Hero and Hiro

Monday was Labor Day, so we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood in the morning. This neighborhood has a lot of large pond areas which attract a lot of very large (and pretty ugly) ducks. We always encounter them when we walk to the library and they are not shy. They will walk towards you as you’re coming, not get out of the way as you pass, and then will follow you after you pass. They are a little freaky and I have to put on a brave face when we walk to the library because there is a pond on one side of the sidewalk and a street on the other, so we just have to walk quickly by them and try not to look back. It was hot on Monday, of course, and as we were walking home, Henry got tired. Todd carried his tricycle so he could walk. When we got on our street, the sidewalk was a little inclined and Josiah kept falling off of his bike. He’d get back on right away, but fall quickly again. On his final fall he scraped up his knee. Henry, the hero, swoops in, finds the energy to hop back on his tricycle and brings Josiah home via tricycle ambulance. It’s a good thing Josiah’s light. 

On Wednesday I started a Bible study called, Moving On After Moving In. A Bible study about moving. Who knew? So far there are only 5 of us in it, but it is very good and everyone has totally different stories of how they got here. The kids are watched in the nursery so they get some time with different people and toys. A win-win.

Friday was Josiah’s second day at CC (Classical Conversations). He did not participate for the first half. He basically sat in his seat and stared – not repeating any of the new material. I try to put myself in his shoes and realize that it is really hard to repeat songs (like skip counting by 3’s) if you really don’t know your 3’s yet. So, I try to give him grace about it. He did perk up with the science experiment (they looked through a drop of water and saw that it made words/pictures larger). By the time they did their review work from last week’s material he was all out energetic. For his presentation this week, he introduced the class to his train Hiro. He actually got into character, as if he was Hiro, and described who he was. He also brought in 5-6 pictures of trains that he had drawn and pretended to have his Hiro train drive by the pictures of the trains and have them talk to each other. His presentations are a little bit different than the other kids’ presentations, but he’s his own little person. All week I try to get him to practice his presentation in front of me so we can work on it together. It changes daily and he doesn’t seem to mind doing it on the fly on Fridays. I’ll still try daily though.

Henry has been gracing us with his presence at 5/5:15am every day this week. It is highly unusual for him to wake so early. Coupled with not taking a nap most days and he is a ray of sunshine come 3pm. Sunday night we put him to bed at 6:45pm. When I asked him why he is waking up so early he said that he wanted to see my face. How can you get mad about that? Even at 5am…

The boys made more Super Hero costumes. These were much more involved than the others. Poster board was required. :)

Caroline has been busy lately. She can say, “woof” quite well when she sees a picture of a dog She also now says “please” which sounds more like “-ease.” Although it is really more like “-EASE!!!!” because she is standing next to the refrigerator asking for her (soy) milk. As soon as we open the fridge for her, she takes her cup, but then will also get the boys’ cups for them. She is VERY eager to take them their cups of milk. Fortunately I put lids and straws on their cups, so there is little spillage. This week I found some gluten/dairy/wheat free shortbread cookies for her. She always misses out on desserts because they always have wheat or dairy (or banana) in them. She has smiles of pure joy when she eats these cookies. They are German and cost quite a bit, so I need to learn how to cook and bake with different types of flours for her. Some of her favorite foods are avocado, eggs, sweet potato fries, and apples with peanut butter. If I dare try to give her apple without peanut butter, she will refuse to eat it and just point at the pantry until I go and get the peanut butter. She pretty much has an apple with peanut butter daily.

She also loves to do her puzzles now. She has a set of 4 puzzles with 4 pieces each and I put them together, but she has to push down on the piece to lock it in place. She will get the box and dump it on our dining room table and pretty much scream until I work them with her. I’ll be happy when she gets a few more words in her vocabulary so she doesn’t have to scream quite so much. Although she is quite proficient at saying/screaming “Mommy” & “Daddy.”

She also turned 18 months old on Sunday. It is hard to believe she's that old already.

We will be enjoying a nice Papa John's pizza tonight. They have a deal that if the Houston Texans win, their pizza will be half price the next day. They probably thought it'd be an easy promotion since the Houston Texans are pretty bad, but they beat the Redskins yesterday, so we're taking advantage. That's one way to get us rooting for the local teams.