*Whenever we ask Greta to do something she doesn't want to do, she deflects by saying "I not Greta, I big sister." (or whoever she is being at that moment). Quite comical.
*The girls had some friends over a few weeks ago and they were hungry. So I took a blanket outside with the air popcorn popper. They were sitting on the blanket watching it pop out, and a hot kernel landed on Tessa's toe. She screamed much louder than I thought necessary for something like that. I brushed her off telling her to be tough. Later that night I found two large blisters in between her toes. The kernel obviously had lodged itself there. Ouch. Then I felt bad for not having shown a little more concern. Too often my mothering skills are sub par. . . .
*For a while Greta was asking for a 'real bunny' every single day. I'm not sure where she came up with that, but it was always in a sweet plea that she asked. It has leveled out since we took her to IFA to pet the real bunnies.
*Tess heard some kids in our backyard neighbor's yard. (The neighbors are grandparents, so kid sightings are rare.) She climbed to the top of 'her' tree and called out to them. Soon they popped over the fence to talk to her. I didn't catch much of the lengthy conversation but after a while Tess was in here begging to go to Kangaroo Zoo with them and their grandma. Unfortunately that girl is told no too often... (We don't even know these people, the kids were ages 9 and 10, and I wasn't going to let her crash their 'grandma time'. . .)
*When Greta answers questions in the affirmative, she always says "Yessiree." or "Yessiree Bob".
*The other night in FHE Tessa gave the lesson. We sat through a series of flannel board pictures with explanations of what they were and then she gave us each some cut-out fish with numbers on them. Our assignment was to put them in order. After that was finished, she succinctly summed up the lesson with "It doesn't matter how old you are and I know the church is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." (Sometimes it is extremely hard to not laugh out loud!)
*At dinner the other night Tom was asking Greta what she did at story hour. She was trying hard to explain, but none of us could quite understand. She was saying she learned about "Pokeman pine". She was getting very frustrated with all of us but I just couldn't figure out where she was getting Pokeman from. (Where had she even heard of that anyway?!?) When I reminded her they talked about animals in the woods and they made a porcupine, I finally got it! Pokeman pine. . . porcupine. . .similar sounding, I guess!
*While in downtown Salt Lake City one day with the girls, Tess was doing the usual: hopping, running, skipping, singing, jumping, twisting etc. While waiting to cross a busy street, someone noticed her and commented to me on her energy. I know we don't have the corner on the market on active children, but she is a challenge for me nonetheless and I started feeling a tad bit sorry for myself. . . I am 40 after all, and keeping up with her stretches me everyday. But then a lovely little thought pushed itself into my head that said, "It is true she is energetic, but you have been prepared. You had 13 years of parenting experience before you got her. You had 10 years of teaching 1st and 2nd grades. You have the wonderful help of Tom. Your situation in life is perfect for nurturing her personality. You may not have as much energy as you would like, but you have been prepared." I have to be thankful. I would have definitely muddled much more had I had her earlier. And I was thankful for the reminder. I'm no where near perfect, but my experiences have been very valuable in raising her.
*We have been trying to do preschool. Largely, I'm inconsistent. But I suppose what I do is better than nothing at all. Here are a few pictures from semi-recent activities:
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| We mixed some yellow food coloring into a lemon yogurt and went around to all of Tessa's friends that are not in school and gave them a bite. Then they answered the question to our survey. (We are trudging through the alphabet backwards -- because the end of the alphabet is harder for kids so I figured I'd hit those while she was excited about it. This was our Y activity.) |
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| Brainstorming all of the animals you see at the zoo on our Z day. My older kids made fun of my quick, silly drawings, but the girls liked them and they were the target audience! |
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| This activity wasn't tied to a letter---just a fun thing for Easter. We made paper baskets and cotton bunnies. Greta was in heaven! |
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| Another day of learning activities not attached to my other preschool agenda. We were making bear bread, but Greta had to make a bunny (surprising, huh?). Eating is a bit tricky if you don't want to get sticky from honey! |
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| Tessa LOVED this activity. She was into it with every ounce of her energy! |
Then just for the record. . .we still get asked about three times a week if these two are twins!
