Birthday Boy!!

One year old!
Give or take a day.
Where did the year go?
What was accomplished by me that year?
Why aren't my Mom and Dad still here to baby me?


Oh, right
-the birthday boy.

Daniel is such a

pleasure
treasure
frustrating trouble-maker

walker
talker
(yell-er)

toddler
cuddly baby
wiggly squirmer,

and he looks just like me when he's tired.

I really love the way he points and talks and yells to copy what we say and demands for things in a yelling sort of talking voice and how he grins and runs away from me when he really should be listening and

he drives me crazy 'cause he hardly ever listens.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!

Budding Artist

Daniel feels he's a very talented individual. Born with much skill, his artistic side is no exception, and (according to him), is far more developed that other children his age (and those older).


He finds himself especially adept at adding finishing touches to other people's works of art. There is the added pleasure of hearing people complain (squawk loudly) if they weren't prepared to admit their own masterpiece was anything but perfection, and did not want any revisions or additions made.


Unfortunately, Daniel's appetite for art is not always satiated with merely delving in a bit of drawing. To really get into a project, he likes to sample his materials,
(that red stuff in his mouth includes more than just his tongue)


unfortunately, his mother does not approve of this.
Thus, the early development of his skills are ended.
(As well as his chalk snack.)

Matthew's version

It's been so long, that I forget the all-important things I was going to say about Matthew.
Sorry.

One of a kind

There is only one Melanie.
(Well, only one in our house.)

She's also the only one I know that would want me to trace an eraser for her new book.

"Can you trace my eraser?"
"Yes.
...
Why?"
"Just 'cause.
...
Can I see my picture?"
(Meaning-can I see this goofy face that I've been posing for the camera?)


Melanie spends a lot of time hopping off her chair and finding things that she may need when she finally does get busy.

But once she has all the materials that she deems necessary then in a dedicated, and oftentimes, hurried way she will do her work.

Melanie prefers to use anything glamorous or pink or purple, but she'll try anything new or different too. After all, why try something again that you've already done once?

And, she loves layering and mixing! If the yellow she chose was too bright for her eraser drawing, she is quite willing to go over top of it with white until it satisfies her, or until she decides it won't get any lighter no matter how long and hard she tries.

Flying high

Nathan was given a blank book.

"What are the lines on it for Mom?"
"You can draw a picture here (I point at blank part of page) and write a story or about your picture there (I point at lines).
Brief pause.
"Can I have a pen?"
"Sure, help yourself.
I'm busy."

After rummaging up a pen

he created the following:
"a plane and a plane and a plane..."

"and thunder"
(really meaning lightning).

Now that he created his work of art, and shared it with an appreciate audience (even busy mothers stop to look sometimes)

he is busy with his next, completely unrelated project.
Well, unrelated as far I can tell.

"Mom, how do you spell "Holy holy holy"?"


The other night Nathan did not get to pick the bedtime story. (Not that he usually does more than 1/4 the time!) He refused to sit beside the book and be a part of the story reading.

But it was okay to follow along (with the same story in a collection by the same author) in the library book version. And soon, because Daddy occasionally made an interesting remark about the illustrations, Nathan was just as interested as the others, only he was trying hard to act as if he wasn't.

Thanks

Ugh. My head is throbbing, my kid is crying, my nose is running, my throat is tickling, and supper is not yet made. Worst of all, my husband will leave after an hour of being home, and I am going to have to try put four grumpy kids to bed all by my-tired-self. I wish Oma were back here, so she could baby me, and I could be lazy.

We are thankful for the time we did spent together with Oma. (Too bad I wasn't more cheerful!) And fortunately, the kids have been kept busy since her absence with books she left. Fortunately they weren't all reading aloud books, as I can't do much reading with my voice not being at it's best.

Two cute kids

Of all the cute kids I know, here are two that I like a lot. (That doesn't exclude others, of course!)


"This is my tower. Actually, it looks like a lego house. I will show Daddy no lego house when he comes home."
And yes, he kept his "lego house" on hand all day. And he had to repair it multiple times after Daniel tore it to pieces again and again (sounds awfully like Matthew behaved when he was that age! Anything to make the older siblings screech!).


I just loved how this girl babbled to me and pointed at things, and well, just communicated to me. I was in love with that. Fortunately for Daniel, he adopted those skills, seeing as he was worried that I might change my loyalties. (Silly guy, he should know me better than that!)

I didn't manage to photograph her big brother...he's not exactly the posing type when he's busy visiting us! (But cute, nonetheless!)