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!)

Grown up

Where has time gone? Next month Daniel will be a year old. A whole year.

My life has changed so much since he came into it. The next person who says "I guess it's just another baby for you" (because, after all, he's number four) will get beat over the head by me.

Isn't he just adorable?

And the birthday girl is getting so big too! She helps empty the dishwasher-that's her one chore. Although she's not always fast, she always gets it done!

Even the doctor said "I can sure tell that you are four now!" (Which was mostly because she didn't cry after her needle.)

I am so blessed!

Church

The kids are playing church downstairs before breakfast. I could hear Nathan reading the scripture passage: "If you nose causes trouble, cut off your nose. If you ear causes trouble, cut off your ear." ...."okay, verse 12" .... and then Matthew and Melanie start singing.

Wonderful Weekend

The weather was perfect today for raking. I spent over two hours outside with the kids. Chilly enough to work hard without getting too hot. Just an occasional breeze. And sunny (a bit).

The kids asked me almost every day this week if we could rake again. But they had to wait 'til Saturday. The warmer the weather the happier Daniel is lend a helping hand ('til his naptime).

The bigger kids love helping too. But sometimes I wonder just how much help they're giving. Although a boost in one's spirits is a big help in itself, so I won't complain.

These are tigers. Scary one's too! But I was even scarier (after checking over my shoulder to make sure no neighbours were looking) when I transformed into an even bigger tiger-then they raced away like frightened whelps, tales between their legs.

Nathan, however, sedately raked during this entire performance, for wildlife or not, he had work to do. "I work hard, just like Daddy." (You sure do!)

And life indoors?

Daniel is now feeling confident enough with his walking to perform for the public. He thinks he's pretty funny when he does it now, and so does Matthew! But he still finds crawling to be faster most of the time, especially for long distances when he's sure to fall anyways. He usually shuffles sideways when he walks.