Life here

A few things before I forget. I forget so much! Tacking a few pictures on the end as well. . .

Mary Clement at 2 & 3 mo.

When I tuck her in bed at night, likes to be "snug as a bug in a rug", which is me making her into a burrito with her favorite blanket, her giggling delightedly.

Calls her brothers, "boys" or "guys". We regularly hear her sweet call across the house when she wants them to see something, "Guys!", or when she wants to direct them, like when she knows it's time to be heading out the door, and they aren't moving fast enough for her, "C'mon, boys!"

"the house" seems to be a character in her life. She always says, "Bye house" when we're driving away, and when I play a little game with her, "Who loves Clemmie?" She'll list Mama, Daddy, boys, Jackson (Jaason), Harry (Hawee), Naynay (you loom large to her), and house. She often wants to pray for "house".

She loves to count. I count her snaps or buttons when dressing her, and she likes to do it with me, her favorite numbers being two!, "free!", and eight! of course completely out of order.

Refers to herself as "Kim-ent" or "Kim-ee" (we've started calling her Clemmie a lot)

At night or naptime I'll often sing to her Rock a Bye Baby and/or Jesus Loves Me. She puts these together and wanders around during the day singing under her breath, "Rockababy. Jeejuzz." over and over. Popular with the boys lately has been the little ditty, 'Hi. My name is Joe. I have a wife , 3 kids, and I work in a button factory. One day, my boss said to me, 'Hey Joe! Are you busy?' I said, 'no!'" Clemmie's oft-heard version is "Hi! Joe! Busy?" full of expression and arm motions.

Harry at 4, almost 5
Is cute in such abstract ways, they're hard to write down. He will say funny things, but they tend to be so abstract it doesn't translate into writing well. He's very imaginative, thinking in pictures. I've been pleased with how easy it has been to teach him to read. I must admit that I was dreading it, b/c he's distracted so easily, his mind wanders so quickly, but in some ways this has been an advantage. When he learns a new sound, without trying, his mind starts making picture associations between the sound and letter shape. Random things that make perfect sense to him but crack me up. He'll come up with about 5 associations within 30 seconds of learning a new sound. I've forgotten most of them, as does he, b/c he'll drop the association after he's gotten the sound on its own. A few examples I can remember of the dozens:
l looks like the base of a lamp, so "l"amp
w is like waves and water
u looks like a man under a bed (???), so "u"nder

Every day Harry yells (naked, of course) from the bottom of the stairs "Is it a church day?" so he knows what to wear. Dressing takes him so long he doesn't want to do it twice.

This head-in-the clouds boy still has to be reminded to go to the bathroom b/c he pays absolutely no attention to anything he's not currently working on in his mind. It's a good thing we feed him regularly; otherwise he might forget to eat. He's very sweet and sincere and I delight in him all day long. His blue eyes encapsulate his personality.

Jackson at 6, almost 7

Is into Tintin comics (How many times can you reread the same 2 books? You have no idea), Paddington Bear, & Boxcar Children, writing messages to everyone, spying, and soccer. He scored his team's only goal at his Saturday game (winning the 0-1 game)! He's naturally pretty athletic, and his height is coming in handy.

He's been particularly sweet with Mary Clement. He gets her out of bed every morning and walks her downstairs. If we're still asleep he'll get both Harry and MC a bowl of cereal. Just now he wanted to make sure that MC could come to his birthday party. He's tender-hearted, sharp, and sensitive.

Saturday morning game. Jackson is in navy, center right, with his arm up. The other team was either very short or the age below his.

Later that day we had a nice picnic at Eagle Lake, which is right by us. I took this one to show how the leaves are changing - there hasn't been one big burst or turnover, more like rolling change. We spent hours here just reading aloud, the kids playing (while I played Words with Friends!). Very restful. I lost my keys at some point on the small hike to the picnic spot, but thankfully a kind soul took them to the public library b/c I had several library key tags on it.

The left view from our front porch. This is the Davison's home, the family we're renting from (from which we're renting. whatever). See how we're down the hill a little.

The right view from our front porch. Love this house. This is where Kim (professor of education at MSU) and Kevin (works at St. Clare's) live, with their 2 college-age kids. They're the ones who spend $300 on candy every year at Halloween. Speaking of that, Jackson has decided to be a gargoyle, Harry a viking (again), and I've yet to come up with something for MC.

And this is our cute little house. Like the 2 sets of  "325"? :)

The view of the shed in our backyard, through the window screen of the children's attic "cave" room. They're all up there together. I love this shed. Doesn't it just say Kentucky?

Some day if y'all are lucky I'll show you pictures of the inside.