Other Summer Happenings

Something happened this summer and all my kids grew immensely and suddenly. Sigh.

Annie now says a few words and knows several signs.  I think she would speak more, but she's got a pretty good system down of yelling loud enough that she will get whatever she wants or needs.  She does it at the store or at restaurants and gets the attention of anyone within 100 feet, who then will smile or comment on her sweet curls.  The words she knows are Papa (who is her favorite person), moon, bye, hello, chicky's, cheese, shoes, Mom, Dada, and tons of animal noises.  She likes to play in the sink every morning after breakfast.

She loves string cheese.  She loves animals, especially our chickens.  She's had a surprising number of injuries, she's either tough or really clumsy.  She eats dirt all the time.  She still chews on shoes as much as she can.  Once she even picked up a chicken poo and ate it.  She runs a funny stiff-legged run and still falls a lot.  When she gets mad she pinches my face really hard or bites my arms.  She's terribly stubborn and independent which makes me nervous for the future. Here she is in the gutter after rain.

When Jared gets home from work she runs to the door, pulls him into the bedroom, climbs so slowly up on the bed and does the sign for tickle.  Jared complies with a tickle session and she laughs a funny, growly laugh.  Have you ever seen a more beautiful little girl?  I don't think it's possible.

Jack is still a handful and a half.  When we went to Legoland we got him a Lego set, which he is now totally into.  I had no idea that he could sit quietly for so long and build.  Actually, it's not so quiet because he yells in frustration every so often.  Annie swiping them is a big problem though, she loves to chew the tire pieces.  This time she went and got her own blocks to play with.

Jack is so kind.  I heard him go see Grandma one day when she had first woken up and he walked in and said "Hi Grandma, How are you feeling?" Also one day we were out and I had forgotten something.  I was saying something, implying that I was frustrated and he said "It's going to be OK, mom".  Here he is at the county fair in front of a giant Lego display.

Jack uses the term "Olde-timey" a lot.  It's kind of my thing to use stupid words that no one else says, or pronounce things wrong, but I don't really mean for the kids to adopt those quirks.  We use the term occasionally but he's adopted it as if it were a normal, every day word.  Stuff like that I love, I hope he never figures out that no one else really says it.  Here he is at a fair in an "Olde-timey" time-out.

He started a new year of pre-school.  He had some difficulties last year (he didn't like it), so I was pretty concerned, but this year so far has been great.  He knows all his letters and is working on his writing skills.  I'm thrilled that he's making an effort and is proud of what he's learned.

The kids like to listen to loud music and dance in the car while we're driving.  Sometimes if our windows are down I get really embarrassed.  Their favorite songs are "Technologic" by Daft Punk, "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO and "This or That" by Black Sheep (as seen on the Kia Hamster commercials), mix those cool songs in with some "Bananaphone" and "Winnie the Pooh Soundtrack" and we're rollin'.  Jack gets a little crazy dancing and this is the conversation from the backseat:
Lily: "Jack! Stop punching and kicking me!  Why do you always have to do that?"
Jack (in a sweet tone of voice): "I can't help it, that's just my dance!"

Here he is with a spider on his finger.

Lily is a little golden child.  She is so kind and caring.

Read this card she gave me and Jared and tell me, could I possibly ask for anything more?  I think not.
(Translation in case you're having difficulty: Thank you Mom and Dad- For Everything.")

Here's another good one.  I'm not sure exactly, but I think at school she was supposed to write a story about what we would want if our family were, for a day, a King, Queen, Prince and Princess.  This is what we would do:
(Translation again: "Jenny sleeps in.  Jared watches shows. Jack plays cars. Annie likes stars.")

Lily started first grade.  We were both nervous about the change to a full day.  It's strange how quiet and boring it is while she's at school, Jack has no partner-in-crime.  There have been some hiccups (all her friends are in the other class and school lunch has interesting foods), but overall things are going well.

Jare-bear needed a new manly project after he finished the marathon project of working on our new room.  He built two new gates which were badly needed.  They look great.

 He was very proud of his truck this day.

Jared can make a wicked sandwich.  This one should be remembered.

Here he is at work...horsin' around.

 Jared took the big kids to Trafalga for some mini-golf and other fun.  He's a good dad.

 Me...This is the hard part of the blog because I don't have anything specific or interesting to write, but I'm insanely busy all of the time.  Here's it is: I've been coordinating all of the above and keeping myself, 4 other people, 2 cats, 4 chickens and fish alive and thriving.  The chickens love us and keep coming up to our door to sleep.

For a couple weeks in July our A/C was not working and our house was getting up to around 86 every day. It was terrible, we had fans everywhere, the kids were crying at night because they'd wake up sweaty, and it made my still daily headaches even worse.  On this day the kids were sick with really high fevers, combined with the heat, it was horrible.  Making a giant bed on the floor was as much fun as we could manage.

 In other happy news, I'm finally caught up on my blog and almost completely caught up on video editing for the first time ever.  Huzzah! (see, stupid words that no one uses are hilarious!)