Just the Toppings

The Houston area had a ton of rain this week.  It doesn't take long for roads to fill up with water around here, because the land is so flat.  It rained all day Tuesday, but we still ventured out to karate, because it wasn't pouring.  Of course, ten minutes into karate, the rain became an intense downpour.  The lightning was so close that one strike blinded my eyes for a second.  I don't think I've ever seen such a close bolt before and the sound from the thunder was so loud that everything vibrated.  I was in my car, but I could see all the kids in karate jump at the sound.  The rain got bad again Thursday night into Friday morning.  Todd still got up and went to work.  He said there was no traffic (because all the school systems had closed) and he arrived at 7:40 a.m.  Ten minutes later he got the text that they were opening at noon.  So he left early Friday afternoon and came home just in time to see Caroline practicing her riding again.  She's loving riding her bike.  She asks to do it every day now and her comfort level on the bike increases exponentially each day as well.  Friday she was riding up the curbs and through puddles.  Today we asked her to come home from the neighbor's house and she just hopped on and rode over like she's been doing it forever.

Beauty

Caroline has been improving in gymnastics as well.  Todd took some pictures of her on the balance beam.  The beams are way in the back of the gym, so the pictures are blurry, but she had to walk the beam and with each step, lift her knee up high in front of her, kick out her foot and step down.  She did really well maintaining her balance.  She's been getting better with her splits and her bridge, too.  At the moment, cartwheels are her nemesis, but she's practicing them a lot.  In fact we got an incident report from church today that Caroline hurt her leg on the playground because she was practicing flips and cartwheels.


Caroline has also been perfecting her hand-clapping-game technique.  I have no idea what it's called, except that we used to clap Miss Mary Mack as kids.  Caroline's routine is clap hands together, clap both hands with partner, clap hands together, cross hands & clap with partner.  Repeat.  She likes to practice it with Todd and me, she likes to go fast, and if we're doing well, she likes us to close our eyes.  The funniest part to Todd is that she has a hard time closing her mouth  - the faster she goes, the wider her mouth opens.

Henry has transitioned from sports books (since he read them all) to animal books.  We were at the library one day this week and he picked up 41 books each on a different type of animal/bird/reptile.  When he brought the books over to me, he said, "I took the entire section."  So every 599 book from the juvenile section of the library resides in Henry's book bin.

Conversely, Josiah is into the Beatles.  He goes through little obsessions and right now he's very much into the Beatles.  He's written books about them, comic books, drawings, and he's even written a letter to Paul McCartney.  He keeps checking out books about them and regaling us with lots of little fun facts.  He's watched their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show quite a number of times.  Henry, meanwhile, was shocked to learn they were British.  When I told him that, he responded, "All of them?" 

Henry's had a cold this week and has required many a tissue.  I had told him to go blow his nose at one point and he disappeared with no nose blowing to be heard.  He came back and informed me, "I put water down my nose to get the nucleus, but it dissolved so I don't need to blow my nose."  Aw, you confused your science terms.

Todd made good on his promise to take the kids to Tutti Frutti since we missed it after the WAM concert.  After Caroline got her frozen yogurt, she asked to put her toppings in a different container.  I said no, because you pay by weight and those cups aren't light.  So she filled her yogurt cup up with toppings.  Then, as she took a few bites, she said she shouldn't have gotten any of the yogurt, just the toppings and she stopped eating it.  I think this is the exact same thing that happened last year.  She's a toppings girl through and through, as evidenced by her bowls of sprinkles that she consumes every time we go to Sweet Tomatoes.


Three more weeks of school.  I just learned that the public schools around here only have two more weeks of school, so I may have a mutiny on my hands in two weeks time.