Tommy, from the bathtub: “Mommy! Winnie the Pooh is the pastor and they are all singing a hymn!” [Proceeds to sing “Angels We Have Heard on High” with slightly different text.]
Elizabeth, at the end of dinner: “Mama! I pray.”
Impromtu Prayer Meetings
Jul 30th, 2010 by ECM
I heart cloth diapers
Jul 29th, 2010 by ECM
Yesterday it was so hot that the kids ran around in their skivvies all day. I love how cute Elizabeth looks waddling around in a cloth diaper!
Lowercase Letters
Jul 28th, 2010 by ECM
Tommy and I have been doing a lot of preschool activity sheets together, and I noticed that he wasn’t as solid on recognizing his lowercase letters as he could be. So we’re slowing down this week to just work on that. He can’t really write or trace yet, so I pulled out some stickers for some homemade activity sheets. I write out several lowercase letters, then he identifies them and puts the uppercase partner sticker on the blank. It’s been taking quite a while for each sheet, but he’s enjoying the stickers, and I think he’s getting better at identifying the tricky letters (q and g are confusing, as are n and u). The only thing I’d change would be to find some letter stickers in a plainer font next time.
Missouri Travels
Jul 27th, 2010 by ECM
Here’s a quick recap of Elizabeth’s and my travels over the past week!
On Wednesday, we flew into St Louis and drove to Columbia for a couple days with my mom. Elizabeth loved the attention, and they read a lot of books and played with stacking toys. Elizabeth made this whole tower by herself!
After a fun birthday luncheon with my mom, Cammy, and two dear ladies from church, we headed to St Louis to meet up with Seth and Leann. I will have to get some pictures of Elizabeth playing with Gilbert, their adorable maltese, but in the meantime, here she is, playing their piano and singing.
Ann Louise’s wedding festivities took up Saturday, then Sunday afternoon, we hung out with the Somervilles. Elizabeth and Tripp had a lot of fun together! (This is normally where I would say something about Tripp being on Elizabeth’s list of acceptable suitors, but Derek might think I was getting ahead of myself. I can’t help it. He’s so darned cute!)
After a LONG couple of flights home (both were delayed considerably) and NO naps, we made it home last night! It’s good to be back with the boys (who had cleaned the house and stuffed the diapers)…
A Boy and His Robots
Jul 26th, 2010 by DTM
Thanks to Woot, via Mariel, we purchased an iRobot Roomba vacuum at a serious discount. This vacuum cleaner works extremely well. It’s wonderful living in the year 2010 and letting a robot do some house work.
Importantly, Tommy is a fan of all things robotic. He’s always eager to let the robot go “eat the dirt” around the house. He knows how to start it, where the robot’s “dock” is, and where he “goes to charge.” He frequently alerts us, “The robot is all done charging!”
Tommy’s affection for robots also helped during potty training. For a period of time, he was scared of automatically-flushing toilets in public restrooms, a real downer trying to potty train a child on a long car trip. But one day, I told him, “There’s a robot that watches you and flushes the potty while you’re all done.” That made him very, very happy. He’s never been scared since. And ever since then, he asks, in every public restroom, “Is there a robot watching?” Robots running the water faucets, soap dispensers, and hand driers are just a bonus.
Brittany Drive House Tour: The Family Room
Jul 23rd, 2010 by ECM
So this isn’t as exciting, as we don’t really have much in the way of decorations up yet, but since our families haven’t been able to visualize our house yet, here’s our family room. We don’t spend too much time there since there’s just a tv and a pathway from the garage, but it’s nice to have all the boxes out and have some tidy space!
This picture is taken from the stairs that go up to the living room. That white door goes out to the garage.
And this picture is taken from the door to the garage, looking at our front door, the stairs up to the living room, and then the door for our hall closet and the door down to the basement. Scintillating, I know.
Musical kitchen
Jul 22nd, 2010 by ECM
A little old (Derek’s still catching up on our video camera), but still a common sight.
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Brittany Drive House Tour: Living Room and Dining Room
Jul 22nd, 2010 by ECM
This should all look pretty familiar. I like how things are closer and cozier in this smaller house!
around the corner into the dining room…
As you can see, we have a lot of stairs in our house…
Bedtime Routine
Jul 21st, 2010 by ECM
We’re into a nice bedtime routine this summer. After dinner, we usually go straight to the bath tub, where the kids play until they’re pruney.
Usually the Little One gets out first, and after getting dried off and lotioned up, she immediately searches for her shoes, even though we tell her she can’t wear them to bed. We can tell we have a girl on our hands now, because she’s all about the accessories–shoes and hats!
Once both kids are out, we settle down for family worship time in Elizabeth’s room. We are learning a new hymn every few weeks with Hymns for a Kid’s Heart (from Focus on the Family). We love how much theology our kids are getting just by asking questions as they learn the songs. Right now we’re working on “This is My Father’s World.” (When we were learning “A Mighty Fortress,” Tommy would go around singing, “for still our ancient FOE, does seek to work us WOE!” I had to smile every time.) Then Derek reads from The Big Picture Story Bible and we pray, with Tommy always remembering his friends Miriam and Sofia and their Mommy and Daddy, who are telling people about Jesus in Albania.
Then it’s tooth brushing time–pretty much the highlight of the evening.
I sing Elizabeth “Come Thou Fount” while Tommy and Daddy play for a while longer before bedtime. We all like the familiarity of a consistent routine!
Walking and Talking
Jul 20th, 2010 by ECM
She’s thinking about it…
…and there she goes!
Tommy narrates it all to Grandma (along with a drawn-out story of how we had to go to the store this morning to get more milk for his sister…fortunately, grandmas have a grand capacity to listen to their grandson’s ramblings…).
