Why buy them toys when garbage is free

The girls discovered the recycle bin today.  They were playing "Restaurant"

Check this kid out

For the cautious, un-coordinated, girly-girl that she is, LILY has surprisingly learned some typically fearful skills without complaints.

Last fall we got out a bike WITH pedals (instead of the one we took the pedals off of that she had been riding all summer) and told her she could give it a try.  I held her for balance just one time, and quickly let go, just to prove to her that she could do it.  She's been riding a two wheeler ever since.  She has even graduated to a bigger bike that she can barely touch the ground on.  I'm still amazed that she figured it out all on her own.

During my pregnancy with Amie, I took the girls swiming once a week (to give my belly a rest).  Lily can swim wherever she wants and jump into the deep end.  One day on the way to the rec center we were talking about how it doesn't matter how deep the pool is now that she could swim.  She could even learn to go into the diving pool.  After we changed into swimwear, she started heading for the diving pool so I went along with it figuring we might get her to jump off the edge or something.  'I want to jump off the diving board' she told me.  Ok.  Not wanting to discourag her I went first just in case and expected her to chicken out once she climbed up.  But no, she jumped right off and even did it again without me right after, like it was normal and just something small kids do at the pool.

Last Saturday Tyler took Lily up to Snowbird for some spring skiing only to find that they had closed all of the lower lifts, including the beginner Chick-a-dee.  Well, Lily can now claim bragging rights to having skied down from the tram (most of the way).  She was a little nervous at the top, especially since the view is so ominous!

Wow Lily, your such a cool kid!

One more thing...
While not so daring, Lily is learning to read, write, and spell.  Tyler and I have helped her when she asked questions, but we haven't really done any coaching to teach her.  We blame PBS for her self-education.  I realized she is getting pretty good at it when I found the word 'SCURL'(squirl) in her piano music.  Isn't that a 1st grade level word? Good job Lily.

Coming into focus

It has been so fun for me to see Amy developing this week!  She's 6 wks old now and I'm finally feeling like there is hope for being able to handle 3 kids, eventually.  Thanks to Tyler for having finished his class work and tests and taking 2 whole days off to do chores around the house.
Amee loves, loves, loves being read to.  Tyler noticed it during the first week she was home as I was reading to all the girls. She actually wakes up and just stares intently at me as I read. Tyler had the thought that before she was born, of all the experiences to be excited for, she must have really been looking forward to having her mommy read to her.
Amie can see past the end of her nose now.  I notice less of the cross-eyed staring (which is so funny) and more focusing on near surroundings.  I got out the crib mirror and piano for her to look at.  Since they were sisters' favorites, I'm not surprised that she loves to stare at them and listen to the music.  This just means another year of the obnoxious "peek-a-boo" voice for me!
We are down to just two feedings per night.  Wahoo! My favorite milestone by far.
With the sun being sunnier theese days, Aimee has slowly gotten over the jaundice. She didn't look like an oompa-loompa when I put her in a yellow dress today.
Aunt Diane discovered that she really loves it when you rub the tops of her ears.  Her eyes roll back into her head with relaxed pleasure.  Funny.
PS-
  If you happened to notice the variety of name spellings, know that we really don't care which nick-name you use but the official formal spelling of our choice is AMIE.
And here's a picture