Funnies from Church

As we drove to church, the girls chatted in the back of the car about things 3 & 4 year olds find interesting. I had not heard much from Connor, who has become quite the chatterbox lately, in awhile, so I asked Cadence if her brother was asleep.

Recently, Cadence often tells us "Connor passed out" or "Connor is passed out". This morning her response to my question was: "No, he's passed in". As I chuckled, Cadence sagely explained to me: "Because he's not passed out, so he's passed in."

*

While pacing the halls during the third hour of church with a restless Connor this morning, I took advantage of the peek-through windows to peek in on the girls and their primary classes, pleased to see them sitting and listening well. Megan's primary lesson was about families. Her teacher went to each student and had them describe their family and drew a picture on the chalkboard of stick figures representing the members of the family.

When it came to Megan's turn, I happened to be peeking through. "Mommy" was the first figure drawn, then "Daddy". Up until this point, the teacher had been denoting gender with long hair for girls and spiky hair for boys. When her teacher put hair on James's stick figure head, Megan quickly corrected her. I do not know exactly what was said, but I did see her teacher start to laugh, erase the top half of the hair-covered head and replace it with a hairless one.

Undoubtedly, Megan informed her teacher of what is a known fact in our household: Daddy doesn't have any hair!

*

While not a church funny, I shall share it anyway (hope I haven't already!):

I bought the girls a used Tag Reading System, which is a pen that reads books (specially bought for the system, obviously) out loud. As the girls explored their new books, they also showed off the book they held to their sister. Megan held hers up with the back cover showing. Cadence wanted to see the front cover, however she did not know the correct word. So, using impeccable logic, she instructed Megan to show her the "belly" of the book.

Made sense to me!

Movies and Pics

Megan looking too cute in pigtails ("Merida" drawn on the door courtesy of Cadence)

My ragamuffins first thing in the morning:

Another thumbsucker (in all fairness, Megan sucks her fingers, not her thumb)

3 months old exactly. So alert and so sweet:

Connor playing his piano. He loves to make noise:

Megan serenading herself in the bathroom (video is just of the wall, no potty shots, no worries):

Cadence singing along in the car. She's normally more enthusiastic, but she noticed the camera:

And last but not least (okay, it is "least") our new couch. After our couch was broken during the move, we've been using our futon for the past year in our front room. So happy to have a real couch again (and get this, it's a LaZBoy, and we got it for a steal!):

Little boys grow up too fast

An interesting couple of weeks here, as always. Lots of the "same ol', same ol'", but the fun "same ol', same ol'". Now that summer is here, I'm trying to plan a few fun things each week for the girls and I to do. This past week we had a couple boys from a church family come over while their parents ran some errands, so the girls got to play with new friends. Wednesday we went to story time at a nearby library, which the girls loved. Friday the girls went to the pool. It took them a little while to warm up to the idea of playing in the wading pool, especially when they both got in a little over their head (literally) within the first few minutes of playing. However, by the time we left, neither of them wanted to go. Now for a few updates:

Megan is 3 1/2 and way too big. Yesterday, as I sat in their room nursing Connor while the girls continued to sleep, I saw Megan stretched out in her bed and realized how tall she's gotten. Despite having a "new baby", it's still hard for me to see and accept how big she is. I still want to call both girls toddlers. Megan is growing more independent and insisting on doing things herself nowadays. The girls have recently gotten assigned chores and Megan will spend an hour washing the table unless you force her to stop. Tonight when we gave her a new duster to dust the TV and entertainment center, she wanted to continue dusting everything, including the stairs and the couch. She loves to laugh and play games and is developing quite the sense of humor, which can make basic chores take longer. It really is hard to notice her milestones. She doesn't draw like Cadence or anything obvious. James and I suspect her "smarts" are more social and gross motor skills (girl can climb just about anything). (Picture below courtesy of Cadence stealing my camera)

Cadence is 4 1/2. Right about now, I'm grateful for the strict September 1st deadline for kindergarten registration. I'm not sure I can handle the thought of sending her away for a day. I'm going to be a mess when she does go. It was hard enough giving her up for two hours a week when she started going to nursery. She continues to show off artistic skills that are above average. She colors almost perfectly when she sets her mind to it and fill notebooks with doodles of princesses with curly pigtails, detailed dresses, and crowns. She's also begun drawing ponies (My Little Pony) and will fill pages with letters and her name. With Megan starting to act more emotional and dramatic, it's made us realize how much Cadence has matured over the past year. We still have meltdowns, but she's getting better at controlling herself. She loves helping out with Connor and is great with him. We'll be starting a homeschool-type preschool in the fall and I'm sure she'll excel (which means it's going to be review/practice for her and something new for Megan who will undoubtedly play with us).

And, of course, there is Connor. He's only a few days shy of 3 months old and Chunky Charlie is already fitting into 6 month clothes. Totally new territory for me, since the girls were still in 6 month clothes when they hit 1 year old! I already had to clear out all the NB and most 0-3 month onesies from his drawers and am now running low on clothes that fit. Luckily, it's summer, so he really only needs outfits for when we go out. He is probably the most social and easy-going of the three kids (which is saying quite a bit, since the girls were both very easy going babies). Connor talks like crazy and goes nuts whenever people talk to him, even strangers. Not surprising for a boy that smiled at 3 weeks, even though charts say 6 weeks is average. He's already bearing his weight on his legs for extended periods of time. If he's not standing he wants to be sitting upright and will do crunches in his attempts to get up if he's reclining or laying down. He's also begun using his hands on purpose, which is cool. He sucks his thumb (yes, Erin, I'm 3 for 3 here), pulls toys close to chew on them (he likes a jingling toy bear and the glow worm) and loves banging the little red piano to make noise. Everyone keeps asking me if it's different having a boy and so far... it's not. He's just a sweet, happy baby and I love him to pieces.

So, yeah, pretty lucky here. The girls are frustrating and Connor's sometimes constant need for attention, wiggling and support for standing/sitting can make me want to growl, but I swear I bust up laughing from pure pleasure in watching them do or say something so totally unexpected and childlike. Just the other day, Cadence was laughing so hard at something James did she nearly fell out of her chair and I laughed, which only made her laugh harder. Or Connor will just light up, laugh and talk and how can you do anything but smile and laugh back? Love it.

Other Updates

The reason for my blogging silence hasn't really been the lack of time, but more the lack of anything really exciting to blog about. However, Connor is 2 1/2 months old and I should really talk about how our day to day has changed! He's as calm as his sisters were at his age, which makes me nervous about his hooligan potential. They were sweet little babies, too, before turning into adorable little terrors.

Anyway, last week, we went to a wedding of someone James is friends with at church. They had a ring ceremony before the reception that James wanted to attend but I wasn't about to bring my 3 hooligans into someone's ceremony. I didn't trust them to behave. So, we locked ourselves in the church's nursery while James attended the ceremony then came to fetch us to go to the reception. Connor spent the entire time eating his hands (one of his favorite pastimes) and the girls went crazy and made funny faces.

James is seriously Connor's favorite person ever. Every night when James comes home, they usually have a long moment of talking back and forth. Connor just grins when he sees his daddy talking to him and immediately starts talking back. I had to stop in my tracks one day when Connor mimicked James's "how" almost perfectly. Seriously, the kid can't stop smiling when he's face to face with him. James recently shaved and went to talk to him. Connor kept looking around for the "right face" when he heard James's voice. Eventually he accepted this new person and has been content ever since.

This probably makes me a terrible mom. But after recording video of him talking (or trying to get video of it, mostly he just wiggled and looked up at me), he got fussy. I had the camera in hand. Thus the inevitable:

Even at such a young age, Connor is determined to use his legs. He can support his own weight for a full minute already. I'd been on the lookout for the basic used jumperoo for awhile, so when I found one not too far from our house for a great price, I jumped on it. Once we brought it home and I wiped it down, I put him in it to see how he fared, fully expecting him to hate it/be too small and to put the jumperoo away for a few more weeks. To my surprise and delight, he loved it and fit. He's only been allowed small spurts, but he's all smiles every time.

Last but not least, the girls are loving their baby brother. Megan tries so hard to be the best big sister, but she's still learning how to be gentle and what the boundaries are. Cadence is amazing with him and ranks #2 on his "favorite person" list. Just the other day, he was fussing and I needed just a few more minutes to finish a task, so she held him and sang "I Am a Child of God" and he calmed right down for her. Megan is learning how to be a good sister by watching and mimicking her. Eventually, Megan and Connor will meet in the middle. She'll be gentler and he'll be sturdier and they'll get along just fine in the end:

Soccer Day

For a brief moment, I was considering putting the girls into a summer soccer class. It's not a league with games, just an indoor gym that does soccer drills once a week and does an "open gym" later in the week. Before I paid for the class, I was able to take the girls to a trial class. They loved it and I loved it and I'm really bummed they're not going to be able to do it, but the money that would have gone toward the class went toward replacing our computer, replacing my phone and repairing the Xbox (all of which went out on us within 2 weeks of each other).

However, the girls did have fun and I did get a couple pictures. They weren't the best at following the coach's instructions. Megan was the youngest/smallest, but they did have fun. They are iffy in new situations, so there was the promise of m&ms to motivate them to stick it out for the entire hour, but when they were on the gym floor they had a blast. The only time they wanted to leave was in the chaos of switching between free play and structured play (they cleaned up, so the girls assumed it was done) and when Cadence got scared by someone coming up behind her and tickling her.

Free play, the girls immediately went for the taller hoop and determinedly lobbed soccer balls, bouncy balls and basketballs toward the net and missed. Thankfully, one of the coaches noticed and brought out the more appropriately sized hoop for them to play with.

Once the structured play started, the girls had a hard time grasping the concept of dribbling (the day's special skill), but by the end of the class they actually were doing pretty well. Megan walked at a snail's pace and barely kicked her ball to maintain control:

In this game they had to dribble their ball around until the music stopped then quickly dribble their soccer ball to the nearest hula hoop. Clearly Cadence understood the rules (she wasn't the only one that picked up her soccer ball and ran, though):