Beautiful Everydays.

Owen

 

Well, at 8 months old, Owen is...let's see...waving bye-bye, saying bye-bye and ma-ma and sometimes da-da, sitting, crawling EVERYWHERE and FAST, and oh yeah, also pulling up on furniture already. He is a little guy, less than the 10th percentile compared to other boys his age, but exactly average for his weight to height ratio. He is still happy and easy going. He loves food, but let's be honest, what child of mine doesn't? His faves are sweet potatoes, mashed peas, bananas, and really anything I give him...as long as it's not baby food from the jar. He has tasted the "real thing" and he will not look back.

Also, I finally had a kid that looks like me! Here is a picture of me when I was a baby, being held by my grandpa, next to a recent pic of Owen...

AK

I love reading to AK because when I finish a page, I look down at her and wait for "the change" to come over her face. Sometimes it's immediate and sometimes it takes a minute, but as soon as she is through processing the words of the story and the pictures on the page, she will smile, and then I will know that it's okay to turn the page.

This kid loves songs, especially old "Sunday School songs". She will go into her room for long periods of time by herself and just listen to her cd's. A lady at our church told me that when she was teaching AK's class one day, she overheard her in the corner singing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot."

AK takes some artistic freedom when singing. She most often replaces random lyrics with "baby" (to carry on with the previous example: "Swing low, sweet baby, coming for to carry me baby..."), although she has also been known to use "booty" for a lyrical twist when we are in the van (The van is the only place she is allowed to say booty, and believe me, she gets it out every time we ride. The door closes, I get in the driver's seat, and AK says, "MOM! Can I say booty now????")

She likes to throw in a couple or dozen "really's" when she can't think fast enough to get her words out. "Mom, before you got out here, Owen really really really...really. Really? Really really really...dropped his toy on the concreke. But I picked it up."

The other day she said, "Mama, I love you even when you put me in time-out."

Claire

Claire is super interested in learning to play a stringed instrument and will often sit on the floor strumming on a mandolin or guitar while Spencer and I are practicing some song. (This actually makes it kind of tricky for us to actually sing on key, but what can you do when your five year old is trying to "practice" with you?)

She loves to dance and was looking forward to starting back dance lessons in the fall. However, a schedule conflict arose that made it impossible for her to take both tennis (which she loves) and dance at the same time. I was really worried about this because I didn't want her to be disappointed. Spencer and I decided to just tell her what was going on even though we hadn't decided the best solution yet. This morning at breakfast I explained the conflict to her, gently telling her that we would have to choose between dance and tennis. She shrugged her shoulder and said nonchalantly, "Oh. It's fine. I'll just do tennis." "Really?" I said, shocked at how well she was taking the news. "Yeah," she replied. "I already know all my dance moves anyway."

Claire made a friend at the gym where I teach classes, and she and her friend decided to start a club called "Team Girls." "Oh, what does your club do?" I asked. She replied: "Well, we exercise every morning and don't eat anything except fruit and vegetables." Last night she sat down at the table with Spencer and had him write out her exercise schedule, which she made up.

Sisters

Tonight Averi Kate fell and scraped her knees.
AK: Claire, look at my boo-boo!
Claire: Oh wow, that's pretty bad. I think I had one like that one time...but mine was a lot bigger.

Siblings

Averi Kate picked out her bow(s) this day.