The B-I-B-L-E

I took this video recently of Charlotte singing her version of The B-I-B-L-E. I watch it at least once a day and it melts my heart every time. Lately she's taken to carrying her Bible around the house with her most of the day and often singing this song at the top of her little lungs. She only sings the "B-I" part over and over, but I still love it! She loves for me to open her Bible, take her finger and "read" to her "God loves Charlotte." We do this multiple times each day and it never gets old, for either of us.

"Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Our Week

With the beginning of school and all of us getting back into the swing of things, we're once again busy busy at our house. I sometimes find myself thinking -- where did our summer go??? I'm behind on posting, but wanted to remember our week. Here's what we've been up to this week:

Monday: Labor day. We spent the day having fun with Mimi and Grandad, eating yummy food, and playing outside. It was the first day we've had where the weather was actually nice. We finally bought Charlotte a swing for outside and she spent a good part of the day with us pushing her.

Tuesday: Harrison's first day of preschool (post to come soon!). Madeleine stayed home that day and we went to the doctor where we found out she had both an ear infection and swimmers ear. Yuck! Since she'd had a few rough nights of sleep from earaches I let her have a day at home to rest -- only we really didn't rest. We went to the mall and worked more on getting their fall clothes bought (there's an end in sight) and did the grocery shopping for the week. I was so thankful to have Madeleine there to entertain Charlotte while I did some speed shopping! Matt had Parent Nite at school that night, so we picked up Harrison and the 4 of us played outside for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday: We had an impromptu playdate with our friends that morning. What would I do without my girls to talk to?? Especially when Matt's gone so much at night -- I need conversation some days. :) After covering The Other W Family's drive with sidewalk paint, we headed home to try and tackle the laundry. Matt had class that night and we stayed in to try and get Madeleine some rest since she was still a bit under the weather.

Thursday: Finally a day at home! I put out all my fall decor and cleaned the kids half of the house. Matt came home and we grilled out. It was one of those days where I didn't leave the house all day & while those days are rare, it was kinda nice. We played outside and built block towers for Charlotte to knock down. Harrison dug the biggest hole in our flowerbed while waiting for Matt & Madeleine to get home. Fun times!

Friday: A busy day. I had an 8am PTO meeting to talk about some upcoming stuff. Charlotte got her first skinned up knee as we left. Then we rushed from there to meet our friends Mandy & Mason for our monthly nursing home visit. This is our 2nd visit to see the same ladies and I'm already looking forward to next month! They were the highlight of my day and I love that my friends have a heart of servanthood to want to do this. We left there and after a quick stop at Walmart it was home for lunch and naps. I finished cleaning the rest of the house, build the daily traintrack, and started dinner. We played outside again while waiting for Matt and Madeleine to come home. After dinner and playtime, we made our weekly trip to Braums. :)

Saturday In the Park

Our first Saturday of the new school year found us headed to one of our favorite parks to spend the morning. We were all excited about spending the morning outside enjoying some nice weather and were even more excited when we got there and ran into some good friends!

Our first stop was feeding the ducks. The kids love this part and, I'll admit, I think Matt and I might enjoy it just as much as they do!

Once we'd filled the duck's bellies, we headed over to the swings. Charlotte loves to swing, although it might not look like it from this picture. :)

The park has recently put in a new big sandbox, which kept Harrison and his good friend Bennett happy for well over an hour! I loved listening to them talk while they were playing.

And, this sweet girl was pretty happy in the sand too! I think we brought home half of the sandbox in their clothes and shoes!

While the boys played in the sand, Madeleine & I snuck off for a bit and walked over to the library to get some books. This girl is flying through books these days! And it makes me so happy to see her falling in love with reading.

After the library, we took Charlotte and got in some time on the playground. Madeleine was quick to show off her monkey bar skills.

I took Charlotte up and down the tunnel slide many, many times and I had the sore arms and back the next day to prove it!

It was a wonderful day! And, a wonderful way to end out first week of school!

Matchy-Matchy

I had to share this picture of my girls in their outfits from Sunday. I love when they match! Not sure how much longer Madeleine's going to like this, but for now she's happy!

Our Afternoon Ritual

Harrison and Charlotte have been getting along pretty well lately and starting to play together. But, there's one thing he does NOT want her playing with him: Trains. Each morning a little before we eat lunch, Harrison starts asking if it's time for Charlotte's nap. He anticipates her going to sleep because it's when we play trains. :) We do the same thing every. single. day.

While I put Charlotte down, Harrison decides what kind of train track he wants that day (wooden or grey) and what pieces he wants to be a part of it. Once Charlotte is down the fun begins! We work together to build the track and Harrison tells me all about the "story" he's going to do when it's finished. Building a traintrack seems like an easy thing, but it's so not easy. He's old enough now that not any ol' figure 8 track will do! We have bridges and tunnels and split pieces. Every day I think that I should have taken an engineering class or two -- would have come in handy. :)

I love to see his mind at work when he's playing. He can entertain himself for hours with his trains, although I usually get to sit in and watch his stories at some point. He uses the Thomas language and says things like "bust my buffers" and "Thomas was cross with Percy." He also narrates the stories which I think is too adorable!

And, no track is complete without a Train Yard.

I try and sneak in some learning while we do this with counting the trains and organizing them by color or size or type (steamie, diesel, etc.).

I've found that I really look forward to this time each day too. I love working on a project together and Harrison is much happier building trains than crafting, so that's what we do! My life is so much richer because of this little boy!

Madeleine & Charlotte

Today I took Madeleine & Charlotte for their checkups -- Madeleine's 7 year & Charlotte's 18 month, so I thought I'd post an update on them. I've been putting off Charlotte's 18 month update until we'd done our dr. visit, so here goes!

First, my sweet boy checking out the Nemo fish at the Dr. office. It keeps him quite occupied!

Madeleine:

*She's slowed down in her growing a lot lately I think. She was still in the 50% for height & 75% for weight which is where she's been since she was a toddler. The dr. said this is just perfect.

*Her foot has only grown 1/2 of a size in an entire year! She can actually still wear some of the shoes we bought last year. Crazy!

*She's reading and writing up a storm these days! She's almost finished off the Magic TreeHouse series and Junie B. Jones. Now she's starting on The Boxcar Children. I'm so excited for her to discover these books since they were some of my favorites as a child!

*I think we've finally, after several years, discovered the secret to getting Madeleine to go to sleep easily. We start our bedtime early in the evening. She usually get in the bed, ready to sleep, around 7:15. Then, she can read for 30-40 minutes before she has to turn her light out and go to sleep. This works great! I think she just has a hard time turning her mind off from the events of the day & reading calms her down. When it's time to sleep, most nights she just rolls over and is out!

Charlotte:

Well, even though I haven't been posting them, I have taken her monthly pictures to mark her growth.

*Charlotte was 25 lbs (50%) and 31 inches (25%). Her weight is dropping off and she'd only gained a little from her last checkup. Her height has always been at the 25% and Dr. D said she's just going to be short and probably would end up being little. She's in great health & we actually haven't been to the doctor since her last well visit!

*She's busy busy busy these days! Her appetite is slowing down mostly because she's too busy to eat! I'll put her in her highchair and she'll eat for the first couple of minutes before wanting down. Then as soon as I go over to her to get her down, she'll stuff as much food in her mouth as she can and fill her hands with food. She wants to eat and play. She just can't be bothered to stop and eat! :)

*She's still not a milk drinker, so she eats a lot of yogurt and cheeses. She like fruit especially bananas, grapes, mandarin oranges, and apples. She's getting picky. But, she'll eat a lot of veggies: carrots, peas, corn, broccoli and potatos. She loves ham and turkey too. At dinner she's usually pretty happy to eat whatever we're eating as long as it's not hot or even warm. She prefers almost all of her food to be cold, but she doesn't like ice cream. Ha!

*At mealtimes, if I do give her something different from Madeleine & Harrison, she'll pitch a fit! She'll daintily pick up each piece of food off of her tray, one at a time, and drop it on the floor. This can be good or bad depending on what they're eating (yogurt = bad). She's had her share of poptarts because of it, although when I mentioned that to Dr. D she told me her daughter had a poptart for b'fast that morning so I'm not feeling too bad! It's also worked to get her to try a lot of new foods too!

*She's still the most amazing sleeper, which I know I so do not deserve! She naps from 2-3 hours each day and sleeps from 8-6:30ish each night. When it's time for bed we read some books and rock for a minute and then I lay her down, tuck her in and leave. She just goes on to sleep by herself. :) She still takes her paci at naptime/bedtime, but rarely asks for it during the day. She also has to sleep with one or two of her blankies. She takes the blanket and rubbs it up under her nose/top of her paci to get herself to sleep. It's so funny to watch!

*She loves books. Her current favorites are: Corderoy's Busy Street & Corderoy's Birthday Party, the Baby Words Book, God Made Me, and Baby Jesus Book. We read all of these several times each day.

*She is a bit obsessed with her shoe collection. She wears shoes almost all the time, even at home. She'll bring me her shoes and want me to put them on as soon as she's dressed. She even has a favorite pair -- her Keds Sandals. She's also big into wearing her bows! After we get dressed I'll tell her all pretty and then she points to the closet and says "bow!". After we put it in her hair, we have to look in the mirror and say "pretty." I love this morning ritual.

*Although she still babbles a lot, she's adding words daily, it seems. The other night I told Matt it was almost bedtime. Charlotte looked up and said, "bedtime" and went and got her paci/blanket. She'll often ask to go "night night." She can say: bubba, sissy, madeleine ("mada"), snack ("nack"), juice ("ju") and more than I can list.

*She knows a lot of animal sounds! She knows: cow, horse, pig, duck, kitten, puppy, lion, monkey, frog, bird, sheep. She knows most of her body parts and is kinda obsessed with her bellybutton.

*She loves to sing. Her favorites are "God Made the Big Round Sun, Jesus Loves the Little Ones, and Be Careful Little Hands/Feet/Mouth, etc.

*In the mornings when Matt & Madeleine leave she loves to wave to them and yell "bye-bye." Then we'll blow kisses. She makes a really LOUD mwaaaah sound when she blows kisses. During the day when I ask her "where's dada?" she'll tell me "work." So cute! I keep wanting Matt to hear it, but, of course, she's too smart to say it when he's home. :)

*She had a full round of shots today. When I picked her up from her nap, I said how are you feeling? She said "booboo." Her poor little legs are so red from the shots!

*She's is quite stubborn! She loves to crawl up on the furniture and I've caught her jumping on the couch several times. Her favorite thing to do is stand on the ottoman and jump. This scares me to death! I'll tell her to get down in my sternest voice, and she'll look at me and say "no." So, we've taken to spanking her every time she stands up. I hate this, but I'm hoping she'll learn soon. If I tell her she's going to get a spanking, she'll either pat her hand or her leg which is where we spank her. It's so hard not to laugh sometimes! She's also determined to try things for herself, especially those things she's seen her brother or sister do. She loves to swing and slide. I think she's an adrenaline junkie! :) She's pretty much fearless and not afraid of dark, fast movement, heights, falling. The only thing that's scary to her is thunder. She'll come running for me yelling "boom boom!" Thankfully, she'll sleep through storms still!

*Miss Charlotte keeps me on my toes. She drags dirty laundry all over the house. She likes to go into mine/matt's closets and get our shoes and try and put them on. Then she drops them wherever she happens to be. Sometimes I feel like my life is a continuous scavenger hunt!

*She LOVES babies. She usually has a baby with her. She feeds her baby and puts it in her stroller and goes all over the house. One day I found her with her baby covered by her blanket and she told me "shhhh." I think her play is more advanced than the other 2 at this age, but I also think she sees them playing and copies a lot of that.

*Every day is different and fun! This is the BEST age where she's learning something new almost daily and it's so fun to watch her personality come to life. :)

Buddies

When Charlotte was a baby, Harrison was pretty indifferent to her. He'd love on her when prompted, but he basically went along about his business without giving her much thought. Well, recently that has changed a lot.

With Madeleine in school much of the day, Harrison & Charlotte have had lots of one on one playtime. Charlotte often annoys him by turning off the TV or taking one of his cars and running from him....this usually leaves Harrison screaming in her wake. But, lately, they have started playing together more and more. Harrison will chase her around the house and they'll both laugh and laugh. Charlotte will squeal with delight when he catches her! Harrison has this "baby talk" voice that he uses with her that always makes me smile. He'll sit down and say "Charlotte, come to bubba" and she almost always does.

One morning this week, Charlotte was up before Harrison (a true rarity since he's been getting up at -- gasp! -- 6-6:30am). She kept going into his room to try and wake him up. Since she's just about the same height as his bed, her face was close to his and she's yell "BUBBA!! BUBBA!!" to try and wake him. I'd try and get her out and close the door, but she was a sister on a mission and finally she woke him up.

As I was unloading the groceries today, I noticed that both of them were quiet and not underfoot. Hmmm. I found them cuddled in a chair and Harrison was "reading" to her. Since Harrison can't actually read, he was making up the words and she was listening to him so intently. I quickly snuck my camera and snapped some pictures! It melted my heart to see them like this!

They caught me with the camera!

Of all the things we're teaching out children -- or trying to teach them -- love for each other is right up at the top. I want them to have a bond that will last long after they've moved out of our home and have families of their own because no one will ever love you like your siblings. It's such a special kind of love.