The Kids

Damon is still the sweetest kid. I absolutely love all of his hugs and cuddles every day. He bit my arm the other day. As soon as I screamed 'Ow!' and told him 'No no,' he leaned up and gave me two big kisses right on the lips. All was forgiven. :)

  
He is not interested in toys right now. He just wants to be exploring or playing with things that are not toys. He loves to stand at the stove and bite the handle.

Shoes and laundry baskets are big hits.

I've tried to come up with make-shift gates to avoid drilling our baby gate into the posts on our staircase. They don't stand a chance against Damon.
     
He is just so happy and so much fun! How can you not be happy when you're around that smile?!


Tessa just keeps getting funnier every day. Rockwell made a farm book at school. He was showing us his puppet show story he wrote, and then we took turns making up stories with the puppets. When it was Tessa's turn, she told us her story was going to be a mystery. Picture her cute little voice drawing out the word mystery, with her hands by her face and her fingers wiggling for effect. :) She held up each animal and said something they had lost. "The pig lost his hat...mystery. The cow lost his bowl...mystery." After every animal she would say mystery, with the same intriguing voice and hand effects. It was hilarious!

   

Paul and I went on a date with some friends, and had Rachael babysit the kids for us. I came home from picking up some pizza and Rachael was already there playing with the kids. Tessa came running up and gave me a hug. Then she turned to Rachael and said, "This is Tiffany." It was so sweet of her to introduce me. :) 

  

She is very into dress-ups and being a princess right now. If we are home, she is wearing a dress or a skirt. And usually princess shoes and a crown. She is still happy to kick off her high heels and have a gun fight or play in the dirt or wrestle though.

Anytime she talks about something that has happened in the past she says "last night." You can't tell if something happened an hour ago, last night, or 2 years ago. But I think it's cute! She comes up with some of the most random things to say. In the middle of dinner she stood on her chair and shouted, "Oh ya! Rock and roll!" I asked her to get her shoes on and she told me she was out of batteries so she couldn't. Another time I asked her to go to the bathroom before bed and she responded, "I will, your highness."

She wanted to wear a certain skirt to church, but I told her she couldn't because it was tattered. She asked what that meant, so I explained how it was all torn up at the bottom. When we got home from church she asked if she could wear the skirt at home even though it was ragged. I have no idea where she learned the word ragged, but I was very impressed she knew that it meant the same thing as tattered.

She is so animated in everything she does. It really doesn't matter what she's saying, it's just adorable with all her facial expressions and hand gestures. She's just plain fun to be around!  

Rockwell loves to show us tricks. He told me he has 100 tricks in the backyard. He showed me trick after trick, telling me what number each one was. I think these three pictured here were #13, #27, and #6. :)  After one of his tricks, he told me how awesome he is and said, "I'll probably be in the circus soon."

You know how parents give their kids two acceptable options, so the kid can feel like they have some control and can make their own decisions? Rockwell has started doing that with me. He doesn't ask if he can have popcorn anymore. He asks, "Hey Mom, should I eat popcorn at the table or on the couch?" He doesn't ask if we can go play outside. He asks, "Should we play in the front yard or the back yard Mom?" He doesn't ask if he can have a cookie after dinner. He asks, "So should I have one cookie or two cookies after dinner?"

Rockwell has always been very responsible, but he seems to have had a maturity growth spurt lately. His judgement and conversational skills are maturing nicely. He is loving the added freedoms that  are coming with getting older and with proving he's earned them by making good decisions. It's so fun to volunteer in his classroom and see how independent, respectful, and motivated he is there. I could not be happier with the growth he has made in Kindergarten. It has taken consistent hard work on his part, and the results of that effort make me so proud.