Life This Week

We have been working so hard with Sam lately to develop his social and emotional skills.  He's so smart and requests to do schoolwork daily.  The picture below makes me so happy because he was happily constructing his own tower at the end of preschool when his buddies came over.  He really did not want to build with anyone else but finally relented.  He and his friend were able to build a really cool castle together and he was so proud of it!  It's always nice to see progress in an area where we have spent so much time and energy.

Roy and I have been really enjoying family history work lately.  It's fun to track down names, figure out bits and pieces of their stories either through written accounts and pictures or tracking their movements through Census Records, find siblings or parents or children who weren't connected before our digging around, and to understand that these are real people who had families and jobs and dreams and who are connected to me through marriage or genes.  Anyway, if you want to do your own family history work, we really like familysearch.org and puzzilla.org.  Both are free and have lots of records and names in the databases already.

Anyway, the reason I even mentioned family history is because we spent part of the day out in Warrenton, VA yesterday for Roy to do some family history work.  One of his relatives lived out in Facquier County, VA and married a lady from there sometime in the 1840s.  Roy could find the wife's name and her mother's maiden name, but not any other information.  So since that information isn't digitized and online, we went out to the library for Roy to do some digging in the Genealogy Center and the kids and I read books and explored Warrenton.  It was a fun adventure and cool to show the kids one of the small towns fairly close by.  Warrenton had tons of patches of flowers and pretty areas to walk so it was a fun morning!

I was so proud and even teared up when the following paper came home from school this week from Abby.  She was supposed to use the word "but" in at least one sentence (my over-achieving daughter took the whole time to write...I love her):

• I liyk my frens but I liyk my family morr.  I liyk you but I liyk you morr.  But why do I haf to do my homework?  But I can tak carre of Androw!  But my Dad is alrgkt to cats!

Interpretation: I like my friends but I like my family more.  I like you but I like you more.  But why do I have to do my homework?  But I can take care of Andrew!  But my dad is allergic to cats!

FYI, we plan to name the baby Andrew Joseph and I love to hear the kids talk to him, talk about him, and make plans for him.

Two Week Catch-up

We have had a busy few weeks!  I'm in the middle of spring cleaning/purging/baby-prepping/rearranging furniture and trying to keep the rest of our busy lives going too.  Luckily the kids are awesome helpers are are really thrilled about the changes that are coming our way.  Here's some of what we've been doing to keep ourselves busy:

• moving Lydia into a big girl bed and into the room with Abby and Sam.  After the first couple nights of slumber party syndrome, they all got used to being in there together and I think it'll be hard for them to ever go back to not being together.

• Roy and Sam did the Father-Son campout for a whole hour or so.  Apparently, Sam was not a fan of roasted marshmallows (he's a purist), but loved the roasted Starburst.  So the girls went out for ice cream...first time ever for Lydia and only second time for Abby.  Neither girl knew what to do with the 30 flavor options, 6 cone or cup options, and an entire counter of toppings (those weren't an option for my wallet, though).  They both settled on chocolate-dipped sprinkle cones and neither had a problem eating their gigantic scoop of ice cream, even though Abby insisted on using the sample-sized spoon.  It was so fun to have a girls date with my girls!  And we were happy Sam and Roy had fun too. :)

 

• Soccer practice, games, and journaling!

• Fun dress up days at school.  This was crazy hair day.  I think next time we'll go a little more wild, but having four twisty buns was crazy enough for Abby :) 

• Lydia very clearly says, "Picture, mama!" now so I obediently take a picture.  Here she is reading to Sam and I after announcing it was school time and I needed to "Sit there.  No, there!  Sit still!"  She read us "Green Eggs and Ham", a family favorite that we all have memorized thanks to the CD we have in the car, but she turned the pages backward.  It drove Sam crazy because he knows exactly what picture goes with the words, but he held back any criticism.

• Lydia loves to feed the birds and squirrels.  She again requested a picture.  Later on, all three kids used the bread as bait for squirrels and then shot at the squirrels with their squirt guns (can you tell that was  Roy-inspired activity?). 

On That Note...

Roy was attempting to take a nap yesterday after I had already told him we had to get through our to-do list first.  A little annoyed, I sent in the big guns.  I told Sam to go tickle Roy.  That didn't work.  Then I told him to poke him.  Nothing.  Then I told him to give Roy a wet willy, knowing full well that not only did Sam not know what that was, he had never heard the term before.  Without so much as blinking, he shoved his finger up his nose and took aim at Roy's ear...

A little Steve Urkel pants action