Freezing February

The pond at my parents' house froze this week and my mom bought skates for the kids so today they learned to skate.  Abigail was really doing very well by the end of an hour and Joseph was mixing gliding with walking (his skates are double bladed).

Our Old Soul Turns Nine

Abigail has always been an old soul.  I was recently thinking of something that happened when she was 2 1/2.  We were at the playground in our neighborhood and she got stung by a bee.  She tried not to cry, but got a bit teary eyed and I took her home and gave her some TLC.  I tried to make her feel better by telling her that she may have been stung, but the bee died when it stung her.  (I know this only happens to honey bees, and I doubt that is what stung her, but I thought it would make her feel better to know the bee was brought to justice.)  But this only added to her misery as she began to sob for the poor bee with her own discomfort forgotten.

That is still our girl.  Still our old soul who likes quiet time.  Still our little introvert who would rather be around 2 or 3 special people than a whole party room full of people.  For those of us lucky enough to be in her orbit,  she opens up to us in both silly and serious ways.  She is thoughtful, persistent, kind, clever and a loyal friend.  

Sunday Snapshots

My soccer boy

Sunday Snapshots

Sunday Snapshot: I love these two

Joseph's Summer of Growing Up, Part 3

Sometimes it is the little, subtle things that make you take notice of your kiddo and see them in a new light.  Take Joseph.  This summer, he has decided that sometimes he wants to dress himself in clothes that are not athletic wear or DriFit.  You know, shirts with collars and khaki shorts and reef flip flops. You know, the fancy stuff.  I also took him shopping for school clothes for kindergarten. He wanted jeans. Skinny jeans. He looked at least 3rd grade in them!

Joseph is trying to become Mr. Responsible too.  He clears his plate after dinner without being asked (and often clears the plates of other people too!). 

He speaks in more complex paragraphs.  He is full of clever one-liners.  For example, we have a needle for the hand pump so that the kids can blow up their basketballs when they are low on air.  I keep the needle in the garage, in its tiny cardboard package, hanging above a box of sticks we use to start fires in the winter.  I kept warning the kids not to drop the needle into the stick box.
Then Joseph told me "Mama, I dropped the needle in the stick box."  (This was also an out-of-context sentence that really confused Larry.)
I said "Jos, I told you guys over and over not to do that!"
He fired back immediately "Well, maybe you shouldn't have hung the needle over the stick box!"

I had no comeback for that.

Recently his sister had surgery that limited her walking and what she can eat.  He has been so kind and helpful, even though he has been jealous of all her new Lego sets and ice cream dinners. 
She has not wanted to be alone for a second either and when Larry and I told her she had to start getting brave enough to get over that, he looked deep into her eyes and sincerely told her "I will never leave you Jie Jie."

Joseph's Summer of Growing Up, Part 2

Together with my parents and brother we rent a house we love on Smith Mountain Lake.  The house has a swimming/ party dock that is huge and the water at our dock is deep and clean.  Abigail has always loved to run and jump and swim in the deep water.  She was fearless (even when she thought there were sharks in the lake) because her Uncle Jim was there.

Joseph has preferred to sit on the dock and watch or wade into the shallow water up to his waist.

This year, before the car was even unpacked, Joseph was down at the dock jumping off the ladder to his grandmother.  We were all saying that maybe he'd be brave enough to jump off the dock by the end of the week.

Ten minutes later:

And shortly after that, he yelled "Cannnnnoooooonnnnnnnbaaaaaaalllllll" while running for the length of the dock before launching himself into the deep water.

But that wasn't all.

By the end of the week, he was riding piggy-back style into the lake on Larry's back.

We went to the community beach for the lake so there was a zero-entry swimming situation for Joseph.  He decided it was time to start swimming both under water and on top of the water, teaching himself how to come up for air without touching bottom.  And then, as soon as we got home, he announced he would be swimming in our pool (where he can't touch  bottom) without his life jacket anymore.  Okay, kid.  You got this.