Temper temper

A friend of mine posted some pics of her 19 month old throwing a tantrum. My pics don't show the magnitude of our daughter's attitude as well, but I'd say she's right there with Josie in those terrible twos!

It starts with the pouting.....Then the stomping of feet
And if I STILL don't get what I want....
2 minutes later I am an angel

I'll take a whole word for a dollar Pat!

On Monday J came home from school and announced that he could get a free homework pass if he could come up with a "dollar word". So far only one person in the class had turned one in: "Kingtut".

The formula for the words is as follows:

A-F = $.01
G-M= $.05
N-S = $.10
T-Z = $.25

You add each letter up. It has to equal $1. No more, mo less.
Last night B came u with grizzly and I came up with solution. J turned in "grizzly" today and came home with a free homework pass for the night.

I guess they will be working on these "dollar words" for the next week or so. He can come up with as many as he can find in that time.

Go ahead....give it a try. It's a lot harder than you'd think. And kudos to his teacher, Mrs A. She is teaching spelling, math and problem solving skills and meanwhile, the kids all think it's a game. Brilliant!

It takes two

E is 1 1/2 years old!

Where does the time go? I know she officially turned 18 months last week, but her well visit to the Dr was this week. And, I am still baffled by how fast she is growing up.

Here is a short summary of her visit-

Height- 32 inches (75%)
Weight- 21 pounds (25%)

So she is tall and thin. I wonder where she gets that??

We have been worried about her speech (or lack thereof), but the Dr. wanted her to be regularly using 4-10 words. We are right at 10, so no worries there.

Her motor skills are great, but Mommy and Daddy need to be better at forcing her to use utensils when she eats. She doesn't really care for them, but hates to get her hands dirty...so we have been indulging her and feeding her.

Around Halloween, before all of her front teeth were in, she fell into the fireplace whie trying to climb and hit her upper lip and gum. When the Dr. checked her mouth I mentioned a tooth that looked a bit funny, then mentioned the fall. She may have hit that tooth before it came in and broke it. So we need to see a dentist to decide whether to cap it, or let it go until it falls out on it's own.

Then the Dr mentioned potty training. What? She isn't ready for that. Is she? She asked if she was interested when I go, which she is. So we've decided to not push her, but put the potty next to ours and if she wants to "practice" she can. I don't believe in pushing a child into potty training. They always get there when they are ready regardless of what the parents do. Making your child sit on the potty every 30 minutes is not "training" them, but rather training the parents to watch the clock and obsess about the child's bathroom schedule.Besides, I don't have the time or patience for that right now. Ok, stepping off parenting box now....

All in all, E is a healthy and active yet shy little girl who loves to dance and sing. We are blessed to have her in our lives.

Here is her beautiful chocolate covered face on Valentine's Day

.

Milestones of the week...

Jacob received a Math Award!

Brilliant!!! Now if he could just do as well in domestic engineering...or at least cleaning his room.


Iz is cruising along furniture...

Can you believe it? Look out world!

E turned 18 months yesterday!

It seems like just yesterday I heard that first sweet cry penetrate the cold, sterile operating room. Now she is a little girl....hardly a baby at all. She still loves to be rocked at times, but also runs, jumps and climbs. She will say almost any word we ask her to, but only when prompted. Her only words she uses on her own are "mama, dada, Jacob, go, hot, danke (for thank you) and hey!".

She loves to dance, eat chocolate, try on mom's shoes, have pretties put in her hair. She's about as girly as they come. A true princess!

We celebrated with blueberry pancakes for breakfast. She celebrated by pouring the leftover syrup in her hair. She's big-hair-Texas style ready.....

Also notice the beautiful bruise across left cheek? We had another meeting with the hearth at Nana and Papa's. Poor thing looks like she was in a cat fight.

Breath taking...

The only child of ours who will actually pose for the camera.

It's a boy!!!!

B and I were blessed with a new nephew late last night. He is the 1st boy born to one of the 3 Bennight children after a 4-girl streak.

Congratulations to Brent and Candi and big sis Brooklynn!

Brayden Wesley Bennight

February 11, 2008

7 lbs 7 oz

Plants to look a during Lent

Since we are in the midst of Lent: a time for prayer, almsgiving, meditation, self-examination and fasting, I thought I would share this interesting piece from Bread on the Waters.

Plants for Lent-
Tradition holds that St. Patrick used shamrocks to explain the mysteries of the Christian faith to the people of Ireland. In the New World, Spanish missionaries used the passion flower, which is indigenous to the tropical Americas, in much the same way.
The priests christened the flower they encountered in the Caribbean “la flor de las cinco llagas” — the flower of the five wounds — for its various parts were seen as symbolic of various aspects of Christ’s crucifixion.



The spiraled tendons of the plant, he notes, were taken as symbols of the lashes Christ endured, and the central flower column as the pillar of the scourging. The 72 radial filaments of the flower were seen as the crown of thorns; the three stigmas as symbols of the nails used in the crucifixion, as well as the holy Trinity; the five anthers, as the five wounds of Christ; and the style as the sponge doused in vinegar used to moisten Christ’s lips.

Taken together, the five petals and five sepals were used to refer to the ten apostles who did not either betray or deny Christ. The fragrance of the flower, continued Pons-Worley, helped recall the spices used to embalm the body of Christ. Finally, its globular egg-size fruit was taken as a symbol of the world that Christ saved through his suffering.

Way to go J!!!!!

Hats off to J who, for the 3rd time in a row this year,

brought home straight A's on his report card!!!

Keep 'em comin'!

Life's a beach!

This past weekend we went to a local restaurant to celebrate Jan and Feb birthdays. We had an unseasonably warm day, so it was perfect that the place had it's own beach outside. We had heard it was a "sandbox"...but I'd have to say it's much larger!

It was a nice time. Good food, beautiful day!

E wasn't too sure about the sand, but the rest of the kids enjoyed it, and I have the sand in my car to prove it!!!

Cousins HK, ET, J and E

Mommy with the girls

Iz building a castle!
Little shy E!
I'm not so sure about this brown stuff on my feet.
The older cousins
Iz loves the beach!
And the sand....

The gang!