The Klopp Quads: November 2013

I haven't updated in one whole month. Life is busy and we're on the go a lot! We just ended a weekend in Duluth and deer season starts this weekend. (OK, not my favorite time of the year, but I do appreciate the venison :) ) School feels like it's solidly in our routine (just two days a week). Today is picture day and in a couple weeks we have conferences! How cute is that? It will be fun to go to our first ever conferences. One of the teachers told me they were "testing" the kids today on stuff like cutting, writing their names, colors, shapes, etc. I doubt there will be any surprises but it will be to interesting to hear how they're doing from the teachers' perspectives.

The girls have a new friend they play with each day at Preschool. Her name is Liesel and I finally got to see her last Tuesday when we did a mini-trick-or-treat at their school's backyard. She is such a cutie with bright red hair (like her grandma- my mom- used to have). I so wish I could be a fly on a wall and watch them play with her!

I took the girls and Will to an apple orchard for a Preschool outing.

Josie refused to get in on the picture...so here I am with almost all of my kids at the apple orchard.

The petting zoo was their favorite part of the field trip.

Sofia!

Josie was so excited about this sheep!

Madeline posing with a pig.

The girls are so inquisitive lately and I love to hear their questions and ideas. They asked where the sun sleeps at night when we were in Duluth the other night and I told them the sun was on the other side of the world. Their response: "In Oakdale?" (our home). How small their world is that Duluth feels like the opposite side of the world from Oakdale.

Another new thing going on in our house is the girls' imagination, but Sofia's imagination in particular. She will make up this whole idea/plan and will get so into it and is heartbroken when it can't happen. An example is last week when she decided that Tinker Bell gave her pixie dust and turned her into Santa. She wanted me to go to the store to get her a Santa outfit, then she started packing things she needed in the North Pole (which included, but not limited to, her new pink sweater, her stuffed reindeer "Blitzen", and a small decorative sleigh). When I said we can't go to the North Pole for real, but we can pretend, she had a meltdown. I have to sidetrack her or divert her when things get intense but it's getting harder.

Sometimes, I'm not even Sofia's "mommy" because she's a mommy to a baby in her tummy and she doesn't need a mommy anymore. The daddy to her baby is at work- making money- and her baby is going to come out in the hospital at 6. And she's going to go and live in her pink house. NOW. And I need to bring her there. It can be exhausting! (Entertaining as well, of course.) When I told her we couldn't just go find a pink house and squat there, it was an epic meltdown.

At the other end of the spectrum, Will is pulling up like nothing and cruising around furniture and being a very happy-go-lucky guy like usual. He is doing better with solids and is eating more normal foods. Now, he is only getting up 1/3 of the nights, but I haven't let him cry it out yet. He turned 10 months last week- I can't believe we're only 2 months shy of one year. It's fun to look back at my pregnant belly and newborn pictures. He has been so easy to fall in love with and I love him more each day!

Madeline was happy to try on this wig I found when I was digging through old stuff.

Natural-looking

I had a mini-photo shoot for Will's 10 Month...here are my two favorites...

Such a happy guy!

Halloween was fun. I let the girls decide on their costumes. We have a bunch of animal costumes and princess dresses to chose from, but they chose their standby animals- cat, dog, and cow. Last year, Sofia and Josie traded dog and cat costumes last minute, but this year they stuck with their favorites. They regressed when it came to actually saying "trick-or-treat" or anything at all. They even went to a lot less houses because we gave them an ultimatum to get them to talk but they didn't take it. (But they also decided they had enough candy already and didn't really want to go to anymore houses.) They told us that they will say "trick-or-treat" when they get bigger, but I reminded them they said it when they were smaller! I think it's just a phase, but talking to people (more so adults rather than children) is a pretty apparent cause of fear and anxiety. They definitely open up when they are comfortable so I'm not worried yet.