i have long been hoping to find the time to figure out how to start a little family blog. we would love a simple way to update you on what's going on around our house...aren't tech savvy great-grandparents amazing (!) and as for the rest of you, we love keeping in touch with you too!
you may already know that i am not a fan of the capital letter habit unless it's needed for emphasis or required by law. apologies to all of my english-majoring relatives and friends. and though i have the utmost respect for proper comma placement, i do happen to be a lover of runon sentences, and an abuser of the ellipses thingys...if you can get past all that...then good, you're still here.
well, anyway, here's the latest of what each of our kiddos are up to over here. it may be a more extensive update than you're looking for, but i'll never know if you read it all or not anyway. ;)
-> our little ro-babe is a busy boy, eager and curious about everything. he is especially endeared to the doggie lately, which of course we supervise well and praise often. he LOVES "reading" books, and his babbling speeches and gestures are so cute i can't stand it, not that i would be biased. he doesn't speak much english yet, but we don't mind. he does say dad-ee, mama, nee-nee (sister), buh-buh (brother), quack, and cookie. as for everything else, he can be extremely dramatic and opinionated in his communication, and he is a good sign user. he does baby signs for: more, bye-bye, blow a kiss, please, thank you, thirsty, one-more, all-done, and (possibly) pacifier.
he loves playing with little plastic animals, and puzzle pieces, and duplos, and he captures, uncaps and eagerly uses crayola markers whenever possible. when requested, he will "sing" a song for us. he is at the stage of development where the kitchen table, unless completely cleared off, cannot be left alone with him. he loves anything that looks feels or acts like technology, and talks and uproariously giggles into whatever is held up to his ear as his cell phone of the moment. another favorite hobby is emptying dental floss containers. we are so thankful he has such enthusiasm for developing his fine motor skills! if you look near the bottom of the photo you can see the floss container, and of course you can't miss the uncontainable joy overflowing from the proud smile...
--> our big link kindergartener is busy every minute too. he loves to wrestle with his siblings, color intricate coloring pages or engage in various silly & loud activities. it has been a big few months for him, with a finger-sucking-cessation program (success!) and more recently, (suffice it to say) getting his digestive system in much better working order. what can we say, the child is motivated by points toward toys and lucky charms cereal. also, he has quickly become a voracious reader! he is beginning the magic tree house books, and together we are finishing up (earth science, geography) Holling C. Holling's Paddle to the Sea*, and beginning Pagoo--link loves to read aloud from these to us. this week he has been feverishly tracing pokemon figures that are incredibly detailed and about the size of a quarter. he also loves to build with legos, and is always up for any project that involves cutting, gluing, coloring or drawing.
*these old books are filled with fantastic facts and stories for young and old alike. (Paddle to the Sea is the story of a little wooden Native American carved in a canoe who travels throughout the great lakes, and Pagoo is the story of a hermit crab's adventurous ocean life.)
---> junebug is getting really tall, it seems, tall for those who are still at the peanut end of the spectrum, that is. she is enjoying diving into multiplication, still loves to read, is off-and-on frustrated and delighted with piano lessons, and is a great speller. she has a great knack for memorizing, and is always brainstorming new ideas for how she might make a difference in the world. career choices have morphed in the last month from marine biologist to math teacher to chiropractor to pilot and back again (including plans to work her way through college at a coffee shop). she really enjoyed her gymnastics class this fall. she plans our lunch menus and often makes some or all of our lunch, and is interested in making one dinner a month. this (usually enthusiastic) help, as you can imagine, is a huge delight to my soul.
we are still loving our homeschool routine Monday thru Thursdays, and both big kids go to their enrichment program on Fridays. they also are taking a PE class weekly, which is great. they took a session of tennis lessons this fall near our house. that was pretty fun for them too. i enjoyed introducing them to such a significant (tho oft-scorned by my growing-up self) part of my family heritage, hee hee. they also both are so very good to their baby brother--(mostly) eager to help, encourage, read to, look out for him.
on the average weekday morning you can find this ordinary little mama-and-her-ducklings group learning incredible things about nature, numbers, letters, and love...as well as (likely grump-ily) debating the merits of making one's bed and the necessity for brushing teeth. on the average evening, the biggest bambinos can be found listening with bated breath to the next paragraph of the BFG (daddy reads) or cheaper by the dozen (mama reads).
all together it makes for an extraordinary life. we are most thankful for this wealth of health and time together.
1 comment:
Thanks for the great descriptions of Rowan, Lincoln, and Neva, Nance! Amazing to see how each one's passions move in different directions. It was great to be with you, Todd, and the kids in Ottawa celebrating Dad's life and memory.
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