Halloween Pictures

A boys rule

I was holding Elizabeth and happened to notice her bangs looked a little funny. Upon closer inspection, it looked like there was a small chunk that had been cut. I decided to interogate Ian.

"Ian, did you cut Elizabeth's hair?"

"No."

"Remember, you get in less trouble if you just tell the truth. Did you cut her hair?"

"Oh, no!" he said. "I would never cut a ladies' hair. That is a boys rule: you don't cut girls' hair!"

Grateful he asked first

Ian was wanting to play and the two older girls weren't interested. I suggested he ask Elizabeth to play.

"Okay!" he said happily. "Is it okay if I make her go up in the air? Because I know how!!"


Do I want to know how he 'knows how'? Probably not.

A scary find

While cleaning, I found a hammer and two pairs of scissors in Ian's room. All three items were confiscated.

While I wasn't paying attention, something happened

One minute the nurse handed me this dark-haired sweet baby:



And the next, poof, she is an eleven year old:



I know it is terribly cliche for me to say how fast time has gone, but man, time has gone by SO quickly! Alexandria celebrated her eleventh birthday on September 16th. I took her out to lunch and shopping. She wanted Annika to come too, so the three of us enjoyed a girls' day out. She also enjoyed some special time with each of her sets of grandparents. She is a blessed girl to have so many people who love her!!

I have been going through pictures of Alexandria so I can make her a slideshow and it has been a fun stroll down memory lane. I remember, as a newborn, her hair was jet-black and so long in the back it hung over the white blanket the nurses had her swaddled in. Then, in picture after picture of baby Alexandria I was struck by something: she was an intense baby! There are a few pictures of her smiling, but in most she is just big-eyed, taking everything in.

The toddler years were active ones for Alexandria. She was busy locking herself in the apartment (with no adult in there with her!! Karl was taking the trash down!), locking herself in the bathroom, pouring entire boxes of crackers out and having herself a little party. Another time, Karl and I spent an hour looking for our keys, only to find them in the ignition of Alexandria's Little Tykes Cozy Coupe Car. She was such a little person, too. At a babyshower for Annika at church, Alexandria was so enthralled with every gift I opened. She was just over 2 years old, but with every present would say "Ohhhhh! That is so cute!!!"

She grew bigger and bigger and was still so observant. She would compliment Grandma on a new plant that no one else had noticed, and she remembered EVERYTHING! She was a social butterfly who loved to be on the go. She never was upset with being left anywhere...just excited to see what was going on there. One thing that stuck out to me was how she liked to keep her world very...pleasant. She was (and is still) sunshine and rainbows and please don't make her read or watch anything that is not nice. She hated Disney movies because their was always some unpleasantness. She hated reading the Ramona books because Ramona was always making bad choices. A familiar phrase was "I don't want to watch/read that! They are so ANGRY in that book/show!" She did like Little House on the Praire and she approved of Laura and Mary's good behavior.

I homeschooled Alexandria in kindergarten and 2nd grade. She went to an enrichment academy one day a week. I asked her kindergarten teacher how she was doing and she told me she was very independent. She would grab her tray at lunchtime, and just go sit down at a table, it didn't matter who she was sitting by, boy or girl, she didn't care. Now she is in public school and is doing well. She loves to learn and is interested in history, science and geography.

I love watching her grow up and seeing what God is doing in her life. She has such a sweet spirit. She is generous and really cares about other people. She is fearless in that she will jump wholeheartedly into any activity. She will jump on stage and do karaoke, will sing in front of the entire church, will volunteer for almost anything without batting an eye. She is so pleasant to be around too. She is appreciative of everything and always has a sunny dispostion. The last eleven years have been so great for Karl and me and we can't wait to see what is next in store for our girl.

Elizabeth's checkup

Elizabeth had her three year checkup last week (better late than never!) She was such a good patient. It made me smile to see her sitting quietly on the table and looking so sober while the nurse took her blood pressure. Of course she was unhappy about the shots but she got a sticker and a new Little Critter book from the nurse, which made it better. Poor thing is so spindly they had to do the shots in her legs, because they said her arms didn't have enough meat on them. Her measurements are about the same as always, percentage-wise.

Weight: 26 lb. (3rd percentile)

Height: 38 in. (50th percentile)

First (and third) Day of School

School started a month ago and I am just now getting the first day pictures on here! Oh for shame! Let me tell you how exhausting it is being me though. First of all, I tried putting the camera's memory card into the computer via some little thingy that plugs in the usb port (?not sure if that is what it is called?) The plug in thingy broke apart in my hand. So I started a search for the cable that connects the camera to the computer. It was nowhere to be found. Weeks pass. Tonight I felt a surge of renewed interest in locating it and ventured into Karl's closet, which is a graveyard of plugs, wires, motherboards, adaptors and various other equipment. I got distracted by the scanner which I forgot I had and began looking for its plugs and cables. Finally, my attention was called back to the matter at hand, and lo and behold, buried in a box underneath 542 other cords was my camera cord. Yay!! I plugged the camera into the computer and stared at the monitor expectantly. Nothing happened. I unplugged it, stared at the cable, then plugged it back in. In a surprising twist, that did not fix the problem. So I plugged it in another usb spot/port/hub (I really don't know) and nothing happened. For some reason, I got the notion to check my camera for a memory card. Yeah...the camera had no card in it. But where oh where could the missing card be? Thirty minutes later I found it, still inside the broken plug in thingy that I put it in at the start of this long boring story. So there you have it.

Now on to school...The first day did not go so well in that Alexandria and I were both ill with a stomach bug. It was really all I could do to get up and snap off a few pictures of Ian and Annika. Due to a bus stop misunderstanding, they ended up missing the bus and I had to drive them to school. I told Annika to help Ian find his way to class (parents aren't really encouraged to roam the halls at their school.) Ian informed her that he did NOT need any help finding it, that he could do it himself, thankyouverymuch. Out of the car they hopped and disappeared into the school. I suppose it was somewhat of a blessing that I was so sick, because it distracted me from being as sad as I normally would be at the sight of my new kindergartner marching off so bravely, with his Batman backpack. Alexandria missed the first two days of 5th grade so her '1st' day was really the 3rd day. So much for perfect attendance.

The kids all seem to be enjoying school this year. Alexandria (or Allie, as she is called in school) was selected to be on the yearbook staff. Her job is taking pictures and doing something with the pictures on the computer. Luckily she takes after her dad in that department. So she is very excited about her new job, she likes her new teacher, and she has also started back up with Girl Scouts which she loves.
Annika is doing well too. She is trying out for the Sing-o-gram team at school and is happy to have some of her good friends in her class. She is one of those kids that loves school, which is such a blessing.
Ian has adjusted amazingly well to kindergarten. We had one day where he refused to go to the bus stop, then refused to get on the bus, then refused to stay in his seat. Nothing like wrestling a five year old down the street and trying to pin him down in his bus seat...especially since I was not prepared to do so and was thus in my lounge-y clothes and had no shoes on. Thankfully, we have not had a repeat of that performance and he seems to love school. His homework is to read 20 minutes every night and he has decided, now that he is in kindergarten, that we can only read chapter books. I am struggling to find books that a 5 year old boy would like, so if anyone knows of any good ones, let me know. So far we have read The Boxcar Children, a few of the Magic Treehouse Books, and are currently reading Ramona the Pest. Ian kind of likes Ramona. When Alexandria was his age, she could NOT stand the Ramona books, because it made her nervous how Ramona was always misbehaving. Ian doesn't have that issue.

So that has been our month- getting adjusted to the school routine, dealing with the stomach bug descending upon our house TWICE, and my general ditziness that makes every task three times as hard as it should be.