Picture Perfect

To Be or Not To Be

UVU used to have a pendulum in the science building, maybe they still do, I haven't been there in a while. When I watched my nephew, I would take him there to watch it. We would run, well, he ran, I walked, down the hall, looking forward to seeing it swing back and forth. It was always so disappointing to get there and see it just hanging, not moving at all. I always wanted to go down there and give it a push.

Today has been one of those days that you think, "Will this day end already?!" It's not that it's been a horrible day. The kids have been pretty good, but keep bickering with each other, with Abi throwing in her shrieks of protest. Max hasn't really been crying; he's just being high maintenance today, requiring to be held constantly. I have a headache.

Tomorrow I am going scrap booking and I really wanted to go to the store, but I won't because Jared is working late on freelance for our down payment, and I don't want to take the girls and have to carry Max the whole time. Instead I am attempting to get some packing done so we don't have to move the whole house with a week and a half notice. It's not going very well.

That's when I realized it.

You know what my problem is?

Jared says:
Your husband is so cool, it makes you feel inadequate in comparison?

Um, no.

My real problem is I'm not a really good mom, but I'm not a really bad one either (yes I realize being a really bad mother is a problem in and of itself, but at least then I would be selfish enough to do whatever happened to make me happy at the moment, hear me out).

If I were a bad mom, I could just go take a Lortab and put in ear plugs and lock the door. Max wouldn't NEED to eat for 4 or 5 hours and the other kids can fend for themselves. Max would cry the whole time, but that's what ear plugs are for, right?

But I'm not a bad mom.

However, I'm not a good mom either, because I could carry Max and go upstairs and pace while helping the kids get their chores done and then take everyone on a walk to the park, because Max does well outside, in the stroller, on walks, and then I would carry him around with the girls at the park and pushing them on the swings. Everyone would be happier and too worn out to fight when we came back.

But I'm not a really good mother. So I wont, because my head moderately hurts and it's bright outside, and swings make me motion sick to watch, and it's hot outside, and, frankly, I am just too lazy.

Instead I will sit in the rocker with the baby all day wishing there was something I could take to get rid of my headache and being frustrated with the normal play fights the girls are having upstairs.

It's like I have become that stationary pendulum. So much exciting, fun potential and then just a little disappointing.

To the Future

Max cried all day today. He finally fell asleep at 3 o'clock so of course we went to a movie, after all he would probably sleep through the whole thing because he hadn't slept all day. He did pretty well, as long as Jared was standing in the isle rocking him. He picked up the crying again as soon as we got back into the car. He still hasn't stopped.


I have to stay, I think I am dealing with the crying a lot better this time around then with Abi or Scout. The big problem is that he doesn't sleep for longer then 2-3 hours at night, during the day either, but it's hardest at night. Usually we have an unspoken rule that we don't really talk to each other late at night. If I stay up late, I get grumpy and pick fights, and if Jared gets woken up he becomes an irrational jerk, in my opinion. Needless to say, Jared and I have been having our fair share of night time arguments lately.


Jared has his doubts about whether we should have any more kids. He says he is having a really hard time adjusting with this baby and doesn't know if he can do it again. I would like to have one more, but I can see what he is talking about; Jared has been awful snippy lately. He claims I have been pretty short with him lately too, but I don't know what he could be talking about, except maybe getting after him for being short with the kids, or for qualifying when I can wake him up to help with Max. So maybe this will be our last baby, but that idea makes me a little sad, that when Max grows out of a stage we won't go through that stage ever again. How does anyone handle that, especially those of you who are sure that you are done?

I'm Sorry

I follow the blog Seagull Fountain. Every once in a while I read a post that makes me feel I am intruding on a strangers personal life. Too Much Sorry was one of those, maybe because it reminded me of my dad.

Every time I go to Idaho to visit my dad, my dad brings up my parent's divorce. I have to say that I get sick of always talking about it and wish that my dad would move on, because I have, a long time ago. Not that I think my dad is stuck on the divorce, but that he thinks I may be? Or he feels guilt about the ways it has effected my life? He has told me that he's sorry for how it negatively effected me. It meant a lot to me, that my dad would acknowledge his part in screwing up my life.

As a parent, I am bound to do things that will mess up my kids, even if I were the mom that I really want to be. I am aware that many of the things I do are already having a negative effect on my children, and I am sorry I do them. I can't kid myself into thinking I am doing the best I can. The fact is I am not, and I doubt I ever will. I think I am a good mother, but I would like to be a great mother. I don't however take the time to do the things that would make me one. My goal is to try a little harder, everyday, to smile more, to say yes more often, to stress out about the little things less often, and, maybe, once in a long while, get off the computer and play Shoots and Ladders or Candy Land because that's they game they want to play (even though I think the devil made those games to torture parents in their efforts to be great).

One of the best things about my kids is how quick they are to forgive me for my own grumpiness and screw-ups. I wasn't nearly as forgiving of my own parents. I'm sorry.

Max's 1st Bath

Ode To Miss Wiggley by Grace Goodey

I wish you could stay
But my mom won't let me keep you.
Stay out of the sunshine
So you don't die.

I wish I could be a worm
So I could live with you.
But I don't want to
Because birds eat worms.

I hope a bird doesn't eat you.

Max Darwin

I keep waiting for Jared to post on here, but obviously he's not going to. Jerry brought the kids to the hospital for Mom. You can tell by their hair not being brushed, the old make up on their faces, and the dirty clothes. We thought it wouldn't matter much because Mom would bring them back later that day or the next. She must be a little out of sorts because they showed up in pretty much the same state every time they came. The only difference is Grace had put a couple of barrettes in her hair. I was kind of hoping they would look a little better when they came back from Scout's school program, but apparently it's not as easy to get three girls ready and out the door as mom thinks. She is always saying that my kids hair isn't done but she didn't do any better when she had them.

We really did appreciate Mom taking them for three days. I don't know what we would have done without her.



Abi has her doubts about the baby. She asks to hold him and then makes a face and squirms. "Can you get it off me." She told me today while I was holding him, "Make sure he doesn't poop or pee in the house because he's our new dog, I mean baby."

Scout has been much more interested in Max then we would have guessed. She always wants to look at him and give him hugs and kisses. She told me before he was born, "If the baby is cute, can he sleep in my room after he's born?" Grace and Scout keep fighting about who gets him in their room so apparently she thinks he's cute enough.

Grace won't leave his side if I don't make her. She constantly wants to hold him. If she was just a few years older I would be able to take a nap with her watching him. She tells me at least 4 times an hour, sometimes 4 times practically in a row, "Mom, you KNOW how much I love babies. I love them A LOT!"

It's been nice being home with Jared. He went back to work today and, honestly, it's been pretty nice getting back to my regular schedule. Although, I would be willing to trade it to have Jared home. Sleep is getting better; Max wasn't awake from 1am to 5 am like he has been. All in all we are doing pretty well, a little stressed about all the projects Scout has due tomorrow, but we'll get through.

Clean up , clean up, every body do your share.

What is it that makes us lash out at others when we are uncomfortable?

The main cause for me is my house being a mess. I am much better then I was when I first got married, but there are days that it makes me so angry. Obviously I am not picking up after myself like I should, but does that give everyone else an excuse to leave all of their stuff all over the house too? In my opinion, I have to clean up my stuff and take care of the daily maintenance of our home, so if I leave some of my stuff out sometimes who cares? I am the one that still has to clean it up! But if Jared or the kids leave their stuff out on the floor, who eventually has to clean it up? Me, that's who. But if I get mad at Jared about leaving his stuff wherever, what is his response? "It's not like I am the only one that is doing it." No, Jared, you are not the only one doing it, but I am the only one (for the most part) that is cleaning any of it up, so I think I have the right to get a little angry about it.

The other day I was, let's face it, yelling (screaming maybe?) at Grace and Abi about how I am sick of cleaning up all of their toys. I don't play with them so why should I be the one that has to clean them up? About five minutes later they left all their stuff all over the living room floor and ran off to their room to play with something else. I got mad again and said (yelled) "HELLO! I just told you that you need to clean up after yourselves. I don't like being ignored!"

A day or so later, Abi was playing nicely at the table with the Polly Pockets (her favorite toys). She decided to go upstairs and play with Grace, so I told her she needed to put the Polly Pockets away first. Here's how the rest of the conversation went.


Abi- "I want you to help me clean up. I know it's not your stuff that you played with, I just want you to help me clean them up."
Me- "Ok, you go start cleaning up and I will come help you." (Abi brings me three Polly Pockets to put in the bucket that was right next to her.)
Abi- "Here you put these ones away."
Me- "No, you go put them back in the bucket and then I will come help you clean up." (Abi runs back to the bucket and toys.)
Abi- "Actually, I just want to keep playing with them because of the flowers. I'm not ignoring you, I just want to play with the flowers."

It's nice to know that, sometimes, at least someone is listening to me.

There but for the grace of God (goes Abi?)

Grace asked me today why we named her "Grace."

When we were choosing names we felt like we should name Grace after my grandma Louisa. I have heard stories about her from my dad. He said that she was the kindest woman he has ever met. She always helped others and sounded like she was a great example to name my second born after. (Dad, if you read this I would love it if you would post a comment about a memory of her, we do save this as part of our family history and I have a horrible memory for stories. If something happens to you, my kids might never hear a story about your mom.)

Later we also added Martha to Grace's name. Jared's great grandma (I think) was named Martha and had the same qualities that my dad talks of Louisa.

Grace seemed to describe these women well and we felt (and her baby blessing affirmed) that Grace would have similar characteristics and would benefit from sharing her names with her ancestors.


How do you tell all that to a five year old in the 10 minute ride home from dropping her sister off at school? I paraphrased and said "It means you are nice to everyone."

Grace replied, "I'm nice to Abi because she's my little sister. Scout can handle it."

Maybe we need to talk to her more about her namesake.

Why do you "stay at home?"

Before I got married I don't think I was planning on having a family. I wanted to go to grad school, get my PhD, and teach, with some research on the side. When I did get married, it just felt like the normal, right thing to do was to have kids. We decided to have them right away and also decided I wouldn't go to work full time so we would never get use to having that extra income. We knew it was difficult for people to go from two jobs to one and we didn't want to have any mixed feelings about doing it. We were poor, it wasn't going to make any difference whether we made five dollars an hour more then the five Jared was making. We were both used to not having money before we got married so it wasn't much of a change.

So why did we (I? I'm not sure what Jared's reasons are exactly and probably can't assert my reasons onto him.) decide that I would be a stay at home mom? Right now I often think it's because I don't want a job that I have to show up for every day whether I want to or not, but that's only true with the jobs I can currently get. If I had stayed with my original plan that would not be an issue. I love to teach at colleges, and I don't think that will ever change.

The real reason I think is two fold. 1) I worked at a various daycare centers for a few years and I saw how it effected children to be there. 2) As a young adolescent and teenager I didn't have a stay at home mom and I know how that effected me.

Working at a daycare center was interesting. Most of the kids didn't cry (or stopped crying after a couple of weeks) when their parent's dropped them off, but their behavior spoke volumes about how they felt about being there. A lot of the kids start acting "goofy" to get attention; it usually only got bad attention from the adults but the other kids thought it was hilarious. There was one boy in particular that I remember. He had been labeled as the problem kid before I started and all the teachers treated him like crap. He was maybe 9? 10? Alisha, who was the director when I worked there, saw it and made sure he hung out with her a lot of the time so he didn't get blamed for everything. One day he had a particularly bad time with the other teachers and was pulled into the office. He was so angry. He knew he didn't deserve to be treated the way they were, but he didn't have anyone to stick up for him. He started throwing things all over the office and Alisha let him. After a few minutes of that he just started sobbing and collapsed into a chair. He said "It's not fair. I'm not a bad kid but they treat me like I am and then nobody believes me when I try to tell what happened, not even my mom."

There were other kids that I remember too, but mostly I know that the people working at daycares are making slightly more then minimum wage and don't care if the kids are learning anything or making progress in life. They just want to get through the day of work and go home to their own families.

Obviously some are better then others, Angela was lucky to have a great one while she was in school but I think most of the time it's just not the case and often I can walk into a room and tell you the kids that have been in daycare verses the ones that stay at home with a parent.

I didn't have a horrible time with my mom gone, but there are specific things that happened that wouldn't have if she had been home (which wasn't an option, I don't blame her at all for not being home, but as long as I have a choice in the matter, I won't work if I have kids home, regardless of their age.) Some are minor things, like always coming home to an empty house. Angela would hang out with friends after school and I have no idea what Trisha did, but I would come home to an empty house every day. I always felt like a loser with no friends once we moved to Utah and this just confirmed it in my mind.

Another time Angela and I left for school too late and missed the bus. Mom always left before we did so we didn't have a ride. We were standing there just thinking "Crap, Mom is going to be pissed," when a lady pulled up in her car. She said that her kid missed the bus and she was on her way back from dropping him off and it looked like we missed ours too. Would we like a ride? I don't think either of us was comfortable saying yes, but what other option did we have? We got in her car and just never told Mom that we did. We didn't get kidnapped, but I certainly don't want my own kids to feel like they need to get in a strangers car because nobody was home to make other arrangements.

Over all, my mom just wasn't ever around when we were older kids. When she was around she was stressed out from being at work all day and having to come home to us "rotten kids." :-) Eventually, Angela and I just started scheduling things so we wouldn't be home at the same time she was. I don't want my kids to feel like they were a nuisance like we did.

I'm far from being a good (much less great) stay at home mom, but I would never be able to lie to myself and say that kids that grow up with parents that work and are not home when they are will be (and are) just as well adjusted as the children with a parent that is home when they are.

Is it possible my house has been ransacked and we just didn't notice because of the mess?

My house is a disaster.

The entire thing. I spend way too much time on the Internet lately reading debates about whether there are actually pros to moms staying home with their children instead of going to work and "making a difference in society."

I recognized the irony of my situation today. I am a stay at home mom and a strong advocate of it. How can you better influence society then to raise children that will be good members of it? However, lately (and maybe it is partly due to being pregnant and not just laziness) I have been home with my kids but not interacting with them. While this has helped their creativity, I certainly don't feel like I am doing my part (although I still greatly appreciate Jared's gratefulness for keeping our home running. I laughed because it has been a disaster for a while but his point was that we all end up dressed and fed to our various responsibilities, we have clean clothes, albeit ones you have to look for, and food to eat.)

I have also noticed the messier my house gets, the more uncreative and comatose I would like my kids to be. Grace has grandiose ideas and is recently figuring out how to implement them in our house. It's great for her to be creative but it is just increasing the clutter in our house, I know it's hard to believe it could actually get worse. I feel bad for telling her "No, you can't keep the extra sink you made for the bathroom. I know you want to have two in it but that bowl of water is just going to get spilled and I am going to have to clean it up." It's the same with her wanting to make fruit salad cups for the whole family by herself. I don't want them to do anything that is going to make more of a mess then I already have to clean up.

What I really want is for the kids to just spend all of their time outside playing with just nature. I don't have to clean up after that. Yesterday they did spend time outside but it still made a mess because we had to get out all of the snow stuff again, and of course it all ended up on the floor by the front door after they came in.

Stupid weather.

I wish I could keep them home forever and they would be happy with just their sisters for friends

I've been looking at home schooling helps forever now, when Scout was a preschooler, Grace and now I am thinking about it with Abi also. Nothing I find is quite what I want, except one which is what I want but way too elaborate for me to pull off when I am pregnant and not very fun for preschoolers but would be awesome with say a 2nd grader, but that's not going to happen for a variety of reasons, the primary one being there are younger ones at home to "get in the way."

It has made me think about what it is I really want to teach my children while I have them in my home. My kids will go to public school, at least until they start having problems, so what do I want them to know before they are sent off to an institution that I have no control over their environment or how they interact with people, or how people interact with them? It's changed what my goals are with with my "home school."

Socially and Emotionally- This is the one I most worry about. Scout is so shy in groups and struggles making good friends. Grace over compensates for her lack of friends by being really loud and overly interactive with people she wants to make friends with. Abi is afraid of one and two year old boys. Personally, I stink at making friends and talking to people, even people I know. How can I teach my kids to be open, inviting, friendly and accepting of others when I am not able to be an example? Maybe this is why we are encouraged to do service in the church, since it forces you to interact with others in a positive way. I think it's very possible that is the best way to each your kids social skills, but I lack the experience in service to verify that hypothesis.

On a slightly different note, how do I teach my kids that they deserve to be treated with respect and thus have a responsibility to treat others that way too? How do you prepare your child for the possibility that they will have nobody to hang out with at lunch and recess, or that the kid they want to be friends with might not want to be friends with them, and how do you teach them not to take it personally? How do I convince them that is what they are doing to the neighbor when they just want to watch tv instead of play with her?

Scout has recently made a "best friend." I'm glad, and hope next year they will be in the same class since this year they aren't. We had her over to play this week and it's great to hear that they are real friends, they don't fight or quarrel like I did with my best friend at that age.

Something About Me

I love having a two year old. Everything they do makes me smile, even if its not something I want her to do. It has been this way with all three of my girls. It is also the reason I know I am not done having kids; I'm not ready to spend the rest of my life without having my very own two year old. The hardest part is looking back. I love Abi in this age and want to remember everything she does, but I know I won't. I remember very little of Scout at this age and practically nothing of Grace, like she jumped over it without me. Thank goodness for flip cameras, right? Abi loves playing with it and I have a hard time getting rid of any of the video she has "filmed."

In hopes of remembering my little two year old, here are some things my girls have done at two that I love and that I realize I really don't like my older girls to do.

• climb all over my lap
• climb from one chair to another to get on my lap
• ignore me because she has rediscovered a toy
• unique dressing styles (Scout, Abi's choice of clothes to run through the sprinklers with)

• keep her face 2 inches from mine for extended periods of time to get as many kisses in as possible (Grace)
• constantly hug and cuddle me
• ask to sing the same song 10 times in a row while driving
• talk incessantly
• drawing all over herself (Scout, Abi who drew on herself with the bath crayons)
• crack nuts and leave the shells all over her lap, the table, the floor, etc
• use her hand to "lick" the second 1/2 of the frosting out of the container
• find her eating the powdered sugar or brown sugar in the food storage closet (this is Scout, but my other two have done it also)
• stay up till 11pm with me
• being to stubborn to let me show her how to do something (Grace trying to make the hanger be an ear ring)
  
• "sharing" food with the dog (Scout sharing milk with Jack)

7 Quick Takes Friday

One

We went to Idaho last weekend and really enjoyed our whirlwind of visits to the three families that live up there during the two day weekend. We realized that we need at least one more day to feel like we actually got to see and spend time with everyone.

Two

Scout apparently has picked up basic beat boxing. I don't know where she learned it, but she's not too bad at it. I discovered this by asking her what shoes she was going to wear to school and she replied "B" "ts" "b" "ts" with the whole hand movements and everything. It made me laugh; if I can get her to do it on camera I will post it.

Three

I am so sick of all of the TV shows we watch being reruns. How long has it been since there was a new Office or Big Bang Theory?

Four

I've been thinking a lot about how to make friends this week. Is it a cop out to want to have a public blog in an effort to fish for friends? I was reading a blog where the author has thought about making a friend application, not to actually use. How nice would it be though to know what expectations other have for a friendship when getting into one? It might look like the following.

1. Do you have time in your life for another friend?
1a. Are you interested in having me as a friend?
2. How much time a week do you have to spend time with (new?) friends?
2a. Does that time have to be scheduled in or do you like spontaneous get togethers?

While I love the friends I have, I can't help feeling like what we are looking for in a friend is different. I certainly don't want to give up any of the ones I have, but I would like to add a couple friends, as someone else put it, "within every day, Arctic Circle running distance." It's not just me that could use the friend either. With Grace not in preschool she could really use having someone to play with a couple times a week.

Five

Despite the good weather this week, I have had a hard time getting motivated to get things done this week, it hasn't help that the last two days my headaches have been worse. My house is a mess, with our suitcases still left full in the living room where they were brought in on Sunday. I did get the kitchen completely scrubbed (the smell did go away afterward, if you are wondering, which is why the cleaning didn't continue.)

Six

Now it's Friday and I am going scrap booking this weekend and leaving a big mess at home for either Jared to deal with (which he would if I asked him, but I won't) or for me to crisis clean before I have to leave the house for the day for volunteering at the school and Mom's birthday lunch. But of course instead I am on my computer blogging.

Seven

We close on the refinance of our house today. One small perk being that we won't have a mortgage payment for March. We are looking forward to buying a few things we have been wanting, including a freezer and a mixer.

How long have I considered myself to be in a different age range than missionaries?

Last night we had the missionaries over for dinner. Boy can those kids eat! I remember when I had an appetite like that and still didn't gain weight. Oh, to be young again.

I realized while we were doing dinner, I view them more as kids that need to be taken care of then people close to my same age (they were on the tail end of the missions). How is it that in just 7 years I could have such a change in mentality towards these young men? I am turning into a mothering figure. Now, maybe it is just because I am pregnant, I think more likely it is because I have three kids and they are growing up so fast. I remember my nieces and nephews at the same age my kids are now and they are not too far from being missionaries themselves. It won't be long until it's my own children, but it wasn't that long ago that my friends were waiting around for their missionaries to come home.

Scout's Brag Post

We went to parent teacher conference last night. Scout is doing so well in first grade; we are so proud of her.

Last October she was in the top three kids in her class for reading, but she has improved so much ofter the last three months it's amazing. Scout's teacher told us that Scout is probably on a higher level then she tested at because she is so shy, but even taken at what she tested at, she is well above her grade level. Her DRA score went from a 10 in October to an 18 which is where most second graders are at this time of the year. Her reading speed went from 49 words per minute in October to 116 words per minute right now, with 100% accuracy. Her comprehension has also improved from a 15 to a 24 out of the possible 26 score.

She is doing great in math and Spanish. In art she is learning drawing techniques. I am amazed at how good some of her pictures are. All of her teacher say what a great student she is. She never talks when she isn't supposed to and she always does her work. Scout isn't in the best behaved class and was one of only three kids in the class that got a check plus on citizenship.

Her core teacher also thinks that she takes the best pictures she has ever seen. She said even when you take a picture of her when she looks like she just got out of bed it still turns out looking gorgeous (I appreciated the compliment but it did make me feel bad that she is showing up to school occasionally looking like she just got out of bed. I swear though, there's just nothing I can do with her hair when it's down and she hates having it up all the time.)

Abi's Dreams

Abi thinks she has to talk to someone every time she wakes up at night. Last night she calls for me to come into her room. She told me all about how I found some worms and brought them inside the house and gave them to grandma. The they (the girls) all came downstairs and wanted to see the worms and grandma took them outside and put them in the garden.

Then she tells me that once she was grown like me and she went downstairs and fell asleep on the floor. Then Grace saw her and ran upstairs and got a toy and came back downstairs and gave her a hug.

It's nice to have her tell the good dreams, none of my other kids ever did that.

Southern California Trip, Dec. 2008

Everything Abi says, she learned from her sisters.

This morning I hear Grace and Abi fighting. Grace has something Abi wants so Abi is following her around spitting at her to get her to hand over the toy. Grace is yelling at her in a super whiny voice, "Abi! Stop spitting on me! Abi!" over and over. Then she says to Scout "Scout, tell Abi to stop spitting on me!" Scout says, in her meanest voice, "Abi. Stop spitting on Grace." I can still hear Abi spitting. Then Grace comes crying and running up the stairs to tell. Abi follows her up and says to me "I did Gracie accidentally." Both Scout and Grace object, "No she didn't she did it on purpose and she didn't even say sorry." Abi tacks on in a voice like she is just tolerating her sisters "Uh, sorry."

Abigail's Favorite Books

Abi has a really good attention span for long picture books that are not my favorite to read to a two year old, but she loves them and sits through them nicely, so we do it anyway.


A Toddler's Favorites

• Dr Suess books, all of them, especually How the Grinch Stole Christmas and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
• Baby board books, particularly the Halloween ones and the one word per page ones.
  

Grace's Favorite Books

Grace isn't reading books herself, so this list is the ones that she likes best to have read to her, mainly the longer ones. Grace has a much better attention span for non picture books being read to her then Scout does; she has a lot more interest in them.

A Preschooler's Favorites

• Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss-Glasser (She especially likes the sticker ones)
• The Bailey School Kids by Marcia Thornton, Debbie Dadey, and Jones Dadey (These are intermediate level mysteries that have the boogie man or were wolfs and stuff like that in them, but not really in a scary way. Scout doesn't care much for them, but Grace loves them.)
• Matilda by Roald Dahl (I didn't like this book. I thought it wasn't written as a children's book but the subject is. Grace, however, loved it. She also really loved watching the movie after finishing the book.)
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (Grace loved the book, but the movie was boring for her.)

Scout's Favorite Books

I needed somewhere to put books my kids like so we can remember what they were and find other ones, so I thought I had better put it on here so I wouldn't loose it. These lists will continually be updated.

Scout is reading pretty much all her books by herself. We still occasionally read picture books to her, but she gets bored when we read chapter books with her; she would rather just read them herself. We are always looking for books around her level that she would like, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know. She definitely favors girly books, and is just beginning to warm up to books that are gender neutral. I also have put them in order of how advanced of a book they are, with the easier ones first.


A First Grader's Favorites

• Rumply Crumply Stinky Pin by Laurence Anholt (this is a really funny book, short and easy, all the girls thought it was funny, it's a retelling of Rumple Stiltzkin)
• Minnie and Moo by Denys Cazet (There are several of these super easy, beginning chapter books that one of our librarians suggested as a "Can't Miss" series. Scout says she likes them because they are funny.)
• The Golly Sisters by Betsy Byars
  
• Junie B Jones by Barbara Park and Denise Brunkus
  
• The Pony Crazed Princess Series by Diana Kimpton and Lizzie Finlay (We read the first one to her at the beginning of kindergarten and she loved it, that summer she read it herself and has continued to read the others)

Scout's School Christmas Program

Do Cafeterias Serve Real Food or Just Science Experiments?

I asked Scout how her school day was. She always says she can't remember, so I asked her what she ate for lunch since that is her favorite part of school (she says it's her favorite because she is always REALLY HUNGRY). Today she couldn't tell me what it was.


What did you eat for lunch?

Um, I don't know what it's called. It was on the bread like a hamburger but it's not hamburger. You know that blueish grey meat?

Uh, no, I don't. Was it chicken?

No, not chicken.

Hamburger?

No. It's kind of like tuna fish but it packed flat and it's not tuna fish.

Did it taste like fish?

No. It wasn't fish.

Did you like it?

Yeah.


I looked at the schedule and they were supposed to have mozzarella breadsticks or a turkey sandwich. I don't know which one she chose, but last I checked, neither of those are supposed to be blueish grey right? I think maybe I will start sending her to school with sack lunches more often.

Abi: Full of Grace and Charm

You have to see the end; it's the best part. She acts like she totally meant to fall over.