A Thanksgiving Kid Bit

At our Thanksgiving dinner my husband asked if we wanted to go around the table and say something we are thankful for. Tabitha got to go first. She got up from her seat, went around the table, and told us she was thankful for the turkey.

November Run Down

The month of November has gone by very fast. I have had several things I meant to post as the month went by, but alas, they seemed to be the last thing on my list. But today is a perfect day for blogging. It is raining outside, I have the smell of homemade apple pie drifting through my home, so really it is a great day to cuddle up with a book. But since having two four year olds around is not very conducive to relaxing on the couch without being interrupted every other paragraph, catching up on the blog seems to be the next best thing.

A Close Call for the Tooth Fairy

Back at the beginning of the month Gracie lost a tooth. For some reason she thinks I am the tooth fairy. In a last ditch effort to convince herself the tooth fairy is real, she decided she'd try to catch her. Luckily for the tooth fairy, all Gracie ended up with was a jar of fairy dust.

5k Fun Run

Also at the beginning of the month I reached a goal that I have been wanting to do for a long time: run a 5K. My husband and I both ran, it was my first, but not George's. He really ran just to support me, and was an awesome coach. I was worried because I am a pretty slow runner, but there were so many people there at different fitness levels that it didn't matter. Although my finish time is nothing to brag about, I beat my practice time by seven minutes! Woo Hoo! It was a fun experience and I hope to do another one in January

Fall Decorating

I enjoy decorating for the Holidays. I remember once when I was growing up Mom saying she couldn't wait to see what I decorated my house like when I grew up. I don't think she meant holiday decor as much as she meant what my house would look like in general, but every time I put up my seasonal things I wish she and the rest of the family was closer so I could share it with them. So here is the next best thing. Nothing fancy, but still fun.


Preschool Pilgrims
Tim and Tab had their "feast day" at preschool yesterday and came out in their Pilgrim attire, having eaten chicken noodle soup, corn bread, and pumpkin pie.

Traditions
We don't have a lot of Thanksgiving traditions, other than the big feast and expressing what we are thankful for on that day, but here are a couple things we do to make Thanksgiving fun and meaningful:

Tom Turkey begins the month bare of tail feathers. We leave box of feathers out and throughout the month when we think of something we are thankful for we write it on a feather and add it to his tail. Even the preschoolers do their own "writing." By Thanksgiving Day he is arrayed in all the splendor of a Thanksgiving Turkey.
This is the second year we have made these fun Turkey Cupcakes. We make a bunch and then choose the best looking ones to take to friends.
Then we eat the mutant ones ourselves.There is November thus far in a nutshell. I hope everone has a great Thanksgiving!

Kid Bit

I had to write this down before I forgot -

This morning I was laying on the couch with Tabitha while supervising the other kids getting ready for school. Out of the blue she says:

"If we covered ourselves with peanut butter, would we stick to the wall?"

Although I don't understand it, I love the way her mind works . . .

Dirty Business

There is something about boys and dirt that are inseparable. Now that the weather has cooled off enough for the kids to be outdoors for more than a few minutes without incurring heat stroke, Tim has taken up residence in his favorite place. The sand box.
He is usually joined by one or more of his siblings, which is no problem as George built it big enough for all six kids to dig around in if they so choose.
Tim loves the tractors. Here he and Tabs have a whole parade of them going to the work site.
Often when the bigger kids are out there they will carve out lakes and rivers and fill them with water. They like to watch the water erode their castles and bridges, and have even been known to bury the hose inside a "volcano" and then turn it on and watch it erupt!

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?

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."

A Preschooler's Fashion Faux Pas

Inside Tabitha's mind:

Boring, boring boring -- the same old pink shirts and denim skorts. My wardrobe needs some pizazz! Maybe Charity can help me. Look how cool her outfit is. She has a real flair for fashion!

Oh, I like this skirt. Plaid, very slimming, very traditional. Wait, something feels weird. Hmm. I think Charity needs to learn to take better measurements.

No problem, easy to fix. I'll just find a piece of fabric and patch it up. There must be something in here!

Hmm, white felt with a price tag embellishment and a bit of dryer lint. No, it just doesn't "pop."

This green looks nice.

A little twist here, another twist there. Who needs a needle and thread when you have elastic pony tail holders?

Don't peek! I'm almost ready to unveil!

Ta da! Just wait 'till they see me at preschool!

Huh?

A little conversation with four year old Tabitha, it went something like this:

Tab: Mom when you was a little girl, I was your age.
Me: You mean when I was a little girl, I was your age.
Tab: Yeah, when I was a little girl, I was your age.

Other tidbits from Tab:

I was in your tummy, then in the hospital I climbed out of your mouth.

When I am a mommy I will have the same name as you.

When I'm a grown up I will be the mommy and Tim will be the daddy, (um, no)

When Mommy and Daddy got married Mommy kissed Daddy and his face got red.

Snip Snip

Gracie has been growing her hair out in hopes of helping out another child by donating it to Locks of Love, an organization that accepts donated hair to be made into wigs for child cancer patients.

Gracie's hair was finally long enough and we gave it a whack this week. I cut off about eleven inches of hair (the minimum needed was ten) and then took her into the salon to get it styled. Gracie seemed to enjoy the experience (I usually just give the girls trims at home) and came out looking just a cute as ever!

Tabitha was asking for short hair too, in fact she was insisting on it. Thinking how much easier it would be to brush, but still with much trepidation, I cut about eight inches off. Her new do is just above her shoulders and she really likes it. Whew! Her hair wasn't long enough to donate so I put it in a ponytail and I'll just save it for her so she can see how light it was when she was little when she gets older. The back already looks a lot darker with the bottom cut off!