A Taste of College Life

Ellie is a super picky eater.  I don't think she has an aversion to most foods.  I think it's more of a control issue and not wanting to try.  She's certainly not a stranger to food, though.  Anyway, earlier in the week we ordered pizza and they gave us the wrong pizza.  Around dinner time yesterday I decided to just toss the half with olives and mushrooms since none of us would eat it.  I pulled the pizza box out of the fridge and Ellie started jumping and yelling "PIZZA PIZZA!"  When I walked toward the door with it, she started to pitch a fit.  I choose my battles, and didn't think this was a worthy one, particularly knowing what she was about to get herself into.  So, I sat her in her chair and handed her a piece of cold mushroom and olive pizza.  Much to our surprise, she scarfed the whole thing down!  I guess she showed me.  From now on when I want her to try something, I'm going to just put it on pizza.  Weirdo!

Where Do Clouds Come From?

Today has been a cold and gloomy, cloudy, rainy day.  We were out shopping and in the car Eve asked me what was making all the smoke.  I think it was from the GE plant.  At any rate, I told her it was from a production plant where they make things.  "Clouds?"  she asked.  Makes sense to me!

Her Thing

Everyone has a thing.  We all have a few things, I suppose.  Ellie's thing is passing out items.  Whenever I've gathered the raincoats for everyone, Ellie grabs each individually and takes it to the proper owner.  When John and Eve's bags and lunch are ready for school and waiting by the door, Ellie takes them to them calling their name.  If she sees a stray cup, she diligently delivers it to the appropriate person.  It's pretty cute.  It's her thing.

Bicycle Officially

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of John...fortunately I don't have any pictures of my hair!  Yesterday was a big day.  It was unseasonable warm, and an absolutely gorgeous day!  Because of the school Thanksgiving program, Ellie actually had a naptime early enough for us to enjoy it, and that we did.  I feel like we wated away our beautiful fall weather with nap time, but not yesterday.  While we were out John grabbed a wrench to "work on his bicycle".  He likes to pretend to fix it.  He just happened to grab a wrench, and it just happened to be the size of the nut on his training wheels.  A bit later he says, "Look Mom!"  I turned around to see him holding up his training wheel.  A few minutes later he had the other one off.  The only help I lended was holding the bike up so it wouldn't fall, and making sure the nuts were, in fact, completely tightened (which they were).  Then he decided to try it.  His first try was maybe a year ago.  He got half-way onto the seat as I held it, got frustrated at the wobbling, threw his bike down, and that was it until yesterday.  Yesterday he tried and tried for at least 30 or 45 minutes, maybe longer.  He got to where he could ride 30 feet or so after I let him loose!  How exciting!  He even had some decent falls and was determined to get back up and practice some more.  I am so proud of him!  One day he'll laugh that I was the one trying to teach him to ride a bike.  The blind sometimes do lead the blind.

Consequences

Today John was sentenced to nap time in our room rather than the play room because of a little attitude problem (he's started "rolling" his eyes, which, while the disrespect is terribly frustrating, the fact that he's not very good at it keeps humor in the situation).  Every mistake has a consequence, and today was no different.  When I got home from grocery shopping, John was helping Buck in the yard.  I asked him to carry in some groceries, and immediately noticed something was different...

The picture doesn't do it justice because I didn't want to make a big deal getting a good picture and make it seem cool, but while in our room, John took it upon himself to get the scissors out of the bathroom and cut his hair.  He snipped a few places in the front, but didn't cut the back because he couldn't see it.  From what I hear from every parent, it was bound to happen.  He was so proud.  Mama...not so much.  I JUST gave him his first haircut since we buzzed it over the summer, and I have to say it was really handsome.  Now it's just goofy, and he couldn't care less.  I'm not convinced this won't happen again.

In the Car

For some reasons, Saturday night rides to and from church are either really loud and overwhelming, or really loud and hilarious (depending on my mood, I'm sure).  This Saturday fell on the side of hilarious.  On the way to church we noticed a strong, repulsive smell.  Buck asked, "Who tooted?"  Knowing it wasn't me (really, it wasn't), I just assumed from the strength of the smell it was him.  He, likewise, denied fault.  Asking again, we then moved our blame to Eve, who is the biggest sitting in near proximity.  She promptly denied, "I didn't!"  In the same voice, John denied, "I didn't!", and without hesitation, in perfect rhythm, and the same voice, Ellie continued, "I didn't!".  She had no idea what was going on, but she got us all laughing pretty hard.
On the way home Eve kept saying, "Ellie, do it again!" then laughing hysterically.  She was laughing so hard she gave herself the hiccups (not so uncommon because they're typically pretty slap happy on the way home).  I finally asked what Ellie was doing that was so funny.  Every time Eve said, "AGAIN!", Ellie would start shaking her head and making an "ahhhhhh" sound.  After a while John joined in, "Ellie, do it again!"  Every time she did it, and they were all having a great time.  Then Buck rang in with a moment of truth, "Poor girl.  It's not long before they're saying, 'hey, Ellie, try this!' and 'hey, Ellie, see what will happen if you ...'"  She may be in for a rough (but fun) ride.

News from Buckingham Palace

They just keep growing and getting smarter.
The other day I was making Ellie laugh and wondered what she had in the back of her mouth.  Upon further inspection, I found she had a molar completely grown in.  What?!  She still has only 6 teeth up front, but she's got her bottom right molar completely broken through.  Who knows how long that's been there.
Ellie has also been singing a lot.  I'm finally picking up on clues and have identified Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus (I heard her saying "Shh Shh Shh, and Beep Beep Beep"), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Old McDonald (E I E I O).
Eve has been saying the Pledge of Allegiance since about a month after school started.  I'm amazed at how many of the songs she's picked up and memorized.  She's also doing really well learning her letters and numbers.  She's a sponge!
Last week John finished learning how to spell "Buckingham".  We broke it up into syllables and he's so proud.  Also, he's had maybe 10 popcorn words at school.  I was reading with him yesterday and decided to challenge him to read some words.  At first he didn't want to, but he was able to read a bunch of 2 and 3 letter words that he didn't know beforehand, then I caught him sounding out words from a piece of paper on the table.  He's starting to read!  He's in the very beginning phases, but still, it's pretty cool!  Also, his Spanish teacher said he does exceptionally well in Spanish, and that if she worked with him she could have him speaking Spanish by the end of the year.  I'll admit I was a little puffed up.  I realize that's going to be something I have to be very conscious of as they grow.  At any rate, we're looking into ways we can capitalize on that ability while he's still learning things so quickly.
I just find it so fascinating to watch how they grow and learn.  It truly is amazing.

Questions

I'm learning with Eve that many times questions are better left un-asked.  Two examples...
A few months ago Eve said, "Mommy, I wish I had legs like you."  Should've left it there and appreciated the compliment.  But no, I had to ask the question, "Is it because you want to be able to reach things that are up high?"  "Yes".
Today Eve was talking about a family picture she drew at school today.  After asking about the rest of the family, I asked, "Did you draw me?"  "Yes, I drew you tiny."  This time, lesson learned, I didn't ask any questions, but I didn't change the subject quickly enough.  She continued, "I drew you tiny because there wasn't much space left."
I think I'll just stick with having desirable legs and being drawn tiny.

Aha!

Yesterday I had an Aha! moment.  With the Penn State scandal all in the news, and other news from friends and family, recently I've had a heightened awareness of the brokenness in this world.  Driving into the neighborhood, though, I had a heightened awareness of God's majesty.  The brilliance in the colors of the leaves was almost overwhelming.  I'm not a sentimental person, but this struck even me as an obvious sign of how amazing God is both in His creation and mercy.  It was one of those moments that, to me, validates Romans 1:20 (²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.)  The leaves were more brilliant than other days because there were dark clouds ahead of us, but the sun was breaking through behind us.  I just couldn't help but realize that when the clouds are dark, and we have a heightened awareness of brokenness in the world, the work of God can be noticed and seen even more brilliantly.  What a beautiful picture of grace.

Lip Gloss

Eve is always wanting to be like a princess.  She always wants me to brush her hair like Ariel or Tangled (Rapunzel).  A lot of times she wants "princess lips".  Today was so special.  We went to her friend Claire's house, and she got a little of both.  She got to wear Claire's Ariel and Tangled wigs from Halloween (actually Lady Gaga and Carmen Electra), which she LOVED, and she got to put on lip gloss for the first time.  She's put on chapstick and vaseline before, but there was just something about lip gloss that made her lips stick out like she'd just had a collagen treatment.  I couldn't stop laughing.  She held them in this position until lunch slowly wiped the lip gloss away.  She even held them out when she was talking.  Hysterical!  And now we know how Angelina Jolie gets her looks.

Creation

John and Eve have so many things they bring home from school and church, as well as lots of things they produce at home.  Obviously we can't keep them all.  I have bins where I keep just a few of the most special ones.  This project John did at church one night has been sitting on the counter for weeks.  It's not necessarily bin-worthy as a whole, but I had to capture his heart behind it.  They made books showing each day of the creation story...

Cover

 An example page

This was the special page.  On the 7th day God rested.  "So, what did you draw there, John?"  He really does have a sweet and compassionate heart.  He drew his stuffed rabbit, Joey.  He figured if God was sleeping, he didn't want Him to be alone.  That's how sweet my boy is.  Cue the "Awwwww."

What a Bunch of Turkeys!

The past few years at Christmas we've made shirts with hand and/or foot prints.  The kids love it.  This year I thought, "Why not make hand turkeys?"  Thanksgiving has always been such a special holiday for me, so I want to make sure we celebrate it rather than just letting it slip by in anticipation of Christmas.  So last Thursday we made hand turkey shirts.  They turned out great!  The kids wore them on Friday and everybody was talking about them.  So easy and FUN!  I was particularly impressed at how well Ellie's turned out.  I figured we'd have a hard time getting her to hold her hand out and we'd just get a blog, but her turkeys have distinct head and feathers.  Also, John did his own legs and features on his as well.  Nicely done!

Harvest Time

We planted carrots and broccoli (among other things) early spring.  We have checked the carrots periodically and kept thinking they might grow more.  We finally decided it was harvest time.  Here was the first batch.  We harvested a ton more this weekend, similar in size.  I had to put the broccoli and marker in to show how tiny some are!  I just made a roast and put 36 carrots in!  It was pretty funny.  We ate the broccoli (and some more we harvested) for dinner the other night.  It may not be much, but it's still fun to eat something we grew.

Happy Halloweenie!

Our 7th annual Halloweenie (which we stole from my Uncle John) was a HUGE success!  We handed out around 195 hot dogs, running out around 8:15.  I guess the word is getting out.  We had some good friends come to help out, and of course Mom was there.

The Grouchy Ladybug - She really wasn't grouchy much, but I felt like I had to get a picture with the book in mind

 Old costume, but new grill and fancy tablecloth John earned at school by completing his reading log.  He was excited to use it.

 Sleeping Beauty

 Happy to have some candy.

 Optimus Prime - DISCLAIMER - we didn't make him wear the same costume 2 years in a row.  He insisted on it even when we suggested some other things he might want to be.  The mask was broken in a few places, se we decided that this year he was a battle-ravaged Optimus Prime.

 There's the happy ladybug.

 Our sweet neighbor Mrs. Tonya.  Last year the kids got the concept, but still moved fairly slowly between houses and weren't devastated when we stopped.  This year John was flying from house to house.  He finally got the concept of volume.  See Sleeping Beauty's glamorous slippers?  It wasn't raining, she just wanted to wear them.  A princess who is beautiful, yet still understands practicality and function.  Princess heels really would have slowed her down.

Ellie's first trick-or-treat.  Surprisingly, she picked up on the concept after just one try, at just under 18 months!  We had planned on giving her a piece of candy to keep her happy and pulling her along in the wagon while John and Eve ran up to doors.  She would have nothing of it!  She climbed out of the wagon and chased after them to go up to the door and say "treat" (trick, apparently, was not an option), and then "thank you!"  She was so darn cute when she said thank you, most times she got a second helping.  What a fun time!  Unfortunately for Eve, she snuck her bucket upstairs a few days later.  I was wondering what was behind all the quietness, so I went upstairs only to find everything pulled out and unwrapped with a bite missing here and there.  That was the end of her halloween candy, but John is still going strong.  I can't let this post finish without mentioning there was an empty place on our table this Halloweenie, and a sadness in our hearts. Our dear neighbor, Mr. Jerry, who always brought chili and helped out (and did so much more...a sweet sweet man and neighbor) passed away a few weeks ago.  He was so loving and generous toward the kids, and a great friend to talk to whenever we were outside.  We certainly missed him Halloween, and always.