Our Beautiful Family: Little Things

I always enjoy looking back on my posts about my kids that remind me of all the little things that define them at any given moment in time.

1. My kids, especially my girls, are really into books on tape at the moment. We fill most of our long road trips now listening to books on tape. We've listened to all the A-Z Mysteries series, Charlotte's Web, Nate the Great, The Princess in Black series, Frog and Toad stories, The Pond stories, and Magic Treehouse books. They are also really into 2 musical stories that I listened to as a girl: ' Little Tree' and 'Nathanial the Grublet.'

2. Briggs has spent his summer working through his fear of things blowing away. At the beginning of the summer, our deck umbrella blew out of the table and off the deck while the kids were eating outside with a baby-sitter. When she tried to put the umbrella back into the table, our glass deck table shattered. Since then, Briggs has been generally scared of wind, umbrellas, eating outside, and things blowing away. We've worked our way down from an epic meltdown at a graduation party about eating outside to some mild anxieties about umbrellas on windy days. It's a work in progress, but we are getting there.

3. Adelie loves to be under the water. During swim lessons, she kept getting in trouble because when it wasn't her turn to swim, she'd be under the water instead of listening to the instructor. When we go swimming, diving for toys and swimming underwater are her two favorite activities. Maybe she is part mermaid.

4. Staley continues to be so persistent when it comes to learning something she wants to do. She recently mastered climbing the very high rope ladder up into our neighbor's treehouse. Her current skill that she's trying to master through perseverance and practice is diving off the diving board at State Farm pool. Although it scares her, she won't give up and keeps trying...belly flops and all.

5. Briggs still calls night time "bed night." He'll also let me know if he finds something "intseresting." He still says "sings" instead of "things" and "sing-ers" instead of "fingers." I love his little voice.

6. Staley makes her bed every morning before climbing down off the top bunk. Adelie? Not so much. Staley keeps her little desk area very organized and clear of clutter. Adelie? Not so much. Staley is very open to cleaning out and giving things away that we no longer use. Adelie? Not so much. She even had a hard time when Zach was trimming our trees, not wanting him to cut off any of her "favorite" branches.

7. I've been trying to work with Adelie on writing her letters since she still insists on starting most of her letters from the bottom rather than the top. She has very little interest in working with me on skills for kindergarten, although her reading and writing skills somehow continue to improve. In comparison, Staley has expressed concern that she might be forgetting some of the math skills she learned in first grade and seeks out opportunities to do learning time.

8. Staley is currently very interested in learning about dinosaurs. She has been checking out dinosaur books from the library all summer to work on her dinosaur "research."

9. Although he has been potty trained for well over a year, Briggs is generally unphased about having an accident. He always takes himself to the bathroom to poop, but pee accidents aren't all that uncommon. He'll wander in to where I am and nonchalantly tell me, "I just peed in my pants" or sometimes he'll wait until I find his damp underwear and then tell me exactly when it happened. He is generally more concerned about missing out on something or stopping a fun activity than he is about hanging out in damp underwear.

10. My girls are really into drawing, writing, and doing craft activities. They'll spend hours in the play room drawing while listening to books on tape. (Mermaids are still Adelie's favorite thing to draw.) Shrinky dinks are a new craft favorite for all my kids. My girls also love doing Perler Beads, Rainbow Loom, and Plush Craft. Adelie is always making Rainbow Loom bracelets for everyone we know.

11. My girls always have deep theological or philosophical questions that come up at bedtime as I am trying to leave their room. Apparently when the lights are out and the bedtime routine is over is when my girls feel the need to ponder things like "How do we know that God is real?" or "How do we know that our religion is right?" or "Where is heaven?"

12. All 3 of my kids LOVE gum. They are always asking to chew gum, especially anytime we are in the car going anywhere.

13. On days when we don't have anything to do or anywhere to be, the kids will climb into bed with me when they wake up and we'll just read books for an hour or so before getting up to start our day.

It's all these little things and all of life's little moments that I never want to forget.