Vignette

So, we've had a lot of wonderful things happen, including a FABULOUS trip to Chicago, which is documented in many pictures. A lost a tooth, "school" is out for the summer (we're on a modified light summer schedule), etc, etc. But today I wanted to paint a vignette of something that happened this morning with G.

The girls went to the park with their old preschool teacher (she does a park day in the summer for all of her students and the ward kids--love it!!). I let G play at the park at bit too, and he found a slide he loved and was having a wonderful time.

Then, he headed towards the tunnel in the middle of the play structure, and I saw that some children had left a huge open bag of peanut M&Ms in the tunnel, and candies were strewn about. The entire mass blew towards G. (G is severely allergic to peanuts.) G saw only candy and he wanted it. I had to remove him from the play structure for his own safety. He screamed. He cried. He fought against the carseat, straightening like a board, twisting and pulling at the straps. He signed "play" and "more" as he screamed. (He also signed "milk, which is just an automatic comfort thing for him--if he's upset, he signs "milk.") He screamed the entire drive home. When I opened the door to unbuckle him, he kept screaming at me. He signed "play" over and over again, plus his comfort signs. I tried to carry him out of the car. He screamed at me, signed "NO" as he screamed, and dove away from me, tears streaking his cheeks. He grabbed the fence on the way in with both of his hands, pulling as hard as he could to go back out. Eventually I let him go out of the gate and watched as he stood a few from it, crying and gasping, slowly calming. Finally he stopped crying altogether and looked at me, sadness etched in every line of his face. His eyes weren't angry, or frustrated--they held betrayal. We stared at each other for a few moments, his eyes never losing their cast of hurt betrayal. Then he took a breath and ran away.

He ran around the car and out of the driveway. He ran down the entire street to the end, where the grass ends atop a short cement wall overlooking the sidewalk area and the street. He stood there, watching the cars drive past and the tree branches sway, crying softly for several minutes. I followed him but I didn't try to speak to him. I just watched as he cried to himself, staring out at the street through his tears. I didn't want to interrupt his grieving. That's the only word to describe it. Eventually I pointed out the birds in the tree, and he looked for a few second before stepping away from me and resuming his quiet cries, staring out at the passing cars. After a minute I asked if he wanted a hug, and by then he was calm enough to accept it and agree to come home with me.

I've never had a kid run away out of sadness and grief. He's 20 months old, for goodness' sake!! What is he going to be like when he's older?

Project Clothesline

We went as a family to the Project Clothesline at J's university tonight. He will be writing a paper on it. We explained a bit about it to the girls. J talked to C about having good friends. I talked to A about the colors of the shirts and what they meant, and how some people are still very very hurt and angry about the sad things that happened to them and some people have moved on to forgiveness. She can read well enough to read most of the shirts herself, so I had to help pick and choose which ones she read, and what parts. A great deal of hurt is often expressed in very strong language. I made my shirt, and then A asked to make a shirt. She said C hits her and it hurts her. She kept insisting on making a shirt for being hurt by C. I tried to explain how it was different, but I couldn't. I couldn't make myself qualify her pain, tell her that her pain was less than other people's, that it wasn't as "real" as other women's pain. The (rather rare) occasion of being hit by her sister was traumatic enough to make her really want to express it with all these other women, so I brought her back to make a shirt, too. She wrote that her sister hits her and it hurts her feelings, and then she drew a sad face and a fist coming towards it, and then wrote that she hates it when her sister hurts her. Then we put it up. And then we talked to C about how much it hurts A when she hits! (And I need to talk to A about not hitting C, either. They don't hit each other often at all, but apparently it's still too much.) G just ran around and babbled and asked for "Up" in the carrier or in arms, and ran around some more, etc.

Charity

We had a Family Home Evening lesson on being children of God, and ways to show that we are children of God. One of the topics mentioned was helping the poor and needy. Today A got a bucket, cleaned it out, filled it with water, and was going to walk down the street asking people if they were poor and needed water. I LOVE HER. We looked up the food bank and saw that they didn't need water but they did need many other things, so she put her water outside for any stray cats and we made up a box for the food bank with canned beans, mac & cheese boxes, soap, and shampoo that we don't need. Then she taught C that she shouldn't just think about herself; she should think about others.

More fun

Today the clones came over, and A's "fiance" came dressed as Superman. He also came carrying a Supergirl costume he made for A--the front insignia and a little cape, both made of paper with tape on the back to stick on her shirt. SO cute. A reminded him that "when we're for real grownups we'll for real get married" but I don't think he's forgotten. All of the kids together made a rock band and gave us a concert, too. Fake guitar, drums, piano, and recorder.

Proposal!

A told me as her friends were leaving that she needed to get dressed (her dress was wet so she was changing it) so she could kiss her friend (also A) because she loved him. Then she saw him on the porch and told him she wanted to marry him when they were grownups. He said yes, he would marry her when they were grown up. Happiness ensued. Heehee. A has been saying that for a few weeks to me, and Boy A said that to his own mother recently, and now it's official. Or, as A says, FOR REAL she will marry him.

C now says she wants to marry his little brother, L. Time will tell, lol.

Wow, it's been a while.

We had Christmas. I can't believe I didn't post about Christmas. It was FAB. FAB-U-LOUS. The girls loved essentially EVERYTHING, didn't fight, and even forgot about opening presents to play with what was opened. G liked his toys, too! He really understood the whole "opening" concept. ;)

A few weeks ago a stomach virus swept the house and hit G pretty hard. He was sick for days and lost weight. He is now making up for it by eating 2-3 times as much (it seems) and is visibly looking much more G-shaped (he got all hollow-cheeked and skinny for a week or so afterwards. It was sad). He's squishy again now. He also has gotten a new tooth on top (left side) and a new tooth on the bottom (right side) and the random tooth dot that we could see when he was born is now a random molar popping through in the back. O.o

G is saying more sounds where I know what he's trying to say, but the general public would just hear babble. He is signing a lot more, and saying more of the words he's signing, which helps. Signing turns "uh" into "up" and "aaah" into "on" and "off" and "mah" into "milk," for instance. Well, the "up" isn't an official sign, but it works. He now signs, "milk," "mama," "more," "food/eat," "water" (which doubles as JUICE!!!!!!), "all done," "on/off" (lights), "cook," "clean," "hot," "potty," "cat" (his own invented sign), and "yuck" (he uses his "potty" sign and makes a "yck!!" sound). He's got the usual indicators for "no," "yes," and "up" (head shaking and nodding and reaching up are different from sign language). He also points to the TV and makes demanding noises (sigh), feeds himself, runs outside whenever possible (generally half-clothed), pretends to cook in the play kitchen, scribbles, pushes chairs around the kitchen and climbs on them, thinks knives are called, "No!" (that's what he calls them since that's what I say every time he climbs up and reaches for one in the sink), throws tantrums, watches the fish, and loves to dance if there's anything remotely resembling a beat.

A family sponsored trip to Chi-town to see the family is in the works. Woohoo!!!

J is now on a high dose of a different ADHD med and doing quiet well. He received his second invitation to an honor society (but they all charge fees, argh, so he hasn't joined any yet) and is working on scholarship applications.

C is very, very verbal. I need to write down some of the things she says! She will delineate very clearly exactly what she sees or what she is thinking, in long sentences with lots of description. It's funny in a 4-year-old.

We were watching the first Harry Potter and A asked why the characters' hair didn't grow at all in the entire movie. Heehee. Very good point.

Today A had a companion to help her during math. She turned her crayon into "Math Hero! She knows every number!" Math Hero sang through the entire math assignment, got every answer right, and added extra song challenges (like ordering all of her answers from lowest to highest).

I realized no one here really knows what our homeschool days look like. Generally, our schedule is:
Breakfast
Circle Time (song or finger play, poem, scripture to memorize)
Phonics or Spelling (A) and the phonics portion of C's K program
Reading (I read one aloud and A reads one aloud)
Play/snack break
Logic or Writing
Math
Science
The art portion of C's K program
On Fridays, we learn a new state and president.
On Wednesdays A has a full-day arts program, and on Wed/Fri C has play preschool for two hours. We also have playgroups two days a week. Busy busy!
In the summer, that will change a lot. We will have fun learning about/practicing art, music, and world cultures. Science will involve lots of animals and plants while everything is alive to observe. Art classes and preschool will be finished, and the girls should have swimming lessons.

Fun with A

Well, first off with some family help we loaded two IKEA shoeboxes with tons of art supplies (paper, pencils, crayons, markers, colored pencils, coloring book or colored paper), princess dress-ups, hair clips, nail polish, brain puzzles like a Rubix cube, games like Uno and the jumping pegs in a wooden board game, mini candy canes, toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, soap, pink washcloth, and mini scriptures. We sent them out for Operation Christmas Child!

A caught a slug, a worm, a millipede, a caterpillar, a pillbug, and several snails in the last week. They all died, as did her fish. And her underwater snail, which climbed out of its waterbowl and escaped behind the dresser. Bad pet luck.

A invented her own version of "There's a Hole in the Bucket" today:

There's a hole in the fan, dear Liza, dear Liza
There's a hole in the fan, dear Liza, a hole.

Then fix it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it.

With what shall I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what shall I fix it, dear Liza, with what?

With metal, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With metal, dear Henry, dear Henry, with metal.

With what shall I stick it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what shall I stick it, dear Liza, with what?

With tape, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With tape, dear Henry, dear Henry, with tape.

But the tape is too loose, dear Liza, dear Liza,
But the tape is too loose, dear Liza, too loose.

Then glue it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then glue it, dear Henry, dear Henry, glue it.

But the metal's too little, dear Liza, dear Liza,
But the metal's too little, dear Liza, too little.

The End!

Baby G again

He is smart and helpful. It's so cute. He's one but he will use a rag to clean spills (and will mime using a rag when he finds a spill until someone gives him a rag, then he uses it on the spill). He unloads the dishwasher (and sometimes gives me the dishes), and when I say we're done/ready to start the dishwasher, he used to play with the soap tray but now he goes to the undersink cabinet, pulls on the locked door, reaches for the soap when I open the door, and tries to hold the box to pour the soap in the tray. Then he closes the door and sometimes reaches for the settings to turn it on. When I'm doing laundry, he pulls the lint trap out of the dryer, pulls off handfuls of lint, and then puts it back. (He can almost get it in correctly.) If I say "clothes" while doing laundry, he tries to "close" the dryer door. That's one of his favorite jobs. He'll help putting things back in a container if you show him.

He can also climb pretty well--the bathtub, the kid chairs, pulling himself up to chairs at the doctor's office by pure upper body strength, climbing correctly off the bed, etc. He is great at getting caps off markers and pens within seconds. He gives the BEST hugs still.

I'm "mam" and J is "da." He's very clear with signing "milk" (for milk only now), "all done," and pointing to what he wants. He will drink out of anything--anyone's cup, any beverage, will swipe soda cans, rice milk boxes, coconut milk boxes, cups with straws, anything. Just not bottles, LOL. He is very, very clear about what he wants generally. He can run now! This week he started dancing to music, and now if I say, "dance" he starts dancing, even if there's no music playing. He can reach almost anything--if it's on the table or the counter, he can usually figure out a way to get it. He can reach a large percentage of the table from the floor. He can reach the counter from the computer chair or in someone's arms (diving down at what he wants). He also loves sweets.

In other news, I'm doing NaNoWriMo and I'm at 22,282 words right now. Woohoo!

Heehee

Today we went for a walk. During the walk we discovered a secret passage, were chased by pirates (cars and flower spies), became invisible princesses, avoided the fences of electricity (but if you have a puffy coat or grapes from a brick wall you could touch the fence safely), followed a secret path, found a secret park (seriously!), acquired the 4 Leaves of Prophecy that would protect us as long as they remained on the branch (we lost two!), a magic wand, two curvy swords, a bow and three arrows, the Leaf of Prophecy that teaches bad guys to be good, looked for the Greatest Superheros (grasshoppers), climbed The Wall before the guards came, avoided the black moth spies, saw the black birds that could rip us in half, ran home, saw pirates coming, went inside, locked the door magically, then C and I cast protective spells on all the windows, A looked through the Crystal (prism) to see if the pirates were coming, and then we withstood a direct pirate assault.

Also, baby G loves to make faces where he purses his lips, wrinkles up his nose, and snorts loudly out his nose. He also adores anything related to cooking. He plays with his cooking toys, with pans, with pots, and especially using kitchen utensils IN pots. If I'm cooking he tries to get up to the stove, and if I'm holding him he will grab for the spoon and try to stick it in my pot. He uses the potty too, sometimes. :D

New stuff

Baby G can RUN now! He's 1, so he's not really "Baby" G anymore, either. He can climb the couch, the bathtub, off the bed, etc. He loves the wooden puzzles with the big knobs, esp his shapes puzzle. He is getting his Tooth the Fourth.

A is flooring me with her mind again. She was pretending to be a mermaid from Mexico this morning, and is explaining to me the differences in tail shape between Mexican and traditional mermaids, and explaining her diet and her interactions with the migratory Monarch butterflies there. I didn’t even know she knew what Mexico was!

Mexican mermaids have tail fins that are positioned almost vertically, while the other mermaids have tail fins that are almost completely horizontal. She provided a physical illustration for me. Monarch butterflies in Mexico swarm to the Mexican mermaids and lift them to the tree branches, but the mermaids fall back to the rivers because they can’t fly.

Heehee.

A also wants to fly to the rainforest and tell people to STOP cutting it down, to "adopt" a Monarch butterfly through the World Wildlife Fund, and to go to Costa Rica and catch a butterfly. We are planning a neighborhood recycling program as a more local way to help the deforestation.

A is learning multiplication and division right now, and enjoying that.

C got her "BOB books" that are all easy, 3-letter words, and she's thrilled that she has books SHE can read ALL BY HERSELF.

I've been doing more temple work, found some names (yay! story later), and got my hair cut finally. I've also been spinning more, and knitting. I'm getting ready for NaNoWriMo next month.

Jeremy is having a stressful time with his English class (rough professor), but the other classes are going well! Registration for new classes are next week.

AWESOME day

So, baby G is 1!

But today's post is about our AWESOME day.

I've felt like I really need to go to the temple & do the initiatories my dad gave me the last few weeks. So I finally figured out a way (slipping out before J's morning class on Sat) and went to the temple yesterday. I noticed one name had no parents listed, and "sealing to parents" was blacked. For some reason, I felt like I needed to go find her parents. I looked on familysearch.org when I got home (the fact that I even remembered to was a miracle, lol), and I found her marriage record with her parents listed! I guessed that the work was already done for them, but I sent the info to my dad, and the next day we checked. She was in "the system," with no parents listed. We found what appear to be her parents, but with no children listed, and their work is not done. Everything matches. I'm going to the family history library tomorrow to verify (see if we can find the family together on the newly indexed 1880 census records), and then we can connect the family lines and seal them together. YAY!!!!!!

Next cool thing today: I've been sitting baby G on his squishy potty seat in between diaper changes recently. He likes it, and has started peeing most times I do this. Today J called me in to the bathroom to see G trying to put the cushy potty seat up on the potty himself. I took off his diaper and sure enough, he was peeing. Wow--he really seems to understand this!

Last cool thing for today: A has been in vision therapy for a little over two months. When it started, she generally had to be forced to read even one page of an easy reader or picture book (not including reciting memorized books). She would get very upset at the idea of reading. She said she could NOT do it, especially not with small letters. Today, she asked me if she could read a page of the chapter book we're reading at bedtime. It's an abridged version of "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. It has the slightly larger, more spaced type typical of the abridged/easier versions, but it is still a chapter book, solid pages of text with interspersed pages of B&W illustrations. She read EVERY PAGE of the chapter except one. I read the third page, and by the time I was done she was excited again and read the rest of it herself. She is over the moon that she "can read CHAPTER books!!!!!!!!" She did wonderfully, reading words like "aluminum" and "delightful" herself. Awesome!!!!

Baby G

Before I forget, I want to write a few little things about baby G. He will be a year soon and won't be doing all of these.

I love how when he smiles, his cheekbones sail up, his eyes crinkle into quarter-moons, his whole mouth opens in a giant grin and he just glows. His eyes sparkle, I swear!

When he is happy, he sits up, bounces once, throws his arms in the air, leans forwards and lands with his hands SLAM on the ground, and crawls forwards with is head wiggling back & forth and his bum swishing around behind him as he crawls as fast as he can, giggling.

His hair goes into a natural faux mohawk whenever he gets a bath.

Right now he is doing a lot of walking sideways, like he used to along the walls/couch, but across the floor. It looks like he's dancing, and sometimes he goes in circles sideways.

He loves to tip over containers, put things back in containers (esp crayons), eat crayons, play with pots/pans/utensils, turn book pages, and draw (as best as he can).

Updates!

It's been waaaaay too long. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

1) Charter school did NOT work out well with A. Long story, the school psychologist never really even entered the picture (tried to contact for two months, still never got name/schedule/phone number/email, no response to email-forwarded-to-office-manager, etc), A was bored out of her sweet little mind and starting to detest school, etc. J actually told me to go pull her out, and he is one who wanted her in a school, any school! So we are in a homeschooling charter school now--weird, huh? They pay for a part of your homeschooling materials, and A goes there one full day a week for fine arts classes. They also do the sorts of things you associate with 1st grade (she's in 1st there--they had less hoops to jump through, lol)--catch and observe praying mantises and a grasshopper, have a class rabbit to feed carrots, eat snack & lunch outside on the grass, etc.

Baby G decided crawling was lots of fun, but walking is where it's at now. This week he's been testing out walking short distances on his own more often, even more yesterday, and today he decided it was FUN. He was walking from chair to counter, chair to chair, table to chair, halfway across the kitchen (he celebrated with giggly victory laps crawling), halfway across the kitchen again, etc, etc. He can also crouch down or lean over and then stand back up.

C is back in her preschool plus doing some homeschool. She loves both, and her preschool teacher loves her to pieces. She wanted to learn about earthquakes so we did that last week, along with volcanoes. This week we all learned about maps and directions, followed a map to deliver birthday invitations, and made a map of our house. (Both of the girls--they do the fun stuff together.)

The girls are a year older! Hooray! Their party is Saturday. I hope I find the camera charger before Saturday. It is lost agaaaaaaaain.

We saw Bill Nye. Squeeeeeee!!!!! We heard him speak, answer questions, met him, and got pictures taken with him. He is just like you'd expect from his show--funny plus hard science, for over an hour. It was awesome. He's currently big on global warming, personal ways to go green, and space exploration/studies. Also sundials... (long story).

Quick update

My brother W is here for a few weeks. Yay! My dad & my other brother visited for a few days, too. Awesomesauce. W is cleaning the house as his rent payment. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

A has been in vision therapy for 2 weeks. After the first couple of days, she started reading signs outside voluntarily. Last week she did her daily reading (reading aloud to me) with NO complaining at all, for any of it. That has never happened before. Usually reading anything on her own results in a large freakout, I can't do it, you need to help me, I can't read small words, etc. This time, no problems AT. ALL. :D Tonight, she came out at bedtime to ask what books she could read. She is currently in bed, reading (actually READING, not looking at the pictures or reciting from memory) "The Cat in the Hat" voluntarily. That is the first time EVER that she has read, READ, something completely on her own & voluntarily. Hooray!!!!!!!

J's summer classes are over. Another hooray!!! He aced one & juuuuuust missed getting an A- in the other (the really hard one). Now, two weeks off!

Church stories

Today A's Primary class learned about the 10 commandments, and "My parents help me learn to obey the commandments." Her teacher talked to me after class and told me that A shared a very relevant story when they discussed commandments in class. A told how yesterday we went to the thrift store & (among other things) tried shoes on baby G. They fit well & we left them on his feet as we shopped. When we went to the car, I realized he was still wearing the shoes & we forgot to pay for them, so we all went back inside and bought the shoes. Her teacher was amazed that A not only remembered the story, but put it together with the idea of learning the commandments and shared it on her own. They really are watching what we do!!!!

Fun

G loves to play with water. He had his face buried in my giant water cup this evening, giggling at it, babbling into it, blowing bubbles in the water, nearly choking on it, laughing about it and wanting more as soon as he recovered, over and over and over. So cute.

G is also allergic to nuts, milk, and egg whites. The peanuts are the most severe as far as we know, and he has two Epi-pen Jrs. I ordered him some allergic-to-peanuts-don't-you-dare-feed-me-stuff bling today.

C started her gymnastics on Monday. She wants to go every day. I wish I could send her twice a week! She has literally been practicing every single day since her class, working on the moves she learned and the ones she was too scared to try in class.

A story from A

A: Did you know, long long ago, they washed with dry rags and soda? And there was no water--no ponds, no lakes. And no stores--no food! They died. But it was long ago. They lived before I was born.

Oh, I forgot to mention

G has his first allergy test today.

Nice!

C just sniffed a little root beer and declared, "I've this ta-fore! (before) My daddy cooked it in a big pot! He said we had to finish it at Brooke's house!" She is entirely correct. Months ago we had an Elder's Quorum activity and J cooked up some homemade root beer and finished it on location.

C then went on to sing, "A Tisket, A Tasket" perfectly.

We visited A's school again last night. Yay! It's amazing. We will discuss possible acceleration with the school psychologist next month.

G now points for things he wants or places he wants to go. He cruises around furniture beautifully, even crossing his feet over each other to get where he's going. He also will get excited while sitting, throw his arms in the air, and launch himself directly towards what's exciting him.

Gems from the kids

C, about the lowercase "m": It looks like nostrils!

C, about big kid Harry Potter: He still has an owie on his head. That's sad.

A is doing 2-digit addition plus low-level multiplication and division. Woo-whee! She also broke her glasses again.