), dis (this), dat (that), cheese, daa (dad), baa (sound that a sheep, cow, dog & horse makes), pees (please), and book.

CABIN FEVER RELIEVERS:

The early part of January brought temperatures well below zero, and as low as -30, which cancelled school for Sam and Steve. We’ve discovered the need to become very creative with our daily activities.
We have a trial membership at the local YMCA which has given Nicole a way to get active and get the kids nice and tired at the same time. We’ve been using their pool a lot and Nicole has been going to their pilates class every week.
In addition to pilates Nicole has also been attending a kickboxing class at Clarke that Steve has set up for students, faculty & staff.

New Year’s day we went over to a brand new bowling alley called Cherry Lanes. This was a fun excursion for us, and it was Sam’s first time bowling. He really loved throwing (not rolling) the ball down the lane. At one point he chose not to listen to daddy and chased the ball down the lane and fell right on his butt from the slick surface!

MAKING CONNECTIONS:

We have finally found a church! After an unsuccessful search for the Dubuque version of Brookside CRC we decided to not worry about finding the perfect church anymore and let the Lord lead us and use our gifts for His glory wherever we end up. We’ve been attending New Life Church for a few months but were hesitant to make any committments. We invited Pastor Rex and his wife Laura over for coffee last week and were impressed by their vision for New Life.
Nicole has volunteered to help out with the Kids Town ministry (sunday school) and Steve is considering involvement with their high school ministry.
Nicole continues to attend MOPS every week and is developing relationships with many other moms in the area. She has also joined a women’s Bible study at New Life.
Steve has connected with a group of male employees from Clarke. Nicole jokes and call them Steve’s “boyfriends.”

ATTITUDE for EDUCATION:

Sam has finished his first semester of pre-school successfully and has very much enjoyed the Montessori environment.
Nicole and Steve met with Sam’s teachers for parent-teacher conferences which was very positive.
The state of Iowa provides free pre-school for four year olds in the public schools around the

Ella & Sam “sharing” the step stool

state. The Montessori school that Sam attends is part of the public school system but has recently announced that they cannot accomodate the requirements of the state’s program for four year olds because all of their classes are multi-age and thus would have to exclude the four year olds from the rest of the school. We’re not too excited about the decision since we were looking forward to a year of free pre-school and will now have to reconsider our options for next year.

That’s all for now…

We look forward to hearing more from everyone. Give us a call (563-513-4006)or drop us a line at steven.mark.dyer@gmail.com

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