A few photos (most posted on FB) and random things I don’t want to lose:

little she-who-is

Photo: C will help R in the kitchen sometimes, but this is the first time she actually chopped!

C hasn’t found any four-leaf clovers recently, but she continues to be delighted by the little things she finds with her sharp eyes. The other day she said, “Ooooh!! A paper clip!!!” and picked it up and bent it into a heart for the divine miss m. Oh my goodness.

Then this morning she found a huge perfect yellow leaf next to the swimming pool that she has been carrying around all day.

I recently told her that story that ends, “With this much poop, there’s gotta be a pony in here somewhere!” and said that it reminded me of her.

The girls have swimming lessons this week and next, and they are doing great. M will do anything they ask her to do except go underwater, though they’re working on it. C has made amazing progress in just one week. She’s swimming well underwater and jumping off the diving board. She is talking about joining the swim team. Now that’s a sport for which I’d be glad to be a “booster.”

The other day she asked me whether Jackie Paper was a girl or boy (I sing Puff the Magic Dragon to her at bedtime sometimes). I said that Jackie can be a boy name or a girl name, so it was up to her. I realized that the song never uses a pronoun for Jackie, though there is a line that says, “A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys.” I guess C didn’t connect that with Jackie.

Anyway, she decided that Jackie was a girl.

Also, we’ve been having some talks about the fact that “some boys in my class said that God and Jesus are boys which means that boys rule.” Grrrr…..

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the divine miss m

Photo: Girl loves her bling.

M is in that three year old phase that I just adore. So many ideas. Such earnest comments and gestures. She really is the peacemaker—in fact, C easily manipulates M emotionally into giving her things and M will comply because she seems to like peace and harmony. We are working on how to parent them through this so that C learns to negotiate but not manipulate, and M learns generosity without being taken advantage of. Wish us luck in that.

Several weeks ago M went to Church Saint’s house, and she sent me some bon mots from their day together:

OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF M

Can I take my shoes off? (yes)
Where is your shoe basket? (I don’t have one but that would be a good idea.)
Then where do I put my shoes?
I thought this was especially funny since her shoes were behind a chair this morning. [RM note: I had just told Church Saint that I discovered several pairs of shoes behind the big chair in the living room—a game understood only by her]

Sometimes I get poop on my finger.

My pants always get stuck in my bottom.

While reading Scrambled Eggs Super. The book is about a boy cooking eggs while his mother is away. He wants something more special than hen eggs. I told M that she probably gets her eggs from hens.
“NO!” she said. (Where do you get your eggs then?)
The grocery store.

She is a delight! Thanks for sharing her.

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sweet baby j

Photo: J at the library

J is a funny guy. He still doesn’t talk much, but he is making more and more word-like sounds. His receptive language is very good. He loves being read to. And he certainly gets his point across. Our favorite thing is when he will take our hands and insistently drag us along to see something. When prompted he makes the sounds for dogs, cats, cows, ducks, snakes, lions, bears, and trains.

He gets tickled very easily, and his laugh is like a drug. I wonder sometimes whether as we age we learn how to laugh without getting hiccups, or whether we just don’t laugh as whole-heartedly as we get older…