Just Plain Silly

Jacob grabbed the camera the other day. I had to post a couple of his photos, just to prove we don't take ourselves too seriously around here.

Gracie

Tabitha and Dad

Isn't She Lovely?

In effort to hide the "experiment" she did to her hair last week, Tabitha has been sporting this hairstyle for several days now:
But today I took her in to see my friend Nancy at the salon. Tabs wasn't so sure about the whole thing. Leaning back into the sink seemed a little scary to her at first. But then she realized it wasn't so bad.
She sat very still in the chair and tilted her head just right so Nancy could cut the back.
And she even liked the finished product!
Here she is after her hair dried.Isn't she lovely?

Porkin' Out

That's right. It is officially pig week at our house. Somehow, without really planning it, we are eating the other white meat everyday. Ham is one of the foods that everyone in my family will eat. If I buy a big enough one I can get about three meals out of it. Usually I'll cook the ham and then freeze the leftovers to use later. Not this week.

When I went shopping for this week's food I had planned on buying some chicken that was on sale to break up the monotony of ham leftovers. When I got to the store they were down to the last two packages of chicken and they didn't look that fresh, so I skipped. But the big fat pork chops that were on sale looked great!

So here is our menu for the week:

Monday: Ham and Cheesy Potatoes
Tuesday: Breaded Pork Chops
Wednesday: Homemade Split Pea Soup made with the ham bone and leftover ham.
Thursday (tonight): Farmer's Casserole (Shredded hash browns, eggs, cheese, onions, and of course, ham)
Friday: Per Jeremy's request - Waffles and Bacon.

Perhaps we will pigs in a blanket (with pork hot dogs of course) on Saturday, just to round off the week. It's just like Thanksgiving, only with pork instead of turkey.

Through Little Eyes

My friend Monica and I were lamenting the other day how our youngest children seem to act so much older than our oldest children did at the same age. Being youngest in a family has got to be a totally different experience than being among the oldest. Tim and Tabitha have a different view of the world than their older siblings did. They are exposed to a lot more activities, movies, and people and places than they were. Not just more, but different.

Although they do still posses the innocence of little children, they have a tolerance for things that would have terrified their siblings at their age. They will sit calmly through the movie Jurassic Park and then draw pictures of rainbow colored dinosaurs when the movie is over. We would NEVER have shown this movie to our three oldest at this age. Jeremy used to hide behind the couch and cry when Pooh Bear got stuck in Rabbit's front door.

In some ways this worries me. They are much more graphic about things at a young age also. For example they have been known to sing, "Three little monkeys jumping on the bed. One falls off and cracks his head and blood comes out." I swear they don't watch anything gorier than Jurassic Park (the first one, the least disgusting of the series). And here is a lovely picture Tabitha colored at church. It is supposed to be a picture of two kids sharing. Her interpretation: Tim is sharing his blocks with me and I am throwing up on them. Notice the rainbow colored barf?
And of course they pick up language. Luckily we don't use any expletives in our house that would warrant embarrassment if a little one blurted them out in public, but it really cracks us up when one of the twins stops in their tracks and exclaims, "What the heck?" And they are great name callers, "You poo poo!" being the most prevalent insult.


It's not all bad. They have a lot of confidence and understanding of the world around them and how things work. They also have a strong grip on what is reality and what is pretend, hence being able to watch Jurassic Park and not be traumatised. They learn how to do a lot from their older siblings from teasing to acting like they are doing homework. They get to tag along to their siblings' activities and schools and see what the world is like after preschool. They look forward to doing the things that the big kids do, and "practice" being big kids through their play.


There are other things that are different that I just can't seem to put my finger on, but make me wonder, "Did my other kids do this, act like this, were they interested in this, at this age?" Part of it could just be personality. Both have strong personalities and opinions. But I think experience has had an impact too. Ever since Grandpa Mac passed away almost a year ago Tabitha has asked many, many questions about him and where he is with Jesus (Is he in outer space?). She talks about Jesus a lot and asks if he created this or that (cars, flowers) and if he knows what we are thinking. Some of her questions seem awfully deep for a four year old.


Drawing out all these examples in writing makes me worried that they sound like disturbed children! Then, just as I typed the last sentence, Charity walked in the room and confessed she ripped Tabitha's night gown. How? "I was trying grab her and stuff paper in her mouth." Okay, so maybe they really are just learning from the best. Or maybe they are all disturbed.

Lost Locks

I guess we didn't cut Tabitha's hair short enough. She decided to fix it herself:

Did I do something wrong?

Oh, man! I'm busted!

"Don't worry, it will grow."

She is totally unconcerned about the damage she did with the scissors today. I was mourning the loss of her lovely locks and she comforted me by saying, "Don't worry, it will grow." I'm not exactly sure how we are going to do damage control on this one. I know a couple of beauticians that could probably be creative. I think I'll just pull it back in the front until I can figure out if we can get a cut that would hide it.

Tab's Scapegoat

Occasionally we have a little trouble getting the truth out of Tabitha. And occasionally she still doesn't quite make it to the bathroom. Today was a day we had trouble with both. To her credit she tried to clean up her potty mess as best she could without me knowing so she wouldn't get in trouble. When I found what was left of the mess I asked her, "Tabitha, who wiped poop on the bed?"

"I don't know," she answered, in spite of the fact that she, for some reason, had changed clothes.

"I know Tim didn't do it," I said, "and the big kids didn't do it. Who did it?"

She paused for just a second, looking oh so innocent, then said, "Daddy did it."

As Time Goes By

My husband was laughing at me -- my last post was about my brain being fried from spending too much time on the computer, and then it took me a couple weeks to get back to posting! No, my brain did not fry, but maybe subconsciously it has been keeping me away from the screen.

It's funny how much busier I seem to be now that school is back in session. I am really taking the time to enjoy this last year I have with Tim and Tab. With the other kids, except Gracie, I felt like I still had one more year of having them home with me a lot during the day, but these two will be going to full day kindergarten next year, just like Gracie did.

I guess I can't say I have "one on one" time with them, because obviously there are two of them, but I have the opportunity to do some things that I didn't do much of with the older kids because I always had a baby or a toddler (or two) in tow.

I am having some really bittersweet emotions lately. Tim and Tab are my "babies," and they are growing up. I really feel that I am coming to an end of an era in my life. I've had a strong impression that I should make a record this year, writing about and taking pictures of the ways the three of us spend time together before they enter the realm of "big kids" next August. I will be toting the camera around quite a bit, as if I didn't already have it out enough, recording some of our regular outings as well as some extra fun ones.

For starters, we try to make some of the little things we do a little more fun. We enjoy walking to and from preschool, picking dandelions, watching "worker mans" repairing the street, and chasing butterflies, but lately this is the preferred mode of transportation:Sometimes I have to run to keep up!

I try to get them to the library every other week. They love the computer games there and have caught on quickly on how to use a mouse (we have a laptop at home).We spend some time reading, check out new books, and then on the way out they like to put in their two cents - in the fountain that is!