Swimming Lessons are Over

The boys did so well at their two-week swimming lessons that I signed them up for two more weeks - which is the biggest reason we haven't been blogging. But they just ended, so we should have some time again (we have our lives back! LOL!)

I just completed my paraphrase of Charlotte Mason's Volume 4, both parts! It's been a year-long project that was beginning to feel like would never be done! Now on to Volume 3 . . .

Miss Moana is just as spirited and feisty as ever. Her latest thing is pretending to be a dancer and then narrating everything she does in third person: "The dancer is reading a book." "The dancer is going for a drive." It brings back memories of another toddler, about fourteen years ago, who used to do the same thing, except he was usually a fireman: "the fireman is eating a sandwich." "The fireman is buckling his seatbelt." If he wasn't a fireman, he was Timmy Martin, with his stuffed collie as Lassie. And his little brother was always a cowboy, and he wouldn't eat anything until he had first checked to make sure that it was something that cowboys really would eat. He'd always ask, "Do cowboys eat this?" and I'd say yes most of the time, at least, if it was something I wanted him to like. For example, cowboys loved baked beans and peanut butter sandwiches, but they didn't eat ice cream because they didn't have freezers. At two, it never occurred to him to check my sources.

Miss Moana is looking through an old New Testament I bought her at a used book sale. I was curious to know what her impression is of the book, so I asked her, "What's that book about?" And she said, "it's a bear Jesus story." Okay, so she does connect it with Jesus. Sort of. So I asked her to tell me what the bear says in the book. She answered, "He gets mad and then he goes to bed." Hmmm. Two months ago, when she had roseola, I stayed home with her while the rest of the family went to church. She was cranky, and I was starving and irritable after being up all night with her, but she wouldn't let me put her down long enough to get anything to eat. I finally convinced her to get down long enough to make a smoothie, although she fussed every minute - and, wouldn't you know it, I found an insect leg in the blender after I made the smoothie and was pouring it out of the blender! I was so frustrated that I scooped her up and said, "I might as well go back to bed!" And we did, and she kept asking me, "Mommy, are you mad?" and I said, "Yes, I'm mad."

Well, she's never forgotten that. Now she associates being mad with going to bed. Any time one of her brothers is mad, she'll ask, "Are you mad?" and if they say yes, she'll ask if they're going to go to bed.