Conversations

Madelyn: Hey, Mom, what's for dinner?

Me: Chicken

Madelyn: Why is it called chicken?

Me: Because it's chicken.

Madelyn: You mean like a chicken, chicken?

Me: Umm....yes.

Madelyn: You mean I'm eating a chicken?

Me: Well, a part of it, yes.

Madelyn: What about pork?

Me: Well, that's from a pig.

Madelyn: You mean a pig, pig?

Me: Yes, a real pig.

Madelyn: You mean I'm really eating different animals?

Me: Yes, hon.

Madelyn: How did I not know that?

Pierce (in the crowded pool bathroom): Let's play a rhyming game.

Me: Okay, you start.

Pierce: Yucky

Me: Lucky

Pierce: Trucky

Me: Silly. I don't think that's a word.

Pierce (laughing and yelling): Is *ucky a word? * = F

Me: Don't think so, bud.

Pierce: What about ducky?

Me: Sure

Pierce: *ucky ducky! That rhymes!

Me: Hey bud, let's not say that again, okay?

A Kid Update

It's been a while since I've done an update on the big kids, so I thought I should do one. That way, when I've forgotten what they were doing at this stage, I can look back here and remember.

Madelyn:


Madelyn is really reading now, at least when she's in the mood to do it. She can't pick up an encyclopedia and read for content, but she can definitely read simple kids' books. She's also been really interested in spelling, and her handwriting is getting MUCH neater. She still prefers capital letters to lowercase, but her writing is very legible now. She started tennis lessons today. I'm interested to see if she enjoys this. She was disappointed that we didn't do soccer again, but I was able to sign Madelyn and Pierce up for the same tennis lesson. The ease of that won over her desire to do soccer again. We've been swimming a lot and she just finished up her group swimming lessons. She LOVES swimming and has been trying so hard to learn how to really swim that we've signed her up for some private lessons. We'll see if that helps her learn some strokes.

Pierce:



Pierce has really developed an interest in learning his numbers, letters, letter sounds, and writing his letters. This has all just happened in the last month, but he knows all of the letter sounds, even if he can't think of the name of the letter itself. So, if I show him an "F", he'll sometimes tell me it's an "F", but he will often just say, "FFFFFFFFFFFFF" (saying the "F" sound). Pierce also just finished his swim lessons. Those did not go very smoothly for the first few lessons, but the last few went very well. We've also signed him up for private lessons and he did fabulously with the first one. He loves going to the pool, too, and as I mentioned, he's taking tennis lessons with Madelyn. He is still very sensitive and almost always shows concern for others. He's really showing a love for Isabel except when she ventures over to his trains. Then, he usually says, "Mom, I think she's hungry." He loves to play with his trains and is very creative. I won't be surprised if he decides acting/drama is his thing.

Isabel:



I apologize for the quality of this photo, but this is what most pictures of Isabel look like. I think a nice camera might be on my Christmas wish list. She's just gotten over her first stomach bug. No vomiting involved, but there were definitely many interesting diapers. Her upper gums are bulging right now, but I can't tell if a tooth has broken through or not. She won't let me investigate very long because she clamps down on my finger as soon as I start feeling around in her mouth. Weird. I don't know why she doesn't like that. Oh, she loves eating paper. I don't think the other kids liked it as much, but I feel like it is always in her mouth. I really do try to keep it out of her reach, but it's just harder with Madelyn and Pierce always using it.

Father's Day Conversation

Madelyn: What are blessings?
John David: Blessings are good things that God gives us, like mommys or daddys or brothers and sisters.
Madelyn: Toys are like blessings, except that God doesn't give us toys.
John David: Well, God gave me a job, and that job gives me money and we can use that money to buy toys.
Madelyn: Yeah, except you give all that money to mommy and she buys the toys.
John David: That's probably more true than you know.

In reference to her grandparents' generosity

Madelyn says, "Hey, you know when they come visit, it's like our birthday every time."

Nine Months Old

Isabel is 9 months old today. I would say "I can't believe it.", but I feel like I say that every month. She's such a little joy. Her current schedule: wake between 6 am and 7 am; bottle; sleep until 8:30; eat breakfast, play and nap around 10; up from nap and bottle around 11:00; eat lunch, play, and nap around 2:00; up from nap and bottle around 4:00; play, eat dinner, bed around 7:00.

She's crawling around everywhere, is trying to figure out steps, pulls up on everything and everyone, and has gotten much more chatty. She says, "da da da" quite a bit, and I've heard the occasional "ma ma". She doesn't eat much (shocker!) but really likes deli meat, cheerios, kinda liking yogurt lately, pancakes and loves black beans. We tried spaghetti a couple of nights ago and that was a pretty big hit. She isn't crazy about fruit, which is pretty puzzling to me. I think she has a very sensitive pallet and anything slightly tangy or sour is unappealing to her. She refuses to eat baby food.

She's pretty cuddly, and that's new to me. Of course, I really like it. She has the cutest way of burying her head in my chest or JD's when she's shy. She's also the clingiest of my kids and is the only one to cry when being dropped off at the nursery at church. They promise us it only lasts a second and she's always happy when we pick her up.

With this update, I have one question: Why is it when JD picks her up from the nursery, she's all smiles and giggles, but when I pick her up and she spots me, she immediately bursts into tears?

Like Father, Like Son

JD decided to knock a little mowing out of the way before we headed to the pool, hence the swim trunks and no shirt. When I came out to check his progress I saw that Pierce had joined in on the action.


Madelyn wanted in on the action, too, but she was worried about her roly poly. I told her that it was time to put it back on the ground. She wanted to know why she couldn't keep it, and I explained that God had designed them to live in dirt and not in our house. She seemed satisfied with that answer.


And she got the other mower and went to work.

Isabel's Favorite Toy

Yes, electric cords. She can spot them a mile away.

A little look into the kids' week

The kids got to go to Granddaddy's farm today. They've been wanting to do this for a while, so I'm glad they got the opportunity. I spoke with them for a few minutes and Madelyn informed me that they cut the wheat with the combine and that she caught a little fish in the pond.

Sounds like a successful day to me.

Thanks to Jay for the picture!

What to do...

We're two-thirds of the way toward an empty nest for most of this week. The big kids are hanging with my in-laws, and Isabel is getting a glimpse of being an only child. I don't think she really notices anything different, but it sure is quiet around here. What have I done with all of my freedom? Well, nothing exciting because I do still have an 8 month old around, but yesterday I ventured to T@rget, which is something I never do (unless it's an emergency) with the kids anymore. After Isabel woke up from her afternoon nap at 4:30, I found myself trying to remember what in the world I did when it was just Madelyn and me. Today I went to S@feway, ditto on the never doing it thing. I took Isabel with me to vote this morning. There's a primary today in our congressional district. She won the poll workers over with her Cheerio filled smile.

Last night, we went to a new parent orientation for Madelyn's school. We've decided to send her to our church's school, at least for next year. It goes through 8th grade and has a great reputation academically. I feel confident that this is the right decision for next year. We'll reevaluate after we've seen how things go through the year. I'm getting excited for her, and I know she'll do great. As I was listening to the speakers at orientation last night, I kept thinking how amazing it was that Madelyn is 5 years older than the day she was born and that I haven't aged a bit. Ha!

That's the word here.

Last Weekend

Last weekend, we kicked off the summer along with the rest of America. The "big" kids went canoeing on Burke Lake with JD, and on Monday, we, along with the rest of our community, went to the pool. A great time was had by all, and the kids picked up right where they left off with their swimming skills. Madelyn jumped right in; Pierce was "nervous" at the beginning but was kicking his feet hard by the time we left. We've been back to the pool twice this week, and each time, Pierce has gotten braver. Hopefully, he will actually get in the water with his teacher during swim lessons tomorrow. Last week, it was all I could do to get him to dangle his feet over the edge.