November, December

Snow Fight in 4 degree weather

Decorating Pumpkin Squares

It was Arabelle's idea to decorate, she said she wanted the theme to be "princesses and making friends with the Indians"

Jeffrey made a very nice house

During late November, Early December the kids all took turns getting what I believe was 2 different horrible illnesses.  One was the flu and another was some sort of stomach bug.  It was quite frustrating because I would think we would be done with it and then another one would suddenly throw up or have a fever.  For the most part it was all irritatingly staggered, but there were some points of overlap as in the above picture. They all had fevers, but felt up to eating ice cream sandwiches.

This picture perfectly represents Charlotte's personality.

More Kids Talk

Arabelle's personality is such an extreme mixture of passions.  She will dance in front of everyone at a restaurant one day and then run and hide shaking the next day because a stranger looked at her the wrong way.  She was excited for weeks for her friend's birthday party, making lists and pictures to describe the event, then when we got there she suddenly ran out of the room crying inconsolably.  She missed the first 20 minutes of the party because I could not get her to go back in the room.  She couldn't even tell me what was wrong, she would just shake and tell me she was too "scared" to tell me.  I'd say there are 3-4 fits of rage/hysteria/misery on a given day, and I think they are quite a bit more common now then they were a year ago.  She seems to "feel things more" now.  Hopefully this is a passing phase, but I have to assume there are underlying personality traits that we will have to deal with in the future. 

Arabelle (sadly):  I think we need a big dog so that I can put my tears on it.

At the dinner table John and I were asking the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Arabelle thought about it for a while and got a worried look on her face.  Then she said, "But I don't know what I want to be yet.  There's just so many choices!"  I told her it was okay for her not to know yet.  She thought for a while more and looked even more worried, then said, "The thing is I just don't want to be stuck doing the same thing everyday!"  Wise words from a 4-year-old.   We talked about it for a while and she decided maybe she'd like to be a veterinarian.  We went to her friend's birthday party Saturday night and she told her friend excitedly, "For the longest time I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grow up, but now I know that I want to be a vet!"

The kids were getting ready for a Halloween party and Jeffrey said, "Charlotte is my friend."

Arabelle whined, "Why am I not your friend?", to which Jeffrey replied, "Because you're not nice to me."   So Arabelle knit her brows together in anger, lunged at Jeffrey, making a fist, and said "Then I'll punch you in the face!"

And...(I've just been waiting for this for weeks, because I knew she had a "crush" on him), Arabelle finally realized that she could maybe marry her friend Valin when she grows up.  She drew a picture of them getting married and then stared at it with a dreamy look on her face saying she was too distracted to play.  Then she told me that she would invite Valin to her birthday party, and then at the end of the party she would present him with the picture and tell him she wanted to marry him.  I really think Arabelle has a little too much of every kind of hormone.

Charlotte: Elsie can't catch the squirrels up in the tree because she's too little.  (Charlotte tells me this every morning, along with telling me that "Elsie's a baby!")

Jeffrey:  "Mom, thank you for letting me do my homework first thing in the morning because I like to start the day with my homework."  Ummm, okay.  Jeffrey's a really good kid but he does typically complain when I ask him to do his homework. Evidently I was just picking the wrong time of day.

Jeffrey:  I feel sorry for Swiper because he never gets anything.  (This is from Dora the Explorer, Swiper the Fox tries to "swipe" something and everyone yells, "Swiper no swiping" and somehow this stops him everytime, much like the Trix Rabbit).

Jeffrey: I love Memaw because she's always nice to me.

 

Jeffrey works so hard at school and tries so hard to be good.  He makes an effort to compliment me on my meals and say thank you for even the little things.  He tries to help out with Charlotte and tries to get Arabelle to cooperate.  Of course he spends plenty of time teasing Arabelle too and whining about certain things, but for the most part I am amazed by his empathy, his thoughtfulness, and his desire to please.  It almost makes me sad because I can foresee the struggles he will have in the future and I think his sensitivity will only make them harder for him to bear.  I really hope he can get some toughness from somewhere.

Kids' Artwork 2014

Being able to experience my kids' artwork has been unexpectedly interesting and fun for me.  It is in some ways the first physical manifestation that my kids have ideas and thoughts all their own and that their little brains are working and creating things independent of me.  So much of what they do all day is what I tell them to do.  Recently Jeffrey or Arabelle said something to the effect of, "Why are moms always telling kids to do stuff that they don't want to do?"  All I could think was, yes, life would be much more pleasant for me as well if I didn't find it necessary to spend so much time doing that...  And then even a lot of the good stuff that they do I can see my hand in:  Jeffrey reading competently after I spent a lot of time and effort teaching him and practicing with him.  But, along with the funny things they say sometimes, I accredit most of their drawings to them as little personalities and believe them to be a representation of their own creativity.  And that is pretty incredible to me.

This is one Arabelle did yesterday.  She said there is a girl in the flowers and the 2 dark circles are the sun and the moon.  The most interesting part is in the upper left hand corner.  Arabelle said that is Jesus in Heaven looking down at us.  I thought the perspective was quite intriguing and also that Jesus is in shadow like there is light behind him.  She's never drawn anyone in that style before.

As the picture says, "Charlotte's First Recognize Drawing".  Done about a month ago.

And here is Charlotte's first Crabboplin.

Charlotte saw Jeffrey drawing robots during Sacrament meeting, so she wanted to make a "Wodot" too.  In fact she made lots of "Wodots."

Charlotte was careful to add that stick thing on top of all of their heads, so I think that may be what makes them a "Wodot" vs a person.

On top is the Robot Jeffrey made during Sacramant meeting, and on bottom is a picture he made at school.  There are 2 treehouses, the small brown building is an outhouse complete with a moon symbol.  And the thing that looks like a pretty impressive ostrich is actually a fairly strange dog.

And here are some doodles Jeffrey did at church at some point.  I like how completely "boy" they all are.

Halloween 2014

Each of the kids had a pumpkin that they got to design this year.  This is Arabelle's "back up pumpkin".  When we went down to Children's Hospital a few weeks ago, the Aurora police were giving out pumpkins for some inexplicable reason and Arabelle chose a large, very green pumpkin.  It must have been somewhat soft and rotten, however, because a couple days before Halloween, Charlotte sat on it and squished it.

Jeffrey's main concern was making his pumpkin spooky.  He drew the picture and John carved it.

We discovered that it is possible to carve out these tiny pumpkins.  I cut the lids off and Charlotte helped scoop them out.  She decided she wanted to color on hers with Sharpie rather than carve a face.

Mom was visiting for Halloween, and at first she thought my costume was somewhat horrible, but she came around.

The Grimditch's annual pre-trick or treating Halloween party.

Arabelle and her best friend Emery.  Arabelle is Sophia the First and Emery is the princess from Frozen that is not Elsa.

We ran into Arabelle's best friend from preschool, Valin, and they were both quite excited.

Charlotte was a trick-or-treating pro this year.  She kept up with the big kids running with her tiny little legs.  She even said "twik or tweat!"

Eating the first trick or treating candy.

Charlotte is going through a particularly annoying phase where she is only willing to wear 2 pairs of pajamas and one outfit.  Fortunate for Halloween, one of the pairs of pajamas she is willing to wear happens to be a skeleton.

This is what Arabelle did with her Halloween candy.

Arabelle's preschool Halloween party.   It makes me sick everytime I think how much this preschool costs (double what it would in the South), but I have realized how vital it was for Arabelle this year.  She is so proud of her school and has already "mastered" almost all of the skills for the entire year.

making slime with Arabelle's teacher Ms Ashley, whom she loves dearly.

Rocky Mountain Pumpkin Ranch

They are being zombies, of course.  And also here's a preview of our play room.  I haven't taken official "after" photos yet, b/c it's still not done.  I am in love with my green floral mid-century modern chair.  John not so much.

And here's your first glimpse of Charlotte's cut.  This is before the glue fell off. 

Jeffrey is teaching Charlotte about his video game, and she's serious about learning.

I liked Charlotte's smile in this one.

And...Arabelle's preschool class had a field trip to the Rocky Mountain Pumpkin Ranch.  I found it a little strange that in no place could one see any pumpkins actually growing in their natural environment--I thought that would have kind of been the point of a pumpkin "ranch".  There were, however, a large selection of pumpkins available as well as other attractions, including a corn maze, a hay maze, "pumpkin painting" (see below), and choosing a pumpkin.  The kids especially seemed to love running through the mazes.  They weren't too long or difficult, but were long enough that the kids thought they were "cool". 

 The kids got to go into this petting zoo with a sheep, a calf, a llama, and lots of goats.    The goats must have been well-fed because they weren't pushy like other goats I've encountered.

Feeling the woolly sheep.

I also liked Charlotte's face in this one.  She thinks what she's doing is so cool.

Arabelle had rapport with this goat.  She said it liked her dress.

This was Charlotte's favorite goat.  She had me take lots of formal pictures with it. Poor Charlotte is stuck with the band-aid head for a while.  I'm refusing to expose it to sunlight as that can cause hyper pigmentation of the scar.

 

Arabelle is a true lover of animals.

Big animals seem to be able to withstand her affection more so than smaller ones like Elsie.

Arabelle refused to wear this dress last Fall.  I'm glad it still fits this year!

Class photo.  That is Arabelle's crush in the blue striped hoodie next to her.

They advertised "pumpkin painting".   Well, this is not exactly what I was expecting.  Oil pastels on a picture of a pumpkin...

another class photo, not sure why the kids refused to look out the windows.

Charlotte had not slept well the night before so I was somewhat dreading bringing her with me, but I was required to bring Arabelle myself, plus I wanted to be there.  Charlotte behaved worse than I expected.  In the little over one hour we were there, there were 3 major fits where I had to carry her away from the group and just let her scream for a while.  In most cases I knew what she wanted, but it was impossible for me to let her have it.  First she didn't want any of the preschoolers to lean against the yellow train car of the train they were supposed to line up and wait next to ("yeyo" being her favorite color).   Another time she threw a fit because she wanted the specific pumpkin that another student had already chosen.  The third fit...your guess is as good as mine.  I managed to get her in the car to go home by letting her have three tiny pumpkins.  It's hard to be two especially when you're one of me and John's kids, evidently.