chick fil a date

this is exactly what he used to do with Elizabeth.  I'm so glad he hasn't grown out of this.  he's just so naturally nurturing.  when I asked him a week or so ago why he wanted to learn to read, I thought he would for sure say it was so he could read books in the car like Abigail or so he could read chapter books like Abigail.  his response?  "I want to be able to read books to Andrew and Elizabeth."  he is just so sweet to them.

we dropped Abigail at school and went straight to the gym.  Brady requested that I pick them up sooner than last time so I let them play for an hour and then we went outside and I let them run around on the playground a bit.  we stopped by sprout for groceries and then went to chick fit a for lunch.  I took honey's chick fil a card and so we got two fruit cups and two giant drinks.  well, and the chicken sandwich, nuggets, and large waffle fries.  ; )  it was all delish.  the kids played in the play place for just a bit but really weren't that interested in it.

bless his neglected little heart.  he's getting more of a voice these days and will cry or yell if he's angry about something.  it's maybe once or twice a day... not sure.  but overall, he's just so patient with us.  thank goodness because we need it.

getting some fresh air.

Abigail's homework this week is to read 20 minutes and then write 1-4 sentences.  we did it on Monday, Chris and Abigail dropped the ball yesterday when I had my migraine so it didn't happen, and tonight we managed to get it done, although it was a long process.  over two hours actually.  this is how she was working on writing sentences.

so she completed her 20 minutes or so of reading with no problem and, after 45 minutes of writing, this is what we had.  it's supposed to say "Tiffany is the" but she wasn't quite all the way through the word "the."  eventually we got three whole sentences written.  with help from Christopher and myself, it took an hour and 45 minutes.

on that note, there was a lightening dismissal today and so we had to go inside of the school to pick Abigail up.  I said hi to her teacher and told her that I'd be sending an envelope to school with Abigail tomorrow and although I would let Abigail know to deliver it, could she please try to remember to receive it.  she asked something about it and I asked if she would be willing to fill out the Vanderbilt scale for Abigail.  then she asked a question about it and I answered and she, in semi-code speaking, said "I can see why you're doing this."  it made me feel simultaneously sad and reassured.  this teacher has spent exactly 15 days with Abigail.  so, sad that it's that obvious that quickly.  reassured that I'm doing the right thing in pursuing this and am completely justified in my thinking that something isn't right.  and then sad again because I know the hard road that lies ahead for her.  and my own mother knows the hard road that lies ahead for me.  deeeeep breaths.

Elizabeth went in my bathroom this evening and took off her pj pants.  when I was about to take her to bed, I couldn't find them anywhere in my room.  she kept telling me they were in "mommy's room" but I couldn't see them.  finally, it occurred to me to look in my closet.  I laughed out loud when I saw them on the bench in my closet.  that's where I throw my clothes that I've worn but aren't ready to be put in the dirty clothes basket... y'know... like a pair of pjs pants.  that girl is just so observant.  also, she's getting really good at knowing where we throw stuff away.  regular trash can go in whatever trashcan is closest, diapers go in the kitchen trashcan, recycling goes in the blue bin in the garage, etc.  recycling is her favorite.  it's probably also my favorite word to hear her say right now.

last week, I typed in "1 2 3 magic" into our library website search and just put everything that came up on hold.  and then I got the audiobook on hoopla so I wouldn't have to wait.  well, I picked everything up at the library yesterday and it was just sitting on our island tonight when Abigail asked about it.  "it'll help me be a better parent and you to be a better listener" I told her but she was still eying the stuff.  then I was all "oh, yeah, that's actually a kids book.  you can read it sometime if you want."  "I want to read it right now!" and then she skipped off to the red chair with the book.  and read it all in one sitting.  she didn't say anything about it though and I didn't ask her.  maybe tomorrow.  I'm genuinely curious what was in it and what she got out of it.

also, I'm thrilled that she's eagerly reading books even if they're not about fairies.

headache day

brothers

brothers plus photobomb

when you're getting ready in the morning and look over to see your four children just hanging out... it didn't last long before the "he/she is touching me!" started but it was nice while it lasted.

I took Brady and Elizabeth to the gym daycare for the first time. it went well. the plan is for me to keep taking them most days until Andrew is old enough to go and then I'll drop off all three and join the gym to actually work out.  never thought I'd ever say that.

Brady was in a downer sort of mood all day... probably because he was soooo tired.  he almost fell asleep on the way home from the gym.  when we got home, I let him watch a paw patrol and he almost fell asleep on the sofa.  but at 1:15 I had to take him to preschool and crossed my fingers he'd do okay even being so tired.  that was my main hesitation about putting him in afternoon preschool and is the main reason I cut him back to two days... so he'd be able to nap on the off days.  I got him to school alright.  Elizabeth was also in an off mood and just cried when I put her down for nap at 12:45.  after 15 mins, I got her out and then put her down again around 1:30.  she still cried for a while but eventually fell asleep.  and woke up a mere hour later.  ugh.  that kid was trying to kill me.

all day, since I'd woken up, I had such a terrible headache and it just kept getting worse as time went on.  I thought it'd be good to take the kids to the library so we could return some things that were due and pick up the tons of books we had on hold for us, but also to bridge the gap until Christopher could get home from work.  it turned out to be good and bad.  good because we got our books and killed time, but bad because when we got there, my headache got even worse and it felt like slicing in the side of my head and I was almost in tears and I felt nauseas like I would almost throw up.  and I'd just been thinking the day before how awesome it was that I don't get headaches as often as I used to and then I get hit with one of the worst ones of my life.

and then we checked out a ton of stuff and headed home where I got myself in bed and left everyone else to fend for themselves.

monday

all three kids did at least some part of unloading the dishwasher and, because we didn't get a chance to finish, honey did the rest after work... woohoo!

I wasn't expecting a lot, but Elizabeth did a fantastic job with the silverware.

this guy fell asleep when we were hanging out outside.

always requesting that I take pictures of him.

Brady asked if I could take a picture of him and Andrew and Elizabeth ran at lightening speed to join.

he keeps asking me how his head is healing so fast from his scooter accident.

so thankful for these neighbor friends. Elizabeth and Emerson were even playing together more than they usually do.

after all thereof about the body color being too similar to our neighbors', we somehow got approved for everything except our shutters.  I'm not sure what they expect of our shutters.  we've already planned to go forward with everything.  Chris says that their approval for front door only must be a mistake and they probably mean front door and shutters are fine but not anything weird like accenting around our bay windows or something.  we'll just go with that story.  ; )

we were just two girls hard at work in the kitchen.  I was making our best bites coconut chicken and demolishing the last of the pan of brownies.  Elizabeth was... also working.

you'll be tempted to admire that tall tower of yogurt and sour cream containers, but the real gem is Abigail's pose.

Abigail lost her third tooth.  I hadn't been keeping track of how wiggly it was until Abigail mentioned it after school.  as we were getting ready for bed, Christopher popped it out of her mouth.

Brady fell asleep within seconds of climbing in bed.  he was soooo exhausted during nap time but didn't nap.  Abigail kept coming out of her room because she was "too scared" and "couldn't fall asleep" until honey took pity on her and stayed in her room while she fell asleep.  once everyone was asleep, I swept and vacuumed and mopped and finished cleaning the kitchen and putting everything away and tied up all the loose ends and finally went to sleep around 12:30 or so.  I have GOT to figure out a way to get everything done during the day so there's not so much to do at night.  there's just not enough time during the day.  at least not with Elizabeth around.

and here's Andrew.  what a sweet little soul.

sunday

Elizabeth's picture of the morning.

again... neglected so he just put himself to sleep.

we were two minutes late to church, as usual, and I got almost nothing out of sacrament meeting because I felt like I was an octopus trying to wrangle a herd of angry kittens in a church pew.  as I was about to walk into the relief society room for Sunday school, honey said something about primary needing people to sit with classes for singing time because of teacher training maybe? so I went in there and sat with Brady's class.  but his teacher just recently moved and they haven't found a replacement so they asked if I could teach the class for third hour.  I was worried a bit because I'm not very skilled at teaching meaningful lessons to a group of four and five year olds when I've had no prep time, but it turned out well.  we had a bit of chat time where they all got to tell about a good choice they'd made during the week (Brady's was when he was playing with the red chair and I asked him to stop and he listened immediately with zero whining.  I'm glad I pointed out to him at the time what good listening that was because I think it helped him remember it) and let into the lesson that way.  I told them a good choice I'd made was being reverent and taking the sacrament.  so then we had a lesson on the last supper and Jesus and remembering him during the sacrament and what it means.  I closed our lesson and then was going to share my granola bars (I'd thrown a few in my purse before running out the door) when I had the idea to break them in pieces and have us practice/role play/pretend passing and taking the sacrament.  not in a sacrilegious way, but just to help those little minds understand and practice that part of our sacrament meeting in a way that would make them think and engage a bit.  so we went through the parts (sacrament hymn, prayer, bread, prayer, water, thank the priesthood holders and have them sit down) in a shortened version (like for the prayer just fold arms for five seconds and then say amen) and they all got to have turns passing the granola bar pieces and pretend water tray.  here is Brady passing the water. the kids were seriously so good.  for the most part, they really took it seriously to be engaged during the song, reverent during the prayers, and attentive when the sacrament was being passed.  and since we did it at least five or six times, they really memorized the parts and order.  I'm sure they all went home and told their parents that they can't remember learning anything but I know that all of them learned something that they'll remember next week during sacrament meeting and I'm grateful for that.

we survived another Sunday of church!

sassy and sweet.

I had a couple in the parking lot after church comment to me on how "expressive" Elizabeth is.  they said she's got a lot of feelings and I agreed.  scary enough, Chris and I have said those exact things about Abigail within the last week.  I feel like Elizabeth is following in Abigail's footsteps and it terrifies the crap out of me. she is pretty cute though.

Brady wanted gum so we did a reading lesson (we actually do two at a time or however long it takes us to get anywhere between 15 and 20 minutes) and then Abigail wanted a piece too so she did a writing lesson which is just her writing over and over the lowercase letter Y.  she has trouble focusing when she's around anyone so after a lot of unsuccessful minutes, I took her to her room and sat with her.  sadly, it didn't really help her at all to be in a quiet environment... most of the time was spent playing with her pencil.  eventually I had her just fill the page and call it good.  I'm wondering if she does this at school as well.

I think Brady is on lesson 16 now.  it's going really fast because he already knows his basic letter sounds and the book is repetitive so he just knows what to do without me really telling him.  he did four lessons today (12/13 and 14/15) but it barely seemed like anything at all.  I'm so curious what lesson he'll start to feel challenged and how he'll do with that.  he can get discouraged really fast if something doesn't come easily to him so I'm hoping all of these easy lessons are building up some confidence.

also, I put a ton of books on hold for him at the library... mostly about soccer (because he'll have four soccer lessons in September and I want to get him extra excited) but also some of these flip a word books that were so helpful when Abigail was in kindergarten.  I really really really love these books.

and this is me going to bed too late again and I'm probably going to be exhausted in the morning.  midnight... wish me luck.