Violin Concerts

Owen had his first group Suzuki concert this last Saturday. He played Variation B of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Click here to view.

Ryanna broke away from the typical Suzuki songs and played Mosquito Dance by Ludwig Mendelssohn. Click here. They both did a great job!

Violin Medley

Ryanna played this hymn medley in church today. It sounded even prettier than it does here. She did such a beautiful job and we had so many people tell her how it touched them and how impressed they were with her memorization. We love to hear her play her violin. To see, click here.

Two Violin Concerts

Ryanna had two violin concerts this month. She did excellent in both and I thought I'd share her songs. This first video is Gavotte from Mignon. Unfortunately we only were able to practice with this piano player one time and as you can see from the performance, she wasn't able to quite keep up with the violin. This performance was the first time Ryanna has started the song instead of having an introduction by the piano. She did awesome!!!!

The second video is Ryanna playing Minuet in G by Beethoven. I think the trickiest thing about this song is the bowing. Remembering whether you're supposed to be going up a second time or down. I thought she did really well in this performance too. She really rises to the occasion--so different than I am in front of a crowd. I get soooo nervous for her, but she's always ready. I'm so proud of all of her hard work. We only have to put together this last couple measures of Minuet by Boccherini and we're on to book three!

Unfortunately, Blogger is being ridiculous and after an entire day of trying to load the second video, I have given up and posted it on youtube instead. The link is here.

All Before 6 am

5:19 am: Wake-up to get the baby who is wanting to nurse.

5:21 am: Think that I hear some noise downstairs, but assume it's probably my overactive imagination.

5:23 am: Hear another noise downstairs which sounds like silverware and wonder why anyone would choose to steal our silverware over our 2002 computer or our garage sale couches...

5:25 am: Derek rolls over; I make eye contact with his alarmingly large, scared eyes and whisper loudly, "There's someone in our house downstairs." (He always wakes up like I've told him there's a killer in the house, so his expression is no change from the normal.)

5:25:35seconds am: Derek jumps out of bed and tiptoes--as quietly as a man just startled from a deep sleep would--to our door where he cranes his neck to listen for the next noise.

5:25:36seconds am: The next noise.

5:25:39seconds am: Derek walks out our bedroom door without a backward glance at his wife and baby and goes to save his family.

5:25:43seconds am: Derek finds Ryanna in the kitchen making breakfast to surprise all of us.

5:26 am: Derek tells me that Ryanna had planned to surprise us this morning. Mission accomplished.

5:26:15seconds am: I request spouse to tell me what the plan of surprise is. He answers that she's making us breakfast.

5:27 am: I hear another noise and deposit sleeping child in his room and venture downstairs with total fear--a six year old loose in a kitchen--any mom knows what I'm talking about here.

5:27:15 seconds am: Ryanna yells, "Surprise!" And I am. And what do I find? An English muffin with peanut butter and honey on it for me to eat. She's made Derek a peanut butter and honey sandwich already in its ziploc bag and sitting on the corner of the counter ready for him to go to work and she's in process of making something for Owen to eat. I tell her she's very sweet and I'm going to go back to bed for a little bit, so she can finish up.



5:30 am: Ryanna, "Mom, where are the eggs?" Which phrase causes me to get out of bed again and tell her that she absolutely is not allowed to use eggs by herself and definitely don't turn on the stove or oven. She's a smart girl, but let's not be crazy here.

5:40 am: I descend the stairs to find a present wrapped for me and one for Derek--which causes Owen to whine about his lack of a present--and the same note for each of us which reads, "Thank you for taking care of me." (No misspelled words either--a child after my own heart.) So, what were the presents? Well, Derek received the book The Ordways by William Humphrey and for me? Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right by Ann Coulter. Both books we already owned, but have not yet read.




Isn't she a sweet girl? How thoughtful of her to not just make breakfast for each of us, but to give us gifts and write us notes? What a lucky mom I am.

Our Song...

I love to sing in the car and apparently I play some songs my kids even like. There are requests that come from the back portions of the vehicle and I try to accomodate them. One of our favorite songs is by Taylor Swift. I thought I'd give you a sample of another great singer in our family. She loosens up a lot after the first minute. In fact, perhaps she loosens up a bit too much. I'm not sure what all the fancy footwork is about, but hey, the music gets in you and you can't fight it. And, well, you all know, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!"

Of course Owen wanted to sing a bit himself. I had him do a solo, but decided it was a bit more fun to see the interaction of the two. Witness video number two which is just the first verse of the song.

Etude

Here's our latest violin concert. I wish that I would've been more aggressive and gotten right in the front row, so I could've heard only her vioin and not the side noise that got in, but at least it's recorded. Ryanna did an excellent job. Our little performer. She never even gets nervous.

Book Club Rules

These are the Rules of Ryanna's Book Club:

I will write them out for you~

1. No Brudrs ulood No Brothers allowed

2. No keking the wols No kicking the walls

3. Dot tac sufhing too Don't take something too

4. No keking yor feet No kicking your feet

5.No being unmodest I think that one's pretty clear

6. No gum

7. B Qiet Be Quiet

To make these rules more clear, you must understand that the Book Club was held outside in a tent which was formed by two kitchen chairs covered by a not quite big enough blanket. As a parent, you can see what these rules revealed about that particular day (interpretation matches each number above):

1. She was not getting along with Owen.

2. Owen had attempted to enter the Book Club and had been kicking down the walls.

3. Owen had been ordered out of the Book Club and escaped with contraband.

4. As preventative maintenance for the club, kicking feet of any kind would no longer be permitted. It was fun while it lasted.

5. This is the influence of good parenting showing.

6. This is the influence of school rules seeping in.

7. We're reading in this dark tent, trying to ruin our eyesight. We don't need you screaming and ruining our hearing too.

All in all, I'd say she has a great future as a dictator ahead of her.

Then, there are these notes, that I just absolutely love. See interpretation below:

I love you. You are the best Mom ever to me. You are skinny and fabulous and a great cook and I miss you every time I'm away.

The end.

Election Humor Part II

Today I volunteered in Ryanna's kindergarten class. While I was chatting with the other woman that volunteers, she told me that I had missed the most exciting part of the day.
The kids are keeping daily journals where they record a couple of sentences dealing with whatever they are thinking about and perhaps draw a picture to go with those thoughts. Since the election happened last night, Ryanna's teacher told the class she was going to write about Barack Obama being elected as the new President.
Apparently that's all it took.
One boy said, "My dad says Barack Obama is a trickster!"
Another little boy yelled out, "My dad says he's DUMB!"
So, with that, the teacher decided she would NOT be writing about the election.
The other am kindergarten class was not without their own controversy. When one little boy said that his dad was going to vote for Barack Obama, another little boy became hysterical and burst out with, "He's a baby killer!"
I guess that the passion associated with this election was not reserved to the adults and it has not yet cooled.
Stay tuned for more drama from the kindergarten class...

Election Humor?

So, I meant to post this conversation last week, but didn't get around to it.

I was looking at something on the internet when Ryanna came up to the computer. Apparently there was a picture of something related to the Presidential election on the screen that caught her eye. The conversation then went like this:

Ryanna: I voted for Barack Obama.

Me: (Shocked face and voice because this child has been referring to this man as A-Rock A-Bama since she's heard his name.) What?

Ryanna: I voted for Barack Obama.

Me: You mean that if you could vote, you'd vote for Barack Obama?

Ryanna: No, I voted for him today in school.

Me: Really? (I had heard nothing about this.) How did you vote?

Ryanna: On the computer. It was just pretend. I didn't really vote mom. (Whew! Thank goodness she cleared that up for me.)

Me: So, why did you vote for him?

Ryanna: Because he has all the answers.

Me: (Amazed that she has such good comebacks to these questions.) Well, do you even know the name of the other person running for President?

Ryanna: Yes, John McCain.

Me: (Feeling a bit in awe to be in the presence of someone who is about as politically informed as me and is only age 5) So, why don't you like John McCain?

Ryanna: He's mean and he doesn't have the answers like Barack Obama does.

Me: Oh.

Now, don't ask me where she heard all of this stuff. She has been subjected to every presidential debate, but she complained whenever we turned them on and she didn't stay in the room to watch them. I don't know where she got all of this information--school maybe?

So, it's true, your kids are listening even when you think they aren't!

***This message was paid for by the Parents Who Need to Pay Closer Attention to What Their Children are Overhearing Council.

Guess I'm a Soccer Mom & Wife!

Ryanna's first ever soccer game was yesterday afternoon. Don't ask me why they scheduled a game for 2 in the afternoon since it was 96 degrees. And, don't ask me why they would assign any team to wear black jerseys in the Arizona heat.

Being that I'm the parent that stays home, it has been left to me to buy all of the necessary gear for this soccer endeavor and being that I never played soccer, I was a bit clueless. It involves such things as shin guards, really, really long socks, a size 3 ball and soccer cleats. I guess it also involves some athletic shorts, but I didn't get around to buying those before the baby came and I haven't felt much like shopping for that stuff with three kids. That should explain Ryanna's stretch pants ensemble. Though I think her dad was embarrassed by it, I thought it made it quite easy to spot her in the pack and trust me, there is always a pack when this age plays.

I didn't know what to expect for this game. Ryanna has not been that interested in sports period. I signed her up for soccer for her to have the experience. She's only been to two practices (should've been three, but I forgot in the madness of watching BYU get demolished by TCU on Thursday). Not to mention that Ryanna is pretty mild mannered by nature and sports really require a bit of a pushy and competitive edge.

Well, to my delight, she was awesome!! She was really good at getting to the ball and kicking it in the right direction. This sounds funny, but at this level that is quite a big deal. One boy showed up for the last quarter, got on the field, got possession of the ball and tore down the field and scored in about 10 seconds. Too bad he scored against his own team! Most of the other kids took breaks from the action, but Ryanna played the entire game without being pulled. She loved it. She was disappointed that she didn't score a goal, but I was totally impressed with her efforts.

I also had to laugh when the coach decided to name the team at halftime. Are you ready for this? Her suggestion and the team pick--The Black Panthers! Boy oh boy. Is she going to be attending practices or rallies after this? And to top off the funniness, the boy that was the very best player on the other team was named Cain. Cain--who does that to their child--an atheist?

Owen would've played too if we would've let him. During halftime he took his own soccer ball out to one of the goals and practiced shooting. It was pretty cute.

Eli slept through the entire event--big surprise. He has to sleep because it takes a lot of effort to stay awake all night.

After Ryanna's game, we went to Derek's indoor soccer game (they won). I guess I'm the only one in the family that doesn't play besides Eli and he can't even hold his own head up yet. Oh well, someone needs to be the driver and biggest fan.

My Wobbly Tooth Must Absolutely Come Out NOW!

There is this cute little book by Lauren Child (creator of the Charlie and Lola series) about Lola losing her first ever tooth. We've had the book for a couple of years and read it several times.

Now, going back to when Ryanna was two years old...She tried to get out of the bathtub by herself one time and slipped and fell on one of her front teeth. She cried for an hour, so I knew she had hurt herself pretty badly because she's not one to cry unless she's really hurt (she never cried for one single shot at the doctor's office). I gave her some Tylenol and she was fine from then on.

Well, a few weeks after that, I started noticing that the tooth was turning a brown color. I had it checked out by the dentist who said the tooth was alive, but had suffered severe trama. He said that because of the trama, the tooth would either come out much earlier than the others or stay in much later. Given how it looked, I was hoping it would be sooner.

Flash foward to this year. Ryanna's tooth changed from a brownish color to a red color--looking like there was blood in the tooth. We took her in for her check-up to learn that she must've damaged it again. Apparently teeth don't just change colors on their own, they have to be bumped or banged or otherwise hurt. Well, whatever had happened hadn't hurt her because she'd never said one thing about it.

Last Friday Ryanna went to the zoo. Afterward, she went for softserve ice cream cones. While she was licking the cone, she noticed blood on her ice cream. They cleaned it off and she took a bite of the cone and saw more blood. (This is turning into a Stephenie Meyer type tale wouldn't you say?)

Upon examination at home, I discovered she had somehow knocked off the bottom portion of her tooth. Ryanna said she didn't hurt at all--if there had been pain she would've definitely felt it eating ice cream that's for sure. We tried to have her eat soft foods over the weekend and scheduled her in for a visit on Monday. All weekend she kept saying, "I hope I have a wobbly tooth!!!"

Well, the nerve was completely exposed and the dentist was pretty much in awe that she wasn't writhing on the floor in pain. I think I may have to start her training as a boxer or something... So, this is how she'll look for 2-3 years is what I hear:

Of course Owen wanted to be in on the picture action:

We're happy to report the Tooth Fairy made her way to our house and left 75 cents. I thought she was going to get more, but she kept talking about how she was going to get a coin because of the story and apparently the Tooth Fairy didn't want to disappoint.

Our First Day of School

Today was Ryanna's first day of Kindergarten. Yesterday we painted her toenails and talked about what outfit she wanted to wear and how she wanted to do her hair for today. She decided she wanted purple toenails, braids in her hair and a bright yellow and orange outfit that her grandparents gave her. After weeks and weeks of her telling me how excited she was for school to start, she seemed pretty nonchalant about school starting tomorrow.

Today, when Derek's alarm clock went off, I couldn't sleep. I had to get up and get going, so that I would make sure and get her to school on time. I definitely didn't want her to be late for her first day. Derek gave her a Father's blessing after they discussed whether she would like one. I found the whole experience nearly brought me to tears.

Ryanna had some toast with jam and brushed her teeth (before putting on her clothes since she seems to struggle with not getting the toothpaste on her shirt) and I did her hair. We hurriedly packed all the items she would need to contribute to the class (everything is shared, nothing is individually owned), put Owen's shoes on, loaded up the stroller and drove the block and a half to her school (it's already over 90 degrees outside and I knew I would be rushing, so driving was the better option).

When we got near the school, I was shocked to see all the cars. Parents and kids everywhere! We parked, loaded everything into the stroller and speedwalked over to meet her teacher for the first time. I certainly wasn't alone in the amount of parents who wanted to be right by the side of their newly adapting children. After the kids got in line, the teacher told them to blow us all a kiss because Kindergarten was so hard for parents. She was right. I was already tearing up and Ryanna will only be gone for three hours each day.

I can't seem to explain very well how emotional this morning has been for me. Here is my daughter, who has spent everyday of the first five years of her life with me and now I send her to school knowing that I'll never again get her all to myself. It's difficult for me because I love her so dearly and I want her to be safe and well-cared for. I know other kids can be mean, that she may be misunderstood, that she might experience situations that test her in every way and it's hard to know that I won't be by her side to help her. It's hard to know that her dad and I won't be the only adults whose opinion she values--her teacher will hopefully be a great friend and example to her.

It must be a bit how God feels as He sends us down to Earth. He knows that He loves us so dearly, but that he won't be able to be physically there by our side helping us to do what's right and protecting us from bad decisions--made by us and inflicted on us by others.

On the other side of this coin, I'm so excited for her to learn. She loves to do all the activities I know Kindergarten will provide and I'm excited for her. What a fun, scary and exciting day for BOTH of us.

Flagstaff Funnies

We just got back from another trip and apparently all this travel is taking its toll on me. I woke up with Owen this morning at around 6:15, which is his usual wake-up time, and came downstairs. I was only with him for about an hour when Derek came downstairs and I fell asleep--till 10!!! I was and still feel tired. This pregnancy really has zapped my energy. I wonder if I'm growing another huge boy baby like Owen? I don't really want to try and top Owen's nine pound birth.

While we were in Flagstaff, Ryanna wanted to know what time it was, so I told her to ask Derek. She said, "Dad, what time is it? Will you check your blueberry?"

Apparently that's the newer version of the Blackberry huh?

Then, on the drive home, she was having a discussion with Derek...

Ryanna: "Dad, do you know why I don't kill people?"

Derek: "Um, because it's wrong?"

Ryanna: "No, because I'm not strong enough."

Don't ask me why she's even thought about this. It's not as though we even let her watch PG-13 movies. I guess pre-school is a harder life than I realized.

And, for all those of you wondering if we've picked a name for this boy--we haven't. We can't seem to come to an agreement on this. Derek absolutely doesn't like the names I like and I don't like the names he likes. It's getting a bit frustrating.

I Wear My Sunglasses at Night and More...

A couple weeks ago, we decided to capture the ball obsession (soccer & basketball) for you all to see. Glad we did 'cause now it's too hot to be outside doing this.

This stuff arrived in the mail the other day courtesy of Granpa/ma Torres. The lighting is purposely a bit dark, so the glasses stand out.

Perpetual Motion

Today was Ryanna's violin concert and she did an excellent job. She played Suzuki's Perpetual Motion which has been quite a tricky song to learn. As you'd guess from the name, it is a bit of a circular song using the A Major scale. She was having problems remembering if she'd played the E ending or the A ending and then moving to the next section, however, she worked incredibly hard this week and put on such a wonderful performance. As you can tell from her teacher's big smile at the end, she was very proud too. I only wish I'd captured her wonderful bow that she does. (I was too excited to clap for her and turned off the camera.)
Please leave your comments for her here and I'll read them to her--she'll be very excited.

Click here for the video.

Fabulous Number Five

Five years ago yesterday, I went into the hospital to get a dose of prostaglandin to help my cervix to relax, so that I could have my first baby. My original due date was March 25 and I treated it just like I do all my other goals--with certainty. I told myself that I was going to have this baby on the 25 of March because that is what the doctor had told me was my due date, that was the date the ultrasounds said was right and perhaps because I was born on my own due date I thought my daughter would come with as much punctual courtesy as I had.

Well, they administered that first dose and I had to lie there for an hour with no book to read, no TV to watch, nothing to do but wonder why my back had started hurting after a few minutes. After the hour, I left the hospital and headed to the house. My grandma and mom arrived shortly after. My mom had driven from Missouri and stopped in Colorado to pick up my grandma (her mom) and then headed over to Provo.

My mom took some cute shots of me and what felt like my huge, pregnant belly. We soon picked up Derek from school at BYU and headed to dinner at Red Robin. The whole time my back had been hurting, but I figured that's how it is as you near the end of your pregnancy, you're just uncomfortable.

After dinner, we went shopping for nursing bras because I had forgotten to buy one and they were going to be needed by April 1, my scheduled induction date. After bra shopping, we dropped off a set of tires to my grandma's accountant and then headed to the hospital, where I was scheduled to get my second dose of prostaglandin.

Well, the nurse that checked me in looked at me and hooked me up to the monitors and told me that I was not going to be leaving because my contractions were coming along well enough that I would have my baby sometime soon. Contractions? That's what all that pain in my back was? I never did end up having a single contraction in my front. All back labor. My grandma, mom and Derek all got comfortable and we waited for whatever would happen next.

Not much later, the contractions were measuring off the monitor, so I requested some drugs only to be told that they would need to call my doctor to make sure that was okay. Huh? I want some pain medication. I'm telling you it's okay, why does he have to okay it? Well, his policy was that no drugs were to be administered to his patients without his consent. Fine if your doctor will answer any of the three numbers he's provided for the hospital. (One of those numbers was a pager he claimed to sleep with.) After waiting for an hour for him to return a call, Derek had to sign some form saying the hospital held no liability in case administering the drugs had some ill foreseen consequences.

A few hours later, I received an epidural. The epidural was overdone and so I could no longer move my body at all from the waist down. It sounds great for the pain, but you don't realize how the concept of pushing really requires feeling. I also was held off from pushing for an hour while they attempted to locate the doctor again for the delivery. Remember, he's the one that scheduled me to go to the hospital on the 30 of March to begin the whole process and then he never answered his phone once.

Finally, another doctor was located. When I began pushing, Ryanna's heartrate immediately dropped. With each push--the same effect. The doctor told me that he was going to get the forceps. Three pushes later and one yank with the forceps and my beautiful daughter came into the world.

The umbilical cord had been wrapped around her neck causing the distress when I pushed. Other than that, she was completely fine.

Now, it's five years later and I can hardly believe it's been that long. She has brought so much happiness to my life. She is so beautiful inside and out. She has taught me patience. She has taught me unconditional love. Forgiveness because it's the right thing to do...because you love someone no matter what. She is not only my daughter, she's my best friend.

Isn't this cute?

First smile caught on camera!

Visiting cousin Talia.

Sassy!

So sleepy.

Derek rode the bus to school everyday and she insisted she was riding with him this morning, so she did.

That is some good Kool-Aid.

Three generations carving pumpkins. Owen would come a couple of weeks later.

Like the rest of the family, Owen adored her from the very beginning.

Uncle Keith came to visit.

Easter Sunday

The birthday girl with another fabulous Alacey cake.

Thanks Martha!

A million years ago I visited Martha Stewart's website looking for a craft project to do with my daughter. I found a really fun idea that involved melting down old, broken pieces of crayons to make new, fun crayons. It sounded really easy--my specialty. It also sounded really practical since we have about a thousand broken pieces that never get used.

In addition to being St. Patrick's Day today (we're all wearing green--how about you?) it also marks the first day of Spring Break for the schools around here. Last night as I was tucking Ryanna in, I mentioned that she wouldn't have any violin lessons or pre-school this week because of Spring Break. I don't know if she heard wonderful things about Spring Break while she was at church, but she said, "Oh, that's okay, we'll just take naps and relax and stuff." Uh, take naps? From the child that hasn't napped in years? From the child that will fight sleep so hard that the sleeping medicine the dentist gave her had no effect? I was, of course, thrilled to hear that a nap sounded like a good idea.

Well, I thought that I should also plan some fun activities for this week since she can't do her usual stuff, so today we tried the above-mentioned project. It was a lot of fun!!! She really loves the new crayons and so does Owen. AND, although she didn't nap today, Owen and I did, so I call it a success!

Owen played with the regular, undamaged crayons while we peeled the broken ones.

Hard at work getting those wrappers off. I thought violet offered the most resistance.

Our hard work.

I love to do crafts with mom! (She was thinking this--promise!)

Sorry it's a bit blurry, but I love the colors.

After they are all peeled, you chop them into pea-sized pieces. You can group them however you want to. I learned it's better to have approximately the same amount per muffin tin, so they bake at the same rate.

The finished product. If you had muffin tins in fun shapes, you could do hearts or something else more creative than just circles, but either way, it was fun!

Mom, you're the greatest!!!!!

This last week in pictures...

Not a lot to say, so I thought I'd let you view the latest...

Crazy hair day at pre-school...
It was as crazy as I could come up with okay!
New swimming suit for this season--she'll be five in two weeks & wears a size 3!I want to offer this as proof that a belly is only cute before about age 4.
Ahhhh, so happy!
A real smile which is near impossible to get from my four year old. I have no clue what's coming out of her mouth...When expectations and reality don't match up.
This is what's growing in front of my house right now. Isn't it gorgeous? They are from last summer. Winter here is very kind to flowers.

All Things Ryanna

I figured I had better record some of the things coming out of her mouth lately before I forget. I was reading through a journal of mine a few months ago that was during the time when she was really little and it mentioned cute things she had said or done and I remember at the time thinking, "Oh, I'll never forget this. It's so cute." Apparently, I give myself too much credit--better to get it in the blogosphere.

• A month ago we were driving somewhere and she asked me, "Mom, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I told her that I thought I pretty much was grown-up and that I was doing exactly what I wanted to be doing--being a full-time mom to her and her brother. She replied, "I want to be a chef!" Guess which movie she'd been watching? Being the liberated woman & mother that I am, I told her that she could be anything she wanted to be--including a mom and a chef.


• She has been struggling with being honest lately. This is a rather startling discovery to me as she has always been such an honest child. Even when she knew what she had done was wrong, she'd fess up. Well, without any encouragement, she has become a...how do you say liar in a nice way? Not about everything, just anything she knows will get her in trouble. I found several of her toys with pen scribbles all over them last week. When I asked her about it, she told me she didn't know who had done it first, then she told me it was her friend who had been playing at our house the day before and after I further questioned, she mentioned a friend that was going to be coming to our house. The fact that she still hasn't figured out the time & day thing yet is helping me to be a better parent in this case. After all of those fibs, she finally confessed it was her. This took an ENTIRE day for her to do. She wasn't punished the whole day, I just kept bringing it up from time to time during the day asking her about it until the truth came out. Because she lied, I made her pick five toys she really liked that she would have to give away (which meant they were put in a box where she could not reach them). I told her the next time she lied to me, she would have to pick ten items to lose. Her dad, however, had a similar lying situation happen while he was home. Apparently the loss of items didn't bother her enough and he told her she'd get a spank. I have rarely spanked her and the last couple times I have, it was so softly, she didn't even feel it. Well, her dad gave her a bit more forceful spanking than that and I think it shocked her. She said, "Don't! That hurts!" She lied again the next day and freaked out about having to get her spanking. However, since then, she hasn't lied once. Last night's FHE was about being honest and she really had a lot to say.


• She has been trying to conjugate in the past tense a lot lately and saying the "ed" portion of the word twice or incorrectly. So, it comes out, "We wented to the store." or "I like-ed to do that." Maybe she's been reading too much Isaiah lately?


• We've also reached the point where I'm having to discuss social grace and politeness with her. We worked long and hard on interrupting people and she's much better than she used to be, but yesterday we went to her violin lesson and her teacher came out with a mug in her hand. Ryanna asked what she was drinking and her teacher replied, "Coffee." To which, after many lessons in church and from her parents on taboo items, replied, "Coffee?! YUCK! We don't drink coffee!" Of course her teacher was very gracious about it and said that little children shouldn't drink coffee. Later in the car, I had to talk to her about how other people don't believe the same things we believe and we should be polite to them about what they do because we don't want to hurt their feelings. She understood that one I believe. Such a tricky thing to teach your kids that certain things you believe are wrong--smoking & drinking coffee in particular, they are going to see other people doing all the time.

That's all I can recall at the moment. I'm sure there are other things I'm missing. She is such a sweet, little girl. She is such an amazing older sister and a great help to me. I'm so glad to have her around. Our children are such blessings in our lives.

Yeah!

Owen's favorite new word is "Yeah!" It's actually quite nice to hear this come out of his mouth as he has been saying "no" to eveything this last week while he's been sick.

Hope you have a great weekend!